Burn pot fills after a day

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indoorairpro

Member
Jan 27, 2011
13
NE PA
First thanks in advance to all who read and/or Answer this post.

I am new to pellet stoves but have been in the HVAC business for many years.

When my oil bill hit $250/ month I decided to try the pellet stove idea.

I picked up a used Kozyheat Olivia on craigslist and took it completely apart and cleaned every nook and cranny and yes I did read the manual and did the 1 , 6 and 12 month maintenance before i ever lit the stove. the stove has settings from 1 -5 and auger can be trimmed up or down on each setting.

The exhaust is about 6' total horizontal with 1 45 and one 90 degree outside pointing down.

My first ton of pellets were Stovechow and seamed to burn well with alot of fly ash. Ash pan filled every couple of bags.
My next ton from lowes was called Greenteam and since using them my burn pot fills and I have to shut stove down once a day and clean it out. Hardly anything in ashpan. This happened occasionally with the Stovechow but nearly as often. I also noticed right after cleaning flame goes straight up but then over time gradually starts to hug the back of pot and a portion of it seams to ride or stick along the edge of pot between back of pot and back wall of stove .
I own gauges such as magnehelic etc so if there are any tests I should do please post them.

When taking stove apart I did not pay as close attention as I should have so I am not 100% sure of path exhast gas takes from ignition to exiting home. Is it being pulled into bottom of pot or is there an opening above the heat exchanger ?

some other factors that may be affecting things
1- My freshair in is not piped anywhere it just takes from the room stove is in. I did crack window about 1/4 inch to let some air in.
2- The igniter is not working and after speaking with local stove company decided not to bother fixing. I put a palm full of pellets in and light with small handheld propane torch similiar to what plumbers use to sweat copper pipe. It takes about 10 seconds to light.
3- this usually starts happening once I go past 2 or 3 (one being lowest heat setting)
4- Flame is a bit on the orange side but not much with some blue near the base

Thanks again to all who read
 
Welcome indoorairpro,

Open the air damper some more on the higher settings or reduce the auger feed trim. You might even need to do both.
 
Ok, a couple of things if that 45 degree bend is horizontal you are likely exceeding the recommend EVL for 3" pipe. Check your manual's section for venting.

The second thing is that you need a slight rise in the horizontal run.

Then we come to the point that you likely need to do an annual cleaning, what is called annual is actually based upon ash generation. Normally 1 to 2 tons would be considered annual.

I don't know what the differences in ash levels are between the two pellets you have tried so far so I can't talk about the difference in how the two pellets are burning.
 
Checked manual for venting, Max 9' horizontal. I have 6ft plus 45 behind stove and 90 outside pointing down. I am not sure where to find factors for 45 and 90 to get total length for 3" double wall pipe.
 
1 ft vertical = 0.5
1 ft horizontal = 1.0
45 degree vertical orientation 2.5 or 3
90 degree vertical orientation 5
45 degree horizontal orientation 5
90 degree horizontal orientation 10

Maximum EVL 3" pipe, 15 sum each part up and that is your EVL.

The controlling limits are based on what is in the manual is stove specific due to blower differences.

This calculation is a simplified air flow restriction calculation.

There never should be a true on bubble horizontal run 1/4" rise per foot of run is recommended.

That end cap should actually be something like 45 degrees and not a true 90 degree elbow. A lot of the end caps look like they are until you look at them from the inside.
 
indoorairpro said:
....... took it completely apart and cleaned every nook and cranny and yes I did read the manual and did the 1 , 6 and 12 month maintenance before i ever lit the stove.......

So I guess it's safe to assume that you removed both blowers and cleaned them, and also cleaned the plenum that the combustion blower sat in, and also put a new gasket on it before re-installing.

Most pellet stoves have "hidden" ash traps behind the firebox back wall....are these completely clean? Does the ash pan have a gasket on the edge that mates to the stove? Is it sealing tightly against the stove body?
 
After reading post about "annual after 1 ton" I went back last night and did an annual on stove. Honestly it was not needed. I pulled firewalls and cleaned behind them as well as second ash trap located behind ash pan just below exhaust fan. I never pulled fan from fan housing but can see it clearly and it is not blocked at all.

I do not see any type of gasket between stove floor and ash pan and this piece does have a very slight upward bow to it that flattens out when you put the burn pot back in.

When I finished cleaning it last night it ran great until this morning when I awoke and burn pot was just about at top and pellets had begun to spill over into stove.

If I were to gasket some of these surfaces what should I use. Keep in mind that some of these parts need to be seperated for cleanings?
 
Regarding vent length based on calulations it seams I am over by a few feet. I am going to pull off the outside elbow and see what happens. That would bring me with in the 9' range listed in manual.
 


One other thing I should note, I dont see much difference in flame between a full open fresh air damper and a full closed one. There is a difference but not much.
 
Are you using inside air and if so how old is your house?

Also check the air intake for anything being in it before the damper and anything after the damper. It is not unknown to find crud in the intake. With a used stove anything is possible.

Your door gasket needs to be checked, if that burn pot rocks in its receptacle it may need a gasket fabricated for it.

When you looked at the combustion blower were the blades clean and sharp. Was there anything at all between the impeller and the fan housing, was the area between the cavity that fan sits in and the heat exchanger clean.

In short that firebox needs to be air tight except for the air intake, the exhaust, and any air wash system.

All holes in the burn pot liner need to be clean and full size.
 
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