Mt Vernon AE Insert -- need more heat.

Make sure your convection fan speed it set to "normal" and not on quiet.

I am not really in the habit of asking questions for the yucks. When you invest a lot of money and the dealer says about 50 times the flame height needs to be 8" or near the top of diamond, it seems that should be something I should be paying attention to. The manual says how to set that height, which I did, and that's why I am where I am today.

so how did you do over night? better ?

I have not cleaned the convection blower. I thought that was an end of season task?

I am burning about 1 bag per 12 hours. I filled it at 6PM friday and just got the low hopper warning about 7AM this morning. In comparison, since OMV told me to change my settings, the family room was 72F this morning, which is awesome. Overnight the stove was on Softwood, 4, FH +2. Outside temp is 11F, so I feel like the comparison to earlier days is OK. I am switching over to some LGs now and then some Vermonts, before I start back to my Okie pile. The Blazers were awesome, easy to pour, didn't get stuck in the hopper corner or get stuck in the back of the surround. Flame was bright. Loved them.

Thanks for the reply.

-1 and 74 inside. thats my best ever. i think i forgot it on sunflower +2 last night ate a bag of pellets over night but all good by me

Well Harvey and Oldmountvernon from our earlier threat on this, I am now a believer also!! I have been going all in on this +5 on the flame height and auto high during the cold snap. WOW this is the best heat I have ever had out of this stove. Kept up very nice during the cold snap. Plan to back it off after Sunday when it starts to warm up here.

Yes been going through some pellets but oh well better than the oil man coming and more importantly I am not listening to the wife say its cold in the house Yes the flame is huge but oh well I need the heat and if breaks something it can be fixed.

I have kept it on Hardwood because I noticed on softwood the firepot was getting too full between auto cleanings. I had to scrape the firepot a few times.

I really do not think it matters if your run on auto or manual. If you set the temp you are calling for in auto higher than you want it then it will burn in High or Med High so it accomplishes the same thing as running in manual.

Thanks Harvey and Oldmountvernon you have added years to the wedding bliss.....

That sounds like my rate. With these settings I definitely see how you could get 74F and -1 now. If i had to burn 4 1/2 bags a day I might as well go back to oil. This morning I was 72F in the family room and 68F in the kitchen. My set point is 71F, but until now I only hit then when it's in the 40s outside. This is really awesome now though. Happy families.

So you are burning a bag a day that equals approx 26,666 BTUs per hour. That is a 60,000 btu stove so you are running slightly below 1/2 power.

Eric


****edit my bad, I read it wrong*** still working on the first cup of coffee.

This just didn't seem right to me how can the flame height not change or actually get lower going from -4 to + 2 setting? So I tried it and now I'm with you, very confused. Since I purchased this stove I always thought that you needed to keep the flame height down. I have always run on -4 to -5 flame height. I'll keep experimenting but I think just maybe I have been going about this the wrong way.

Only if you need more heat Joe, + will cost ya pellets. for the heck of it this morning i dropped to -5 on sunflower from +2 i lost 4 degrees in an hour from 74 to 70

I do need more heat but I thought I was already maxing out the stove. It just didn't make sense to me to turn up the flame height if my flame was already at the top of the baffle plate. This is just counter to everything the manual tells you and most advice you get.

me either, thank Harv i been suffering for a year when its cold and not having enough heat

Burning in manual and +4 flame height I burned a bag of GT's in 11 hours. Most of that was just after 7 AM when the thermostat setting jumps from 65 to 70.

I was expecting the chimney sweep this morning, so I thought that it would be a good time to clean my combustion blower. Quadrafire suggests cleaning it every 3 tons of pellets and I've burned about 3 1/2 tons. So I pulled the combustion blower and I was surprised at how clean it was.




I brushed the thin coat of ash off the impeller, but I didn't feel as though I was accomplishing anything. I reached into the passage from the fire chamber to the blower and it was in similar condition and finally I checked the blower output port which was absolutely spotless.
I have burned junk pellets (inferno's) and better pellets (Lignetics, Greene Team's). I am guessing that burning hot has kept this stove (insert) clean.

^^ Gotta love a Quad

Quick update.

Yesterday morning it was 68F on LGs vs 72F on Blazers (12F v 10F outside), with exactly the same settings (4, FH +2). I upped the FH to 4 and it started to put out the heat again.

Last night I switched to Vermonts, and this morning it was 74F (4, FH +2). It's 21F outside, so I've lost my comparison and by the looks of things this week will be a low burn week.

Still, it's a pity we wasted 1/3 of the winter dicking around on the wrong setting. I am pretty sure I could get any brand to put out the heat (thanks to this thread), but I loved the Blazers. Whether that love is $50 / ton worth, I don't know. Maybe I'd get 1/2 ton for cold Feb days and burn Vermonts for the rest of the season.

No pellets are created equal. Yes raw material and density is the key to a good pellet but if they sat outside for 3 month at one retail location or sat in a warehouse for three months, you will have a different burn.

Eric

And what may be a good pellet one year doesn't mean it will be good next year. Sticking with the more reputable brands is a good start but it is no guarantee on quality.

When larger mills pull from batches with 100's of tons of raw material every few tons can be different.

Eric

Density, moisture content, BTU per pound and ash content are all controlled to some extent, but the content of resins is not. I suspect that the reason soft woods and blends are so impressive is that they have higher resin content. Resins burn much faster and, therefore, hotter than cellulose.
I agree that moisture content can make a good pellet into cat litter-box filler, but I think that choice of raw materials is important in the resulting qualities of the pellets. That begs the question; do the manufacturers know how to control those qualities, or is it mostly random luck.

I would say that comes from where they get the dust. I know one mill that tried to get going in this area bought dust from KraftMaid. 90% of KraftMaid's dust was from pressed boards. That meant the dust came with a glue/binder. I also know another pellet maker uses mostly ground pallets. What if that pallet was soaked through with oil? Some mills use dust from their own lumber mill so they know but if you shop around for raw material you are at their mercy.

Eric

ScotL had a pretty good post explaining the making/quality dont think its luck.

That all depends on the mills quality department. Some just wing it and some actually test the fiber before it even hits the conveyors.

Is there a list of these manufacturers with higher QC standards? I have noticed that every brand of pellet bag I look at from different manufacturers now has the pellet institute seal and analysis. Who conducts this analysis? Because every brand indicates under 1% ash and I keep smelling bull..

PFI? Pay For Indecisiveness ?

Think of it as an insurance policy.