King KP-130 vs. 5502m

[random.rodder]

Greetings all,

I'm new here and to pellet stoves. I've been burning Canawick Canablock in my 1979 Katahdin wood furnace, and while it's still much less expensive than oil, it's far more inconvenient.

My house is a bi-level 1600 sq ft farmhouse built in 1880, and doesn't have much in the way of effective insulation (1" of foam insulation all around). I can get the Katahdin to burn for about 5 hours for a final night's burn, then by morning the house is in the 35 - 45 degree range after a really cold Maine night. So I got the bright idea to try a pellet stove out. I ended up getting a King KP-130, which at least from the outside, looks a awful lot like a King 5502m.

My question is, are they the same unit, with the KP-130 being an 'upgraded' 5502m?

I have not messed with any of the settings on this - it's running in full automatic mode.

I've got the 130 installed in the following manner:

1. Vent pipe is DuraVent, inside
2. Clean-out tee coming out of the 130
3. 4 feet of DuraVent to a 90 deg going out of the wall
4. Vent angled down
5. The stove is installed near the front door, angled as much as I can down the hall to the living room, and right across from the den
6. 3 feet from the stove is a staircase going up

I'll get some temps where the hot air exits the stove tonight. I do know the sides get well over 160 deg.

Even though the house is old, I expected at least the front half of the house to be warm after a night of being ran - it wasn't. The den (the door is 4 feet across the hall from the stove) was only 58 deg last night (got down to 5 deg). Upstairs was about the same. The living room was 55 deg. Don't get me wrong, it's an improvement from when the wood furnace would burn out at 2 am, and we'd have 3 hours of no heat at all.

The stove lights good. The draft fan seems to pulse, not run at a consistent RPM regardless of the HR setting. Sometimes you'd think the flame is going to go out, then it comes back, not overly vigorous, not lazy, then dies down and comes back, and so on.

I do not have the OAK installed - 140 year old farm house, didn't think it would be necessary since the house is the opposite of airtight.

The first two bags of pellets I've used were from Lowes, Green Team Platinum. I fired the stove up for the first time yesterday at about 3pm, and followed the manual recommendation for the 3 hours curing on HR-3. About 4 am, I turned the stove up to HR-5. No appreciable difference at all. About 11 am my girlfriend shut down the stove since it had less than a quarter full hopper.

I'm going to try different pellets tonight. I won't be able to install the OAK until this weekend, tho I might be able to attach one of the tube near a cold air inlet near the front door.

Any other advice?

 

[FirepotPete]

I wouldn't say they are the same stove, they share a lot in common but are somewhat different.

An OAK isn't just for tight houses, it is also to keep extreme cold from being drawn in when the house is not tight. You will be creating drafts and cooling off the air you have heated.

The draft fan pulsing is normal with that control board, though once the stove is running and up to a stable temp it should run more consistent.

You don't say if you have the thermostat installed? If not then check the control board and make sure that the jumper is installed on the "tstat" pins or the stove will only stay on the lowest setting even if you change it on the control board. Page 12 of your manual. The easiest way without removing the side panel to access the back of the board to see if the jumper is in place is to bump the stove up to HR4 or HR5. If the dash between HR - and the number continues to flash for over 10 minutes then the board is sensing an open circuit and waiting for the thermostat to close it and ramp up to what ever you have it set at. If that is the case then you will either need to get a jumper installed or install the thermostat.

Also, does that stove have a manual damper? If so how far out are you running it?

Push the HR DOWN button and the AUX DOWN button at the same time and hold until a number flashes, such as 2.0pph. What is that number? Push the ON button, then push the HR UP button and the AUX UP button at the same time and what is that number.

Do the same thing with the DF UP/AUX UP and then the DF DOWN/AUX DOWN. What are those numbers?

 

[random.rodder]

I wouldn't say they are the same stove, they share a lot in common but are somewhat different.

Okay, that makes sense. I was curious since they look so much alike, and the manual is virtually identical.

An OAK isn't just for tight houses, it is also to keep extreme cold from being drawn in when the house is not tight. You will be creating drafts and cooling off the air you have heated.

Again, that makes sense as well. I'll install the OAK this weekend.

The draft fan pulsing is normal with that control board, though once the stove is running and up to a stable temp it should run more consistent.

I did notice that last night - after about 90 minutes the pulsing was less noticeable, but, still there.

You don't say if you have the thermostat installed? If not then check the control board and make sure that the jumper is installed on the "tstat" pins or the stove will only stay on the lowest setting even if you change it on the control board. Page 12 of your manual. The easiest way without removing the side panel to access the back of the board to see if the jumper is in place is to bump the stove up to HR4 or HR5. If the dash between HR - and the number continues to flash for over 10 minutes then the board is sensing an open circuit and waiting for the thermostat to close it and ramp up to what ever you have it set at. If that is the case then you will either need to get a jumper installed or install the thermostat.

The thermostat is not installed, and the jumper is in place. I did check that when I was connecting the wiring for the remote control sensor.

Also, does that stove have a manual damper? If so how far out are you running it?

No, it doesn't have a manual damper.

Push the HR DOWN button and the AUX DOWN button at the same time and hold until a number flashes, such as 2.0pph. What is that number? Push the ON button, then push the HR UP button and the AUX UP button at the same time and what is that number.

Do the same thing with the DF UP/AUX UP and then the DF DOWN/AUX DOWN. What are those numbers?

I'll get these numbers tonight. I'll have to shut down for a bit to clean it and tweak a few things anyway. When I bring it back up, I'll check those. The control panel is on the side that's close (8 inches) to a wall, and isn't clearly visible. I'm going to angle the stove a little to rectify that.

Yesterday, on my way home, I stopped by the supplier where I get my Canawick block from for my wood furnace, and picked up some Canawick hardwood pellets. What a difference...

I was wrong about the pellets I got from Lowes. They weren't the Green Team Platinum - they were the Green Supreme pellets. These pellets on HR-5 gave me the following temps:

Stove side - 175 deg; Stove front - 375 deg; Exhaust vent temp - 195 deg; Immediate area air temp - 70 deg.
Upstairs morning temp was 55 deg. Outside temp was 12 deg when I took these readings.

The Canawick pellets:

Stove side: 246 deg; Stove front - 570 deg; Exhaust vent temp - 255 deg; Immediate area air temp - 88 deg.
Upstairs morning temp 75 deg. Outside temp was 3 deg when I took these readings.

I'll be going by tonight to get some more Canawick pellets...

Thanks for the info, and I'll get the numbers off the control panel tonight, tho, I may not be able to post them until tomorrow morning.



Brian

 

[random.rodder]

Push the HR DOWN button and the AUX DOWN button at the same time and hold until a number flashes, such as 2.0pph. What is that number? Push the ON button, then push the HR UP button and the AUX UP button at the same time and what is that number.

Do the same thing with the DF UP/AUX UP and then the DF DOWN/AUX DOWN. What are those numbers?

HR Down = 1.75
HR Up = 4.5

DF Down = 100
DF Up = 300

 

[FirepotPete]

HR Down = 1.75
HR Up = 4.5

DF Down = 100
DF Up = 300

WOW, your HR numbers look too be close to where you should start but those DF numbers don't look right to me.

What does the flame look like if you are burning on HR1? I bet it is slow and dirty. On the HR5 high I'm guessing you are just blowing the hot air out of the exhaust, actually as you increase the HR's you are blowing more and more out the exhaust instead of into the house.

My stove has HR1-HR9 but it is the same board and works proportionally the same as yours. The temp on the front of the stove is usually about 10°-15°F higher than the temp of the air coming out of the room fan vents until I go above HR5. Even then the temp is usually within 25°F of each other.

Does you manual tell what the factory defaults are for this stove for the HR and DF settings? I'm guessing the DF setting should be closer to 230 on low and 270 on high.

The trick to these boards is to get the HR1 setting burning nice without going out because of lack of air and too much fuel or to much air and not enough fuel. Your pph look ok so I wouldn't mess with those. Get it running good on low by moving that low number up and then do the same on HR5 lowering that DF high setting down until the fire is good without burning dirty or to much heat going out the exhaust.

Adjust slowly and allow at least 30minutes to see the change. Take notes so you can easily return to a setting that appeared to be working without having to do a total board reset to factory default settings. So on that DF setting I would go down to 285 on the high end after you have it burning good on the low HR1, then move down 5 at a time and see what happens.

ETA: just checked my stove, HR2, around 2.35pph and the front left side on the iron of the stove is at 160°F and the room fan vent air is at 150°F

 

[FirepotPete]

Forgot to add how to adjust those numbers.

Which ever number you want to adjust just push the two buttons like you did to get them the first time and then push the UP AUX or DOWN AUX until you reach the number you want, then push the ON button to save the setting and return to the stove running. You can do this with the stove running, no need to have it shut down. Just keep notes it will save your bacon some cold night.

 

[random.rodder]

Thanks, Pete.

HR-1 flame is sporadic. Looks fine then gets real lazy, sometimes dies altogether, only to come back strong. Cycles like this constantly.

HR-5 is fairly strong, but, it cycles to lazyish - never dies.

On HR-5 last night, the front on my stove reached 570°.

The manual has no data on adjustments at all for this stove.

 

[FirepotPete]

Thanks, Pete.

HR-1 flame is sporadic. Looks fine then gets real lazy, sometimes dies altogether, only to come back strong. Cycles like this constantly.

HR-5 is fairly strong, but, it cycles to lazyish - never dies.

On HR-5 last night, the front on my stove reached 565°.

Is there anything in you manual about removing a plug for the OAK/FAK? A lot of stove have a plug that is behind the firepot and that has to be removed to use the OAK/FAK. Without a manual damper if there is a plug then your stove is starving for air. It's just a freeze plug for auto blocks on most stoves. Some people just drill holes in them instead of removing them, that is if you have one.

Maybe some other type of blockage from the factory in the path for the air?

 

[random.rodder]

Nope, nothing about a plug for the OAK. Only mention of it is that its optional. I cam feel air being drawn into the OAK inlet on the back.

 

[random.rodder]

Here's a quick video of HR-1 with stock draft fan settings:

 

[random.rodder]

Massive thanks to FirepotPete!

I learned more about the USSC pellet stoves last night than in the last week of research. His tips combined with a change in pellets have my stove running great

Thanks again!!

 

[FirepotPete]

Massive thanks to FirepotPete!

I learned more about the USSC pellet stoves last night than in the last week of research. His tips combined with a change in pellets have my stove running great

Thanks again!!

Thank you, but my thanks goes out to all the burners that came before I used a pellet stove. Without them my stove would have been to the curb in about a month or two!

Thank you for coming back and letting us know that you have some progress, now you get to watch and help someone someday.

Stay warm!

 

[random.rodder]

Quick question: the Canawick 100% hardwood pellets I've been using aren't available right now. I've tried Energyx and Green Supreme with poor results. Typically, less heat and lots of incomplete burns on pellets - see image for example. The stove was just cleaned yesterday. Would slowing down the feed rate help get better burns with these hybrid pellets?