Baby magnum not throwing heat.

[Jaw818]

So I fired my new (used) baby magnum up today for the first time, since it's the first time it's been cold. I'm using it in my garage, which is Uninsulated (I'll be getting around to that soon), so I wasn't holding out much hope for the garage to be toasty, but I figured I would see how the thing works.

Fired up fine, left it run for a few hours on the first setting, went back out to to check it, and it's got a big flame, convection fan is blowing, it appears all is working as it should, but there is nothing more than Luke warm heat being blown out of the thing. My Auburn in my house, even on the lowest setting blows hot air out (currently have my auburn on the lowest setting and my house is 75 degrees, it's 26 outside). So I'm a little confused as to why the magnum isn't throwing any heat. I turned the setting up to 3 and I will go check it again after a while, but does anyone know what could be causing this issue?

Thank you

 

[rich2500]

have you given the stove a good cleaning

 

[alternativeheat]

Ya know what I used in an unsulated garage in 26 deg weather ? A 100,000 BTU hanging oil fired heater. And it wasn't instant heat, once hot though it kept it well. But you have to heat every object in that garage not just air and meanwhile it's sucking cold air over the heat exchangers. I'm not saying your pellet stove shouldn't do better but on heat level 1 in a cold garage you might be expecting a bit much. Crank that sucker up ! Also assuming all is well.

 

[GMadd]

I have the same stove. Sometimes it will get a big lazy flame if it's not dialed in properly and not put out much heat. Do you have a lazy flame were very active flame?

 

[Bioburner]

That stove has a passage that likes to collect ash and then of course not much heat out of the stove except out the exhaust

 

[GMadd]

Mine puts out a ton of heat. Just have to know how to keep it running properly.

 

[jzm2cc]

Try closing the air damper a bit so less air is blown out the exhaust pipe. Mine is barely cracked open, otherwise the heat seems to go right up the exhaust stack and convection fan blows warm air but not hot air.

My Prescott and Lancaster lays this stove to shame without even trying.

 

[Jaw818]

Yes

I have the same stove. Sometimes it will get a big lazy flame if it's not dialed in properly and not put out much heat. Do you have a lazy flame were very active flame?

Yes! The flame is huge, kind of like a campfire flame rather than the forced air looking flame of my auburn. It's also not making a hard brick/cookie, the ash is remaining loose. How do I get it tuned in to fix this issue?

 

[Jaw818]

That stove has a passage that likes to collect ash and then of course not much heat out of the stove except out the exhaust

Where is this passage?

 

[Jaw818]

Ya know what I used in an unsulated garage in 26 deg weather ? A 100,000 BTU hanging oil fired heater. And it wasn't instant heat, once hot though it kept it well. But you have to heat every object in that garage not just air and meanwhile it's sucking cold air over the heat exchangers. I'm not saying your pellet stove shouldn't do better but on heat level 1 in a cold garage you might be expecting a bit much. Crank that sucker up ! Also assuming all is well.

You're missing the point I was making. I wasn't expecting the garage to be warm, the stove itself isn't hot. When I put my hand on the convection area, it's barely Luke warm. That should be war, enough to almost burn my hand instead of blowing slightly above room temp air out. I know with an Uninsulated garage that it won't be like a sauna in there. I'm just testing it now, so when I get it insulated soon my stove is ready to keep it comfortable in there b

 

[jzm2cc]

Sounds like plugged exhaust internals if flame is huge like that. Search site for threads on where to drill holes and blow out with compressed air. Mine didn't need that, JUST leaf blower on exhaust to run well, PLUS blocking off half of glass air wash AND filling top two rows if corn pot with furnace cement.

 

[GMadd]

Where is this passage?

OK, so you are basically where I was when I started. If it's big like camp fire it's not gonna put out heat. After mods I heat a pretty large house with the Baby. And just to warn you, there's a lot of Baby haters out there. My poor baby, ha ha ha. There's a few things I'd recommend.
1. Search the thread for previously posted instructions on cleaning the upper portion of the upside down U shaped channel behind the burn chamber. You can actually see the outline of it when you look into the stove. There are instructions in there on how to tap and plug a hole for compressed air to clean out that upper portion. I also recently figured out how to clean this portion regularly from the ash pan chamber using a flexible tube on my ash vac. I just push it up and it finds it's way. This is good too because I find ash also gets caught in the vertical portions of the chamber on both sides.
2. If it hasn't been done lately clean off the combutstion blower blades (there's great instructions on how to do this on Don's website blog, East Coast Hearth). If you remove the motor you will need a new round gasket, can get it from Don or Magnum. Also clean out and lube both blowers.
3. Also look up air wash mod from previous posts. I use foil tape for this. Have about an inch open in the middle with a few holes poked in the tape on the sides.
4. I also like from previous posts burn pot gasketing. I used tape gasketing for this. The sides take the full width but the front and back I had to cut in half lengthwise.
5. I recommend the wood pellet cast iron burn pot if you're burning pellets exclusevly.
6. If you wind up having Delron bearing problems, let me know I'm trying out a fix for that this year I'd share with you. Seems to be working.
7. Oh yes, also keep the vertical slots behind the ash rakes clear. I just use my ash vac with the narrow tube attachment to clean them out. Just pull the raked out and vacuum out the top right and left far corners in the burn chamber.

You can private message me if you have any questions. Hope that helps.

 

[GMadd]

Try closing the air damper a bit so less air is blown out the exhaust pipe. Mine is barely cracked open, otherwise the heat seems to go right up the exhaust stack and convection fan blows warm air but not hot air.

My Prescott and Lancaster lays this stove to shame without even trying.

Prescott and Lancasters sound boring......ha ha ha, no work. Look at it this way, the stove came for free with my house, why spend money on a new one. Plus I can tell my wife I can't do other stuff cause "I have to take care of The Baby." You just cant say that. Ha ha ha

 

[rona]

So I fired my new (used) baby magnum up today for the first time, since it's the first time it's been cold. I'm using it in my garage, which is Uninsulated (I'll be getting around to that soon), so I wasn't holding out much hope for the garage to be toasty, but I figured I would see how the thing works.

Fired up fine, left it run for a few hours on the first setting, went back out to to check it, and it's got a big flame, convection fan is blowing, it appears all is working as it should, but there is nothing more than Luke warm heat being blown out of the thing. My Auburn in my house, even on the lowest setting blows hot air out (currently have my auburn on the lowest setting and my house is 75 degrees, it's 26 outside). So I'm a little confused as to why the magnum isn't throwing any heat. I turned the setting up to 3 and I will go check it again after a while, but does anyone know what could be causing this issue?

Thank you

Maybe you have the exh fan set to high so it is sucking the exh out to fast for for the convection fan to capture the heat? Just my opinion but the Auburn will capture more heat then the baby magnum will

 

[Jaw818]

Maybe you have the exh fan set to high so it is sucking the exh out to fast for for the convection fan to capture the heat? Just my opinion but the Auburn will capture more heat then the baby magnum will

Can the fan settings be changed? I'm sure the auburn heats better, but the baby should still heat, and it only has 576 sq-ft to take care of

 

[rafmt]

The fan speeds can not be changed. Have you tried the suggestions gmadd gave in a previous post. All excellent points that need to be done to get these stoves working good. Making sure that horseshoe area behind the fire box is clean. If the last owner didn't address cleaning that area ,my guess it is plugged up and not breathing right. My stove throws incredible heat.

 

[Jaw818]

GMadd was kind enough to show me everything he did, that along with tips regarding the burn pot from others and the stove is now actually blowing hot air! Very exciting. Thank you for all the help.

To recap, Plugging the airwash vent near the glass, drilling a hole to blow out the channel with compressed air, blocking the top rows of holes, and sealing the top rim of the burn pot to prevent air leaking through has seemed to fix the issue