Newbie Question on my New King 5510 Pellet Stove (ODOR)

[Profire73]

Ok i have had my US Stove Model 5510 for about 2 weeks now and it is my first pellet stove. I got the typical smell after you burn a new stove for the first 3 hours. Well I have a different smell now and it is really only noticeable when I run it above the heat setting of 3 ( goes up to 6). I really can't describe the smell but it almost makes your eyes water and I had too open up the windows after I turned it back down to 3. It is coming out of the room air fan. I switched pellets thinking maybe the pellets were the problem (not thinking that you should not really get much of any smell from the fan).

I called US Stove and they are shipping me a new one but they really never diagnosed the problem they just said that they have never heard of that before. The other issue I am having is that the pellets I am using produce a lot of heat (better than the other brands I have ran through it) but I have a ton of ash build up around my pot but not anything left over in the pot when burning so it is burning everything good. I am currently using Michigan Wood Pellets because those are the ones that put out the most heat compared to the other two I tried.

Anyone have a clue as to why I am getting the smell from the room air fan? Or even the excess amount of ash I get? I know there is a new one on the way to my house but it just seems odd that they would just ship me a new unit without trying to find out what is wrong with this one first.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fish On]

there shipping you a new stove because of a smell. wow what customer service. Michigan's wood pellets are awful there know to put out a lot of ash. do you have any softwood pellets in your area.

there is a review from macman on this site of pellets and how they burn.

 

[Profire73]

Ya of course I found this forum after I just bought a ton of them darn things. They put on great heat for me stove but like I said the ash is crazy. I am new to the pellet world so I just read the "Pellets to avoid" thread. UGGGGG, I am going to search for some to mix with it. Ya they said they would have a new one out to me in 10 days. But they could not answer the question on the obnoxious smell i have when I run it on a higher setting.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The temperature of each painted part of the stove has to get to the paints curing point before the smell will entirely go away.

You can get it there faster by burning at a higher feed rate. If you burn the stove in at heat range 3 for example and some paint on part of the stove never sees that temperature then the next firing at a higher heat level will again produce a strong odor. This can continue for some time if you do a gradual increase in heat range.

It is also possible that things like wire insulation, something stuffed into the room air vents, or a cracked or otherwise compromised heat exchanger, or even degrading improper vent sealant is the source of the odor.

I too am surprised that they are willing to replace it so readily.

 

[Profire73]

Well I thought that maybe the heat exchanger was possibly the culprit also but I have not torn the cover off to inspect anything either. I figured that the dealer has probably had this before and would offer me a easy fix vs. having a new one shipped and ripping the old one out.

Now I have ran it on the higher heat levels for an extended amount of time while I was not home to see if it was just not done curing. Today I set it to four and left the house for like 3 hours and came back with that nasty odor in the house and I put my nose in front of the room air fan and I would smell it coming out. The house was at 75 of course I was sweating after unloading my ton of the Famous Michigan pellets!!

I just don't want my kids getting sick from the smell cause I know it was giving me a headache. But like right now I have it on level 3, the house is 74 and I don't have the smell at all anywhere.

US Stove has been nothing but great as far as there customer support but there direction is a little confusing. I mean they never even told me what to do with the stove I currently have as to sending it back. They just said they would ship a new one to me with no mention what-so-ever about getting the old one back.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Remember you'll have to burn in the new one as well.

So if possible, it might be better to do that outdoors before bringing the stove inside.

 

[Profire73]

Ya i thought about doing that out in my Barn. Can i just fire it up outside and let it run without hurting anything as long as it is not inside my barn?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Ya i thought about doing that out in my Barn. Can i just fire it up outside and let it run without hurting anything as long as it is not inside my barn?

Just make sure there is nothing flammable anywhere close to the exhaust and that the stove is not going to get rained or snowed on, set it up, do a dry run, then fill it up with pellets, plug it in, and turn it on.

A lot of folks dry run and then run the stove outside to check it out and do a burn in, some stove shops even test fire the stoves before delivering them.

As long as you remember that there is then going to be ash in the stove when you move the stove into where it will normally be, you let the stove cool off and be careful not to grunge things up moving it into the house. You can keep the burn in smell way down or completely eliminate it.