new stove acting up help!

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

at first thats what starting to think but after talking to Doug Doty think it my auger thats the problem

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

I had the same dilema but mine would stay running but just short of dying out after a great first day, even set on higher levels. I tried a lot of things over a day or two and then I pulled the auger again and cleaned everything well and then sprayed the auger with a dry film lubricant and buffed the inside of the auger tube with it as well. Done both 3-4 times and re assembled. I theorized it might have had some factory oils in this assembly originally so it was worth a try it is still going with no problems since. I did file and clean up some burrs on the auger that last time, particularly one on the tip of the last flute before it drops the pellets, it had a nasty grinding job to bevel the end but it was ground the wrong direction and rolled up a nasty burr to rip on the pellets just before they fell. The build up of ash below the chute was from what I think was the grinding of pellets into a ton of fines instead of them flowing through the auger and just dropping whole. Mine still accumulates some but takes longer than before, I think they come out of the bags now. I am trying the TSC pellets now to see if this helps, so far so good. What i determined was causing low flame was the pellets were just wrapping around the auger and not moving along it, just wrapped up and going around in circles with minimal through put and a lot of what did go through was getting ground up and destroyed so as not to make good fire building material. My dealers stove has no fines laying on the floor of the chute by comparison so I think there is some polishing goes on with a little time as well. My first ton came from his same stock. So ??? No problems since. A lot of extra fines on the chute is always a sign of chewed up pellets or ones with heavy fines included.

think this is whats going on with what i observed this AM before i came to work

 

[Doug Doty]

One last thing we are finding important, This model stove is sensitive to feeding pellets into the auger when low on pellets. There is one small reference to it in the manual but it is a much bigger deal that the book makes it out to be. Once we start to run down as we would like to so we can fill less often our flame starts getting smaller as a result of less weight in the hopper pushing pellets into the auger inlet area. It is a bit inconvenient as we try to fill up as seldom as possible to lessen the dust factor in the house.

Doug...

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

yes i have noticed that! Doug Doty

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

Actually now that you mentioned it thats when i first started noticing my stove acting up. When i was at work my wife would let it get low on pellets and it would take a day or so of playing around with it tell it would burn good again. That makes me think even more so that it has been a feed issue the entire time!

 

[Doug Doty]

Yep

 

[Doug Doty]

Not that anyone asked but here is my stove now set on #1, #3, and #5 for comparison. At one time before the mods and TSC pellets the flame would not climb out of the burn and make itself visible in the pot and would die back to look like this #1 video, even set on #5. The last video is on #5 even though I did not say. My flame does vary up and down some and is never completely consistent but these videos are the average for each. And ya, I am bored this evening and have nothing better to do, I could go out and split and stack some wood....... oops, forgot don't have to ever !! do that again

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

I wish mine would even burn like yours does on #1! Im lucky if i can get a flame that size ob #5 right now!

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

on

 

[Doug Doty]

As a disappointing update !!

My augers super tune deal is only marginally better after a week of running. This is telling me de-burring might have helped some but the majority of the help was coming from the Dry Lube that I coated the auger and tube with. It ran great for most of the week and had started to slow down just a bit when I decided to test some different pellets from TSC that were fantastic. After they were gone I went back to my Easy Heat premium pellets and it has slowed further now. I ran on high last night, it consumed it's normal 40 lbs in 10 hours on that setting but the fire was just not there, up and down all the time. It would build to 90% of expected then die out as far as hiding in the bottom of the burn pot at times and I wondered if it would keep running or experience a long enough period of poor feeding and shut down. Here is the kicker, it consumes the pellets !! at the normal rate but it appears to just grind them up and the grounds coming out just don't produce heat compared to burning the pellets when they fall out of the chute whole. I want an auger that can eat all pellets even if they don't put out quite as much heat, I could deal with that but watching it go from big fire to almost dead a million times this winter ain't gonna be fun. Easy to blame the pellets but will other stoves eat them just fine, I would surly think so ?? this is what I cannot figure out on my own ???

I would not be experiencing this at all with the other pellets and that is fine but I understand, even popular brand pellets vary and sooner or later I am going to be in this situation again with this stove if it won't eat certain types. I can burn through my 3.5 remaining tons with disgust this winter and get by but gonna make for a disheartening first year of pellet heat.

Lesson learned I guess, is to test pellet lots every time before you buy by the ton ?? These worked great for the first 24 to 36 hours and I stumbled across a semi local Harman dealer that used them exclusively so i jumped on 3 additional tons when I got home on the last day of a $200/ton sale and hear is where I am when I no more than got home with them.

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

well looks like i will be shopping around for pellets! I only have about a half a ton of these.

 

[Doug Doty]

Ya, I thought you would want to know !!

I just done a thorough vacuuming and restarting on the garbage pellets now. My only hope of reprieve at this point is i have half a ton i have been running and the next 3 ton after are from a different seller and there is a possibility my dealer sold me his year olds and the next 3 are new and might work better. Either way I have heat coming out of my stove, even if it is not what it should be and i am getting more pellet wise with each lesson learned.

Schooled at hard knocks and mistakes and you never graduate. !!

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

what do the pellets look like that worked best for you

 

[Doug Doty]

I am headed to get another bag to analyze for reference, I will post pictures of both later this evening. But from memory, " not saying much " they are not that different.

 

[CladMaster]

I am using these in mine, no problems so far with feed issues from them, the ones in the white bag are my so called 'shoulder pellets', they produce the least heat, Nature's Own burn hot.

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

can we get some pics of the pellets them self?

 

[tjnamtiw]

It sounds like the pellets might have gotten damp and are falling apart. I wonder, as you said, if they've been sitting around outside since last year's season.

 

[Doug Doty]

They could be easily year olds but he has huge dry warehouses they would have ben kept in, can humidity get to them in the bags indoors ????

 

[tjnamtiw]

sure could since bags have a multitude of small holes.

 

[Doug Doty]

I have 3 more ton of same thing but different source that is this years 2nd or 3rd. delievery to our local farm store, I need to pull a bag of those to try....

 

[Doug Doty]

Here is the pellets that I am fighting, even though as I type this the fire is roaring but 20 minutes ago it was almost gone out... Never has died though.

These pellets never seem to fail, burn perfect with steady flame.

Physical examination of the two does not yield significant differences, they break, crumble, and appear similar, when looking at large lots the better ones are more consistent in size with fewer 1" long types mixed in.

 

[Doug Doty]

sure could since bags have a multitude of small holes.

I cut one end off my bag and looked through from the inside out and wow, I am surprised and how many holes, I'm 1 tick pellet wiser now, thanks TJ

 

[Robert_Nestle@hotmail]

yep sounds more like you got a bad batch of pellets than a size issue. And yes i never liked when i would see pellets stored outside covered in snow or rain poring down on them. Always thought how could those not be getting wet?! Thats one good thing i like about the pellets i get fresh made from the factory good 100% burn and only $200 a ton. Just to bad size was not a little more consistent.

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Its got to be those easy heatss. They got bad reviews anyway. Craigslist them if you can. They look horrible in the picture

 

[CladMaster]

can we get some pics of the pellets them self?

Sure.....