10 CPM heat chamber

[ghandy131]

Does anyone have a diagram or pic of the inards of the heat chamber? When I run my vacuum tube down the 6 holes in the top plate I can't figure out if its going down tubes or just thru the holes into a chamber. It would be helpful if I had an idea of what was back there. Thanks

 

[jrsdws]

Those six holes are the exhaust path that lead to the area behind the rear firewall. This is the area you're vacuuming ash from when removing the two ash trap doors.

 

[DexterDay]

Those 6 holes lead to a chamber that has 2 baffle plates, one on each side to slow the flow of air. A small bottle brush, some compressed air, a leaf lower, and a mallet (with fake firebrick removed) will make that area like new again...

Or just a bottle brush (going from bottom--- remove 2 clean out plates and go up from there---- and the top---- through the 6 holes (is it 6 or 8?) and a mallet against the firewall..

I took a snake camera and inspected mine when I bought it (removed combustion blower, before I even fired it up) and also took the convection blower off and looked at how the air was delivered (exactly how you see it, air comes up back wall of firebox and across the top). I wanted to know the exact air path of the stove, to better understand what it's doing and where the ash roadblocks would be.

 

[ghandy131]

Thanks Dexter, that's what I'm trying to figure out (how the exhaust air travels to the stack). The baffles you mention, are they horizonal and attached to each side and staggered I assume. When I sent the vacuum hose down the top holes I noticed resistance several inches down and with a bit of finesse they would proceed in. Haven't done the leaf blower yet and I'm 9 tons into the stove starting last season. Stoves finally running great and I'm trying to avoid the leaf blower till Spring. I keep it running between 5 - 9 and 9 - 9 24/7 (we have a pretty large area to heat). Going on 2 weeks now and 17 bags of Greene Supreme since I vacuumed and looks like I'll need to open the front door this weekend and give it a good cleaning. Took a while of fiddling but found if I run it with the bottom buttons at 1 - 4 - 3 up to setting 7 - 9 and 2 - 5 -3 at 8 - 9 and 9 - 9 the beast runs like a champ with these pellets. Still waiting for the cold weather to break into the Turmans. Thanks again. Wish there was a diagram. Mike?

 

[DexterDay]

The AOT is at 3? 1 is stir rod On, 0 is off. What did Englander say that 2 or 3 does?

It should only be at 0 or 1. As far as the manual reads? Only because it controls the stirrer, so no more heat can be had by turning it up?

I'm intrigued by what Englander has said about that #??

 

[imacman]

The AOT is at 3? 1 is stir rod On, 0 is off. What did Englander say that 2 or 3 does?

It should only be at 0 or 1. As far as the manual reads? Only because it controls the stirrer, so no more heat can be had by turning it up?

I'm intrigued by what Englander has said about that #??

I remember the thread when he tried the AOT setting on 3.....it doesn't make any sense to me either. But I guess if it works for him, what can you say?

 

[DexterDay]

I remember the thread when he tried the AOT setting on 3.....it doesn't make any sense to me either. But I guess if it works for him, what can you say?

True... True..

Now it does ring a bell?

Now I gotta try it...

 

[imacman]

Now I gotta try it...

I'll be curious what you "discover" that it does.

 

[ghandy131]

With the AOT at 1 I was getting considerable buildup on the burn pot and a very lazy, weak flame. Tried all the cleaning ideas (except leaf blower), tried 1-4-1, 1-5-1, 1-6-1, 2-5-1, etc to no availe. Noticed the stirrer was turning exceedingly slow and would on occassion open the hopper lid to stop pellet flow and manually turn the stirrer by pressing AOT and holding until stirrer made 2 or three revolutions to help purge the pot. I would need to open the front door and using a small nail puller and welding gloves, scrape out the clinkers and excess ash buildup from the pot every day. I recalled that Dexter said that his stirrer was rotating about 1/8th inch every pellet feed and mine wasn't. So I decided to try speeding up the stirrer by upping the setting - 2 was better than 1 and 3 was optimal (13 minute revolution at setting heat range 7). Now, I'm burning Greene Supreme which was causing a lot of problems but when I threw in the Turmans it wasn't much better. They're burning great now, still dirty (glass gets a black halo within 2 days at heat range 6 setting) but plenty of heat, 10 degrees less than Turman and a whole lot cheaper. By Sunday it'll be 2 weeks and about 800 lbs and I'll give it a good cleaning. I sent Englander an e-mail a couple weeks ago asking them for feedback regarding this but have not received a response.

 

[imacman]

With the AOT at 1 I was getting considerable buildup on the burn pot and a very lazy, weak flame.........would on occassion open the hopper lid to stop pellet flow and manually turn the stirrer by pressing AOT and holding until stirrer made 2 or three revolutions to help purge the pot.......

Well, except for doing a little better job of keeping the burn pot clear with the more frequent stirrer movement, I just don't see how it changes the amount of air through the burn pot....unless it's just keeping your air holes open better.

BTW, you don't need to open the hopper before pushing the AOT to turn the stirrer....you can do it w/ it closed too.

Don't remember if you saw the "mods" Dexter & I did to the burn pot by adding flat gasket material to help seal it (credit for this goes to Dexter...Thanks again!!). It DOES seem to help a lot. Another "fix" is the hole near the door handle. I would get a brown streak across the glass starting right next to it. I saw another forum member found a hole from the manufacturing process to make the handle lock bar adjustable. I found it, and sealed it up w/ hi temp black silicone....no more brown streak, and no air leak into burn chamber!

All of these things will help airflow through the pot, which at the end of the day, I think is the main problem you actually have.

 

[imacman]

ghandy131, take a look at the pics in the beginning of this thread for the burnpot gasket "mod" and the door handle hole "fix":
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/10-cpm-cleaning-3-weeks.102151/#post-1314361

 

[ghandy131]

Thanks imac and Dexter (love your show on showtime). My burn pot was quite deformed on the back lip that sits on the saddle and considerable fire was shooting up the BACK of the pot. I notified ESW and they sent out a new one immediately. Unfortunately the replacement was worse than the original. When I did my cleaning a few weeks ago, and recalling the gasket correction Dex had made, I decided to try something less permanent but would stop the flow of air up the back of the pot. I made an accordian type fitting for the back plate out of aluminum foil, set it in the groove on the back of the pot and placed the pot in the saddle. This compressed the foil ensuring a seal. This has eliminated the rear pot leakage and probably contributed greatly to the burn efficiency. Next fix - Dex's gasket (and hopefully no mass murders). I can only imagine that the reason increasing the stirrer speed works is that it will expose more surface to the embers quicker and tends to keep the hot embers circulating and eliminating clinker build up. Previously, when the stirrer was in the horizontal position at feed rates 7 and up, pellets would buiId up until they reached the deflector V and would keep going unless I took action. Just cleaned it this morning after 22 bags and 2 weeks burning at heat range 5 thru 9, mostly 7 and 8. Ash was at the top of the deflector and climbing the sides. I was afraid the ash pan was filling and would cause an issue, other wise I would have left it alone. Well, burning brightly again, still using accordian and backed of setting to 1-4-3 at range 7 and blower at 9. Will do gasket when tax season is over. - I'm a tax accountant and pretty much up to my butt in alligators already Thanks for the help