How to use a Wood (pellet) stove?

[Belial88]

I've searched quite a bit, and there isn't much out there on how to use a wood stove (just how to buy it, or cleaning).

I have a Yankee Bay wood pellet stove.

I understand that turning the heat knob changes the auger feed rate, and basically how large the fire is.

What I don't understand, is the fan, and the Air restrictor. What does the fan do? Does it change how much the air blows out the heat exchanger (the tubes that are heated by the flame and which air is run out of, hopefully heated)? I can't tell.

And the air restrictor, the sort of knob i pull in and out. I know it somehow deals with how much air is fed in, but where do i set it? Does it have to be a different setting according to the heat and fan levels? From what I read, i want the pellets to 'slightly dance' at the bottom of the heater but they always do even when it's at 0. Why not just have it at 5.

Thanks.

 

[Weird tolkienish figure]

I've searched quite a bit, and there isn't much out there on how to use a wood stove (just how to buy it, or cleaning).

I have a Yankee Bay wood stove.

I understand that turning the heat knob changes the auger feed rate, and basically how large the fire is.

What I don't understand, is the fan, and the Air restrictor. What does the fan do? Does it change how much the air blows out the heat exchanger (the tubes that are heated by the flame and which air is run out of, hopefully heated)? I can't tell.

And the air restrictor, the sort of knob i pull in and out. I know it somehow deals with how much air is fed in, but where do i set it? Does it have to be a different setting according to the heat and fan levels? From what I read, i want the pellets to 'slightly dance' at the bottom of the heater but they always do even when it's at 0. Why not just have it at 5.

Thanks.

If you put it all the way, your stove will become the equivalent of those roller popcorn things that toddler's use, all the pellets will just blow out of the pot. You want to just use it to blow air to feed the fire, but not enough so that ash and the pellets will not fall through the grate.

The fan blows air through the heat exchangers (tubes on mine).

The auger controls how fast the pellets are fed.

 

[DexterDay]

Have you read the operator manual. The damper is not a set and forget item. Each pellet brand may need more or less air.

Some stoves have the room air fan (convection) programmed so its in step with the heat level. Higher heat level, higher fan.

Reading the manual a couple times helps a lot with understanding how your control board works and how to set the slider damper.

Did you buy this unit new? Or used?

 

[nailed_nailer]

Not sure about your particular Stove, but here is the gist of how a Pellet Stove Works.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/wood-pellet-stove.htm

Or you could look here right at Hearth.com.
https://www.hearth.com/what/specific.php
About 1/2 way down right column is articles about Pellet/biomass stoves.

And there is always the manual for your stove.
http://www.lopistoves.com/product_guide/detail.aspx?id=201#Documents

Good Luck.
---Nailer---

 

[Belial88]

I don't have an owners manual. The person who owned this house has been dead for a while, and the stove wasn't working for a while either. I just got it repaired recently - I thought the auger was stuck, and it was, but there were some other issues too that were fixed. I had seen it work before so that's why I got it repaired.

nailed_nailer, I have read all those guides already, actually. I'm not looking for how a wood stove works, I'm looking how to work a wood stove. Make sense?

In short, What is the air restrictor and how do I set it, and what is the fan and how do I set it.

You want to just use it to blow air to feed the fire, but not enough so that ash and the pellets will not fall through the grate.

The fire gets larger the more closed the air restrictor is. At completely closed, the fire is largest. It seems to sort of kill the fire when I open it. but I read somewhere you want the pellets to 'slightly dance' in the bottom of the pot. So I'm still confused.

And I have ash everywhere inside the wood stove. Is that wrong? Is it like, supposed to be completely clean and the ash to be falling only through the pot?

Thanks for your info on the air restrictor but I'm still a bit confused.

I still have no idea what the fan does.

I'm confused how to set fan and air restrictor too. So the pellets I use, the heat setting I use, etc, all affect where I should set it, but... what guideline do I follow in setting these things?

 

[DexterDay]

If ash is falling through the pot, you dont have enough air..

Ash inside the firebox is good. You want enough air to eject the ash (fly ash) and you should see little embers flying off the fire.

The flame will be big and lazy if you close the restricor (damper). But a lazy flame means not enough air and you will more than likely get a pellet build up in the pot.

The flame should be pretty active (not like a blowtorch, but it should be moving), also if you can see the bottom of the pot, you want the pellets to slightly move around "dance". And the base of the.fire should be a blue color. Just the base (near the pellets). The ash should be a grey color. If you are getting a black or sooty window, this means your not getting enough air and you need to open the resrictor.

Can you post pics of the firebox and burn pot area? How often are you cleaning it? And have you cleaned all the hidden ash trap areas on the stove? Knowing the stove is used, It needs to be thoroughly cleaned and the leafblower trick should be done to it.

Hope some of this helps. But a dirty stove will not function and operate like a clean stove will. The air comes into the stove through the burn pot amd exits via passageways to get to the combustion blower. Find these passages and use an assortment of brushes and a shop vac (some people put a small tube on shop vac to fit in small places within the stove)

 

[imacman]

I don't have an owners manual.....

You can download one at the Travis website. It comes through as a '08 manual, but they haven't changed much on the stove.

www.lopistoves.com/TravisDocs/100-01156.pdf

I also have a Troubleshooting and Service manual for the stove if you want it.

 

[imacman]

In short, What is the air restrictor and how do I set it, and what is the fan and how do I set it..........The fire gets larger the more closed the air restrictor is. At completely closed, the fire is largest. It seems to sort of kill the fire when I open it. but I read somewhere you want the pellets to 'slightly dance' in the bottom of the pot. So I'm still confused.

And I have ash everywhere inside the wood stove. Is that wrong? Is it like, supposed to be completely clean and the ash to be falling only through the pot?

Thanks for your info on the air restrictor but I'm still a bit confused. I still have no idea what the fan does.

I'm confused how to set fan and air restrictor too. So the pellets I use, the heat setting I use, etc, all affect where I should set it, but... what guideline do I follow in setting these things?

The flame should get smaller as you close the air control. pushing the rod "in" closes the air, and vice versa. A clean stove should have the rod set at about #1-2.

The fan you're asking about (I think) is the convection (room air) blower. You should set that at about the same setting as the fuel feed. It has nothing to do with the burn air control I mentioned above.

Read the section in the manual on "restrictor adjustment" so see how to change the way the fire is supposed to burn.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Take this with a grain of salt as I'm not fully familiar with your stove. Others here are.

Generally,
Pellet stoves warm a room by convection heat vs. wood stoves which warm a room by radiant heat.
There is some blurring of the lines between stove models but lets keep it simple here.


Basically you have a box designed to burn compressed wood powder (sawdust) pellets.
As you probably know sawdust won't burn very well it just kinda smolders.
But sawdust will burn if it gets more oxygen around it. (Throw a handful of sawdust over a camp fire and see what happens)

So in the pellet stove...
Pellets are metered into the burn chamber (burn pot) from the hopper(storage) via the auger (feed ramp)
On most stoves this is controlled by a feed rate adjustment (I think the knob in your case)
Basically that controls how fast the fuel is added to the fire box.
Faster feed means more fuel to burn.

The combustion (exhaust) Fan/blower does two things
One, it sucks the hot smoke/gasses out of the stove and expels it outside via your vent pipe.
Two, it sucks clean oxygen rich air into the firebox to support flames.
On most stoves the exhaust blower runs at a fixed speed and how much air/gas it can move is controlled by the Damper (restrictor in your case)
By closing down the restrictor less air/gas can be pulled thru the exhaust blower this can starve the fire if not enough oxygen gets to the fuel.
It can also pull too much air thru the fire causing the pellets to be pulled out of the firebox before they are completely burned.
Adjustment of the damper controls how much flame is present.
It also needs to be "fine tuned" depending on heat level (feed rate) and usually quality of the pellets.
You ask why not set it on 5 and be done with it.
The combustion blower controls how much heat and fire is in the combustion chamber.
This is how much available heat can be passed onto the heat exchanger tubes.
The longer hot gas is allowed to warm up the heat exchanger tubes the hotter the room air will get.
But it has to pull enough oxygen thru to keep the pellets burning.

Convection fan/blower
This is a completely separate fan/motor that sucks in room air and pumps it thru the heat exchanger to pick up heat from the fire box and expel it out into the room.
Usually this also has a variable speed on it to allow the air to heat up. But some stoves control this automatically based on heat setting
If the convection blower is running too fast the air won't have a chance to pick up much heat from the fire box.
If too slow the stove will get too hot and cool itself down with safety controls.

So in summary....
Pellets drop into a burning fire in the burn pot.
The combustion blower sucks the gasses out while sucking oxygen rich air into the firebox.
Cool air is pulled from the room by the convection blower and heated by the heat exchanger.

At no time should the combustion air or convection air mix. 2 separate pathways.

And please don't call it a wood stove it causes confusion.
Wood stoves operate much differently from pellet stoves.

I hope that helps.
If not ask.

Stay warm,
---Nailer---

 

[fighting_demons]

Excellent summation Nailer

 

[nailed_nailer]

Thanks FD

How did you like your Bixby?
I looked at them years ago.
I was close to buying one when I found the EF-2 for $100 as is.

---Nailer---