Greetings folks. Thanks for the forum. I'm a new pellet stove owner in Maine who finally got his Magnum Baby Countryside installed this past week after too long a time out in the garage waiting for me to get to her. I cut a nice big hole in the side of my house, which had me nervous, but I think I did well enough. Round, I think, is a relative term, but I did get pretty close to round. With the shorter blade of the little jig saw, you take what you can get going over the ridges of the vinyl siding.
I've been having some fun reading about the things I've already done "not quite right" and what I have done right. One thing I did RIGHT was to read the manual. Not knowing a thing about running a pellet stove outside of the manual, I believed the words "Fill the pot with pellets" as they wrote them.
No, what it meant to say was "Put a good handful of pellets into the pot"
So, having FILLED the pot with pellets - to the top of the pot, the igniter couldn't get enough air to ignite the pellets. So it smouldered. And smouldered some more. And I saw the leak where one pipe hit another, the dense yellowish smoke filling my living room. I opened a window. I opened the air intake wide. It smouldered still. The first smoke alarm went off. The entire fire chamber was unable to be seen through the smoke. The second smoke alarm went off, I pulled the battery. I opened more windows upstairs, turned on the fan and closed all but one of the doors upstairs.
The smouldering stopped. The pellets ignited. An entire pot of them. WHOOSH! flames filled the fire chamber. I saw no flames escaping anywhere. I looked outside at my vent, all good. I heard the vent fan and felt warmth, but not super heat. Good thing. Just like the neighbors stove.
I watched the flames as the danced. I had opened the basement door to get a whole house draft, the basement stairwell smoke alarm went off, battery out on that one!
I closed the window upstairs in the front of the house - you could hear the AC smoke alarm from the road. Oops. More fans in the bathroom window!
Finally, the smoke started to clear. The CO alarm never went off. I replaced the batteries in the two battery op smoke alarms. I closed windows. I set the stove to level 3, like the manual said. The flames dissipated.
Eventually, the stove slowed to a dull roar (not really, but a normal flame) and it looked more normal. The next day, I started with just a handful of pellets, it flamed up right quick and without the smoke.
Sure makes me feel better that I didn't do the first fire before I drove to town for one thing and one thing only. Fire extinguishers. Not that I needed them for this event, but I felt better knowing I had them. The one in the garage was old and I am not sure how much I trust it. Better to have new ones in the house for such a things.
New Year's day, I'll run the stove all day and then all night for the first time.
It's a good thing I tried this the first time while the rest of the family was away. I saved much embarrassment in front of them (and paraded it out in front of all of you!)
So, I keep looking at the tales here in the forums and learn more. I keep cleaning daily and I think I have a good routine the will work through my daily schedule, shutting the stove down in the morning before shower, cleaning, refilling and firing it up before work - should work well enough, I think.
Cheers to all.
I've been having some fun reading about the things I've already done "not quite right" and what I have done right. One thing I did RIGHT was to read the manual. Not knowing a thing about running a pellet stove outside of the manual, I believed the words "Fill the pot with pellets" as they wrote them.
No, what it meant to say was "Put a good handful of pellets into the pot"
So, having FILLED the pot with pellets - to the top of the pot, the igniter couldn't get enough air to ignite the pellets. So it smouldered. And smouldered some more. And I saw the leak where one pipe hit another, the dense yellowish smoke filling my living room. I opened a window. I opened the air intake wide. It smouldered still. The first smoke alarm went off. The entire fire chamber was unable to be seen through the smoke. The second smoke alarm went off, I pulled the battery. I opened more windows upstairs, turned on the fan and closed all but one of the doors upstairs.
The smouldering stopped. The pellets ignited. An entire pot of them. WHOOSH! flames filled the fire chamber. I saw no flames escaping anywhere. I looked outside at my vent, all good. I heard the vent fan and felt warmth, but not super heat. Good thing. Just like the neighbors stove.
I watched the flames as the danced. I had opened the basement door to get a whole house draft, the basement stairwell smoke alarm went off, battery out on that one!
I closed the window upstairs in the front of the house - you could hear the AC smoke alarm from the road. Oops. More fans in the bathroom window!
Finally, the smoke started to clear. The CO alarm never went off. I replaced the batteries in the two battery op smoke alarms. I closed windows. I set the stove to level 3, like the manual said. The flames dissipated.
Eventually, the stove slowed to a dull roar (not really, but a normal flame) and it looked more normal. The next day, I started with just a handful of pellets, it flamed up right quick and without the smoke.
Sure makes me feel better that I didn't do the first fire before I drove to town for one thing and one thing only. Fire extinguishers. Not that I needed them for this event, but I felt better knowing I had them. The one in the garage was old and I am not sure how much I trust it. Better to have new ones in the house for such a things.
New Year's day, I'll run the stove all day and then all night for the first time.
It's a good thing I tried this the first time while the rest of the family was away. I saved much embarrassment in front of them (and paraded it out in front of all of you!)
So, I keep looking at the tales here in the forums and learn more. I keep cleaning daily and I think I have a good routine the will work through my daily schedule, shutting the stove down in the morning before shower, cleaning, refilling and firing it up before work - should work well enough, I think.
Cheers to all.
