Baby Countryside pot needs to be emptied between each bag of pellets

[Saranac]

First, I want to thank everyone who has posted here over the years. It has been a great help.

I was recently given a 2007 Baby Countryside BD DC that was taken out of a garage by new homeowners. I have never run a pellet stove before, and this looked like a good opportunity to try it out. Please be patient with me since I may get the terminology wrong or may not know what things are. Everything I know I have learned from these forums.

The issue is that ash keeps building up in the pot. I can burn one bag of pellets and then the ash will need to be emptied from the pot. There are some klinkers, but also a lot of fine ash and partially burned pellets. There will be almost nothing in the ash pan.

The stove seemed to be set up for corn when I got it. I moved the jumper on the control board to pins 1 & 2, which seemed to help the flame a lot. I think I have the corn pot and that may be the problem. I don't really want to spend the money on a new one just to find out that wasn't it.

I have cleaned behind the plug behind the ash pan and the fans and that seemed to help the flame a lot too. I pushed a piece of hose up either side of the horseshoe, and some stuff came out. It didn’t seem to be plugged.

I am using hardwood pellets from Tractor Supply that is rated at 1% ash. I haven’t tried any others yet.

Any help would be appreciated. (also, what is the leaf blower trick that I keep reading about?) Thanks!

 

[johneh]

Welcome to the forum
I don't know your stove but this may help
see page 31
(broken link removed to http://www.americanenergysystems.com/downloads/public/Magnum%20Baby%20Countryside%20manual%20rev5%20061206.pdf)

 

[Don2222]

Hello
Here is my video with the necessary compressor cleaning and Manometer check to very clean operation.

Important Magnum Baby CountrySide behind the firebox cleanout?

Hello I am working on a couple stoves that do not have enough vacuum to keep the vacuum switch closed. The stoves are clean and no visible signs of what is wrong. I just learned that Magnum in their product improvements have drilled holes in the back of the firebox behind the ash pan and...

www.hearth.com

Good luck

 

[Saranac]

I have been trying to run it with the air supply fully open to see if it will blow the ash down into the ash pan with no difference. I have also now tried three different brands of pellets with the results being almost the same for each.

I will try out the horseshoe cleaning mod once I can borrow an air compressor. Thanks.

 

[ChandlerR]

I have been trying to run it with the air supply fully open to see if it will blow the ash down into the ash pan with no difference. I have also now tried three different brands of pellets with the results being almost the same for each.

I will try out the horseshoe cleaning mod once I can borrow an air compressor. Thanks.

Having owned a Baby for over 10 years, Don's advice is spot on. A pellet stove needs airflow to work. The Baby has a unique design that, in theory, pulls air through the burn pot which should make the ash fly out and eventually end up in the ash pan. If the air flow is not strong enough the ash stays in the pot causing buildups and clinkers. Once the horseshoe is cleaned you will see a huge increase in efficiency.
I did the modification on mine the second year I owned it. I welded up three rows of holes on the burn pot (at the top). I also replaced the combustion blower with the high altitude fan. These mods allowed the stove to run on average 4 or 5 days before I had to empty the pot. With a light demand I had gone a week between pot dumps.

 

[Saranac]

I did the horseshoe modification and some ash came out when I hit it with the air compressor, but not much. When I burn it, the ash is still staying in the pot.

 

[Ssyko]

My guess would be there is still some ash blocking the path through the stove. if it spent a few years of its life in a garage the ash will absorb moisture through the seasons and turn hard as a rock, especially if it was never cleaned before its retirement. You may have to remove the exhaust blower from the stove and take some stiff wire or coat hanger to break it up.

 

[Don2222]

Do you have the upgraded 3 wire 105 CFM exhaust blower that helps your issue?

Baby Countryside "help" Requested ...

I am a new member here and I have owned a used Magnum Baby Countryside for a few years. It is located in my shop which is 40'x40' with insulated walls and 11' tall insulated ceiling & concrete floor. To say that I am a novice even after 3 yrs of using the stove is an understatement, but I have...

www.hearth.com

 

[Saranac]

I purchased a new air compressor attachment that has tubes that will go into the horseshoe modification hole and blew it out with the compressor again. I checked the exhaust blower, all the passages, and the direct vent pipe and found nothing unexpected. I did find a piece of gasket that seemed to be plugging up what could be a glass air wash. I removed it and the performance was much worse.

I did not remove the blower since it seemed to have some kind of orange caulk that would probably need to be replaced. I don't have the upgraded 3 wire blower, where can I get that?

In other news, the auger stopped moving last night. I removed the pellets from the hopper and removed the stuck pellet, but the auger doesn't move. The motor makes it's usual sound, and the auger moves back and forth if you manually move the motor, but the motor will not drive the auger anymore. Kind of sounds like a stripped gear. Is this a common issue, and is there a repair kit?

I have attached some pictures that I took during the latest round of cleaning.

 

[Saranac]

I got the auger working again ( I hope ) the set screw for the auger was not tightened to spec. I have attached the troubleshooting guide.