Whitfield Profile 30 FS-2 Damper

[jjdesch]

Hi all,

According to page 9 in my manual, the factory setting of the damper rod shows a gap of 1 5/8" between the damper rod knob and either the lock collar or the stove sidewall (its not clear which measurement controls). In any event, the damper rod on my stove (manufactured in 2005, bought "new" and installed this past August) only pulls out to 1 1/8", maybe 1 3/16, max. Could there have been a design change that did not make it to the manual? Any other later gen. profile 30 owners out there? How much play/range do you have in your damper rod, and what do you have it set at? Mine is currently set to about an inch between the stove sidewall and the knob, using Country Boy White Lightning hardwood pellets. Seems to be running pretty good, but it is a bit sloppy in that some pellets never make it in to the ultragrate - i.e., sometimes they entirely miss or bounce out of the grate and end up on the ash pan floor. This builds up over time.

I will withhold final judgment until after this heating season, but so far I am not overly impressed with the build quality of this stove, especially compared to the Country Winslow Lennox offers, which I recently had the opportunity to see. The paint quality of my Profile was poor out of the box (areas of underspray, which had to be touched up) it scratches easily; and I just discovered that one of the side panels has a misaligned locking pin mechanism that prevents the panel from staying closed unless the set screw is in place. It was suggested to me that I correct this with magnets to eliminate the set screw and therefore ease maintenance and cleaning, a design improvement that I will try. I am new to all this but I pretty meticulous about keeping the stove clean (perhaps OCD overzealously clean - ha ha) and I will just keep my fingers crossed that I don't have more serious, non-cosmetic issues down the road on a frigid, blustery day.

 

[chanlon1974]

I have a peofile 30 that I bought in 05 as well. With my damper wide open, I measured 1 3/8. I get some pellets that miss as well. I have not found a pellet that I like yet after 4 tons of 4 different brands. The first year I had some garbage pellets from Home Depot. No choice that year as pellets were hard to come by. The next year I got 3 tons of 3 different pellets. Two hard wood and 1 soft wood pellet. The soft wood pellet burned nice and hot but I had to clean the stove alot. The other two, one burned the cleanest I have seen, but didnt burn hot enough. The other was just ok in both. Its all trial and error with the pellets I guess. When you find one that burns nice and clean, you wont have that over flow problem.

 

[jjdesch]

I wonder what gives with the variation of the amount of play in the damper adjustment. One would think that the tolerances here would be uniform from stove to stove in the same model line. I really don't see much of a difference anyway no matter what position the damper is set at.

As I noted in another thread, the pellets that bounce out of the grate only seem to collect on the low heat setting. On medium or high they burn up on the ash pan floor, wasting (in my opinion) fuel.

 

[chanlon1974]

you would think it would be uniform. I thought I had done enough research when I bought the stove, but from what I have heard and read, these Whitfield stoves arent the best. That might explain some of it. Who knows.

 

[jjdesch]

Well, it is a nice looking stove, and seems to cook well - but it is a manufactured product of Mexico. I bought mine partially out of desperation this past July/August when gas and heating oil fuel prices were skyrocketing and everything else I was looking at was only available on backorder. Perhaps I should have resisted the impulse, but I wanted other options this winter. I will baby my Profile nonetheless and hope it treats me well in return.

 

[chanlon1974]

I did the same back in 05. I was looking in Sept. and every place i called said there was a backorder until Jan of 06. I found someone that had these whitfields and like I said. I had read that they were good stoves and Whitfield had been around for years. So I ordered one. It has not given me one problem until this year. I am about to replace the photo eye when it gets here in a day or so and Im hoping that solves my shutting down problem. I never heard one bad thing about the stoves until I found this forum, so im hoping for the best. Good luck