Enviro EF2 poor combustion, unburned pellets HELP!

Our old Whitfield Quest insert died recently (auger and combustion fan) and so instead of fixing it, we opted for a local used Enviro EF2 free standing stove that someone was selling for $300.

Oh, how we miss that Whitfield.

The Enviro is a free standing unit, but we have it in the fireplace (it is not on the stand) in the living room (cathedral ceiling), vented out the chimney. It was very, very clean when we got it - surprisingly so - we were told it wasn't used that much. It's in very nice condition in/out.

Here's the issue: it's not warm. We've taken it apart and cleaned it thoroughly numerous times. Using Pennington brand pellets right now (not bad, but not great from Walmart). We used Okanagan pellets until the supplier ran out of them - even those Douglas Fir pellets didn't do so well.

There are unburned pellets in the burn pot and there seems to be poor combustion. Have tried adjusting the auger speed, adjusting the damper - but nothing seems to improve the performance.

It's a lazy flame, and it starts to clog up almost immediately (within 10 mins).

Any advice? We are in New England - in the middle of this "bombogenesis" blizzard. We have a 2nd Whitfield free standing in another part of the house and that thing CRANKS (though the auger is starting to fuss on that).

Our house is a mid-century modern house on a slab with duct work that is collapsed (in the slab) so we depend on these two stoves for heat and only run the furnace now and again. The Whitfield runs much more efficiently and hotter - the Enviro is barely worth the trouble. We'd love to be warm in the main part of the house!

Thanks...

Kara

Oh - and hubby wants to ditch this at the end of the season and buy a Harman.

johneh said:

What year is the stove and do you have a manual ?
Have you removed the inner panels in the stove and
cleaned the exhaust path from the heat exchanger to the combustion fan ?
Service manual here http://enviro.com/custom_content/docs/manuals/C-12145 Instruction PELLET Service Manual.pdf

Click to expand...

No idea about the year, and don't have the manual. Thank you for the link. It was cleaned thoroughly this morning - including the pathc from the heat exchanger to the combustion fan and it actually seems to be working better. Fingers crossed. Maybe it's just extra sensitive? We notice the feed is not as quick as the Whitfield - even at highest setting. Maybe that's just the stove?

Thanks - I'll bring this to the pellet stove manager's attention.

OK. So Nailer's last message was very helpful. Here's the thing:

*stove runs on HIGH all the time
*burns less than 2 bags of pellets in 24hrs
*stove has been thoroughly, thoroughly cleaned
*firebox is airtight
*gaskets are good
*there is no firebrick, but there never was (no sure that matters as we do know it's decorative)

He thinks after reading your responses that it's actually a problem with the auger.
The auger is dropping pellets every few seconds, but not that many if that makes sense. The flame is low, and so doesn't create a great amount of heat.

I did post about the heat exchange baffle plate falling into the fire a few times - it has to be set just right.

If it's true that you all are using yours to heat entire houses, perhaps we can tweak this one and not have to get a new one for next year. It's been brutally cold, and the room it's in has an 18' cathedral ceiling and it's opposite a wall of glass (a sort of A-frame).

Thanks again.