Lopi Yankee troubles...is it me?

[Lobstah]

First, let me say I'm glad I found this site. I am a first-time pellet user, but long time wood burner. Due to a kitchen remodel that eliminated our trusty Vermont Castings, we opted to install a pellet stove in the family room.
We purchased a Lopi Yankee from a dealer just a bit West of Boston. We had their recommended installer perform the installation (that vent pipe is $$$!)
Anyway...since having the stove installed, we've had some problems, and I'm not sure exactly where to put the blame.

After 4 days of working on the stove, we have 2 problems.
1) We still smell smoke when the stove is running. All pipe was sealed by the installer, and I even added some stove sealer to an area that was "suspect", but we still get smoke.
2) I've had two auger jams, using Lignet pellets. And they seem to be serious jams. I had to take all of the pellets out of the hopper, and use a pair of waterpump pliers on the back of the auger motor to get it freed up. I shut the stove off last night because I don't trust it to run overnight, and when I started it this morning, it ran for about 30mins, and the auger is now jammed. The stove ran for approx. 12hrs yesterday without jamming.

Is this a lemon?...I've read here that people have had good luck with Lignet pellets, no bad reviews that I can find. Is it me?...doesn't seem like smoke odors and frequent jams are common, at least not on here.
Do you folks leave your stove running for a day and just hope it doesn't jam?

I'm going to talk to the dealer today and find out what the return policy is...I expect it's going to be a battle. I had an email exchange with them yesterday and their response was that I should remove all pellets, clean the stove (after 1 bag of use) and then use 2 bags of their pellets. They stated that their pellets are less than %.20 ash, and if their pellets burned fine, the problem was the pellets. I asked what ash content had to do with auger jamming, and got no response.

Lob

 

[Valhalla]

Stay in touch with your dealer until all issues are resolved. It is their responsibility that you receive full satisfaction and correct operation.

Search this Hearth.com for other owner's experiences and use with your brand and model of stove. A few correct tips and words of advice go a long way.

Good luck.

 

[JBlank912]

I also have the Lopi Yankee installed this season. First the smoke smell, I found the smell lessened as time went on. I'm not sure if it was just burn in or what, but my wife has the most sensitive sense of smell ever and it tokk several weeks for the smell to get to the point of almost nonexistent. Once we had the OAK installed she said no smell at all. I was warned about burn in for paint burning oil smell but it was definetly a smokey smell throughout the house. You may want to try a high temperature burn for an hour or two (with windows open) to see if that cures it. But it did take several weeks for the odor to go away on mine.

As for the jams, I had a jam problem also. It was caused 2 fold. One my pellets have a lot of fines and I had to get the hang of keeping them out of the stove. I shake the bag, pour, shake some more and pour the rest except for a pound or 2 at the bottom. That I hold back (most of the fines are there) and sift those bags once a wekk or so to get the pellets. The other problem is new to this line of stoves this year, its the fire gate. At the bottom of the pellet chute Travis added fire gates. The pellets jam behind it. I had 2 jams that I cleared with a long screwdriver up the chute. My dealer came over to correct some install items and immediately removed the fire gate. Seems many Travis (Lopi and Avalon) people had the same problem and had the fire gate removed - its held in with one screw at the bottom of the chute. Sincde then, the stove burns better, hotter and more even.

I attributed many problems to the pellets and a learning curve for me. Now it just works. I learned the quirks and how to deal with them. Even the fines issue, I let the hopper run almost empty every few bags, scoop out the rest and vacuum the fines from the auger. Works much smoother. Again this was caused by bad pellets which I have learned to work arounbd since I purchased 3 tons.

 

[imacman]

Lobstah,

what JRB said about the stove is correct....remove the fuel gate and see how the stove runs then. I have a Avalon Astoria which is the same basic stove as yours, but it's an older ('05) model w/o the fuel gate. I used Lignetics pellets exclusively for the first 20 bags, and I had NO jams whatsoever.

I have been trying NEWP pellets recently (about 10 bags) that I saw great reviews on previous to buying them, but would trade them for the Lignetics ANY DAY. Hey, there can be bad batches of pellets from any company, but I think Lignetics are GREAT!

One question....what type of install do you have on your pipe? Straight out, up & out, out & up, etc?

And as mentioned by JRB, the fines could cause a jam, that's why I built a vacuum pellet cleaner...it works great. That may help too, and if you have a shop vac, it would only cost about $20-25.

 

[hearthtools]

could be a weak auger motor or a bad bushing in the auger.

Jam up normally happens when a LOT of sawdust build up and get packed into the Top of the auger at the drop tube or a object gets in the hopper.
We have pulled a lot of OBJECTs out of augers.

Next time it jams you could just take the inspection cover off the auger INSIDE the hopper and see what is going on.
Just make sure you have some RTV to seal it back on.

You dont have to remove the motor and back it off.

 

[Lobstah]

Based on other posts that I read regarding Lopi stoves, I removed the flapper on the feed shoot. Other members were apparently told by Travis Ind. to remove the flapper due to excessive jamming problems.
Too soon to tell if this has had an impact...but I'll run the stove pretty much all day today, so that should be a good test.

Also have a problem with the thermostat, will work on that later this morning.

Jim

 

[JBlank912]

What type of thermostat and what type of thermostat problem? I have Travis's wireless remote, and I had it swapped once and still find it quirky but I have learned work arounds for its quirkyness. :bug:

 

[Lobstah]

It's just a normal, hard-wired thermostat.

If I turn the stove on using the Auto position, the stove starts normally, but it never shuts off after surpassing the temperature set on the thermostat.

Jim

 

[JBlank912]

You did not say which thermostat. With mine (Travis wireless) what I find is, if I change the temperature to a point that crosses the on/off point the thermostat will not send a signal consistantly particularly regarding turning it off. For example if the room is 70 and the stove is running, if I change the setting down to 68 the stove may not turn off. What I usually do in this case is I cheat. I hold the thermostat by the stove output for a few seconds (it checks the reading about every 30 seconds or so), this raises the temperature reading enough to put the stove in a shut down cycle. I then change the thermostat setting while it is in the shut down cycle to 68 or whatever I wanted. Switching on does not seem so flakey. If the room is at 70, and the stove is off and I change the setting from say 68 to 72, the stove will go on. Also I see a 1-2 minute delay in all on/off cycle readings from the thermostat. Not the best thermostat but the dealer thru it in with the deal.

 

[JBlank912]

Sorry I didn't read your answer carefully enough (so you buried the info in the first line :red: ). I did not connect the wired thermostat at all. I am not sure if it follows the wireless's quirkiness.

 

[Lobstah]

Update on the jamming issue:

Removing the flapper had definitely impacted this problem. I've run for about 3 days now without a single jam...longest run before that was about 5hrs., so the flapper was definitely a guilty party in all of this.

My only remaining issues are the t-stat and a vibration that happens only when the stove is in cool-down mode prior to shutoff.


Jim