Castile Insert Producing Fine Dust in Home

[CastileUser]

Hello All,

I searched the site and found a lot of great info except my issue and the fix. I've been fighting a very fine dust when using the QF Castile Insert during the winter. I vacuum the unit daily and had the yearly service cleaning done.

Lignetics pellets are used as fuel. They've repaired the auger where coarse dust was leaking and being sucked up and blown out with convection air. Hopper and Ash pan area still has insufficient sealing from the rear of hearth/convection blower intake.

The firepot floorplate has been found to have an approx 1/4" gap when closed and a 3/8in tall pile of ash debris behind the ash pan.

So here's where I am;

Is there a Knock Out on the right rear wall of the ash pan for the OAK hook up? Why would the OAK Hole be left open so that ash can be sucked into the convection air intakes?

Anyone else fight that extremely fine dust produced as a by product and blown out by the convestion?

Is the OAK Hole normal and how can I control the production of fine dust.

Thanks everyone

 

[begreen]

Most of the dust with a pellet stove comes when loading the hopper. The OAK feeds the combustion system only. The combustion system is closed and independent from the convection system.

 

[reallyte]

Since it's a negative draft highly unlikely dust would exit the oak hole. It sounds like you have other issues to resolve first for sure to know what cause is.

 

[CastileUser]

Most of the dust with a pellet stove comes when loading the hopper. The OAK feeds the combustion system only. The combustion system is closed and independent from the convection system.

Hi Mr. Green,

Understood, and that's why I'm still troubleshooting the unit as other friends' homes do not have this fine dust. It's so bad that I have to cover all electronics to protect them.

If you shine a flashlight in the ashpan area you can see light escaping into the rear of the unit. Same result when the hopper is empty. I also sift my pellets to remove any introduction of dust into the unit.

The concern is that the OAK was not installed and there's an open thru hole approx 2.5" dia on the vertical rear wall that opens from the ash pan area to the rear of the unit where the convection blower intakes are located. Thus somehow introducing fines into the intake during some time of the units' cycle.

 

[CastileUser]

Since it's a negative draft highly unlikely dust would exit the oak hole. It sounds like you have other issues to resolve first for sure to know what cause is.

What other issues am I missing? I'm at a loss as to the next step.

Unit is just at 11 months old.

Wouldn't the pressure lessen during the cooldown period(just a guess)?

Thanks

 

[tug686spd]

Are you running a humidifier in the house? There are some threads in this forum narrowing the dust in the house down to the humidifier. I dont recall what type they were but should be pretty easy to find with a search

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Hi Mr. Green,

Understood, and that's why I'm still troubleshooting the unit as other friends' homes do not have this fine dust. It's so bad that I have to cover all electronics to protect them.

If you shine a flashlight in the ashpan area you can see light escaping into the rear of the unit. Same result when the hopper is empty. I also sift my pellets to remove any introduction of dust into the unit.

The concern is that the OAK was not installed and there's an open thru hole approx 2.5" dia on the vertical rear wall that opens from the ash pan area to the rear of the unit where the convection blower intakes are located. Thus somehow introducing fines into the intake during some time of the units' cycle.

The OAK, is supposed to be open to the ash pan area. It is the combustion intake. While running, if you were to put your hand over it, you feel a suction. The thing is, when the oak is not hooked up, which is fine if you choose to run it that way, I do not have mine hooked up, you are now pulling combustion air from the inside of the house. So now, though you can not feel it or measure it, the house has a suction like atmosphere to it. So any place that air can come into the house as the inside of the house is now at a lower pressure then the outside, any dust in the are of air intake will be stirred up. Some houses, this air intake is through the floor, some around not well sealed windows, and maybe some others thru the attic and down into the house thru the attic access door.

If you hook up the oak, or give the house a place of your choice for outside air to enter the house, it may reduce the fine dust. Sometimes however, the design of the house or other circumstances, may cause any burning of wood fuels to have more dust. Especially heat sources with circulating fans on all the time.

But it takes quite a bit of air to burn fuel of any kind well. That air has to come from someplace. Hence, the OAK attachment for many heating devices, including gas.
IMO.

 

[kappel15]

Even if you are cleaning your pellets, as I do, there will still be dust when loading the hopper. It is easily seen if sun is shining around hopper area when loading. I always use a vac hose sucking air when loading hopper. And where is this 1/4" gap located on pot floor? Only gap should be on backside of plate, and no more then a dimes width. When dumping the firepot or cleanout plates, ash will accumulate behind ashpan. Mine does it also. When dumping and cleaning stove, I always vacuum behind ashpan to stay ahead of it. The more you keep things clean, the less dust will be spread around. kap

 

[CastileUser]

Even if you are cleaning your pellets, as I do, there will still be dust when loading the hopper. It is easily seen if sun is shining around hopper area when loading. I always use a vac hose sucking air when loading hopper. And where is this 1/4" gap located on pot floor? Only gap should be on backside of plate, and no more then a dimes width. When dumping the firepot or cleanout plates, ash will accumulate behind ashpan. Mine does it also. When dumping and cleaning stove, I always vacuum behind ashpan to stay ahead of it. The more you keep things clean, the less dust will be spread around. kap

Thanks everyone,

The 1/4" gap on firepot is opposite of the pivoting side.

So when the floorplate closes it appears like it fully closes but falls down, (causing a 1/4" gap/opening). This is a new issue as it wasn't there last season.

For TUG; I have a humidifier in the bedroom. But it doesn't help. I just opened a bedroon drawer and a plastic package had that gray film of fine dust on it, (from about 60 days of Insert operation).

This dust is extremely finer than outside dust, That's why I suspect that the dust is a byproduct of the operation of the insert.

I've left a piece of double sided clear tape out and it captures this fine grey dust. Regular home dust is more course and brown in color.

I think I've narrowed down the mechanism of the distribution of the dust just not the source.

The dust is similar to the fines that I vacuum up every day in the hearth(closed burn area.).

I vacuum and shampoo the carpet regularly. HVAC Ducts sealed and door seals replaced within 1 year. HVAC flow/restriction test OK.

I don't think this unit's working properly. I've seen other people's homes and their insert dust is 80% less that what I'm experiencing. A 20% dust issue was what I was expecting, but nothing like this fine dust from hell.

This unit has been repaired 4 time in 11 months, so I believe I got the one build at 3;45pm on Friday.

I also believe that it's not working properly (as I've seen other Castile users and they don't have this extreme dust problem). Two disc issues, one magnet issues and the last was the leaking/defective auger unit.

I also replaced the Insert door seal just to eliminate it as a problem/source.

Has anyone looked into a type of filter for the intake @ the convection air blowers, (the Castile has side-by-side intakes)?

If I knew that this unit would produce such an extreme dust issue I wouldn't have purchased it.

Thank you for all the replies and have a "Pellet Dust-Free" Merry Christmas.

Mods; Change my name to;

Frosty the Dust Man
j/k

 

[alternativeheat]

Are you running a humidifier in the house? There are some threads in this forum narrowing the dust in the house down to the humidifier. I dont recall what type they were but should be pretty easy to find with a search

The misting style humidifiers do this as I recall. I know I use an evaporation style where the water is drawn up into dispersion filters and get no mineral dust from it in the house. And it goes through several gallons of water a day when in use.

 

[kappel15]

How is this stove exhausted? Could something have changed, or been pulled loose to allow ash to fall down, and sucked into your conv. blower?

 

[Jack Morrissey]

I may have missed it, but what kind of vacumn are you using?? And im wondering if you vacuming the stove daily is contributing to all the dust. I just scrape the burn pot daily, and maybe sweep the ash into the ashpan everyother day or so. Also like others mentioned, loading the hopper probabaly produces the most dust, and I like to have the vacumn near where im dumping the pellets to suck up the dust...

 

[kappel15]

Using any shop vac in the house, it is a must to have a dust bag in it, or you can blow dust all over. But just my opinion. kap

 

[Harvey Schneider]

Take a deep breath. You are over analyzing your stove and I think that you have jumped to the wrong conclusion.
If the dust is blonde (tan) it isn't combustion products, it is pellet fines. The coarser fines percipitate quickly and are found near the stove. The finer particles remain suspended in the air and disperse throughout the house. They eventually settle out, but that can take hours. An ionizer placed near the stove will help percipitate the dust faster.
Cheap brands of pellets have more fines than better brands. Lignetics is somewhere in the middle of the range. When I was burning them, I thought they were rather dusty. Handling the bags of pellets roughly also increases the amount of fines in the bag.
Last year I was burning LG Granules and found them to be much cleaner than than Lignetics. This year I am burning Cleanfire Pacific. I think they are even cleaner than the LG's.
I believe that you don't have a problem with your stove, I think that you have a problem with your pellets.

 

[alternativeheat]

Believe it or not, this years Green Supremes are doing fine in my stove. They are all sized nice and uniform, less ash than last year for sure and less dust when dumped in the hopper, which is the point relevant to this thread .. They still aren't the hottest pellet on the planet but heat the house anyway in the P61. And honestly I've bought much more expensive pellets that I could say failed on one or more of those very points. Just sayin.

But I agree, tan dust is usually fines.

 

[CastileUser]

Since it's a negative draft highly unlikely dust would exit the oak hole. It sounds like you have other issues to resolve first for sure to know what cause is.

Sorry but I've been dealing with ANOTHER MECHANICAL FAILURE on my Castile insert.

Let me see if I can answer everyone's questions;
1) Humidifier installed after dust problem and uses RO/Distilled water(good catch though on the mineral issues).
2) Shop Vac w/new Hepa Filter.
3) Used 3 different types of high quality pellets, (this year was about 10-20% less dust)
4) The 1/4in gap in floorplate was a failure of the bolt/hinge and I'm trying to get that addressed with QF to replace it as the Tech only wrenched down on it.
5) The House Grey Fine Dust was confirmed to be same composition as the Fines but no 100% solution found yet.

The Tech returned, re-adjusted the auger and replaced a defective ignitor.

This will make 6 different failures on this Castile and still an unresolved dust issue in 11 months since New.

I believe that a) I have a lemon and 2) the installation is faulty.

Anyone like the Mt Vernon System over the Castile System as far as being cleaner and not a dust producer?

Thanks everyone and have a Merry Christmas.

PS If I missed someone's question please repost.

 

[CastileUser]

Take a deep breath. You are over analyzing your stove and I think that you have jumped to the wrong conclusion.
If the dust is blonde (tan) it isn't combustion products, it is pellet fines. The coarser fines percipitate quickly and are found near the stove. The finer particles remain suspended in the air and disperse throughout the house. They eventually settle out, but that can take hours. An ionizer placed near the stove will help percipitate the dust faster.
Cheap brands of pellets have more fines than better brands. Lignetics is somewhere in the middle of the range. When I was burning them, I thought they were rather dusty. Handling the bags of pellets roughly also increases the amount of fines in the bag.
Last year I was burning LG Granules and found them to be much cleaner than than Lignetics. This year I am burning Cleanfire Pacific. I think they are even cleaner than the LG's.
I believe that you don't have a problem with your stove, I think that you have a problem with your pellets.

I agree to a point that it's a contributor, but the pellet supply/availability is very thin, having HEATS(which I refuse to use), LIGNETICS and a new cleaner burning brand from UT or ID.

 

[Wilbur Feral]

I have a Mt Vernon, but can't think of any reason it would be cleaner. My only suggestion is to install an OAK, which will cut down on the amount of air being pulled into the house. This does not sound like fines. It frankly does sound like minerals from an ultrasonic humidifier, but the OP believes that is not the issue, so I am baffled.

 

[kappel15]

If you have had all these issues, and the stove is only 11 months old, I would be trading it in for a new one. JMO. kap

 

[doghouse]

Is there any way to get a picture of the dust?

 

[Lake Girl]

How is this stove exhausted? Could something have changed, or been pulled loose to allow ash to fall down, and sucked into your conv. blower?

That was my thought as I was reading through...

Edit: Please explain that exhaust set-up....