Castle Serenity Owners - Poll
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rich2500
Minister of Fire
Deezl Smoke
Feeling the Heat
So far, manual only.
I like to see others use all sorts of other means to control their stoves of any type and brand. But for whatever reason, I just like operating my stoves on manual. Maybe it just reminds me of using a wood stove in that respect and I'm used to manually regulating things with the draft openings and the chimney damper.
I like to see others use all sorts of other means to control their stoves of any type and brand. But for whatever reason, I just like operating my stoves on manual. Maybe it just reminds me of using a wood stove in that respect and I'm used to manually regulating things with the draft openings and the chimney damper.
Idaho John
New Member
I spoke with Castle and they suggested I use the manual setting if I wanted to get the most hours out of a bag of pellets. Since I am new, I am taking this as gospel for the moment. Am reading "tips on if your pellet stove is burning lazy..." Seeking some info on why I am getting soot all over my furniture when I clean the stove every day.
Deezl Smoke
Feeling the Heat
WHAT??
Do you mean soot is there during operation, or soot gets there during the cleaning process?
There should be 0, that is an absolute ZERO gas or particle matter coming into your house from the stove, during operation of the stove. The only time you should ever have even the slightest chance of particle matter or fumes of any kind entering your house is when you open the door either to clean or for that very few seconds to scrape the burn pot while in operation. Even if you do not run an OAK, nothing should ever enter your house from the stove during operation.
So if you are seeing particulate matter that you believe is from the stove, in your house, on your furniture, during stove operation, please stop using the stove until you resolve this issue.
If however, this soot is clouding up when you open the door and begin cleaning, it likely can be your vacuum choice. If you use a vacuum that has a larger micron filter, or one that cannot trap very fine particulates, the vacuum can blow a bunch of what you pull from the stove back into the house.
But if you burn decent pellets and set the stove properly for those pellets, you should not need to clean the stove for several days or even a week.
IMO.
Like Deezl, I do hope you mean that soot is thrown all over the place only when you open the door for cleaning up. Otherwise you are in very dangerous territory.
That said, the response you got from Ardisam is the answer for my question. So there is no feed rate difference from the stove being "idle" in thermostat mode vs. Stall 1. I still wonder why the heck one bag lasted hrs less in Stall 1 (manual mode) vs. Thermostat.
Deezl Smoke
Feeling the Heat
Give a couple more tries in both modes to get a better average over a greater range of conditions. It seems that pellet manufacturing can have a bag of hot burning pellets, then a bag of not so hot right next to each other. At least it does appear that way now and then with my chosen brand. But I can see how it can happen as watching the batch mix mechanism shows a mediocre job of mixing raw materials at best.
Idaho John
New Member
OK... I need to be more clear. OAK is in, in fact stove was professionally installed. I have yet to open (and do not plan to) the stove while it is running and not while it is cooling down. I checked the "venting/pipes/chimney" today and ran a brush through them. Very little particulate. So the only thing I can think of, is that my stove cleaning technique needs more fine tuning. Jnf
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Deezl Smoke
Feeling the Heat
Ok, good. Thank you for clearing that up. What vacuum do you use?
FYI, you can open the hopper to ad more pellets if you wish. It just cant stay open for very long.
Idaho John
New Member
Thanks for your help. I have a PowerSmith. I have been using a whisk broom, various old paint brushes and a hand held vac until the ash vacuum arrived. Which happened yesterday. So a thorough cleaning today and my guess is that despite my daily cleaning with the tools mentioned above, it was just not enough. Ran the stove for about 4 hours and cleaned it again. I need to give this routine a week or more to see if this addresses the "black dust" issue I posted about. Every other possibility has been eliminated...as far as I know.
On a positive note, this is the warmest I have been this year. Wood heat is most intoxicating and it has been unseasonably cold where I live.
Tails1
Feeling the Heat
I discovered the hard way using a shop vac while cleaning my stove the bag ripped/failed while I was cleaning and I got a cloud of ash in the house 
. Also use a filter rated for drywall dust as the normal paper ones will pass fine particulate out the exhaust of the vacuum.
. Also use a filter rated for drywall dust as the normal paper ones will pass fine particulate out the exhaust of the vacuum.
I discovered the hard way using a shop vac while cleaning my stove the bag ripped/failed while I was cleaning and I got a cloud of ash in the house
I'll put the sock back on the "exhaust" of the shop-vac next time i clean up the stove. I do have a fine dust rated filter, but the bag is the standard one.
Idaho John
New Member
rich2500
Minister of Fire
Oh there is, other then a few of us they just don't hang out on here much.
Deezl Smoke
Feeling the Heat
Idaho John
New Member
Well... I continue to fall in love with mine. Now to figure out a means of adjusting the damper without disassembling one side of the stove...
Idaho John
New Member
rich2500
Minister of Fire
here is what I did
then when the side panel is on the the rod sticks out through the rubber grommet
Tails1
Feeling the Heat
Idaho John
New Member
Rich... Did you use a welding rod? And how has it worked for you? A bit more detail... What changes did you notice regarding pellet usage and quality of flame? Thanks!
rich2500
Minister of Fire
No it's not a welding rod just a piece of rod that is threaded on the one end. Drilled a hole in the gate then put a washer on the rod as a stop then a nut to hold the rod. I adjusted it to dial the stove in then never moved it after that.
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Idaho John
New Member
Thank you. What was the results... Did you use less pellets? What were the benefits of using your modification?
rich2500
Minister of Fire
really did not affect pellet use but allows on the fly adjustment to dial in the stove for what ever pellets you are burning.Once I had the stove dialed in I never had to touch the air flow and I burned a many different pellets.
smwilliamson
The Stove Guy
It's funny, the Castle Serenity enjoys a pretty good following and over all is liked. But the stove has a dark-side and shady past when it was the Hudson River Saratoga. Same exact stove reincarnated. The Saratoga was worst stove ever assembled, period. What gives?
Idaho John
New Member
Would be interested in learning more about the Saratoga... I wonder if there was a minor change in design that led to the Serenity being more functional. That looks like the stove just previous to the Serenity (if that is correct) OR is it the Serenity (Saratoga) prior to changes in design. John
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