Hudson River West Point Burn Pot

[IHATEPROPANE]

Hello, I bought this stove about a month ago and through the advice of this forum I have burned everything from Inferno's to Blazers to see what would work best. Problem is no matter what pellet I use my burn pot gets clogged after about 12 hours and needs to be cleaned. This in on heat setting 2 of 5. My question I guess is, is this normal behavior for this stove?

Thanks

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

No, it is not normal behavior for any top feed stove in that amount of time.

You have an air leak that is causing a burn pot bypass or another problem related to airflow (early demise of the combustion blower, incorrect OAK screen, too many elbows or excessive length of venting).

The stove is very sensitive to air flow issues.

Your installer/dealer should know all about these, have you talked to them?

I had buildup problems because of an incorrect OAK screen, a bad combustion blower, a couple of small air leaks, and the burn pot itself having a built in air bypass.

The warranty took care of the burn pot and combustion blower issues, the dealer took care of the minor air leaks (warranty again), and I took care of the OAK screen.

 

[Fsappo]

Smokeys advice is sound advice. After only a month of burning there "Shouldnt" be a lot of clogged vent/baffle issues. If I get a call like this one a stove I dont sell, I'll always advise the homeowner go thru a complete cleaning before sending a tech out. If the tech shows up and cleans a clogged cap, or bees nest, etc the customer normally ends up with an invoice for something they could have done. Not sure about your particular stove, but we have been to other homes reporting the same problem and the clients had the burn pot in backwards.

Whats your venting config like?

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I will contact the dealer. So far they have been very good. I recently had the convection fan and control board replaced. The venting is about an 18 inch pipe straight out with a cap on the end. I was thinking it is an air issue since the ash doesnt "dance" in the pot. The flame always starts looking real good and by the tike I wake up it is tall and somewhat lazy and a full pot.

Thanks for the response

 

[Fsappo]

Again, not familiar with that particular stove, but ask the dealer about adding a 4 or 5' vertival and gooseneck outside to see if that improves the draft some. Also, do you have an outside air kit? If not, have you tried to crack a window near the stove open 1/4" or so to see if that helps the burn?

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I am waiting to hear back but I will definitely ask and post the response. I do have an outside air kit. They are required where I live.

 

[Fsappo]

Did ya check the OAK make sure its clear? Goblins put treasure in them.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Also some OAK screens are not exactly friendly to a stove that requires most of that tube end to be open.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I did not talk to the dealer because they called my wife??? They suggested that maybe its getting too much air and to block part of the vent. Sounds odd to me. I hear ya about the gobblin. I am sure I have one. Ripped some shingles off my room last weekend and ate part of a cup cake I left out overnight

Smokey is the Saranac a similar set-up? If so what pellets do you prefer?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I did not talk to the dealer because they called my wife??? They suggested that maybe its getting too much air and to block part of the vent. Sounds odd to me. I hear ya about the gobblin. I am sure I have one. Ripped some shingles off my room last weekend and ate part of a cup cake I left out overnight

Smokey is the Saranac a similar set-up? If so what pellets do you prefer?

Yes, it is part of the same line of stoves, parts from all over the world imported into Canada, assembled and then imported into the US. A lot of attention to detail gets lost in that kind of setup. The same stoves are marketed under at least three brand names. They are simple stoves.

Well I prefer Cubex but until you get the airflow issues taken care of I wouldn't even want to attempt burning a dense pellet.

I've burned things that could have at the time been charitably described as dirt in a bag.

I have tried over 15 different brands and currently have a stash of November/2009 Granules LG, 2010 Cubex, and December 2010 Maine Woods Pellets.

I can go over a week between cleanings, on any of them.

So that covers a softwood pellet (Oakies also burned very well for me), hardwood (Barefoot also burned very well for me), and a blend.

Even thought you bought your stove this year did you check the information on the stoves label inside the stove shell?

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I checked but did not see a date on the label. I have actually burned a couple bags of all sorts of brands.

They are:

Inferno's
Green Team
Stove Chow
Nation's Choice
Maine's Choice
Instant Heat
Energex (green and red label)
Fireside Ultra's
PWI
NEWP
Barefoots
Curran soft and blend
treecycle
Okanagan
Blazers
Independence
Spruce Pointe
LG's
Lignetics W.V.

Trying to get a feel for heat (measured by an infrared temp gun from same distance and spot on stove),ash and burn pot buildup. Although I may have to redo my study once I get the stove running right. There's worse things I could be doing!! I bought this particular stove because it has a nice big hopper and and rated at 55,000 BTU and wanted to heat about 2,000 sq feet 2 story. Well It keeps my first floor about 70 and upstairs about 66 on level 2. So I guess it works as far as that goes!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You have two PMs.

I see some good pellets and some pellet pretenders in that list.

After reading the PMs do a search on leaf blower trick.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

...

They suggested that maybe its getting too much air and to block part of the vent.


...

I truly hope they meant part of the OAK as you never block any of the vent, EVER !!

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

My wife said vent but I took it to mean OAK.

 

[webbie]

One of our pellet forum stickies addresses the need - in the writers opinion - for no pellet stoves to just go straight out. There have been a lot of discussions on this over the years.....

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/13419/

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

Using rope gasket as a temporary fix around the burn pot. There was a little play where it should fit snug. Been burning it this way for 4 days and the results are dramatically better.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Using rope gasket as a temporary fix around the burn pot. There was a little play where it should fit snug. Been burning it this way for 4 days and the results are dramatically better.

I was hoping you were going to post some additional results.

Hopefully they'll get back to you on the other item.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

Yeah I wanted to give it enough time to make sure it really did help. The dealer is contacting the manufacturer about a permanent fix. The little gap between the auger and top of the feed is something I could probably fix myself if need be. Its funny how sensitive the burn can be. I would not have thought that small of an air bypass would change the way it burns so dramatically. Just for comparisons I ran Inferno's on level 3 (which I never ran anything on but had to because they do not put out any heat according to my infrared gun ) and did not clean out the pot for 2 days. Before I ran Blazers (along with everything else)on 2 and was overflowing in less than 12 hours. Well my handful of Inferno's are now gone and I am going to try out my medley of different brands.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Yes pellet stoves are very sensitive to air flow issues.

They run right at the edge of not running at all.

You likely have the permanent fix all ready as they produced burn pots with the gasket for my stove.

The thing about all of these stoves is that simply shipping them can result in airflow issues if the shipping is a bit rough.