It's probably an unusual title for a thread, but I'm getting desperate and want to know if anyone has had the same problem.
Our Foxfire is only putting out half the heat that it did at the end of last year. The stove's exhaust channel and vent pipe are clean, as is the rubber hose going to the flow switch as is the brass nipple on the other end. I clean the fire box out every week, removing all the panels and vacuuming behind them. The combustion fan, both convection fans and the flow switch are all new. The auger is turning fine. We've used Barefoot pellets for years, although we are switching to Northern Max, which is another quality pellet w/ a slightly higher BTU output. We had a tech come out to look at it and he couldn't find anything wrong.
So how do I know there's a problem? The Foxfire has two top surfaces - one over the hopper and the other over the firebox. Until this year, we couldn't put our hand on the surface over the firebox even when the stove was on a low setting. Now, even when the stove is on high, that surface is just warm. The stove has 10 heat settings. Last year we ran it on 1 or 2 (3 or 4 if it was exceptionally cold). This year we've had to keep it at 8, using a lot of pellets.
The only possibility I can think of is that mice built a nest that's blocking airflow to the combustion platform, but I'm hesitant to try and weave a vacuum hose into the stove when I can't see if there are any sensors or other things that I might damage.
Can anyone out there help? We're really desperate. Thank you.
Our Foxfire is only putting out half the heat that it did at the end of last year. The stove's exhaust channel and vent pipe are clean, as is the rubber hose going to the flow switch as is the brass nipple on the other end. I clean the fire box out every week, removing all the panels and vacuuming behind them. The combustion fan, both convection fans and the flow switch are all new. The auger is turning fine. We've used Barefoot pellets for years, although we are switching to Northern Max, which is another quality pellet w/ a slightly higher BTU output. We had a tech come out to look at it and he couldn't find anything wrong.
So how do I know there's a problem? The Foxfire has two top surfaces - one over the hopper and the other over the firebox. Until this year, we couldn't put our hand on the surface over the firebox even when the stove was on a low setting. Now, even when the stove is on high, that surface is just warm. The stove has 10 heat settings. Last year we ran it on 1 or 2 (3 or 4 if it was exceptionally cold). This year we've had to keep it at 8, using a lot of pellets.
The only possibility I can think of is that mice built a nest that's blocking airflow to the combustion platform, but I'm hesitant to try and weave a vacuum hose into the stove when I can't see if there are any sensors or other things that I might damage.
Can anyone out there help? We're really desperate. Thank you.
