Jamestown Pellet Stove

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holmes

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Feb 16, 2007
3
Just wondering if anyone has been having trouble with Jamestown Pellet Stoves with over feeding..... or any other problems you may be having???
 
Uncle rich where are you???????????????
well it would be a bit better if you threw out specifics that you are looking for. And also which model do you have, it helps to move the the banter along....
 
GVA said:
Uncle rich where are you???????????????
well it would be a bit better if you threw out specifics that you are looking for. And also which model do you have, it helps to move the the banter along....


Damn, one time I get a question directly related to my stove, where am I????, putting in a 12 hour day, 65 miles from home. Here now, so lets ask the critical questions: Which model? Date made? US or Canadian? Free standing, or insert? How's it vented? Outside air kit? Gee, is that enough to start?

OH, if you are having overfeed problems, what setting and how long does it take to overfeed?

As Gov. Schwartzengruber says, "I'll be back".
 
Pardon my manners, welcome to the group. YOu don't have a PE, VC, or ESW, so expect some grief, but it's all in good fun, and you will learn some amazing things about stoves in general.
 
the stove is a J1000B Jamestown free standing stove. not sure of the date it was made. We purchased it from a dealer march 05. It's was purchased in Canada. It's a throught the wall ventalation. The stove acted up 2 times but has been fine today. It ran for almost 10 hours before going to bed and when we woke up the pit was overfilled and lots of flames. We returned the previous jamestown because of this (it never did it for them, don't think they beleived us) and they gave us this stove and we never had a problem till now. We have the stove set to 1 (low) and the draft to (6) it works the best and the flame is good when it's set there. Not sure if there is a problem with the feeder motor or what. We clean the exhaust weekly from the outside.... not sure if it need to be done more. anything else that can help to find out what might be causing it. It always over feeds during the night when we are sleeping so we don't see what happens.
 
Those draft and feed settings don't sound right to me at all.


Our Jamestown ran no higher ever than 4.5 on the draft scale. With the feeder on 1, the draft was usually at 3-4.
 
holmes,
does the unit feed faster at a constant , or does it seem to drop a massive amount in on occasion? (forgive me but i do not know how the jamestown is laid out , i build englanders.) just trying to get a feel for your "overfeed" if the second option i mentioned is the closest description, do you ever see the unit dry cycle ( or have missed feed cycles) or have you found the unit shut down with a large pile of unburned pellets in the burn pot? if so these can be signs of either "bridging of pellets " ( pellets weaving into a dome over the auger and not falling in until they collapse) or possibly a vacuum issue(again i dont know how they are laid out so these are guesses.) have you at times had the unit "feed out and shut down" then found pellets stacked up on the sides of the hopper? reason im asking is that if feed is interrupted for whatever reason then resumes, the fire may be down to coals and will take several cycles to relight andd burn, then a big fire results, this can take a while to settle back out.

now if the fast feed is a constant , i assume that there is a trim pot or adjustment to settle that down , which would likely be a question for your dealer ?service guy.

hope this helps ya , i really need to download some other manufacturers manuals so i dont have to keep apologising for not knowing

mike esw
 
I will try turning down the draft to 4.5 or lower and see what happens. Also the pellets are a constant drop.
 
Mike is probably closest to being right. The stove is a manual control for air and feed. The minimum feed rate results in a combination problem common to many stoves, too little fuel for too much air. When the Jamestown is set to minimum the feed rate is about 4 seconds feed, eight seconds off. This can often depending on the size of the pellet result in dry cycles, or no feed from the auger. By having the air set to maximum the burn spends most of it's time in the Pop-Corn stage. The air is so high the non-burned pellets are expelled from the burn pot and die as embers in the surround. If you blow the fire to the area outside the burn pot, you have the heat, continue the feed, but have no flame to burn pellets in the burn pot. The auger continues to feed, the pot fills, the stove cools and shuts off with a bucket full of unburned pellets.

Well, you say cut back the air. Not so simple. The Jamestown has a constant exhaust blower speed. The burn air is controlled by a damper. The intake air has a "flapper" valve to regulate the amount of air passed beneath the burn pot. In the non-technical description: If you want a slower, more gentle burn, turn down the amount of air introduced to the burn pot. A blast furnace rate burns lots of pellets, but will send cascades of embers out. Simple, cut back the air and no cascade. True, but you can not cast the cinder like ash that some stoves produce out of the pot, because they are too heavy. As a result they lay in the bottom of the burn pot and build up. Dense and hot the form a clinker, porous, but continually reducing the air flow. After several hours, say overnight you wake to a burn pot full of clinker and an inadequate air supply to the pellets being delivered and an overflow.


Solution to both. Don't use feed rate One (1) ONE, Minimum....... If some of you remember my post the Sweet Spot, use the Human Computer. Tweak, Tweak, Tweak. There is a point to maximize the air fuel mix at minimum setting that isn't on the numbers of the adjustments. My dials would be at a feed rate of three and air at 40% and I can burn for 24-30 hours per bag (40lbs.) and keep a clean burn pot and good Btu output. I can get more by increasing the feed rate, understanding that in 6-8 hours I'll need to clean burn pot of clinker.

The Jamestown is a manual controlled stove. Much the same as many of the WB's. If you control the feed and the air you control the fire. This is not a crude stove, but it is not computer controlled. The snap switches and motor speeds govern the operation, but the TWEAKER controls the operation. Tonight , for example, I got home to a cold house and stove. Turned off this morning on purpose. It was 43* outside and about 55 inside. Fired stove, set to high, ran for 40 minutes, adjusted feed to 3, turned air back and am enjoying a comfortable 70-73*. Tweak, start, run, tweak, run. Not automatic, but very comfortable.

Makes me better understand the wood burners frequent adjusting and monitoring,and the thrill of maxing a simple and effective stove.

Pardon this analogy, if you are like some easily offended, but the stove is like a blacksmith's forge. Coal is coal, air is air, but the talent is the guy turning the crank and stoking, and adjusting the fire that gets the perfect burn. The blower, coal and air don't do anything without the operator. I burn a clean smokeless fire without the interference of the microcircuit generation.

Just call me an old fashion pellet burner. I like them, I can carry them, I can't store, cut or split wood, but I hate the Natural Gas Company more.


HOO HAAA. Broke the bank on this post. Going to give the ticklers a rest. Come on WB's and PB's let me have it.....Broad shoulders. Some of you this is a challenge, bring it on....Marty.... Defend your self, if appropriate. Pellet (note with two "e's") heads can control their fire. Best of all, we're burning something that is waste. It is not better to see the piles and the scrap buried to hide our waste. If we harvested all the wood in the forest, where would we grow Chantrells. You Easties wonder, you Westies, salivate. More dumb thoughts from a P-head on a roll.


Power to the THREE Jamestown Owners, outed on the Forum. Warm Rules.
 
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