Big E Install-less than successful

[JoeTammy]

My wife an I installed a Big E pellet stove yesterday with horrible results. We connected the vent pipe (adaptor, cleanout tee, 4' vertical run, 90 degree elbow, thimble and end cap in that order) filled up the hopper, turn on the heater....and smoke eveywhere! We shut down the heater and sealed up all the joints on the vent pipe with heat tolerant caulking even the manufactured seems on all the fittings (yes, they were leaking too), and made sure all was tight.

We started up the heater and got mixed results on the quality of the flame and very little heat was coming through the exchanger. Manipulating the damper and controls did not change the quality of the flame or heat output. We shut down the unit for a couple of hours and retried starting it up. SMOKE, SMOKE, SMOKE! Smoke leaked from the unit in the following areas: through the door around the glass, through the seal of the door, from the heat exchanger tubes and from under the top frame of the pellet hopper. Upon further inspections of the unit, specifically the front door, I noticed a rope-type gasket between the metal frame and window extending from the lower left hand corner of the window extending up, over the top and then down the right hand side of the window-there was no gasket between the bottom of the window and metal frame-one of the sources of smoke seepage. I expected a certain amount of “smell” do to the newness of the unit but this was definitely smoke from smoldering pellets.

Does anyone have any idea what happened? Manufacturer's error, operator error (most likely)....

Thanks!

 

[buildingmaint]

Wow , sorry to hear your having problems , sounds to me like you are not venting any of the smoke out the pipe. I would check to see if the fan on the right hand side of the stove is running, you can excess it by taking off the side panel , with the three phillipshead screw around the back of the stove . I that fan is running , then I would check and see if the pipe was clear. Hope this helps .Let us know how you make out.

 

[Shane]

Check the pipe, check the blower, check the damper setting and check your door and ashpan seals. The "missing" gasket on the bottom of the window is your airwash.

 

[StoveMiser]

I bought a big e last January and have run about 5 tons of pellets through it. It seems to me that @ startup it will always give a little smoke smell. There is a lot of smoldering happening until the flame starts, and some of it comes out. After a half hour or less, the smell is gone. I never smell smoke at any other time. I also DO NOT seal the joints on the duravent, and haven't had any problems. I have a carbon monoxide detector 8 feet from the stove, and it has never alarmed. I never really understood why so many folks have problems with leaks. Am I just lucky?

 

[kinsmanstoves]

What is between your elbow and HRC?

Something is not right. Call me.

Eric
330-876-0200

 

[JoeTammy]

Thanks for all your support! We were able to start the stove last night but because the room still had the smell of smoke it was difficult to tell if any "new" smoke had entered the room or not. I turned off all the lights and checked all the pipe joints and stove with a flashlight but didn't see any smoke. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed.

I did try the "dollar bill" test after learning about it here and was able to pull the bill out through the closed door without much difficulty. Does this mean the seal isn't good?

 

[pegdot]

Yeah, you shouldn't be able to pull it out except where the air wash is. Check your manual, is there any way to adjust the door latch or hinges? I believe most stoves have an adjustment on the latch. If it does that might just fix your problem.