Whitfield Profile 20: Questions

[mechelement]

Hello, I'm a noob to this forum and pellet stoves. The house we bought in Kuna, ID (SW Idaho, just South of Boise) came with a Whitfield Profile 20 stove. I'm burning Strawberry Mountain premium pellets (100% Douglas Fir) and heating a 2,500 SF ranch with it. Carefully placed air circulators makes this possible, thanks to the search function here.

The stove has a typical 4" pipe to the ceiling and then changes to a double wall through the attic, penetrates the roof and continues up 3' above the peak. Roof is a 4:12 pitch and the chimney/pipe is on the East side of the peak. Prevailing winds are usually out of the West-North-West.

I cleaned the entire stove and installed a new fire brick before deciding to heat the house with this setup.

Here is what I've noticed thus far:

When burning, embers tend to fly out if the burn pot and land next to it creating piles of ash. The embers die when they land. Is this normal?

I always get a clinker in the right corner of the pot closest to the door within 48 hours of constant use. Feed or air?

I have to clean the ash up or push it into the catch basin below every couple of days because the ash is built up on the left side of the pot to the pot's rim. Too much feed and/or air?

Running on low/medium/high, the flame size tends to jump around - get small, then large, then medium and cycle. Damper? Flame sensor "eye"?

The stove is loud and tends to rattle. Medium fan speed creates an annoying noise, so I run the fan speed on high when the heat is set to medium or high. Are all pellet stoves this loud?

Pellet consumption seems to be consistent with the manual. Perhaps too high with more current pellets?

I've found this forum to be extremely beneficial. I haven't had to join until now, but would like to fine tune my setup for the rest of the winter. I'll probably have to clean it out tomorrow, so I'll try to check the current fuel feed and combustion air levels. I hope I've provided enough information about the setup and observations with questions.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

Jason after many years with a Whit 20 and several with a Whit 30 all you describe is normal. Whits are workhorses and are not quiet and have earlier pellet stove technology. Softies in your stove will produce clinkers, try air flow adjustments to the burnpot. Welcome to the forum and all is well with your Whit!

 

[Madcodger]

Hello, I'm a noob to this forum and pellet stoves. The house we bought in Kuna, ID (SW Idaho, just South of Boise) came with a Whitfield Profile 20 stove. I'm burning Strawberry Mountain premium pellets (100% Douglas Fir) and heating a 2,500 SF ranch with it. Carefully placed air circulators makes this possible, thanks to the search function here.

The stove has a typical 4" pipe to the ceiling and then changes to a double wall through the attic, penetrates the roof and continues up 3' above the peak. Roof is a 4:12 pitch and the chimney/pipe is on the East side of the peak. Prevailing winds are usually out of the West-North-West.

I cleaned the entire stove and installed a new fire brick before deciding to heat the house with this setup.

Here is what I've noticed thus far:

When burning, embers tend to fly out if the burn pot and land next to it creating piles of ash. The embers die when they land. Is this normal?

I always get a clinker in the right corner of the pot closest to the door within 48 hours of constant use. Feed or air?

I have to clean the ash up or push it into the catch basin below every couple of days because the ash is built up on the left side of the pot to the pot's rim. Too much feed and/or air?

Running on low/medium/high, the flame size tends to jump around - get small, then large, then medium and cycle. Damper? Flame sensor "eye"?

The stove is loud and tends to rattle. Medium fan speed creates an annoying noise, so I run the fan speed on high when the heat is set to medium or high. Are all pellet stoves this loud?

Pellet consumption seems to be consistent with the manual. Perhaps too high with more current pellets?

I've found this forum to be extremely beneficial. I haven't had to join until now, but would like to fine tune my setup for the rest of the winter. I'll probably have to clean it out tomorrow, so I'll try to check the current fuel feed and combustion air levels. I hope I've provided enough information about the setup and observations with questions.

Thanks,
Jason

I have both an old Whitfield Quest (older model than yours, I believe) and a modern Quad MVAE. Hopefully this will give you some insight and comparison.

Re embers flying out and ash building up in area around firepot, I have the same thing. Backing off on air (damper) lessens but does not eliminate it, and a quality flame is the real goal to seek. I suggest using the draft setting that best minimizes ash and the embers popping out while still producing great flame quality, and accepting that these older Whits just do this. I clean out the stove firebox (area around pot) every other day for the same reason. Takes less than a minute. I turn this stove off at night so not a problem. If you burn constantly you will need a true (hot ember safe) ash vac, and even them I'd be a bit nervous about it.

I find the ash drawer on my Whit does little more than catch sprinkles of ash and tiny bits of unburned pellets. Almost all is in the firebox as noted above, and from what I understand this is common for these Whits. In contrast, the firepot of my MVAE is about twice as deep, and that stove has an autoclean feature that dumps ash into the drawer via a motor. Most ash ends up there, and while some dislike this feature I'm a big fan. It also controls air, feed rate, etc., via a computer chip and cost nearly 10x new what I paid for my little Whit used. But sometimes I don't know which stove I like better, as the Whit has a charm to it and produces great heat despite its shortcomings. And even the MVAE needs a weekly cleaning of the firebox ash (but has a full ash drawer).

I'm not sure I understand the "cycling" of the flame, but I know that when on lower feed rates and especially with lower damper settings mine will go down to coals, then a few pellets will accumulate and ignite, and the flame will return sometimes robustly. That's normal, but be careful not to let things die down too much as the fire can go out completely, a problem I've heard from others as well. I generally need to keep the feed rate at Medium or higher to prevent this. Keep in mind that my stove has NO EYE, as it's older, so I can't comment on things related to this. I've also never had a clinker in either stove, so can't comment there. I tend to blame the pellet used because of that.

Finally, the fan and auger of my Whit are louder than my MVAE, but not excessive. I have it in my office and often walk up to it when wearing a wireless headset and on conference calls, and no one has ever mentioned it, if that gives you some idea. It's about as loud as a good quality portable desktop fan. Rattles are another story, and I tend to suspect something's loose (or possibly worn). If you get a day when you can turn off the stove and get into the area of all three motors, I'd try gently tightening things.

Hope that helps - others can and will chime in. And welcome!

 

[mechelement]

It seems as though the calibration feature is disabled. I followed the manual's instructions. With the stove off, I pressed the calibration button. None of the LEDs illuminate after depressing the Calibration button.

I'm used to wood stove heat w/o the internal fans and noise. I just wondered if this thing was operating correctly.

 

[wwert]

I believe you need to push the calibration button twice to get into that mode

 

[mechelement]

Calibration button depressed once is fuel, twice is air. I tried both. I held it down, pressed it multiple times, etc. Doesn't do anything.