Castle Serenity Pellet Stove

[sfsurfdude69]

I just bought the above titled pellet stove. It seems to be burning a 40 lb bag in 24 hours rather than the prescribed 40 hour time period. I am also encountering smoke on the glass door. In addition to that I am getting a high temperature alarm once or twice a day. I have everything set to the factory specs thus far and the airflow gate is open about 50%. Are there any suggestions that anyone can give me to make my stove run more efficiently?
I should have mentioned I go through a 40 lb bag in 24 hrs on the lowest "temp" setting at 61 degrees

 

[rcook430]

My Harmon p43 will not go 24 hours on 40lb bag. May 18 hours but that is it.

 

[rich2500]

yeah 24 hrs. is about right for the Serenity, the dirty glass is pretty normal also, some pellets will be better than others but the glass does dirty rather quickly. for the high temp alarm try bumping the room fan blower up a bit to get more heat out of the stove. It's in the manual how to adjust the blower fan. the manual can be found here if you don't have one.(broken link removed to http://www.castlestoves.com/serenity-wood-pellet-stove)

 

[Deezl Smoke]

To ad to what Rich said, the pellet type will make a difference on both the door glass filth ad the temperature. You are in the PNW as I am, so doug fir pellets should be available to you for competitive pricing.

The Serenity is tolerant of many pellet types, however, with each change of pellet type will also come a change in settings. I ran a few bags of several local pellets before settling on one brand of 100% douglas fir pellets from Coastal Farm and Ranch. It is their in store brand and they are a PNW chain, though I dont know if they have one close enough to you. I set the stove to make these pellets work, and I stick with the same pellets. If I ever do change, be it because of availability or pricing, I will have to make some changes to the stove settings to accommodate to the new pellets.

So the door glass will show signs of build up in the first 24 hours, then the build up will worsen over the next 72 hours or so until you cannot hardly see the flame. So far, I have not used any sort of cleaner on my Serenitys. I simply use a damp paper towel to remove the ash build up, then dry it with a dry paper towel. The glass must be dried before closing the stove and stating it back up.

As Rich mentions, try upping the stall voltage of the blower fan to get the heat away from the stove a bit better in hopes of eliminating the high temp alarm. I would also consider closing the air inlet gate a bit more in hopes of keeping the pellets in the burn pot until they are completely burned. But you do need to monitor the flame and the action of the pellets in the burn pot for a while to get a feel for what setting to change. You may also try lowing the stall voltage on the "exhaust" fan for your chosen heat setting.
Here are my exhaust voltage settings for each heat range, though I pretty much just run on setting 1.

 

[sfsurfdude69]

As a matter of fact last night I did close the air inlet to about 1/3 from 1/2 Im not sure but it almost seemed like the pellets burned longer but I am not sure... Is there any past knowledge of if indeed using my pellet stove is more efficient than a Goodman gas furnace? I have a small 650 sq. ft. house in Spokane and I buy my doug fir pellets from Lowes at 5.19 a bag minus the Veterans 10% discount. Before moving here from California I was told utility bill can range to 250 a month or more so I want that not to happen to me being on a pension.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

As a matter of fact last night I did close the air inlet to about 1/3 from 1/2 Im not sure but it almost seemed like the pellets burned longer but I am not sure... Is there any past knowledge of if indeed using my pellet stove is more efficient than a Goodman gas furnace? I have a small 650 sq. ft. house in Spokane and I buy my doug fir pellets from Lowes at 5.19 a bag minus the Veterans 10% discount. Before moving here from California I was told utility bill can range to 250 a month or more so I want that not to happen to me being on a pension.

This site does have a search feature, but it is sort of disguised in the icon "media" up at the top of the page. You might try that and see if someone has compared the two heaters.

If you can buy pellets by the ton, do so. Find a place or make a place to put them. This year I did happen upon a real good score on my chosen pellets at 148 bucks a ton. That's 3.70 pr bag. Purchased by the bag, I think the store lists them at close to 5 bucks. I think I heard that Coastal now offers 10% veteran discount on everything, all of the time. Used to be only one day a week or something like that.

The pellets should burn longer now if you were having them blow out of the pot prematurely. Some of these stoves have a fan that works better than others it seems. So what gate setting works for one, may not work for others. The exhaust plumbing design also plays a role. But if you have a thermometer, especially an infared type, you can check the temp of the exhaust pipe right behind the stove and see if you loose less heat with closing the gate a bit. Also, getting the pellets to burn completely before they are carried out as ash, will reduce the amount of ash in the ash pan, lengthening the cleaning duration.

 

[bags]

More air = faster burn. More fuel and more air = Hotter faster burn.

Research the threads Rich has here on the Serenity because he has already figured it all out for everyone. Plenty to read up on about your stove. It is a good stove but you just need to get it fine tuned and dialed in.

Rich has done this and is known as the resident Castle Serenity GURU here and other pellet forums. No need to reinvent the wheel. Just read up, adjust your stove and ask questions. He is always happy to help the Serenity schmucks. LOL! Once you fine tune your stove you will like it a lot. There is also a modification you can do for the air adjustment by installing a rod to adjust without removing panels from the stove. Pics and all.

 

[GT_Sharp]

As a matter of fact last night I did close the air inlet to about 1/3 from 1/2 Im not sure but it almost seemed like the pellets burned longer but I am not sure... Is there any past knowledge of if indeed using my pellet stove is more efficient than a Goodman gas furnace? I have a small 650 sq. ft. house in Spokane and I buy my doug fir pellets from Lowes at 5.19 a bag minus the Veterans 10% discount. Before moving here from California I was told utility bill can range to 250 a month or more so I want that not to happen to me being on a pension.

I have a Serenity in my shop and will burn a bag in 24hrs. if on setting 1. This cold weather hasn't seen setting 2 or 3 vary a whole lot from that. I also live in Spokane and buy Lignetics at Ziggys for $3.95 a bag. My Serenity likes the Lignetics, ymmv. The Lignetics might be a few cents per bag cheaper at North 40 but the loading has been a hassle for me at the one on Trent so I purchase at Ziggys, easy breezy.