Avalon pellet stove Air Wash system? - Answer from Travis Ind.

[Don2222]

Hello

How do I know if the air wash system is working for this Avalon Astoria?
Does it pull room air from under the gasket?

See parts and pics below.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Here is what Travis Ind has as an answer to my question about their AirWash System.

"Yes the air wash is the gap that is in the door. It does draw some room air for this"

 

[ChandlerR]

Don the room air they are talking about is actually combustion air (I believe). The combustion fan pulls the air from the room, or outside if you have an outside air kit, and some of that air is diverted (or drawn) through the windows air wash. Others can correct me, but I believe all stoves that have the air wash do it this way.

Chan

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Don the room air they are talking about is actually combustion air (I believe). The combustion fan pulls the air from the room, or outside if you have an outside air kit, and some of that air is diverted (or drawn) through the windows air wash. Others can correct me, but I believe all stoves that have the air wash do it this way.

Chan

Some stoves draw air through a gap in the glass along its bottom, this is usually a small fraction of the air that the combustion fan pulls in.

That is why you have to be certain to not put gasket material where it shouldn't be

Where the air wash is and exactly where the air comes in from depends upon the stove.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Thanks Smokey.

I have removed and cleaned both the Convection Blower (Room) and Combustion Blower (Blast) so I could see how the work.

Convection Blower (Room) - Pulls air from the right side and back of stove and pushes the air through the heat exchanger tubes right out the front of the stove.

Combustion Blower (Blast) - Pulls air from the Fire Box which comes in from the bottom of the Burn Pot through an intake air plenum connected to the 2" Air Inlet tube on the back of the stove. This is where the OAK (Outside Air Kit) connects if used. This air in the firebox then passes thru the combustion blower and then out to the 4" flue pipe and up the chimney.

Neither of these paths pass air thru the front glass air wash system.

So in my original post, the diagram shows the air wash bracket passing under the door gasket. This means that air for the air wash system must come from room air in the front of the stove under the door.

Does the air wash AIR go out the top of the door??


My Stove is like the one in the link below and in the diagram below.
http://thehowzone.com/how/pelletstove/3

Here's a simplified diagram of our pellet stove. There's a hopper for pellets on the left, the burn box on the right, two separate fans (the left, purple, one for the crucible, the right, green, for blowing hot air into the house), and of course the exhaust pipe in black.

The crucible is where all of the real action happens. With just a few pellets it is able to generate a lot of heat and burn the pellets at incredible efficiencies. In fact pellet stoves are exempt from the EPA's smoke emissions requirements because they put out so few pollutants.

How do they do this? The answer is pretty simple, pellet stoves burn in "inferno" mode all of the time. It's just a smaller, more manageable inferno. Combined with the relatively consistent and low moisture content fuel the stove is able to pretty much burn each pellet up completely. It does this by blowing a jet of air across the burning pellets creating a little blast furnace.

You achieve something similar in a wood stove when you open up all of the dampers and allow the fire to pull in lots of air to fan the flame. This puts out lots of heat and burns the logs quite thoroughly, but you will also be burning through the available fuel quickly and generating more heat than you can transfer into the room.

A pellet stove is able to control how fast the fuel is added. Think of a pellet stove as a normal wood stove with little micro-logs that are automatically fed into the stove by some micro-wood-stove-gnome.

Micro is actually a pretty good description of the pellet wood stove process. By breaking the fuel into small, manageable units you can add a little bit of electronic smarts, some sensors, and micro-manage the stove to extract the exact amount of heat desired while wasting as little fuel as possible.

To do this with a wood stove you crank down the damper, restricting the flow of air. It's just the opposite with a pellet stove, you leave the air alone and reduce the amount of fuel by slowing down the auger. The fuel burns normally but it puts out less heat since there is less of it burning. No smoldering involved.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

"Does the air wash AIR go out the top of the door??"

No it goes up the flue.

 

[imacman]

There is a gap in the gasket on top of the Astoria door glass. The combustion motor pulls air from the room INTO and down across the glass, then out the exhaust.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

There is a gap in the gasket on top of the Astoria door glass. The combustion motor pulls air from the room INTO and down across the glass, then out the exhaust.

What do you know we have pellet stove drug abusers, some use uppers and some use downers.

No wonder there are all the problems that wind up here ;-) .

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Thanks again guys. It makes sense that the air from the air wash goes up the flue.

Also it looks like the diagram in my 1st post above actually shows 2 air wash brackets, one at the top of the door and one at the bottom.

When I get a chance I will test them with a hair dryer and see if they both allow air in and how much.


I appreciate the responses because Travis did not give me too much info this time.

Also Travis Ind is not saying anything about the square hole in the OAK intake plenum, but I know it keeps ash out of the burn pot from my tinkering! I just got another idea that an OAK Air Tank to temper the air may take the place of the hole!