Short exhaust

[phordguy]

Everyone can't have a long one but my little stubby 3' 3" horizontal exhaust is mounted through the wall on my US Stove King 5510. Would that be a shortcoming to heat output? It doesn't have a 90 degree Tee or anything outside. I am using the outside air intake vent also with a pvc pipe's id on the od port on the back of the heater.

I am a newbie and have run this thing for 4 days now. I have cleaned all the obvious passages with my shop vac (around fire pot and pulled up the two vertical sliders to left and right and above all around the seal, window and the area above the firepot). I have ran about 6 or 7 bags through it so far. Granted its cold for my area but at 20 ~30 degrees outside I can't get it above 60 degrees. I've tried running it on auto, draft as low as 2 all the way through 9, bumped up the max fuel rate to 5. I have also sealed the ash doors on the floor of ash areas also with silicone. Could my pellets just be that bad? I am burning two 40 lb bags a day. One more interesting tidbit is my firepot doesn't build up with pellets or anything. No smoke from the exhaust except on startup. It runs well just not much heat.

Should I be cleaning it out more or missing something? I can't see how to clean the heat exchangers. Please Help!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Everyone can't have a long one but my little stubby 3' 3" horizontal exhaust is mounted through the wall on my US Stove King 5510. Would that be a shortcoming to heat output? It doesn't have a 90 degree Tee or anything outside. I am using the outside air intake vent also with a pvc pipe's id on the od port on the back of the heater.

I am a newbie and have run this thing for 4 days now. I have cleaned all the obvious passages with my shop vac (around fire pot and pulled up the two vertical sliders to left and right and above all around the seal, window and the area above the firepot). I have ran about 6 or 7 bags through it so far. Granted its cold for my area but at 20 ~30 degrees outside I can't get it above 60 degrees. I've tried running it on auto, draft as low as 2 all the way through 9, bumped up the max fuel rate to 5. I have also sealed the ash doors on the floor of ash areas also with silicone. Could my pellets just be that bad? I am burning two 40 lb bags a day. One more interesting tidbit is my firepot doesn't build up with pellets or anything. No smoke from the exhaust except on startup. It runs well just not much heat.

Should I be cleaning it out more or missing something? I can't see how to clean the heat exchangers. Please Help!

How large is your place, how well is it insulated, and are you running your convection air (room air) blower on maximum?

 

[phordguy]

Its about 1300 on the floor that the stove is on. I have a basement but its closed off, the upstairs rooms are all closed off except for the den at the top of the stairs. Built in AL in the early 70's and with 9 windows and french doors it isn't well insulated. I have no air leaks though.

Room air is on A for auto. Should I turn it down to 9? That's my only option... I am getting about a 30 degree increase compared to outside. How hot should the stove be? I have a non contact thermometer and the air coming out is about 350 deg F.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Its about 1300 on the floor that the stove is on. I have a basement but its closed off, the upstairs rooms are all closed off except for the den at the top of the stairs. Built in AL in the early 70's and with 9 windows and french doors it isn't well insulated. I have no air leaks though.

Room air is on A for auto. Should I turn it down to 9? That's my only option...

Try running with the room air at the highest setting.

I have no idea how large the room air blower is on the stove, but if the ceilings are 8 feet the stove needs to move 10,400 cubic feet through the heat exchanger in order to bring the house air up to the temperature of the air exiting the room air system. That can be a long while, during that time your house is dumping heat at a rate that is partially determined by the amount of insulation it has.

If it were my stove it would take 65 minutes to move that much air. My house needs more than 20,000 BTUs / hour at 0 degrees to hold the temperature at 72 and it is new construction with 6" wall cavities, well sealed and insulated. There is 2688 square feet of floor space on two floors, 1800+ square feet is being heated by the pellet stove.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Now if you are game.

I'd place a box fan set on low on the floor many (more than 15 feet if possible) feet away from the stove blowing towards the stove.

My intent is to help get the air circulating in the area by creating a cold air return.

 

[phordguy]

Sure that makes sense, I have the fan in place now. Will check the temp in the morning. In short though, you think the shorty exhaust isn't hurting me? THANKS! G-nite

 

[Snowy Rivers]

That shorty exhaust is not going to hurt a thing as far as heat output goes.

You should have a non combustible aluminum flex tube connecting your outside air source to the stove.

Do not use plastic to connect to the stove.

I have a PVC pipe that penetrates the wall but there is a 2 foot piece of aluminum flex that connects to the stove air inlet pipe.

The outlet air temp at the room air discharge on my Advantage is right at 150F with the stove on low.

This stove is heating 2400 Sq ft

Sounds like your doing fine.

Snowy

 

[phordguy]

Thanks for the response, with the fan 12 ft away pushing back at the stove I am at 67 degrees inside which was about 38 degrees up from ambient. I'll change to a metal flex on the intake, thanks. I saw where there was a short kit (3") like I could use with both intake and exhaust for $150 on dynamite buys so I will probably switch to that. I guess I just need more btu's.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Thanks for the response, with the fan 12 ft away pushing back at the stove I am at 67 degrees inside which was about 38 degrees up from ambient. I'll change to a metal flex on the intake, thanks. I saw where there was a short kit (3") like I could use with both intake and exhaust for $150 on dynamite buys so I will probably switch to that. I guess I just need more btu's.

Not quite done yet. Is 5 the maximum heat level on your stove and can you take a temperature reading near the ceiling?

Glad you are going to correct the OAK setup.

 

[phordguy]

Yes, HR-5 is the max heat range and I have went in and adjusted the feed rate on that heat range up to the max for the stove at 5.0 per the forum's other 5510 howto's. The ceiling temperature is 72 deg F as of 1PM today one foot away from the hot air exit, at the fan it is 67 deg F.

Next year I'll need to upgrade to the bigger 105k btu forced air US Stove model 6500 if I want to heat more of the house I guess (and buy more than 2 tons of pellets). Probably would need 4 or 5.

Is it a bad idea to store them outdoors under a tarp?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I'm no fan of storing pellets outside.

You could do something drastic like install some insulation.

ETA: I don't see enough of a temperature difference between near the ceiling and near the fan to make much difference by playing with another fan in another room.