Still a newbie

[olddawgsrule]

Just looking for advise...


I'm told this US stove (5824) I bought, is a 'dirty' stove.
Not sure what this means or if it's true.

My wood stove (which I'm used to) runs pretty clean.
Ash from the US stove is very fine, but the glass does soot up pretty quick.
I'm assuming I have the same thing happening in the flue.

I see the same thing as I burn higher priced pellets (so far okies and newp's), so I'm figuring it's either the stove or this is just what to expect.

You folks have the 'big boy' stoves.
Is what I'm seeing 'par for the course'?
Or do I really have a 'dirty stove' and should be looking at an upgrade?

 

[olddawgsrule]

Hmm... 48 views and no one has any comments.
Guess I'm just asking the wrong question...

Newbie..... Dirty stove? What does that mean?

 

[MSmith66]

Does your glass soot up black or garyish/white?
Any thing black is bad, stove needs cleaing. What you are look for is grayish/white ash in the burn area, stove is burning good.

 

[DexterDay]

Dirty stove? Please explain. If you just "bought" it, was it brand new? Do you mean it gets "dirty" fast, or its not a "Big Boy" (name brand) stove? USSC makes a good stove and may just take some tweaking. Many forum memebers have them and will hopoefully chime in to help you. But here are a few general questions.
Is it burning correctly? Is the burn pot filling up with pellets? Is it getting enough air? Is it throwing out good heat? The lower the burn setting, the quicker your stove will become "dirty". How many bags are you burning before your stove gets "dirty". There are many threads on US Stoves not burning correctly. A quick search will bring these up. From what I have read on them, they have several "leaky" points on them. Not familar with your model, but make sure to do a gasket check on your door, ash pan, and hopper (if it has one?) Stove glass gets dirty pretty fast, and some stoves get dirty faster than others.

 

[jtakeman]

Hmm... 48 views and no one has any comments.
Guess I'm just asking the wrong question...

Newbie..... Dirty stove? What does that mean?

Not a lot of members here with the Forester. I think Andy H is the only one I have seen with one. All stove technically are dirty. They all produce ash when burning pellets, How much depends on the pellets you burn. Burn the cleanest pellets you can find and the stove will burn cleaner.

I have heard picky stove, But haven't heard stoves labled as dirty. I have heard of the US Stove furnace #6500 as being labled dirty. That was due to leaks from the combustion. Soot that got blown around by the convection blower caused the home to collect soot on the interior walls. Most owners fixed there's by adding high temp silicon where it was leaking.

DO you have soot on you homes interior walls?

 

[olddawgsrule]

Thanks guys for the response!

A dealer in town pronounced the stove 'as dirty' and was curious if he was just trying to sell me or if it was real.

The glass gets gray pretty quick, but only a third of the way.
Run it on low and it's gray half way or better.
This is with just a bag.
Learning it likes medium (just get 3 settings).

I'm getting great heat and running 12 hours on low and 8 hours on medium.
Yes, depending on what pellets I'm using and still learning from you guys what's good.

I found my inlet to be too long for what the stove wants and devised a control in the piping to filter in house air and have it running much better.
Since it's in the basement and not 'air tight', I'm not having a problem with this.

His statement kinda bothered me.
Being very used to my wood stove and not seeing much build-up on the glass, it made me curious as to what you all see.

Is what I see on the glass what I can expect to see in the flue?
I assume so...
I clean the flue yearly and felt I'm doing this too often, yet easy enough to do.
There never seems to be anything there to clean....
Again, used to my wood stove.

I see a clean flame, don't seem to be going through an immense amount of pellets, really think I have a decent stove.

 

[olddawgsrule]

Hmm... 48 views and no one has any comments.
Guess I'm just asking the wrong question...

Newbie..... Dirty stove? What does that mean?

Not a lot of members here with the Forester. I think Andy H is the only one I have seen with one. All stove technically are dirty. They all produce ash when burning pellets, How much depends on the pellets you burn. Burn the cleanest pellets you can find and the stove will burn cleaner.

I have heard picky stove, But haven't heard stoves labled as dirty. I have heard of the US Stove furnace #6500 as being labled dirty. That was due to leaks from the combustion. Soot that got blown around by the convection blower caused the home to collect soot on the interior walls. Most owners fixed there's by adding high temp silicon where it was leaking.

DO you have soot on you homes interior walls?

None, of which I'm very happy.
There are holes in the bottom of the door which I assumed to be part of the air inlet (by design).
Gaskets seems tight, which shows on my wood stove as streaks when weak and need to replace this season.

What I see is Okies gray the glass, Firesides are just a bit darker, Agway's are right in between.
Nothing is black.

I think I have a decent stove.
The statement concerned me....

 

[DexterDay]

You flue should be cleaned at least every ton of pellets. As for the Grey build up on your glass, that's normal. And the description of the color, sounds like its not burning “richâ€. Otherwise it would be black. What diameter is your flue? If its in the basement, you would get a better draft wih 4". (unless that's what you already have) I'm glad to hear you like your stove. There is a learning curve to the “pellet thingâ€.

 

[olddawgsrule]

You flue should be cleaned at least every ton of pellets. As for the Grey build up on your glass, that's normal. And the description of the color, sounds like its not burning “richâ€. Otherwise it would be black. What diameter is your flue? If its in the basement, you would get a better draft wih 4". (unless that's what you already have) I'm glad to hear you like your stove. There is a learning curve to the “pellet thingâ€.

It is a 4" flue, but didn't like the flame.
Felt the length was too great and devised an air adjuster to allow some inside air.
This worked great and have the flame as I wish to see it.

I believe I have a decent stove.
I really the cost of the stove and have learned so much from you guys and experience with it.

At some point I will probably 'upgrade', but now I know (or am learning) just what I'm looking for.

Clean the flue after every ton?
This is surprising!
You guys clean the flue 3 times a year???
I can see going through 2-3 ton next season.
Wow, I do this seasonally with wood....

 

[DexterDay]

Glad to hear your happy with your stove. And Yes I too only clean my fireplace flue once a year, but the pellet stove flue gets it at least 4-5 times. Prob does not need to be done that often. My Quad pretty much blows all fly ash out the flue. When i clean mine, there is a very "light" dusting.
Now that you know what you will look for in your next stove, You can either get the simplicity of a "Quad" (very little adjustments, very user friendly) or the adjustablity of a Multi-Fuel stove. I can not wait till my wife lets me sell my Quad. Yes I Love It. But I would like something that is a true "Multi-Fuel" stove with much more Bells and Whistles I love to Tinker.. The Furnace I bought has some of that (Basement), but I want a new Freestanding on my Main Floor. Good Luck with your stove Olddawgs

 

[Andy H]

Yup, I have the stove and all I can say is that I hope you have better luck with yours than I have had with the two I've had...... yes I've had two. The first one had so many problems that they eventually just sent me a new stove. Turns out that the control board was toast.

One good thing is that the second stove seems to be a lot better built. They even corrected a few of the major issues the first one had so if you got a newer one it may be even better.

At this point I feel like I could take the thing apart blind folded (so if you ever have and issue send me a email) I've changed the auger motor, I've changed the plate the auger rides on because it was making a loud squaking noise. I've changed the vacuum pressure switch, right now I'm having an issue with the high temp sensor and have a new one on the way.

I'm really not trying to scare you, these are just some issues i've had. One huge piece of advice that i can give you that they don't tell you in the manual (I have no idea why) when you're cleaning the pellet stove on the inside above where the pellets come out into the burn pot look up. You'll see about a 1" by 1" square on the left and right side almost all the way at the top. Make sure you keep those cleaned out. If not you'll get a lazy flame and the stove give you all kinds of problems and eventually shut off. You can also take the left side cover off and adjust the draft plate to let less or more air in.... you want the pellets to just "dance" a bit in the burn pot.

another thing that I had an issue with, there is a set screw that holds the auger motor to the auger, that came loose a couple times so the motor will turn but not turn the auger. so if you hear the motor running but no pellets come out that is most likely your problem.

couple good things about the stove, I think it looks really nice it doesn't take up a lot of room and when it is working It works great. puts out great heat, I think it's pretty clean and the people at US Stove are super nice. They are not that helpful with advice, they usually just tell me to unplug the stove and that is about it for the advice. They will however send you a part that you need for free with no problems at all.


Like I said, if you ever have any issues with your stove let me know, I feel like I could write a book on how to repair the thing.

 

[olddawgsrule]

Yup, I have the stove and all I can say is that I hope you have better luck with yours than I have had with the two I've had...... yes I've had two. The first one had so many problems that they eventually just sent me a new stove. Turns out that the control board was toast.

One good thing is that the second stove seems to be a lot better built. They even corrected a few of the major issues the first one had so if you got a newer one it may be even better.

At this point I feel like I could take the thing apart blind folded (so if you ever have and issue send me a email) I've changed the auger motor, I've changed the plate the auger rides on because it was making a loud squaking noise. I've changed the vacuum pressure switch, right now I'm having an issue with the high temp sensor and have a new one on the way.

I'm really not trying to scare you, these are just some issues i've had. One huge piece of advice that i can give you that they don't tell you in the manual (I have no idea why) when you're cleaning the pellet stove on the inside above where the pellets come out into the burn pot look up. You'll see about a 1" by 1" square on the left and right side almost all the way at the top. Make sure you keep those cleaned out. If not you'll get a lazy flame and the stove give you all kinds of problems and eventually shut off. You can also take the left side cover off and adjust the draft plate to let less or more air in.... you want the pellets to just "dance" a bit in the burn pot.

another thing that I had an issue with, there is a set screw that holds the auger motor to the auger, that came loose a couple times so the motor will turn but not turn the auger. so if you hear the motor running but no pellets come out that is most likely your problem.

couple good things about the stove, I think it looks really nice it doesn't take up a lot of room and when it is working It works great. puts out great heat, I think it's pretty clean and the people at US Stove are super nice. They are not that helpful with advice, they usually just tell me to unplug the stove and that is about it for the advice. They will however send you a part that you need for free with no problems at all.


Like I said, if you ever have any issues with your stove let me know, I feel like I could write a book on how to repair the thing.

Thank you Andy for your response and offer.

The only issue so far was yesterday as I did a test run on high.
I'm getting 200 plus degrees out the blower (have an oven temp hanging there) running on medium and understand that's what the stove is set to for max.
When I set it on high, it shot over 200 and shut down.
I assume it did what it was supposed to do and it's just the pellets I'm burning.