Enviro M55C

[IanT.]

Hello everyone,
I have been reading the forums here for the past week or so. Figured I'd join ask some questions I have and hopefully be a help to others as I learn myself.
Recently purchased my m55c so far quite a learning process. We are heating 1600 square ranch with some high ceilings.
I'm burning barefoot hardwood right now about 1.3 40lb bags a day keeping the livingroom where the stove is at 72, the hallway at 68ish, and the bedrooms about 65 during times we are home wile away and sleeping drop the temps about 3 degrees also supplementing with the furnace.
at first I was getting quite a bit of soot on the glass after a short time of burning. Today I adjusted the damper and after 3 hours now just starting to get brown so maybe need a little more air?
I also clean out about every two days and once a week do a vac and ash pan dump. I do have a fair amount of unburned pellets in the ash pan. I have watched them dump into the burn pot and dont see them spill over the burn pot. So I'm wondering how they are getting there?
Last question for now
The installers did not install the fresh air vent to the outside of the house. They said the typically don't other then in a mobile home cause cold air hitting the fire is not good. Is this normal and or ok ?

 

[Bill L]

Hey Ian, the overwhelming consensus is an OAK should be installed whenever possible, and in your situation it would be very easy to go through the wall behind the stove. This should also make it less drafty near the stove.

I found that the pellets tend to bounce and ricochet out of the burn pot soon after a cleaning, and less so when little berms of ash build up at either end. You say you are cleaning every couple of days, so you may not be getting the ash bed. Try letting it go, it is not necessary to clean the burn pot that often and the agitator will keep it burning fine

The glass shouldn’t brown up that quickly, try a little more air with the damper

 

[phile]

hi Ian. i have the m55 steel. I used to get unburnt pellets when I started my stove also. i put a small handful of pellets in and turn it on and then I turn it down to heat level 1 after it lights and when it's going good I turn it back up. It doesn't do it anymore. I think it just feeds to fast and overloads the burnpot on startup before they can burn. I also quit cleaning it so often. It seems happier a little dirty. clean it every two weeks actually, and a good cleaning once a month. Pretty sure that I have a lot bigger ash pan than you do, but it's not even half full after two weeks. -11 today wind chill -40 2000 sq.ft. house. 70 inside. nice. loving the M55.

 

[IanT.]

Thank you guys for your reply I will try some of your advice.
I'm a picture guy so bare with me.!
Here is the glass after 24 hours

This is the ash build up after 24 hours as well

Minus the glass does this look normal?

 

[Bill L]

No! Holy moly, is that ash piled up all over the place? I have never seen it that bad in my stove. Here is a pic of my stove that I haven’t touched in 2 weeks, burning on hi/lo heat level 3. I am burning Doug fir with very low ash currently, but did not experience that with other pellets

 

[Bill L]

Never mind what I said earlier about stretching out the cleaning schedule!

 

[IanT.]

Yes.. mine looks worse then yours in just 24..
Welp that's great (sarcasm)

Why would this be?

Pellets? Damper not open enough? Fresh air vent? The fake logs my wife had to have?

I don't know if this could be a contributing factor, but when I put a bag of pellets in I would say about cup of it is loose saw dust. If I was to separate it I would think maybe a cup worth

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

That's a lot of ash! It looks as though you could open the damper a bit more. Open it in small increments and wait fifteen minutes to see the effect on the flame. When you think you have a good flame, shut the stove down and give it a real good cleaning, then see how it does. You might also try increasing the combustion blower speed (if you can do that on your stove) by a notch to see if that helps.

Some brands of pellets burn better, others worse. What are you burning? (If you already posted that, sorry, I missed it.)

If the buildup on your door is black soot, then the fire definitely needs more air. If it's grey or brown ash, that's normal.

 

[Bill L]

I didn’t realize you had the logs, that explains the ash “arches” , lol, but still seems like a lot for 24 hrs. The logs may make it just look worse though. I always thought barefoots were supposed to be decent, but I would try and get some bags of other brands to compare, even if big box of tractor supply. Your flame looks pretty good but tough to tell, and the glass should be cleaner after just one day, so probably should open the damper a little more

 

[IanT.]

Combustion blower is on three.

I'll open the door some more tomorrow and give the inside a brush down see how it goes.
As far as a flame goes I'm not 100% sure what's the best flame I should see. Video of flame patters I see are not very helpful to me and if I was to take a video I don't know if you would be able to see if it is right.

My pellets are barefoot hardwood

The place I bought them from I asked what they would recommend as This was the first ton in the stove and that I have never had a pellet stove. The guy said he has the same stove and goes two weeks between cleanings on these pellets.

Or he could have been telling me that to push them off his stock cause they are junk.!?!?

Again guys thanks for your replys I know forums can be super helpful and I'm sure we can get me fixed up ;p

 

[IanT.]

I'll take some more pictures tomorrow I feel they can be helpful

 

[JRemington]

I would try a different pellet with all that ash.

 

[phile]

mine looks just like Bill's after two weeks. I'm new to pellet stoves this year as well, but I would add more air for sure. I bought a manometer on ebay for $30 bucks just to ease my mind on draft. A lot of people here have said that the installer didn't set it right. high for an hour then check. Just a thought but maybe get rid of the log and see what happens. looks like a pain to clean anyway. You can see in the ash pan on mine and see if there is a lot of glowing pellets. 1/8 " increments on the damper adjustments changed readings. I also bought a corn cleaner on ebay from a guy in Wisconsin. I hope he makes a million bucks on it because it"s awesome. Didn"t want that sawdust in my stove and I mix corn with pellets. The pellets I am using have maybe enough dust to fill the palm of my hand. It also makes it easier to put pellets into a 5 gal bucket. 2 buckets per bag. Easier to dump pellets in with bucket. FYI home depot bucket is taller than a lowes bucket.

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[phile]

 

[Ssyko]

Combustion blower is on three.

I'll open the door some more tomorrow and give the inside a brush down see how it goes.
As far as a flame goes I'm not 100% sure what's the best flame I should see. Video of flame patters I see are not very helpful to me and if I was to take a video I don't know if you would be able to see if it is right.

My pellets are barefoot hardwood

The place I bought them from I asked what they would recommend as This was the first ton in the stove and that I have never had a pellet stove. The guy said he has the same stove and goes two weeks between cleanings on these pellets.

Or he could have been telling me that to push them off his stock cause they are junk.!?!?

Again guys thanks for your replys I know forums can be super helpful and I'm sure we can get me fixed up ;p

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

I didn’t realize you had the logs, that explains the ash “arches” , lol,. . . .

I thought that was all ash, too, lol! But I agree that, although the buildup doesn't look as bad, once you know that the logs are there, it's still a bit heavy.

Ian, you are probably closer to a good damper position than I thought at first, but I agree with everyone that you could open it a bit more. Take a look at the picture Ssyko posted--I found it more helpful than those videos you mention.

 

[IanT.]

Ok here the pictures from today's clean out after 48 hours and about 3 bags

WARNING PICTURE OVERLOAD

Glass door

Ash right from the fire box

I didn't clean the fire box here is that picture

Here is two pictures of the flame with the door in the position in the picture below
Exposure 1

#2

Damper door almost full open

I also turned up the combustion blower to 4

So lets see what you guys think and then I'll post again in 24-48 hopefully things are better

 

[IanT.]

Forgot the ash pan pic. This was emptied on Saturday

I was planning on going to buy another ton this weekend but switching to something else
Here is the place I will be buying from

http://www.pelletsdirect.com/Wood Pellets Pricing.htm

I was leaning towards the Logik-e

 

[IanT.]

Thank you phile I am now researching the pellet screeners looks like they are easy enough to make.

If I do make one maybe I will do a tutorial for the forum

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

I have a different make and model from you, but they are made by the same people (I'm not real clear on the exact relationship between Enviro, Sherwood, and Hudson River, but Enviro and Hudson stoves use a lot of the same parts), and that looks like the amount of ash I get after three bags of pellets, but my door doesn't get quite as dirty, and the flame still looks as though the damper could be opened even a bit more. I think you're getting there.

P.S.---What do you think of the log set? Or does your wife read this forum, lol?

 

[Ssyko]

The flame is lazy and sooty. Something in the path through the stove is choking it. With your damper almost wide open and draft at 4 you should be blowing embers out of the pot regularly. Have you had the inside of the stove apart?

 

[IanT.]

Yankee
The log set was a waist of $150 imo but that's was definitely the wife's call. Right now it out and in the basement. I think I'm going to shoot a message to enviro to voice my displeasure with the log set and see what they have to say about it.

Ssyko
Not sure how far to check but I have had all the interior parts out and the inside damper access doors open for a vacuum
I'm starting to think something's up with that as well. After I posted last night I played with the door and the control with not much of a change in the flame throughout the changes made. Right now I have the door about half closed, the control on 3 and the flame looks basically the same.

 

[Ssyko]

Well i would open the damper all the way so you can get the most heat out of the fuel you can till enviro sheds some light on this oddity

 

[Bill L]

When you say control on 3, do you mean heat level or combustion trim? You should be able to trim up the combustion separate from heat level, might want to try that as well if you didn’t already. But it does seem like you have an air flow issue, may want to also double check your vent piping. With this being a new stove, you should be able to get your installer to evaluate at no cost since it doesn’t appear to be operating properly

 

[vinny11950]

Hi, Ian, I will chime in and say your stove install looks great. Congrats.

The dirty glass and ash and unburnt pellets in the pan look about normal to me, within the range of the M55. It could be your house is really air tight and your stove is not getting enough air flow - try opening a window and see if that makes a difference in the burning.

Also note that a higher combustion speed and wider open damper, will let more heat leave the stove. Not sure how much of a difference it makes.

More important, maybe your pellets are just ashy. It happens, but if they give good heat, they are worth it.

But it sound like you are using the right amount of pellets for a house that size. My house is 1250 sq, and we burn about 1 a bag depending on how cold it is. and get the same range of temps you do.

I was like you when I first ran the stove, always cleaning, fighting the keep the glass clean. But now I just let it run dirty for weeks without issue. I clean it every 2 to 3 weeks and no issues. But when I do clean it, I make it count.

Anyway, make sure to put a surge protector on the stove. Good luck.