Castle Serenity, Duravent kit. Window clearence +

[Cossy]

Hi, Newbie here, in Massachusetts.
Hopefully someone might be able to clarify something for me. And I won't make an ash of myself..
So here goes
All the diagrams on the stove manual show just the vent sticking outside the wall
I have a Castle Serenity & 3" Duravent kit type L
Will have an outside air intake.
Does it matter if the outside wall of the thimble is next to the stud in the wall as long as it can go between the studs?
Has anyone used a 6" (inch0 long piece of this pipe? ( 3pvl-06) they seem hard to come by.
Does it matter if the chimney pipe is running alongside a window ( edge of pipe will probably be 12" away from side of window) as along the Vent is outside the minimum clearances?
I guess my configuration would be. something like this
1. stove 45ived in the corner. 6" clearance from back corners to walls ( 5" min in manual )
2. Pipe configuration as follows appliance adapter - 6" long piece, 45 , 12" piece through the Thimble, to cleanout tee, 4' veritical, 90 , 12" horizontal to vent.
With roughly a 3" standoff from the wall with the bracket, a 90 elbow and 12" horizontal to the vent , that puts the vent nearly 2 feet from the window,
Would I be better off Going through the roof? If so what type roof thimble / kit should I use for a shallow rise Cathedral. It would be 12/13' vertical rise to get me 2' over the roof.
I would appreciate any advice. I could probably post some pics later i that would help.
Thanks.

 

[rich2500]

No problem with the thimble against the stud, a photo would be great for the venting

 

[Cossy]

 

[Cossy]

Possibly 24" higher

 

[Cossy]

Corner potential spot

• Cossy
• Nov 2, 2015

 

[pete7713]

with outside air you need to be 18 inches from that window, also 2 feet from that overhang. a lot of guys just go straight out as long as you are 2 feet above ground level

 

[rich2500]

Pete is correct on the 18" from the window, If you make that window non functioning you can reduce the 18" to 12". could you come out through the wall closer to the corner,like Pete said you could come straight out, looks like you would have 24" to the ground, you have options to make it work and I would try to not have to go through the roof .

 

[Cossy]

I can go as close to the wall as the perimeter of the thimble will allow. If I went straight out what do I do about a clean out tee?
Is one required if you have no vertical pipe?
Thanks

 

[pete7713]

if you go straight out you wouldn't need a clean out tee, just pull off the termination end pipe off to clean inside the pipe. with that short of a run it would be super easy to clean

 

[rich2500]

My only concern with just going straight out is to much heat loss out the exhaust. I had that problem back when I had my Englander vented straight out , its well worth trying though, may work out for you.

 

[Cossy]

Thanks for the input follks. Attached Is what I went with. I don't think it's putting out the heat I was expecting but it's my first pellet stove so my expectations could have been off. Would anyone know what is causing the black window?

 

[rich2500]

I'm not seeing the outside air intake, you need to hook that up first and see how she burns, if you are still getting the black glass you will need to play with adjusting the air gate, after getting the proper burn then you should see a big difference in heat output.Pellets also play a big part in the heat output,you may be loosing heat out the exhaust with it straight out.First things first then we can go from there to get you going in the right direction.

 

[pete7713]

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does your flame look like this? if you read the comments he has his damper 3/4 closed, might be a good starting point for you to try. if your stove is adjusted properly you should not be losing heat out the exhaust

 

[Cossy]

I'm not seeing the outside air intake, you need to hook that up first and see how she burns, if you are still getting the black glass you will need to play with adjusting the air gate, after getting the proper burn then you should see a big difference in heat output.Pellets also play a big part in the heat output,you may be loosing heat out the exhaust with it straight out.First things first then we can go from there to get you going in the right direction.

The outside air intake is around the corner you can just see it almost horizontal from the vent. Once I also had an issue with starting it. the room filled with smoke, when I turned it off and the exhaust blower kicked up and then the pellets caught fire. I bought the second highest grade pellets available and they came highly recommended from a friend who uses them. I cleaned it last night and when starting it again I got a wisp of smoke in the room before it caught fire.

 

[Cossy]

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does your flame look like this? if you read the comments he has his damper 3/4 closed, might be a good starting point for you to try. if your stove is adjusted properly you should not be losing heat out the exhaust

I can't say for sure , I have it on the temp setting sometimes the flame is very high, sometimes not. I have a laser thermometer I should get a reading. I will adjust the gate this evening. and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[rich2500]

If your getting a wisp of smoke at startup you probably got a slight exhaust leak, double check all your joints especially the adapter to the stove.Try your air adjustments and report back with how your flame looks.Also make sure that the burn pot is completely seated in place, if not that would explain your misfire.

 

[Cossy]

If your getting a wisp of smoke at startup you probably got a slight exhaust leak, double check all your joints especially the adapter to the stove.Try your air adjustments and report back with how your flame looks.Also make sure that the burn pot is completely seated in place, if not that would explain your misfire.

Ok, so when I got home the window was almost completely black again after only one day. I shut if down, cleaned and vacuumed it. Marked the current position of the gate and closed it maybe 1/8-3/16" more. Restarted it . the smoke isn't coming from the exhaust, during the ignite phase the box fills with smoke and it comes out the top and front before the pellets catch fire. I had it on manual pwr3 for two hours and temp 76 overnight. again wasn't as warm as expected didn't get above 67 within 15ft of the stove.

 

[sparklow]

On my first one or two fires with my Serenity the flame was a bit orange and the glass a bit black. Air gate from the factory was approx. half open. I opened it a bit more, to just over half open and flame is bright yellow now, no black on the glass. I am not running an OAK. Every setup is different you need to experiment some.

 

[rich2500]

Ok, so when I got home the window was almost completely black again after only one day. I shut if down, cleaned and vacuumed it. Marked the current position of the gate and closed it maybe 1/8-3/16" more. Restarted it . the smoke isn't coming from the exhaust, during the ignite phase the box fills with smoke and it comes out the top and front before the pellets catch fire. I had it on manual pwr3 for two hours and temp 76 overnight. again wasn't as warm as expected didn't get above 67 within 15ft of the stove.

Try opening the air gate a little more from where it originally was.How many square feet are you heating,how well are you insulated.Do you have a bright yellow crisp flame like in my video.

 

[pete7713]

black smoke usually means you need more air

Without a Magnahilic this is the best way to dial In air adjustment.

With the stove on High and running for 15 minutes after start up.
Push the air rod in. you will see a tall ugly lazy flame
then [b}slowly[/b] pull the rod out
as the flame comes down, more intense and be more yellow
when the flame looks like it is not changing anymore stop pulling out.
If you have sparks popping this is normal
but you don’t want to see PELLETS popping out.
If you get Brown or Grey soot on the glass and firebrick this is normal
if you have BLACK soot on the firebrick and glass pull the air out a little more.

got this info doing a google search, hope it helps

 

[pete7713]

just curious if the problem got resolved

 

[rich2500]

more than likely since we have not heard anything

 

[Fairwind]

These pellet stove makers don't seem to have any standard operating parameters...I am no expert but I have installed and operate two different stoves, a Winrich (out of business) and a Buffalo (still in business) and anytime they are powered up and operating, even in the start-up mode but still cold, the exhaust blower is operating and there is negative pressure in the combustion chamber..Any smoke at start-up is pulled out the vent...As long as vent is air-tight, there should never be any smoke or fumes in the house...

The black window screams "not enough combustion air" or the firebox and grate not properly in position so airflow into the burn-box is not correct.. The flame should be bright yellow and dancing, the 2/3 burned pellets glowing at orange-red heat on the grate..I believe all these stoves have a means to adjust the combustion airflow, some easier than others..If you allow too much air into the burn-pot, there will be a lot of sparks and fly-ash being blown up and out of the burn-pot..It takes a little fiddling to find that sweet spot....

 

[Cossy]

just curious if the problem got resolved

Sorry for the delayed response, please forgive me, I was trying all the variants I could to try and resolve the issue to no avail. its been almost a week I had to shut it down and we are cold.
I tried opening the gate and closing it, eventually I came home form work and the whole place smelled of smoke. the pellets were backed up into the chute from the burn pot and on fire. I shut it down aired out the house and cleaned the stove, i started it again and it burned until the high temp alarm came on and shut it down. I've been trying to contact the support and eventually got in touch they recommended increasing the voltages on the blower and exhaust by 5 volts each on stalls 1-4. I did that less than an hour ago. on the first attempt the stove acted like it was operating correctly went to the ignite the heating stage just never caught fire didn't even look like it tried no smoke nothing. On the second attempt it was the same as the very first time I turned it on.. the box filled with smoke and then the room and when I switched it off the fans ramped up and it caught fire. at the moment the gate is almost 3/4 open I have it vented to the outside. After the thing over temped it looked like there are a bunch of spider cracks on the box and gouges around the chute. And as I write this the unit just overtemped and shut down. The room the unit is in is the first floor of my house with reasonable insulation ( could be improved in areas ) but the other end of the room has base board heating, the only thing that is stopping us from freezing at the moment.

 

[rich2500]

have you left it burn for a week with out cleaning it.