Newbie to this forum, newbie to pellets with my new Enviro M55 Insert...Glass question!

[bostonfan49]

Hi all! Very interesting group here! So I have a new cast iron M55 insert burning Vermont Soft Wood pellets...(moisture 4.8% and ash content of 0.27) I love using the Premium pellet setting because it is extra quiet. I have noticed that when I use the regular or multi setting the augur dumps pellets into the ash bin....not good! All the settings are on the default "3" setting and I don't see any real differance in the Auto/Hi/Lo/Manual setting. I get a huge flame, must bigger than I thought I would get and a lot bigger than most of the competitors stoves. My question is on my dirty glass which gets dirty after only an hour or two! I guess I got suckered into all this Air Wash stuff and you only have to clean your glass once a week. After one to two hours, 40-50% of my glass is very dark gray to black. You can still see the flame through this part...but after 3- 4 hours the flame's visability id greatly reduced. I get no clinkers, I do get a small pile of ash on each end of the liner in the burn pot but I guess this is normal. Because the ash bin is so shallow, I was concerned that I would have to empty every other day but the ash is so minimal that once a week will be the time to empty. When the stove was installed, no magnehelic quage was used and I do have a very tight house. The flame however is vigoruos, bright yellow/orange, no black tips. Shortly after startup, I have a good pile of pellets, they are burning but I also get a lot of smoke....so I am curious, maybe this is all normal. Thanks, Bill ****I am only on day 7 and I have already done a full vac/cleaning of the entire inside!

 

[JHASS]

The little piles of ash at the ends of the burn pot are normal and the large pile of
pellets is normal at start up with the pellets smoking until they ignite as long as it is
only at start up and a few minutes after the start cycle has ended.
I don't have the insert model but with my free standing stove the glass will fog up
from the handle to about the middle of the door only after about 4 hours on a low burn
(setting 1). I have also found that with any pellet you want to run it on the Premium Pellet
setting as the other 2 setting run the agitator to much. When I was burning corn I would run it in
Regular pellet not the Multi-Fuel setting. You may also want to adjust your
feed trim from the factory setting of 3. I have found with my unit most pellets do much better
on a feed trim of 2. This helps to lean the burn out a little. I am actually on feed trim 1 at present
because the AWF's that I am burning are pretty small. If all else fails try to get your installer
back and adjust the damper with the mag gauge(they should have done it at the original install)

 

[BradH70]

Hi Bill, welcome to the forum!

When I installed my stove I also installed a Filtrete touch screen programmable t-stat controlling the heat cycle in HIGH/LOW mode. I had the HIGH mode at level #4 and it seemed that I was getting way to much carbon and ash build up in the burn pot. I came home one day after work and found the stove running hard with hardly any flame coming from the burn pot. I had to shut it down and clean everything out and that was only 3 days after the previous cleaning. As well, the glass was getting dirty very quickly like yours is. I contacted Sherwood Ind. with these issues and here was the response:

"Your slider damper setting is critical with these units. When you attach your magnahelic gauge you will see the “WC drop as the unit heats up that is why it is best to wait for about 1 hour burning on #5 before setting. If the unit is not getting enough air intake this can cause your mag. reading to look good but your flame may be lazy and dirty burning dark orange with dark tips. If you set it too high you may have occasional drop out on low settings. This is too much combustion air causing the fuel to burn up before the next fuel drop.
The arch on the right hand side of the glass is a normal characteristic of this unit. The air wash design has was tweaked as best as possible but we never could get it all. If you run the unit on high now and then it will burn off most of the sooting and you won’t need to clean as much."

The statement that stood out to me was "Your slide damper setting is critical with these units". I was able to borrow a digital manometer and took the time to adjust the combustion chamber vacuum via the slide damper. Once I got my slide damper setting just right (I had to open it up quite a bit from were it was originally at) the issues I was having pretty much cleared up. I still get some ash arcing across the glass, but it now takes a couple of days for the buildup to be noticeable. I was also able to move the heat level to #3 for the Hi/Low mode and still get enough heat to satisfy the T-stat in a reasonable amount of time. The ash arc also depends on the pellets I am using. Hardwoods tend to build up faster then softwoods.

Both the combustion air trim and feed trim are at setting #3.

Hope this helps.

 

[Eatonpcat]

Hi Bill, welcome to the forum!

When I installed my stove I also installed a Filtrete touch screen programmable t-stat controlling the heat cycle in HIGH/LOW mode. I had the HIGH mode at level #4 and it seemed that I was getting way to much carbon and ash build up in the burn pot. I came home one day after work and found the stove running hard with hardly any flame coming from the burn pot. I had to shut it down and clean everything out and that was only 3 days after the previous cleaning. As well, the glass was getting dirty very quickly like yours is. I contacted Sherwood Ind. with these issues and here was the response:

"Your slider damper setting is critical with these units. When you attach your magnahelic gauge you will see the “WC drop as the unit heats up that is why it is best to wait for about 1 hour burning on #5 before setting. If the unit is not getting enough air intake this can cause your mag. reading to look good but your flame may be lazy and dirty burning dark orange with dark tips. If you set it too high you may have occasional drop out on low settings. This is too much combustion air causing the fuel to burn up before the next fuel drop.
The arch on the right hand side of the glass is a normal characteristic of this unit. The air wash design has was tweaked as best as possible but we never could get it all. If you run the unit on high now and then it will burn off most of the sooting and you won’t need to clean as much."

The statement that stood out to me was "Your slide damper setting is critical with these units". I was able to borrow a digital manometer and took the time to adjust the combustion chamber vacuum via the slide damper. Once I got my slide damper setting just right (I had to open it up quite a bit from were it was originally at) the issues I was having pretty much cleared up. I still get some ash arcing across the glass, but it now takes a couple of days for the buildup to be noticeable. I was also able to move the heat level to #3 for the Hi/Low mode and still get enough heat to satisfy the T-stat in a reasonable amount of time. The ash arc also depends on the pellets I am using. Hardwoods tend to build up faster then softwoods.

Both the combustion air trim and feed trim are at setting #3.

Hope this helps.

Brad...What does yours read on the magnahelic gauge?? I just had mine adjusted yesterday, he set it at .18 (don't know what that means, but that is where mine is set for now). On a side note, I used my service rails for the first time yesterday...Awesome!!

 

[BradH70]

Eatonpcat - Well, I can’t really say what position the damper is in but I did have to close it quite a bit from were it was at when I did the install.

When I did the adjustment, I made sure that the combustion blower and auger trim were both at #3 and had a full hopper of Okanagan pellets. I put the unit in Manual mode and ran it at heat level 5 for 1+ hour and I used a digital low vacuum gauge to measure the vacuum in the burn chamber, gaining access by removing the screw in the top right corner of the glass door. The initial vacuum reading was 0.28 and as the temperature in the burn chamber increases it finally steadied out to 0.23. I gained access to the damper adjustment level by removing the left side panel.

The way a vacuum is theoretically measured (in inches/H2O) is by assuming that you have an infinite body of water with a single tube sticking out of it. If you were to suck on that tube, like a straw, it would draw water up into the tube a certain distance based on how hard you were sucking. So, if your burn chamber has a vacuum of .20-.23 in/H2O and you are trying to get a vacuum of 0.15-0.17 in/H2O then you can safely say that your flue draft is to strong and you need to close the damper a bit (push the lever IN).

So my stove started out at 0.23 after running for 1 hour at heat level #5. I would push the lever in by about 1/8†increments and let the system settle for about 5 or 10 minutes, then push the lever in another 1/8â€. I did this until I got pretty close to the manufacturer recommendation. When I was done, the vacuum was 0.16-0.17 in/H2O. And by the way, the lever is HOT because it is a direct link to the exhaust vent so I had to wear a glove.

I did noticed a difference in the flame when I was done, it was “lazier†then with the original damper setting and I think the heat output is slightly higher as well, probably because there is less draw on the fire box so the heat stays in it a bit longer.

If you have access to a digital low vacuum meter, then this should be a relatively easy process. I used a 12†piece of 8mm aluminum tube to go into the hole in the door and then a 3 foot piece of silicon tube between that and the meter to isolate the meter from the heat.

And yes, the service rails are definitely awesome. I also built a platform from 2x4's and plywood that sits at the edge of the hearth. With this, I can roll the stove completely out of the fire place opening to provide enough space to do thorough cleaning on everything, including the back of the stove.

 

[bostonfan49]

Thanks Brad! Didn't know I could burn some of the stuff off on high, Will give it a try. Will try to get a mag guage on it when I can....Not usin a TStat currently, that is my other problem, I can turn stove on with the TStat but not off...but that is for another post. Thanks, Bill

 

[Eatonpcat]

Thanks Brad, excellent explanation, I learned a lot about the stove yesterday as I was helping (i.e. Getting in the way of) the technician as he set the damper.

I may have to steal your idea and construct a platform.