Hello.
I moved into a house that came with 2 pellet stoves. One is a Lennox PS40 that both looks and works nice. It burns efficiently, causes little glass soot up and throws a lot of heat. That stove has a 4' vertical chimney through the roof. The other is a Breckwell Big E. The Big E has a vertical inside exhaust and then straight outside with a slight incline to the termination piece. Both are hardwired thermostats that can control them (if desired).
The Big E looks old and weathered...some paint coming easily off the ash pan exterior. I gave both my stoves and pipes a thorough cleaning. Unlike the Lennox, the Breckwell starts to soot up the window within 20 minutes. When I run cleaner over the air exchanger tubes, LOTS of ask falls down (next to nothing falls down during Lennox cleanings that I do far less frequent). It seems I need to clean out the exhaust pipes once a month it is so bad...and doing so doesn't even help the burn quality.
Has anyone else who had a Big E had smoke smell (not visible yet) that is emitted through the blower fan into the room with the hot air? Mine clearly does. My eyes are burning writing this post. This can't be good for my health and I just about to give up on it and get a new one. I'm rather new to pellet stoves, but have learned a lot about them online...but nothing showing concrete answers. I am thinking maybe a weld is gone on one of the air tubes and allowing exhaust smoke to enter the "clean" hot air. Furthermore, the gasket is thoroughly blackened with soot. I try to wipe off with a set paper towel to get some of it off.
Besides the lightning fast glass soot up and smoke in the heated air blown into the room, I often times have issues where pellets miss the burnpot and go into the crevasses below the burnpot and also into the ask tray AND BURN down there. Luckily the stove is on concrete, so I don't have to worry about a wooden floor catching fire. That even smoked the house out. It has been a week and the house still has some lingering smell from the event. Sometimes I can clean the glass with water. Other times, I have to scrape it off with a razor blade and use a lot of force because it is so burned on. The glass issue is so bad, I can not even monitor if the pellets are missing the burn pot and landing in the ash tray.
Like I said, I clean the ash and air exchanger tubers regularly and clean the exhaust pipe more than normal. I've tried different damper settings. In is supposed to be "closed". I have to run the stove that way nearly all the time and the Big E usually has strong flames. The stove has gone out several times on the 1 setting, especially when I "open up" the damper by pulling it out. I would say I am either closing the damper instead of opening it or there is so much air coming in that it is blowing out the flames. I don't even have it hooked to outside air. Different pellets don't matter, this thing will keep on smoking and sooting. It also doesn't matter if I keep it on on/off (with my thermostat) or manually set the burn level. The smoke smell is slightly better at higher rates though...something that prevents me from using the stove with a thermostat as it operates on 1. Oh, and heat output is lousy/minimal on 1, a little better on 2 and up...still poor compared to my other pellet stove.
At this point, if someone could tell me how to fix the smoke smell, maybe I can deal with the constantly sooty glass and keep the stove for a year and see how it goes. I don't know how to take the whole thing apart or do welding though (if one of the welds on the air exchanger tubes is gone). If I can't stop the smoke, I got to get rid of it.
The Lennox PS40 seems to be a great stove, even though it appears to have a history of annual igniter replacement. I have that hooked up to a different hardwired thermostat as well and it shuts on and off as needed. I've seen the Big E issues online, but I am hoping someone has overcome the smoke and soot and bad combustion issues I have and can shed some light on how to fix it. I am smoking up here though, so your prompt response would be appreciated. I know it is a finicky pellet stove, but I really don't want to spend $1,000 on another right now. And if I have to get a new one, has anyone had some personal experience with Tractor Supply's United States Stove Company's King model at Tractor Supply? The price is right, the ash tray is welded in so there are no crevasses for ash and pellets to hid or burn and there appear to be no heat exchanger tunes to mes with and clean...although the burn pot guts and electric control panel look eerily similar to the Big E's.
Thank you in advance for any and all input on this smokey and sooty matter. Thank you.
P.S.: The pictures of the glass door soot are from 4 hours of burn first on 1, then 2.
I moved into a house that came with 2 pellet stoves. One is a Lennox PS40 that both looks and works nice. It burns efficiently, causes little glass soot up and throws a lot of heat. That stove has a 4' vertical chimney through the roof. The other is a Breckwell Big E. The Big E has a vertical inside exhaust and then straight outside with a slight incline to the termination piece. Both are hardwired thermostats that can control them (if desired).
The Big E looks old and weathered...some paint coming easily off the ash pan exterior. I gave both my stoves and pipes a thorough cleaning. Unlike the Lennox, the Breckwell starts to soot up the window within 20 minutes. When I run cleaner over the air exchanger tubes, LOTS of ask falls down (next to nothing falls down during Lennox cleanings that I do far less frequent). It seems I need to clean out the exhaust pipes once a month it is so bad...and doing so doesn't even help the burn quality.
Has anyone else who had a Big E had smoke smell (not visible yet) that is emitted through the blower fan into the room with the hot air? Mine clearly does. My eyes are burning writing this post. This can't be good for my health and I just about to give up on it and get a new one. I'm rather new to pellet stoves, but have learned a lot about them online...but nothing showing concrete answers. I am thinking maybe a weld is gone on one of the air tubes and allowing exhaust smoke to enter the "clean" hot air. Furthermore, the gasket is thoroughly blackened with soot. I try to wipe off with a set paper towel to get some of it off.
Besides the lightning fast glass soot up and smoke in the heated air blown into the room, I often times have issues where pellets miss the burnpot and go into the crevasses below the burnpot and also into the ask tray AND BURN down there. Luckily the stove is on concrete, so I don't have to worry about a wooden floor catching fire. That even smoked the house out. It has been a week and the house still has some lingering smell from the event. Sometimes I can clean the glass with water. Other times, I have to scrape it off with a razor blade and use a lot of force because it is so burned on. The glass issue is so bad, I can not even monitor if the pellets are missing the burn pot and landing in the ash tray.
Like I said, I clean the ash and air exchanger tubers regularly and clean the exhaust pipe more than normal. I've tried different damper settings. In is supposed to be "closed". I have to run the stove that way nearly all the time and the Big E usually has strong flames. The stove has gone out several times on the 1 setting, especially when I "open up" the damper by pulling it out. I would say I am either closing the damper instead of opening it or there is so much air coming in that it is blowing out the flames. I don't even have it hooked to outside air. Different pellets don't matter, this thing will keep on smoking and sooting. It also doesn't matter if I keep it on on/off (with my thermostat) or manually set the burn level. The smoke smell is slightly better at higher rates though...something that prevents me from using the stove with a thermostat as it operates on 1. Oh, and heat output is lousy/minimal on 1, a little better on 2 and up...still poor compared to my other pellet stove.
At this point, if someone could tell me how to fix the smoke smell, maybe I can deal with the constantly sooty glass and keep the stove for a year and see how it goes. I don't know how to take the whole thing apart or do welding though (if one of the welds on the air exchanger tubes is gone). If I can't stop the smoke, I got to get rid of it.
The Lennox PS40 seems to be a great stove, even though it appears to have a history of annual igniter replacement. I have that hooked up to a different hardwired thermostat as well and it shuts on and off as needed. I've seen the Big E issues online, but I am hoping someone has overcome the smoke and soot and bad combustion issues I have and can shed some light on how to fix it. I am smoking up here though, so your prompt response would be appreciated. I know it is a finicky pellet stove, but I really don't want to spend $1,000 on another right now. And if I have to get a new one, has anyone had some personal experience with Tractor Supply's United States Stove Company's King model at Tractor Supply? The price is right, the ash tray is welded in so there are no crevasses for ash and pellets to hid or burn and there appear to be no heat exchanger tunes to mes with and clean...although the burn pot guts and electric control panel look eerily similar to the Big E's.
Thank you in advance for any and all input on this smokey and sooty matter. Thank you.
P.S.: The pictures of the glass door soot are from 4 hours of burn first on 1, then 2.
![[Hearth.com] Breckwell Big E Help Needed...I am smoking and sooting away!!!](/talk/data/attachments/166/166292-296eb7b9a0fa8ff71b6916249cd6aa92.jpg?hash=sZafl68dog)
![[Hearth.com] Breckwell Big E Help Needed...I am smoking and sooting away!!!](/talk/data/attachments/166/166293-63bb4f20d744de008bf32b58984763f6.jpg?hash=Dsjg6yJ3NC)
Maybe it was a dirty exhaust fan. I don't know. All I can say is in the first 20 minutes of running the new King stove I got at Tractor Supply, it is throwing off 3 times the heat as the Breckwell. Thanks for everyone's input.