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 $$$!)
Anyway...since having the stove installed, we've had some problems, and I'm not sure exactly where to put the blame.
After 4 days of working on the stove, we have 2 problems.
1) We still smell smoke when the stove is running. All pipe was sealed by the installer, and I even added some stove sealer to an area that was "suspect", but we still get smoke.
2) I've had two auger jams, using Lignet pellets. And they seem to be serious jams. I had to take all of the pellets out of the hopper, and use a pair of waterpump pliers on the back of the auger motor to get it freed up. I shut the stove off last night because I don't trust it to run overnight, and when I started it this morning, it ran for about 30mins, and the auger is now jammed. The stove ran for approx. 12hrs yesterday without jamming.
Is this a lemon?...I've read here that people have had good luck with Lignet pellets, no bad reviews that I can find. Is it me?...doesn't seem like smoke odors and frequent jams are common, at least not on here.
Do you folks leave your stove running for a day and just hope it doesn't jam?
I'm going to talk to the dealer today and find out what the return policy is...I expect it's going to be a battle. I had an email exchange with them yesterday and their response was that I should remove all pellets, clean the stove (after 1 bag of use) and then use 2 bags of their pellets. They stated that their pellets are less than %.20 ash, and if their pellets burned fine, the problem was the pellets. I asked what ash content had to do with auger jamming, and got no response.
Lob
We purchased a Lopi Yankee from a dealer just a bit West of Boston. We had their recommended installer perform the installation (that vent pipe is $$$!)
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