Enviro M55

[West]

Wondering if anyone has ideas for separating the room blower from the feed speed? Rheostat? Jumpers?

I burn barley exclusively and want more cfm through the room blower on low feed rates. (the stuff flows like water and burns HOT)


If I can set the stove at level 2 - and still get the room blower speeds of level 5 I would be happy.



The feed trim settings dont give me enough flexibility.

Ideas?

 

[jtakeman]

Keep in mind that Enviro is trying to set middle ground with these controllers. I think they have done a good job of it. But in some cases we could use some form of adjustability. I like what they did for the everyday user, But us more advanted user's could have some tinker room. What we really need is a controller that lets us set the levels where we want. Has been a pet pev of mine for quite some time. Sure wish the company that fabs these controllers would work with the end user. But they are locked into the stove manufacturers and don't even answer emails. If you do get an answer its says to contact the stove manufacture.

The controllers on these stoves are reprogrammable and a programmer with some software would give us adaptability. But my suggestions have fallen on deaf ears. Maybe if we all start a campaign they might listen. but I doubt enough would get involved to make it matter. Enviro doesn't make the controllers(yes they do set the program limits with the everyday user in mind), They purchase from a company that makes them for many stove lines. There are OTP chips on some controllers(DHC3000 Series) but others(DHC4000 series) have programable flash. There is a lot more to be said here, But :zip:

Link to controller OEM site: http://www.appconx.com/products/controlsystems.html

End of rant and On to what can be done.

You can use a relay to control the on/off of the blower so it doesn't run when the stove is down. Use the contacts from the blower to control the relay. Then use a seperate power source to run the blower with a rheastat. Add a fuse to protect the circuit. Use the rheastat to control the blower speed. The one thing to watch is you have to have the blower set high enough to keep the stove cool or you trip the high limit. I only recommend this to peeps wanting more blower speed. Going lower than what the factory has set isn't recommended. This isn't for just anyone and should only be used in certain cases. I will not post the info in an open forum. The basics are it.

 

[skinanbones]

Eviro has a "Turbo" in the works for the M55 series, but i think that they need enought consumer to complain about the low cfm output on the lower setting. I have a customer that's been trying to get one for 2 1/2 years, but they won't release it.

 

[jtakeman]

Any other details on the turbo mod? Is it just adding a larger CFM blower, That would help the M55 owners. But I still wouldn't mind seeing something like a USB interface so we could set blower levels and tweak the feed rates.

Bixby has such an option, But I am not sold on the feeder wheel and a few other items on there stove. I much prefer the basic design of the Enviro, But wouldn't mind having the ability mentioned above. With the multifuels still progressing I definetly feel this option would be rather handy for controlling the stove setup.

I am also hoping Enviro releases a multifuel furnace and maybe that will have such capabilities?

 

[flynfrfun]

I just emailed Enviro (again) about the convection blower and asked about the Turbo feature. Hopefully they will respond. There is not any room for a bigger blower that I can tell without modifying the stove extensively. I suspect the "Turbo" will be a button you push that will ramp the convection blower up a level. I hope they listen to us though. Really, I would like to see the amount of air coming out at level 5 to come out at level 3.

On the subject of convection blowers...mine just took a dump. I sure hope it's a fluke as I've only burned 1 ton so far. It started squealing really loud. I suspect a seized or dry bearing. It had more resistance to turning that I remember when it was working properly.

PLEASE guys...email enviro directly about the convection blower issue. They need to hear from lots of us.
Flynfrfun

 

[skinanbones]

The turbo fan will be just that a larger cfm "turbo" fan that you can purchase to replace the existing one. The main downside to it is noise and i think the main reason it's not released yet. As for a multi fuel furance Enviro tried that before the omega came and the response wasn't the great so it got axed.

 

[jtakeman]

There must be some market for the furnaces out there with all we see coming to market. That's all that Fahrenheit makes and there selling. Maybe Enviro should reconsider as today is a different market than years past.

I can't be the only person wanting one?

 

[flynfrfun]

The turbo fan will be just that a larger cfm "turbo" fan that you can purchase to replace the existing one. The main downside to it is noise and i think the main reason it's not released yet.

That sounds great to me. Of course, if they gave us more flexibility of adjusting the fan speed independently, we could turn it down and I'm sure even the Turbo fan would be quiet enough. But at least we could crank it up if we wanted to. Maybe it's too complicated, but it seems all they have to do is limit the fan speed for each heat level, so that the consumer can't turn it down too much and overheat the stove. But, yet they could turn it as high as they wanted for each heat level.

BTW, neither my dealer or local distributor had a convection blower. ETA is late this week at the earliest. So, I took a look at the fan and found that the bushings on the motor side were the problem. Added some Tri-Flo oil to all bushings and it started turning freely again. It's burned for about 5hrs without any noise, but I'm still going to request a new blower. Something must be wrong that this one started making noise so quickly.
Flynfrfun

 

[checkthisout]

As fuel prices creep up, manufacturers will begin to add more temp sensors and more sophisticated controls in order to increase efficiency. I am curious as to how Harman has their controllers programmed and how the stove utlizes the ESP.

Some manufacturers may limit convection blower settings in order to keep the stove within it's efficiency and smoke rating. (Speculation).

 

[flynfrfun]

As fuel prices creep up, manufacturers will begin to add more temp sensors and more sophisticated controls in order to increase efficiency. I am curious as to how Harman has their controllers programmed and how the stove utlizes the ESP.

Some manufacturers may limit convection blower settings in order to keep the stove within it's efficiency and smoke rating. (Speculation).

Do you mean combustion blower? I can't see how limiting the convection blower output could increase efficiency? Better designed heat exchangers & their proximity to the fire is the way to increase efficiency, I would think.
Flynfrfun

 

[checkthisout]

As fuel prices creep up, manufacturers will begin to add more temp sensors and more sophisticated controls in order to increase efficiency. I am curious as to how Harman has their controllers programmed and how the stove utlizes the ESP.

Some manufacturers may limit convection blower settings in order to keep the stove within it's efficiency and smoke rating. (Speculation).

Do you mean combustion blower? I can't see how limiting the convection blower output could increase efficiency? Better designed heat exchangers & their proximity to the fire is the way to increase efficiency, I would think.
Flynfrfun

On the low setting, my stove smokes a lot and burns itself out if you have the convection blower any higher than "1".

I reason this is because a setting higher than this cools the appliance off to the point where it drops below the temperature necessary to maintain efficient combustion and keep combustion altogether.

 

[skinanbones]

As for oiling the blower you will get about 24 hrs of quieter run time and then it will get noisy and each day get worse. A customer of mine just put 2 drops of 3in1 oil on the bushing every morning until i could get him a new fan.

 

[flynfrfun]

As for oiling the blower you will get about 24 hrs of quieter run time and then it will get noisy and each day get worse. A customer of mine just put 2 drops of 3in1 oil on the bushing every morning until i could get him a new fan.

Thanks Skinanbones. It will be interesting to see how long Tri-Flo works. It has teflon in it.
Flynfrfun

 

[flynfrfun]

BTW,
Enviro responded and they ARE working on a higher output convection blower for the M55. I told them we really would like to see manual control of the fan as well. They didn't respond to that part, but did say the higher output fan is going thru testing and certification, but no ETA at this time.
Flynfrfun

 

[JimmyJ]

Thanks for the info....wonder what the existing M55 owners will have to do to get their hands on this new blower if indeed it does come out. We will probably have to pay the extra $$ for it.

 

[skinanbones]

when and or if that fan ever hit the market expect it to be at least $200, as that is what most replacment fans from Enviro are worth.

 

[jtakeman]

If someone posts the fan info(when available!), I'll do my best to find aftermarket.

Example:

Enviro's 50-514 = $256.40

Fasco's A212 = $128.37

 

[michaelma9]

The convection blower on my M55 crapped out about a month ago, been trying to get a replacement ever since but it never shows up on my dealers truck. I'm going to have pellets in my garage all summer now... I've burned about 2-3 tons through mine.

I hope the higher output blower makes it, this stove could really use it. I'll send an email in to them too.

 

[flynfrfun]

I'm surprised to hear about this many convection blower failures already. Hopefully the turbo fan will be better.
Flynfrfun