Earth Stove MP35-50 Having Problems

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Joshuabienlein

New Member
Oct 2, 2011
34
Baltimore MD
Ok, I posted here before not knowing what to do because smoke was pouring out of the hopper. i cleaned it out per the manufacturer instructions but still no hope. Today i took the entire stove apart to see if i could notice anything wrong. it looks pretty clean to me. i need some help.

Let me break everything down for you.

-I purchased a house with this pellet stove already in it, i had a contractor re-flu the stove. it goes straight up 6ft through the ceiling and a 6" offset in the attic then straight through the roof. this flu is less then 3 months old.

-I removed and cleaned the Lower Baffle plate as well as all the heat exchanger pipes, opened up the clean-out and vacuumed that out and removed the fire-pot and got out all the ash. emptied the ash box.

-Replaced the main door gasket and the ash box gasket with 1/2" for the main door and the small rope for the ash box with high temp silicone.

the Auger looks clean and so does the cup, all functions of the control board seem to work fine. and a good bit of air blows out from the fire-pots holes.

the stove starts up fine but once on for about an hour it starts smoking the entire house up.

anyone have any ideas?

i was talking to someone and they told me there should be a flap under the cup and above the auger so that pellets can go through but no smoke. is this true?
If so mine clearly don't have one and the instructions on the stove don't mention it either.
 
Joshuabienlein said:
Ok, I posted here before not knowing what to do because smoke was pouring out of the hopper. i cleaned it out per the manufacturer instructions but still no hope. Today i took the entire stove apart to see if i could notice anything wrong. it looks pretty clean to me. i need some help.

Let me break everything down for you.

-I purchased a house with this pellet stove already in it, i had a contractor re-flu the stove. it goes straight up 6ft through the ceiling and a 6" offset in the attic then straight through the roof. this flu is less then 3 months old.

-I removed and cleaned the Lower Baffle plate as well as all the heat exchanger pipes, opened up the clean-out and vacuumed that out and removed the fire-pot and got out all the ash. emptied the ash box.

-Replaced the main door gasket and the ash box gasket with 1/2" for the main door and the small rope for the ash box with high temp silicone.

the Auger looks clean and so does the cup, all functions of the control board seem to work fine. and a good bit of air blows out from the fire-pots holes.

the stove starts up fine but once on for about an hour it starts smoking the entire house up.

anyone have any ideas?

i was talking to someone and they told me there should be a flap under the cup and above the auger so that pellets can go through but no smoke. is this true?
If so mine clearly don't have one and the instructions on the stove don't mention it either.



What size is the flue? Please describe the entire vent run starting at the stove adapter. We need the types of each bend, for example 45 degree, 90 degree ,tee, horizontal run lengths if any.

Is the vent termination cap clean, why is there an offset?

Yes we are nosy.
 
The Flue is 4" and about 6' of a vertical run it uses two 45 degree bends to form an offset to avoid a roof truss. then straight up through the roof to thespark aspirator cap. there seems to be no blockages at the cap. there is no horizontal run whatso ever.
 
Did you also remove and clean the combustion blower. If the combustion blower can be oiled have you oiled it according to the instructions on the manufacturers motor plate?

Would you please describe the fire (color, activity, etc...)

I haven't got a copy of the manual so I can't tell what the venting requirements are.
 
The fire in the chamber burns fine, its actually relatively big.


Sorry, i must have left that out. i did infact clean the combustion blower. it works great.

the color of the fire is a nice bright yellow red, and tall easily hitting the lower baffle.

the hopper seal is intact. however not sure how old it is. i could go and buy a new seal and see what that does.

if you private message me your email i would gladly send you the owners manual.
 
I'll PM my email address in a bit.

As I understand it the combustion blower on that stove is has a fairly low air flow rate something like 30 CFM .

I'll ship my email addy to you.
 
I have read the manual.

Before you had the flue redone was there a jog in it and have you readjusted the draft plate, according to the manual your fire should be bright yellow, which would have no red in it. It appears to me that the reason you are having smoke issues with the draft fan speed set up is a lack of natural draft when the system isn't actively pushing pellets.

You likely have introduced a slight increase in air flow resistance with the new venting. This can come from minor difference in the lengths of the new pieces or a change in overall height.

Other things that can come into play are differences in the use of any air movers in the house.

You might want to slowly change the draft plate to get the flame to a bright yellow color, then when you shut the stove off and it is cold, you can check for a proper natural draft by going to page 19 and using Step #3.
 
Ive moved the shutter from almost closed to full open, over the course of a few hours to see if it would stop, and nothing. Although the fire is a pretty bright yellow now. What's the easiest way to check for natural draft? I'm thinking that the flue could somehow be wrong. I had a contractor come and do it but they weren't specialized.


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The stove maker talks about it on page 19 of the manual. Now about that venting who is the manufacturer? How close is the peak of the house and is the termination above the peak of the house. Is that flue 4" pellet vent or just 4" single wall?
 
The peak of the house is about 10ft away and it is above the peak of the house. And the whole run is 4" pellet vent. Simpson duravent 4pvp-60b. Pretty positive it's double wall, as it never gets hot, just warm.
 
Ok, just wanted to be sure that the flue won't be cooling the exhaust off to fast.

Have you been up on the roof to check that the cap is properly positioned on the flue?

Now this smoking takes a while to occur and it is coming from the hopper which you are getting a replacement seal for so I won't go there again.

Have you inspected the cup to make sure it is all there, properly operating, and the correct cup?

Next on the list would be any air movers in the area of the stove are there any?

When you cleaned the stove what did you do in regards to the combustion blower and in what shape were the blades on it?
 
I did buy and replace the seal on the hopper but smoke still builds up in the hopper and expels through the sides. Where it's not 100%sealed. The cap is placed directly on top of the flue with a metal pipe clamp.

The only air movers would be the ceiling fans in the living room and the adjacent dinning room. None of which were on.

The blades look fine, I cleaned out the blades really well and there's no obstructions. The fan is not the problem. When the stove is cold and I turn the fan on I can feel a good flow of air from the firepot
 
The thing about forced combustion systems is that it is all a balancing act, once things get unbalanced smoke comes out where it shouldn't.

The smoke coming out of the hooper area can be doing so because of things like the vent cap being down too far on the flue, the convection fan (air mover) being a bit too strong, a bathroom exhaust fan running (combustion blower isn't very strong), and one of our favorite topics here ash in the plumbing, a clothes dryer running, range exhaust fan.

On some stoves not having the hooper more than 25% full (yep some of the older stoves took advantage of the volume of pellets in the hopper).
 
Sounds like there is still not enough air flow through the system, have you ever used a leaf blower in vacuum mode on the stove?

Have you checked the voltages at the combustion blower to see if they are in the ball park?
 
When the stove is on, the fire gets really dull when the fan gets turned to low. But becomes a nice bright fire again when I set it on high. And after an hour smoke fills the house from the hopper.

Sounds like a lack of draft. Could it be the double layered pipe coming out of the roof being much cooler then the inside pipe?
 
Joshuabienlein said:
At further inspection, went up on the roof. The cap is about a foot or a foot and a half beneath the peak of the roof. It should be above correct?

For that stove you betcha.
 
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