American Harvest 6100 ducted in...

[Clamit]

I'm new here, and new to pellet stoves. This American Harvest 6100 came with the house. Its in the basement. I have completely cleaned this stove and exhaust ductwork. I am running it on auto P-3 burning pellets. So far, it's keeping the whole house (2200 sf) at 70 degrees (currently 8 degrees outside). I have the damper set in the middle.
Couple questions - first the front glass seems to get sooted over after 4 or 5 hours to where it's difficult to see the flame. I have to shut down everyday to clean the glass ( so I just vacuum out the rest of it while it's cool). The flame looks good, so not sure why this is happening.
2nd, in the pic upper right is a baffle like valve on the return that says open and close. I assume that I need this open when running the stove and closed when not using it?
And lastly, I have my gas thermostat set at 65. Am I suppose to have my fan running on my HVAC to distribute the warm air? Or just let physics work it's magic with the "hot air rises" concept...
Thanks in advance for any answers you might have. Any other tips for this particular stove would be appreciated.

 

[Jeremy6500]

Nice setup. I have a 6500 that was in my house when I bought it. It is not hooked in to any duct work, but that is the plan…..hopefully this coming year.

Do you run yours off a thermostat or just set it on a heat level with the stove controls?

As far as the damper on the return, you are correct. In the summer you need to close it when you are running the AC. If not you will blow a lot of your cold air through the stove and right back to the return.

As far as running the HVAC blower. If the stove is heating the house I wouldn’t mess with it. Does your stove have 2 blowers? Are they both running while it is set on 3? If not, you can adjust the program settings to make sure they do. Also, your return looks pretty small. Making it bigger should greatly increase you air flow from the stove.

The glass on mine gets dirty pretty quickly even though the flame looks good and my pellets burn well. I am pretty sure it is just the nature of the beast. You can use a natural hair paint brush and simply open the door and brush the glass off. No need to shut the stove down. I usually do mine daily.

What does the control panel on the side of your stove look like? How many buttons?

The American Harvest is the same as a USSC. Look at the sticky threads at the top. The USSC Troubleshooting one has all kinds of manuals in it. Find the ones for your model and download them. There is a owners manual and another Tech manual that goes in to detail about how to adjust the programming on your stove.

If you look for a guy called Land Air Mechanic on YouTube he has an 8500 and goes in to a lot of detail about how to get the USSC stoves to perform well. You can apply a lot of what he does to yours.

Glad to hear it is working well for you.

 

[Jeremy6500]

Here is the tech manual I was talking about

 

[stvigi1960]

I talked my oilman earlier in the year about running just the furnace fan, he said no problem and that he has a number of customers who do to keep temperature even in the house. My stove is not connected, but sits on the 1st floor with fans distributing air. If my wife is home working, I run the furnace even out the upstairs heat.

 

[Jeremy6500]

I talked my oilman earlier in the year about running just the furnace fan, he said no problem and that he has a number of customers who do to keep temperature even in the house. My stove is not connected, but sits on the 1st floor with fans distributing air. If my wife is home working, I run the furnace even out the upstairs heat.

If the stove wasn’t connected to the duct work I would recommend running the hvac fan to help spread the heat.

With it connected to the duct work I am not sure how it would help. I haven’t looked at the specs of the 6100, but my 6500 has 2x850 cfm blowers. If you get your return and supply ducting right that should be plenty of air flow coming out the vents.

 

[Clamit]

Nice setup. I have a 6500 that was in my house when I bought it. It is not hooked in to any duct work, but that is the plan…..hopefully this coming year.

Do you run yours off a thermostat or just set it on a heat level with the stove controls?

As far as the damper on the return, you are correct. In the summer you need to close it when you are running the AC. If not you will blow a lot of your cold air through the stove and right back to the return.

As far as running the HVAC blower. If the stove is heating the house I wouldn’t mess with it. Does your stove have 2 blowers? Are they both running while it is set on 3? If not, you can adjust the program settings to make sure they do. Also, your return looks pretty small. Making it bigger should greatly increase you air flow from the stove.

The glass on mine gets dirty pretty quickly even though the flame looks good and my pellets burn well. I am pretty sure it is just the nature of the beast. You can use a natural hair paint brush and simply open the door and brush the glass off. No need to shut the stove down. I usually do mine daily.

What does the control panel on the side of your stove look like? How many buttons?

The American Harvest is the same as a USSC. Look at the sticky threads at the top. The USSC Troubleshooting one has all kinds of manuals in it. Find the ones for your model and download them. There is a owners manual and another Tech manual that goes in to detail about how to adjust the programming on your stove.

If you look for a guy called Land Air Mechanic on YouTube he has an 8500 and goes in to a lot of detail about how to get the USSC stoves to perform well. You can apply a lot of what he does to yours.

Glad to hear it is working well for you.

Thanks for replying Jeremy. No thermostat. And I will leave the baffle valve open while using the stove. Thanks. I'll also try just leaving the stove on and clean the glass with a dry paint brush as you suggested.
I believe it has 2 blowers.
Here's a picture of control panel:

 

[Clamit]

If the stove wasn’t connected to the duct work I would recommend running the hvac fan to help spread the heat.

With it connected to the duct work I am not sure how it would help. I haven’t looked at the specs of the 6100, but my 6500 has 2x850 cfm blowers. If you get your return and supply ducting right that should be plenty of air flow coming out the vents.

Yeah, don't think I'll use the HVAC fan. I can feel heat coming out if the registers upstairs and the house is holding at 70 degrees with it 10 degrees outside. I also will look at upsizing the return next spring.

 

[Jeremy6500]

Thanks for replying Jeremy. No thermostat. And I will leave the baffle valve open while using the stove. Thanks. I'll also try just leaving the stove on and clean the glass with a dry paint brush as you suggested.
I believe it has 2 blowers.
Here's a picture of control panel:

View attachment 305733

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure you had the newer control board that allowed for all the program adjustments.

Hooking it up to a thermostat is pretty handy. It is as simple as removing a jumper on the control board and then hooking 2 low voltage thermostat wires to it. Hook the other end to a battery powered thermostat and you are good to go. If you google it there are videos.

The way the stove runs on the thermostat is that you set the heat level to a higher setting. Mine has Pr1-Pr3. I set it on Pr2 unless it is super cold out. Then while the thermostat is not calling for heat the stove runs on the lowest setting (Pr1). When the thermostat calls for heat the stove switches to whatever higher setting you have on the control board.....so Pr2 for me. Once the thermostat stops calling for heat it goes back to the lowest setting.

You are able to adjust your pellet feed rates in the programing area of the control panel. I set my low setting just high enough that it keeps a small fire going. Acts sort of like a pilot light. Then drops more pellets and builds heat when the thermostat calls for heat.

Just a thought if you find you need to adjust the heat levels frequently to maintain your desired temps.

 

[Clamit]

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure you had the newer control board that allowed for all the program adjustments.

Hooking it up to a thermostat is pretty handy. It is as simple as removing a jumper on the control board and then hooking 2 low voltage thermostat wires to it. Hook the other end to a battery powered thermostat and you are good to go. If you google it there are videos.

The way the stove runs on the thermostat is that you set the heat level to a higher setting. Mine has Pr1-Pr3. I set it on Pr2 unless it is super cold out. Then while the thermostat is not calling for heat the stove runs on the lowest setting (Pr1). When the thermostat calls for heat the stove switches to whatever higher setting you have on the control board.....so Pr2 for me. Once the thermostat stops calling for heat it goes back to the lowest setting.

You are able to adjust your pellet feed rates in the programing area of the control panel. I set my low setting just high enough that it keeps a small fire going. Acts sort of like a pilot light. Then drops more pellets and builds heat when the thermostat calls for heat.

Just a thought if you find you need to adjust the heat levels frequently to maintain your desired temps.

Thanks. I might consider a thermostat after I get the exhaust in order. I got a feeling too much heat is going outside because of airflow...(exhaust is hot!)
My stove may be somewhat different than yours, as I can bring mine up to Pr-5...
But Pr-3 seems to be a good middle ground for me.

 

[Jeremy6500]

Thanks. I might consider a thermostat after I get the exhaust in order. I got a feeling too much heat is going outside because of airflow...(exhaust is hot!)
My stove may be somewhat different than yours, as I can bring mine up to Pr-5...
But Pr-3 seems to be a good middle ground for me.

View attachment 305741

The number of heat settings vary depending on the model. Yours has more levels, but mine is a little bigger and rated for BTUs (I believe).

I would highly recommend watching the Land Air Mechanics YouTube videos. He does a real good job at showing you how to setup the USSC/King/American Harvest stoves. He also talks about the small return issue. Not just a bigger return duct, but also adding another/2nd opening where the room blowers are and connecting it in to the big return duct as well.

In the programing settings you can adjust the draft fan settings to try and hold more heat in the burn chamber. This should make it heat the air more with the same amount of pellets.

 

[Clamit]

The number of heat settings vary depending on the model. Yours has more levels, but mine is a little bigger and rated for BTUs (I believe).

I would highly recommend watching the Land Air Mechanics YouTube videos. He does a real good job at showing you how to setup the USSC/King/American Harvest stoves. He also talks about the small return issue. Not just a bigger return duct, but also adding another/2nd opening where the room blowers are and connecting it in to the big return duct as well.

In the programing settings you can adjust the draft fan settings to try and hold more heat in the burn chamber. This should make it heat the air more with the same amount of pellets.

Sounds good. Can I adjust the draft fan settings and still leave it in auto? I will certainly check out those YouTube videos you mentioned. Thanks.

 

[Jeremy6500]

Sounds good. Can I adjust the draft fan settings and still leave it in auto? I will certainly check out those YouTube videos you mentioned. Thanks.

Yes. There are 2 options for adjusting the draft fan. If you are in Manual mode you can adjust it with the arrows on the control panel, but this sets it to run at a constant speed etc.

If you go in to the programing settings (they call them the C settings) you can adjust the lower and upper draft fan limits. These effect how the draft fan runs when the stove is set to Auto.

If you listen you can hear the draft fan pulsing. When you make adjustments this pulsing will slow down or speed up based on the limits you set, the stove sensors and heat range chosen.

 

[Clamit]

Yes. There are 2 options for adjusting the draft fan. If you are in Manual mode you can adjust it with the arrows on the control panel, but this sets it to run at a constant speed etc.

If you go in to the programing settings (they call them the C settings) you can adjust the lower and upper draft fan limits. These effect how the draft fan runs when the stove is set to Auto.

If you listen you can hear the draft fan pulsing. When you make adjustments this pulsing will slow down or speed up based on the limits you set, the stove sensors and heat range chosen.

Thanks for that. Time to go to the basement and play....

 

[Jeremy6500]

Thanks for that. Time to go to the basement and play....

Yep. Remember changes can take a little bit to show. So it is usually make the change and then give it a while to see the effect

 

[Jeremy6500]

Thanks for that. Time to go to the basement and play....

I’m interested to see what your low PPH feed rate and your high PPH feed rate is

 

[Clamit]

I’m interested to see what your low PPH feed rate and your high PPH feed rate is

OK. I will let you know as soon as I figure out how to get to C settings.

 

[Clamit]

And Jeremy if you could let me know a good starting point for draft fan settings that would be helpful...

 

[Clamit]

Check that. Just downloaded the manual you referenced above. Thanks.

 

[Clamit]

I’m interested to see what your low PPH feed rate and your high PPH feed rate is

What I can tell you is that the draft fan was set at 9! The manual suggests 1 above or below heat setting. So I'll try 4 on the df with heat setting 3 and see how that goes...

 

[Jeremy6500]

What I can tell you is that the draft fan was set at 9! The manual suggests 1 above or below heat setting. So I'll try 4 on the df with heat setting 3 and see how that goes...

Was that the setting via the manual setting on the control board, or was that in the C menus? When you are running on auto I am pretty sure it just uses the C menus settings

 

[Jeremy6500]

And Jeremy if you could let me know a good starting point for draft fan settings that would be helpful...

We’re there any particular settings you were wondering about?

They will vary stove by stove some, but I can tell you where I am at with them.

 

[Clamit]

Was that the setting via the manual setting on the control board, or was that in the C menus? When you are running on auto I am pretty sure it just uses the C menus settings

I'm not sure. The manual says while in auto, set the draft fan to whatever setting you want. When I went to set it, it was in 9, so I moved it down to 4. I'm not sure how to get to these C settings you are mentioning.

 

[Clamit]

We’re there any particular settings you were wondering about?

They will vary stove by stove some, but I can tell you where I am at with them.

I will just set the draft fan whatever the heat setting is, plus or minus one. At least, that's what the manual recommends.

 

[Jeremy6500]

It is on page 10 of the Tech manual I put in the thread. C6 and C7 are the draft fan settings. You set the low and the high. That way it ramps up when you are adding more pellets at a higher heat range setting.

 

[Clamit]

It is on page 10 of the Tech manual I put in the thread. C6 and C7 are the draft fan settings. You set the low and the high. That way it ramps up when you are adding more pellets at a higher heat range setting.
View attachment 305798

View attachment 305799

Thanks for that. Got it printed out.
One last question - I reset everything back to factory defaults, as I wasn't sure how the previous owner had it set up. I'll tweak it myself.
Do you know how to get from corn mode to pellet mode? Not in the manual.