We bought a Lennox Montage pellet stove November 2008. It works well when used with manual operation but the reason I bought it was because I was told it could be used on a thermostat. I want the thermostat operation so I don't have to play with the stove 6 times a day adjusting the heat output and also so the house will neither get too hot or too cold.
Well, the stove operation is entirely unacceptable when you try and use it with the thermostat. Initial start-up and operation is fine. Shutdown is the problem. When the thermostat enters standby mode, (room is warm enough), the stove starts it's shut-down procedure. If the thermostat calls for heat again before the Hi-Lo switch opens, (typically 20 minutes but can be more or less depending on heat setting of the stove), then the stove simply finishes the shutdown procedure and shuts off completely despite the fact that the thermostat is calling for heat. You can restart it one of two ways. Press the start button or turn the thermostat down until it clicks off and then turn it back up until it clicks back on. Stove will then start and run normally until the next shutdown.
First the Lennox tech department didn't even understand the operation of their own product and even had the control board replaced thinking it was defective. Now they tell me that what I am describing is the "normal", (NORMAL
!!), operation of the unit and suggest that I simply turn the stove down to a low setting. Their exact words copied from an e-mail sent to me: "The stove will still be putting out good heat up to 30 minutes after the auger quits feeding so there should not be a need for the unit to have to relight in less then 30 minutes." And "If you have your unit on the thermostat and it’s trying to relight itself within the at the most 30 minutes wouldn’t you be better off just setting your unit on one of the lower settings and just letting it run."
SO helpful. One other thing. The manual mentions in one place that there is a Hot-Start and a Cold-Start. On Hot-Start the Fastfire igniter is supposed to run for 7 minutes, on a Cold-Start the igniter runs for 15 minutes. I have verified this on MANUAL operation. The problem is that on automatic thermostat operation in the Hot-Start condition, (Hi-Lo switch still closed), the igniter does not run at all. Can someone say OPPS! Or how about SOFTWARE BUG in the solid state control panel.
Well, the stove operation is entirely unacceptable when you try and use it with the thermostat. Initial start-up and operation is fine. Shutdown is the problem. When the thermostat enters standby mode, (room is warm enough), the stove starts it's shut-down procedure. If the thermostat calls for heat again before the Hi-Lo switch opens, (typically 20 minutes but can be more or less depending on heat setting of the stove), then the stove simply finishes the shutdown procedure and shuts off completely despite the fact that the thermostat is calling for heat. You can restart it one of two ways. Press the start button or turn the thermostat down until it clicks off and then turn it back up until it clicks back on. Stove will then start and run normally until the next shutdown.
First the Lennox tech department didn't even understand the operation of their own product and even had the control board replaced thinking it was defective. Now they tell me that what I am describing is the "normal", (NORMAL
!!), operation of the unit and suggest that I simply turn the stove down to a low setting. Their exact words copied from an e-mail sent to me: "The stove will still be putting out good heat up to 30 minutes after the auger quits feeding so there should not be a need for the unit to have to relight in less then 30 minutes." And "If you have your unit on the thermostat and it’s trying to relight itself within the at the most 30 minutes wouldn’t you be better off just setting your unit on one of the lower settings and just letting it run."SO helpful. One other thing. The manual mentions in one place that there is a Hot-Start and a Cold-Start. On Hot-Start the Fastfire igniter is supposed to run for 7 minutes, on a Cold-Start the igniter runs for 15 minutes. I have verified this on MANUAL operation. The problem is that on automatic thermostat operation in the Hot-Start condition, (Hi-Lo switch still closed), the igniter does not run at all. Can someone say OPPS! Or how about SOFTWARE BUG in the solid state control panel.
