Castle Serenity Overheating

[gdhsred]

Hi there,

This is my first pellet stove and I'm wondering about operating it properly as I seem to be having issues with it overheating and shutting off.

I'll do my best to explain the circumstances and hope to see if it's operator error or something wrong with the stove.

The stove cannot run on blower 4 or 5 for more than about 40-45 mins without then overheating and shutting off. It'll run forever on blower 1/2 but when I'm trying to heat up my place to a decent temperature where it can then run on low for maintenance, it's just too much for it.

I have the blower settings on the lowest voltage for each fan mode and then the exhaust set at 10 volts above that as I was thinking that might help with the overheating.

I also run a small fan behind the unit to help keep the temperature down around the sensor on the stove.

I think that about covers it and just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this or maybe I have my settings messed up??

Thank you for any insight into this issue.

 

[rich2500]

try bumping the room blower fan voltage up a little for heat range 4 and 5, basically on heat levels 4 and 5 you are feeding the stove more fuel creating more heat in the stove that is causing it to overheat, so you want to get that heat out of the stove faster and blow it into your home. by increasing the exhaust blower voltage you are just blowing that extra heat outside.

 

[alternativeheat]

Ya, I can only compare with my Harman but it does pretty much what has been mentioned by Rich in the post above. It keeps a fairly constant exhaust blower speed but when more fuel is called for thus more heat, the room fan will pick up automatically if it wants to get too hot. It's a feature of Harman, where it over rides your manual blower setting. A faster exhaust blower speed will bring more air through your fire making it like a blow torch, so that isn't exactly going to perform what you are looking to do. The room fan should . You only need enough exhaust fan speed for a clean fire.

There are also damper settings to think about on the Serenity, as I recall you want that damper about 1/4-1/3 open or 3/4-2/3 shut depending on how you view it.

It sounds like an interesting and reliable stove for the tinkerer LOL !

 

[Deezl Smoke]

I agree with Rich. Your settings of low voltage for high heat can not get the heat away from the stove.In my opinion, it is a common line of thought to have a hot stove, much like a wood stove. However, the pellet stove is actually quite different in character.

On heat setting 4 or 5, you should have your blower voltage on near the highest setting, which I think is 95 or 100 volts? Your exhaust blower voltage settings regulate the fire in the burn pot and should not be changed for any other reason than flame or burn quality issues.

In basic form, the heat or temperature setting is your pellet feed rate. The "exhaust blower" setting works in tandem with the air inlet gate to get the proper amount of air into the fire to make the pellets burn hot and clean. The "blower" settings are what takes the heat away from the stove and sends it into your house. If the "blower" setting is too low of voltage for your temp setting, the heat that the fire is making can not get away from the stove fast enough, and will cause the stove sensors to shut the stove down for safety.

 

[gdhsred]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the great advice and quick replies I'll start messing around a bit more with the blower and exhaust settings and try shutting down the damper a little too. I remember reading that the pellet feed rate is hardwired, so really need to up the fan settings at that higher rate.

The only reason I moved all the settings to the lowest was for noise purposes. It was soooo loud, even on the lowest blower that I pushed everything to baseline and then moved up the exhaust to try to deal with the over heating. I guess now it really shouldn't matter because on high the noise is going to be whatever it is and better to be loud and not overheat!!

Again, really appreciate the feedback.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Ya, that's how they meet a price point so low yet make a good stove unit. They install loud fans.

 

[rich2500]

Actually if you run the fan outside the stove it's fairly quiet , the noise must come more from the path of the air to blow the heat out. A few drops of oil on the fan bushings does help quiet the fan down in the stove though.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Typically, a fan "howl" type noise is a harmonic vibration of the housing. I run my stoves on low, so not an issue for me, but I may try and put a rubber damper of some sort on the housing just for fun sometime and see if I can stop the harmonic. The other solve is just turn the stereo up.

 

[gdhsred]

Great, thanks again for the tips on the fan noise. I'll give the oil on the bushings a try and see. Otherwise, cranking the stereo works for me!!

 

[Nickthelunatic]

Does the fresh air intake cool the unit down? As of now i dont have the intake connected to the outside. Unit seems to overheat. Ive played around with the blower and exhaust voltages and cant seem to get it right. After startup and the fan is blowing the flame calms down and operates normal butvif i go any higher than that, no matter what i do it overheats and the flame is huge. Please help

 

[JRemington]

Does your convection fan allow taking the fan to 115 volts?

 

[Nickthelunatic]

Yes