I bought a used Breckwell Big E utility furnace, the one with small glass in the door, and I'm concerned its running really hot. The temperature on the front door is 650 degrees. The sides are 4 to 500 degrees after running for a handful of hours. I'm running 3" pipe, evl is 20 which i know is high. Would adding 4" pipe make it burn that much better.
Breckwell big e too hot?
- Thread starter ajbfire
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Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
"WARNING: DO NOT OVERFIRE THIS STOVE. This may cause serious damage to your stove and void your warranty. It also may create a fire hazard in your home. IF ANY EXTERNAL PART OF THE UNIT BEGINS TO GLOW, YOU ARE OVERFIRING. Immediately press the “POWER” switch on the control panel."
Better get it turned down. You must be close o tripping the hi limit disk
Setting 2. Flames seem high and lazy with damper in. Had damper at 1/2 to 3/4 out which seemed to make it burn better by looking at flame. Im using tractor supply pellets.
Nothing was glowing but it was noticeably hot and radiating a lot of heat. I used a infrared thermometer on different parts of the stoves surface and figured that is too hot for a pellet stove but couldn't find any specifics for this stove.
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
- 【Breckwell C-E-090-21 High limit thermodisc safety snap switch】300-50 Degree Fahrenheit. Will shut down the auger feed motor if temps exceed 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Auto resets at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
That does not really help because we don't know the exhaust temperature relationship.
On the Harman's they measure the exhaust temperatures and normal but hotest would be about 500F inside the stove.- If you can keep the body of the stove (the hottest measurement you can read on the stove body) around that it should not trip out
- Use the troubleshooting guide for flame shape ect look at the trim air
If your only running it on 2 i would say something may be wrong. I have the same unit and have had it for years. Control pad is 1-5 and i never run it past 3, while i have never taken a temp gun to the door or the sides im sure its not running that hot.
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
If you can find the hi limit disk location (probably on the exhaust) you can attach a bluetooth or wifi BBQ probe. You will need to use some aluminum tape to try and get good contact. It won't read exactly what the thermodisk reads, but then you will have a direct reading of where you are.
I tested high limit switch with a multimeter and I believe it is good. If its supposed to trip at 300 tho not sure why everything was so hot and it didn't.
On the big e the thermodisk is on back left of Firefox. Pof switch is on exhaust
Is yours extremely hot in front of stove to where you can only be there for a handful of seconds?
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
It all depends on where they mount the switch. Think of double wall stove pipe. The inside temp could be twice the outside surface temp (from what I've read here). The only system in "direct" contact would be some sort of probe like the Harman. It could also have something to do with how they make snap disk pucks and the range they can get. If you can shoot the spot where it is mounted, or mount a BBQ probe there, then you will have a reading to watch while running different settings.
Just remembered something from a while back. Who ever had my stove before me had the POF and the Thermodisk reversed for some reason.. THe stove ran fine for years but ran way better when i switched them back to where they should have been.. May be something to check..
I would almost like to see a vid of the fire and a pic of your control panel. Mine on #2 will just barley hold the temp in the house when its cold outside.. Im almost wondering if your board has crapped out and now the settings are reversed? What is the temp on #1 as that is just a maintenance flame basically
I would almost like to see a vid of the fire and a pic of your control panel. Mine on #2 will just barley hold the temp in the house when its cold outside.. Im almost wondering if your board has crapped out and now the settings are reversed? What is the temp on #1 as that is just a maintenance flame basically
I used a thermometer next to where the thermo disc is and it reads 178. I've been running it on setting 3 all day for the most part. Door is a 600 degrees, pretty much been that all day. Hottest area on sides is 500 degrees. Not sure if the thermodisk is in a crappy spot, its on back wall like where the exhaust is getting sucked down. Spot where the pof disk is just before double wall pipe is 300 degrees.
Fire is hard to show now with ash. I feel the fire is too high. Seemed a bit better on setting 3. On setting 1 it was sending to many pellets. It also takes a handful of minutes for fire to start and it seems to put too many pellets in pot before it lights. The control panel seems to work. Every button does something. High fan works, resetting trim and heat settings. My only thought is that my evl is too high for 3 inch pipe and its causing a less efficient burn leading to higher flame heating everything up more.
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
That somewhat explains why you have not tripped on Hi Limit. I don't understand why the back part of the stove is not as hot as the front of sides. Could the inside of the stove have any modifications ie bricks added?
Taking several min to start is normal pellets have to build up and ignite and can take up to 5 min. Something is backwards here as setting 1 is just a maint flame basically it will hold temp if its not to cold out but should not generate a lot of heat. All your thermo and POF disks are where they should be. 3" exhaust is fine i have been running that size for years with 0 issues.
Because the back part of the stove is not part of the fire box and just houses the electronics and intake and exhaust blowers so it should be much cooler. The dual wall in the burn chamber is only around 6-10" from the front of the stove. I my just go out and buy a temperature gun today just to see where my stove sits for comparison. But my gut feeling is the control board is bad or the stove has not had a good cleaning in some time
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
I wonder if that over temperature switch would only pick up a hopper fire. Also, that stove would be just a basic control. It does not measure the stove temperature. The dial should just be related to how long the auger turns per minute. ie 15seconds,20. I have seen mine all over the place but it is regulating the temp based on the ESP
If the stove is the same as mine their are no dials its push button control and everything is pre programed, the only thing u can change is the feed rate on level one and that is 3 programed settings. With the way the auger feeds its almost impossible to have a hopper fire.
To the op do you possibly have it setup for a thermostate? Their is a 3 position switch for that
Doesn't appear to be. Fire box has 2 or 3 inches between back wall of stove. Thats where exhaust goes.
I did have to do a good clean to is. 2 doors at bottom of Firefox were full of ash, had to seal door better too. Checked inside exhaust blower to make sure and replaced gasket.
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