not much heat

[silverchop]

I finally got tired of the woodstove hassle & bought a pellet stove (a used quadrafire contour manufactured on 10/2000). So far I am quite dissapointed with the pellet usage rate & heat output. I have a small doublewide home (heating about 1000 sq.ft.). The stove has a rocker switch(low-med-hi) and when on low barely heats the room it is in. I thoroughly cleaned the stove when I brought it home & I bought premium pellets. On high it struggles to keep the place at 68* & uses 2 + bags a day. The flame looks about the same as on other pellet stoves I have seen with no excess ash or deposit buildup. Most of the heat seems to be going up the ventpipe as the pipe gets extremely hot, especially on high. The small woodstove I had heated the place with ease & did it for free. I paid $270/ton for 2 ton of pellets and at this rate 2 ton will not come close to getting me through the season. Any help would be appreciated otherwise I may have a used quad for sale.

 

[mnkywrnch]

where do you have the damper set it sounds like its open to much, which would be the reason you exhaust is so hot , how is your exhaust set up?

 

[silverchop]

I'm not sure what you mean by "damper"

 

[mnkywrnch]

most pellet stoves have a air damper on the back,its for combustion air,to little air and the fire will look lazy too much air and it will look like a blow torch,sending all your heat out the exhaust.It should be close to the exhaust pipe.Im not sure about your stove but it should have one.

 

[birddogmjd]

So what should the fire look like? Blow torch or Lazy?

 

[silverchop]

I found no damper on the stove & nothing in the owners manual about one. As for the exhaust, I have a 90 elbow on the back of the stoves 3" exhaust flange then up 4' to another 3" - 90 elbow then into a 3 to 6" expander then into the 6" chimney flue of my previous woodstove. Outside chimney is standard block/ masonry. I tried contacting quadrafire directly, they seem to discourage this practice & want you to contact your dealer but my only local dealer wasn't much help.

 

[mnkywrnch]

the flame should look lively yellowish in a fan shape with light blue at the base.The best way I found to adjust the damper is to close it all the way, the flame should now look lazy bright orange then open the damper until the fire starts dancing yellowish flame with no dark ends.

 

[lpgreg]

http://www.quadrafire.com/downloads/installManuals/man_contour.pdf
Here is a link to the manual if it works.
Is the convection blower working? I set my dampner so when the pellets are almost burned up they dance a little in the grate. You need air to the pellets, air out the heat exchanger, and exhaust out the stack unimpeded.

 

[Shortstuff]

Did you install an outside air kit (OAK)? I know that for all mobile home installations they require one because these homes are so airtight. If you don't have an OAK then the stove is struggling for enough air for proper combustion. If there is a window nearby, try opening it slightly and see if the flame appears to burn better.

I know that most people who have installed an OAK say it was the best thing they could have done to improve combustion.

Just a thought.

Steve