CB1200 - Not as toasty as it should be

[NewToPA]

New to the pellet lifestyle, so bear with me. Former city guy in rural PA now.

I moved into my house over the summer and it has both a small propane fireplace as well as a Quadrafire CB1200. The propane fireplace is mostly for show and is sized accordingly and could not provide primary heat for my house.
The house is a 2000 sq ft one, with three levels. The ground floor is all utility and storage and I'm not concerned about heating it. The CB1200 is on the first floor.
The short version is th

at it's not heating as much as I think it should be. When it's 30 outside, it runs pretty much constantly to get the house up to 66, which is all it can manage. It's a newer house (2008) and is pretty tight. Truth be told, the 15000 BTU propane fireplace is doing a much better job at heating the house.

I've been running it for a good month now, so this is based on more than a few days.

I gave the stove a good cleaning. I think I've got pretty good airflow to the combustion side of things. Nice snappy flames, about 6" high. I've got a good feed rate on the pellets. Electrically things look OK. When the stove calls for heat, it does its thing and has no problem building a flame.

I installed an OAK, but that didn't make much of a difference.

I'm really thinking the convection motor may need to be replaced. I can stand about 3" in front of the stove comfortably. 6"-12" is warm. More than a foot or two away and not much happening.

When the convection fan kicks on, it's definitely LOUD, to the point that it's tough to listen to TV in the room, and it's audible through most of the house. No grinding or squeaks, just a loud fan. And not much coming out of it.

I did take the temp, and right at the vent I'm getting 300+ degrees on the metal (thats where my temp gun taps out).

So I feel like the stove is burning properly, I know it's getting plenty of fresh air, but it's just not generating the heat output, or at least it's not distributing the heat.

Thoughts?

(And I know, the stove is filthy in the video, I swear I cleaned it later)

 

[johneh]

Did you pull the circulation fan and clean it ?
If you do not have a manual, here is one

https://downloads.hearthnhome.com/installmanuals/7014_082.pdf

 

[NewToPA]

Thanks, that was on my list to try. From what everything sounds like to me, the issue is related to this someway, somehow...

 

[ARC]

Did you pull the circulation fan and clean it ?

Especially if you have pets.

 

[NewToPA]

OK, that's just nasty...

I figured it's a cheap (relatively) replacement and the one in there is an unknown age, so I just ordered a new one and Ill swap it out. I will keep you posted!

 

[zrock]

Bit of a tall ask for it to be heating your whole house. If you do not already have one a ceiling fan on low helps move the air around. One thing you will notice as well especially with a OAK installed once the temps get below 0 and down to the -5 or lower their will be more heat coming from the stove with the cold dense air from the OAK. Im assuming since you say you have been running it for a month that its been non stop? As soon as you shut it down for a day then it has to work to get everything back to temp and the temp to settle out.. I notice a huge difference in heat output when outside gets below 0. Or unless your kid turns it on and then forgets about it and the house is cooking when you come home from work

 

[NewToPA]

Thanks @zrock
Few points I probably should clarify. I do have a few ceiling fans, and they do a great job of moving the heat from the propane fireplace which is in the same room as the CB1200.
As mentioned, the propane fireplace is rated for less than half of the BTU output as the cb1200, but provides much more heat to the house.
When I mentioned running it for a month, I mean we have been cold here, so it's been on for a month, but not 24/7. It cycles at least once an hour, and I leave it off for a bit to cool so I can clean it out every day or two.
We have been well below freezing here most nights, down in the teens.

So my thinking/reasoning is that there is an issue with the output from the 1200 based on the following:
The flame looks correct
The unit only puts out enough heat to make me warm if I'm a few inches from it.
My house is only 2000 sq ft, and I'm only heating 2 out of the three floors of that, so footage wise, I'm well in the range of the stove.
My propane fireplace rated for substantially less than the CB1200 is situated close to it, so the heat from it needs to circulate through the house the same way as it.
The propane fireplace can bring the house up to temp in under an hour and has no problems holding the house on its own at a comfortable temp.
The CB1200 can run for 60 minutes straight and can barely hold temp in the house on its own.

Just on paper alone, apples to apples, both heat sources here should not even be in the same ballpark. Which is unfortunately true, but backwards...the dinky propane fireplace is blowing the pellet stove out of the water.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Thanks @zrock
Few points I probably should clarify. I do have a few ceiling fans, and they do a great job of moving the heat from the propane fireplace which is in the same room as the CB1200.
As mentioned, the propane fireplace is rated for less than half of the BTU output as the cb1200, but provides much more heat to the house.
When I mentioned running it for a month, I mean we have been cold here, so it's been on for a month, but not 24/7. It cycles at least once an hour, and I leave it off for a bit to cool so I can clean it out every day or two.
We have been well below freezing here most nights, down in the teens.

So my thinking/reasoning is that there is an issue with the output from the 1200 based on the following:
The flame looks correct
The unit only puts out enough heat to make me warm if I'm a few inches from it.
My house is only 2000 sq ft, and I'm only heating 2 out of the three floors of that, so footage wise, I'm well in the range of the stove.
My propane fireplace rated for substantially less than the CB1200 is situated close to it, so the heat from it needs to circulate through the house the same way as it.
The propane fireplace can bring the house up to temp in under an hour and has no problems holding the house on its own at a comfortable temp.
The CB1200 can run for 60 minutes straight and can barely hold temp in the house on its own.

Just on paper alone, apples to apples, both heat sources here should not even be in the same ballpark. Which is unfortunately true, but backwards...the dinky propane fireplace is blowing the pellet stove out of the water.

If that blower is going at full speed you should be able to feel pressure on your hand and it should be very loud.

 

[zrock]

Thanks @zrock
Few points I probably should clarify. I do have a few ceiling fans, and they do a great job of moving the heat from the propane fireplace which is in the same room as the CB1200.
As mentioned, the propane fireplace is rated for less than half of the BTU output as the cb1200, but provides much more heat to the house.
When I mentioned running it for a month, I mean we have been cold here, so it's been on for a month, but not 24/7. It cycles at least once an hour, and I leave it off for a bit to cool so I can clean it out every day or two.
We have been well below freezing here most nights, down in the teens.

So my thinking/reasoning is that there is an issue with the output from the 1200 based on the following:
The flame looks correct
The unit only puts out enough heat to make me warm if I'm a few inches from it.
My house is only 2000 sq ft, and I'm only heating 2 out of the three floors of that, so footage wise, I'm well in the range of the stove.
My propane fireplace rated for substantially less than the CB1200 is situated close to it, so the heat from it needs to circulate through the house the same way as it.
The propane fireplace can bring the house up to temp in under an hour and has no problems holding the house on its own at a comfortable temp.
The CB1200 can run for 60 minutes straight and can barely hold temp in the house on its own.

Just on paper alone, apples to apples, both heat sources here should not even be in the same ballpark. Which is unfortunately true, but backwards...the dinky propane fireplace is blowing the pellet stove out of the water.

Little confused, you say it cycles once a hour so im assuming you are running it on a thermostat or something at a set temp. So it must be hitting temp if its shutting down and restarting?
Looking at the specs on it says it wil lheat 1000-2700 sq ft so in reality cut the 2700 in half and that will be a more realistic number. Remember these are more a space heater and really cannot compare output to a propane system. You say the flame looks good but i know from playing with mine even though the flame may look good it might not be i can change the heat output easily by fine tuning my draft. If you look though the forums 2000sq ft is a ask for a pellet stove. my place is about 900 and i have a similar size stove and it heats my place nicely, i never shut it down fully unless it needs a cleaning once a week and always leave it on a maint flame and do not have it shut down fully. As posted above i would look at both your fans in the unit and make sure they are both clean, i do the exhaust fan 2x a season and clean out the pipe at the same time. Not sure what setting you have your ceiling fans on but i found that the lowest setting is optimal in my house anything higher and the air movement does not seem to be as efficient. Not sure if you have a forced air furnace or not but when my temps drop to -20 or so every once and a while i will turn the furnace on for a cycle just to help circulate the warm air to all rooms and then once they are up to temp it helps it to stay more consistent.

 

[zrock]

Actually went back and looked at your vid and to me it looks like your flame is small like its not feeding enough pellets.. My flame on heating mode is much bigger and that's only at the med setting i never have my unit go to high. Mine is 1-5 and consistently runs between 1-3 and no higher.