Magnum baby Countryside - many issues

[josh29heather]

Hi there,

This is my first time posting on this forum, my husband and I had a Magnum baby countryside installed in our home just before Christmas (2011). The first problem we had was the fact the wrong burn pot was in the stove and it was stuck, the small company we purchased it from did the install as well and was very wishy-washy about getting it out, he had no clue how to do it and we ended up waiting two weeks for the fellow to return to try to remove the pot, in the end he got it out and put the proper pot in. We have had 5 or 6 days where we could get almost 20 hours of burn time out of the stove before having to turn it off and dump the pot, the normal average was about 12-15 hours at most (on settings 1-2 or 3 no less, we could never run it on 4 or 5 and get more than 6 hours out of it before having to turn it off). Now the normal is 7-10 hours before having to turn it off and dump the pot, we now have to turn it off three times a day to run it. We can never leave it on while we are not home because we have had times where we would check it in the middle of the night and the wood pellets are backed all the way up the shoot and it is STILL running, it has yet to go into "auto" shutdown mode on it's own and it scares us. We have complained to the company on a number of occasions and he has yet to do anything about it and has stated he will be charging us service. time for it. The stove has NEVER worked right! He even broke the clips on the right hand side of the stove for the large side doors (over a month ago) and has yet to come replace them.

The install does not even look right, the side of the house is turning very black as well and the vent is angled TOWARDS the house instead of straight up. I have many photos and can attach them if anyone would like to see it.

We are looking for advice and help, we paid over 4 thousand for the stove and install and really would like it to run right!

Also it should be noted that after a week of owning the stove the stove started making a weird noise when it was on setting 1(fan on low), the company that we purchased it from had this response as a fix for it " so just don't run it on 1-low fan, problem fixed". NO problem not fixed, I paid good money for this brand new stove to work RIGHT!

Help!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Welcome to the forums.

Someone will be along that has tamed the stove you have. You do not have enough air going through the pellets in the burn pot.

You can help us by telling us exactly how the stove is vented, this means each piece in the venting, length, type of bend, whether it is horizontal or vertical, and the diameter of the flue. Also is there an OAK (outside air kit) installed, what floor the stove is on and how many floors there are in the house.

How the controls are set and if you have had any dampers set by the installer?

 

[DexterDay]

This stove has been known to have some air flow problems.

Magnum sells a High CFM combustion blower to feed more air through the pot. Which stops the.pellet build-up. Or you can do one of two other things discussed at length here.

1.- plug some of the air wash

2.- do a search and the other can be found. Modifications to the burn pot have to be made (if your using the Corn pot).

Read these...

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/83873/

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/86439/

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/87084/

You can also change the pins and adjust the overall feed, along with trying to get more air through the pot. Check all gaskets.. The door, ash pan, and hopper. Do the dollar bill test on them. If you read through the 3 threads above. You will learn about the test in them..

Good luck. This is a great little stove. Once it gets the needed combustion air.

 

[jrsdws]

Hopefully you have registered your stove for warranty with AES and have made your voiced your dealer problems to them.

As Smokey mentioned, you don't have enough air going through the pellets in the burn pot.

I have a 2007 Baby Countryside and had to do a handful of small things to get an adequate burn. First thing was to check and correct all gaskets...ashpan door, stove door, and hopper (I added gasket material to the ashpan door and hopper). If any of these don't pass the dollar bill test you won't likely succeed with a good burn. As stated above and in the other posts, blocking or partial blocking of the window air wash slot greatly improves air to the burn pot. These are all simple do-it-yourself jobs, but your dealer/installer should be taking care of this for you.

Here is the "tricky" part...if you will. During production year 2007, AES decided their Babys need a higher output combustion blower. This became standard in 2007, but they had to use their remaining stock of the older blowers. I bought my stove brand new in November of 2011, but it was "new old stock" and it had the old blower. I upgraded to the high output blower and the cast iron pellet pot (simple mod to corn pot is also HUGE help) and couldn't be happier with the little unit now. It burns some pellets better than others, of course, but I can burn pretty much any of them now. The lower ash pellets (in my stove) allow me to go several days without having to shut down or empty the pot. I open the door once or twice a day and give the pot a little stir with the scraper and that helps too. If I have to shut down now, it's due to alot of ash building up, not unburnt fuel.

I would contact the manufacturer with your serial number and find out when this unit was made and if it has the high output blower. Is it possible your dealer had an brand new older model year unit in stock?

As far as installation issues, I'd post pictures in this thread. We are lucky enough to have members here that are installation gurus and can tell you if something is wrong.

 

[ChandlerR]

josh29heather,

I have a Baby and I have always been able to run the stove for at least two days before dumping the pot. This stove has a unique burn pot in it is very deep and the airflow through it is relatively weak. Most stoves will bloww the burned pellets (ash) out of the pot so the buildup is very slow. Some stoves have means to remove the ash while running. The key to this stove is to obtain a burn that is complete and the ash is blown out of the pot. From what you describe, you are not getting a good burn. I have never had the pot fill to a point where the pellets back up the chute. I see two potential issues here. One, not enough combustion airflow to properly burn the pellets, or two, a feed rate that is too high.

We need to know a couple of things. How is your exhaust routed? Is it straight out the back or what. Do you have an outside air intake? What is your damper set at? Does your window get dirty quickly?

Did you get the cast iron burn pot or the stainless one?
Have you checked the AES website and looked at their forums? http://www.magnumheatforum.com/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=af2bbd98412dded442577c3923274577

There is a small chance that the control board is set up for a different stove. There is a jumper on the back of the board that can be moved for different feed rates...I'm pretty sure this isn't your problem but wanted you to know it's there.

Pictures and descriptions of your setup will help tremendously... There are enough people here with experience with this stove to help you!

Chan