Enviro M55FPI too much draft?

[ASWZ71]

I purchased the M55FPI in June of this year so this is my first season using it. The dealer did not set up with a magnehelic gauge. I have a 27ft chimney with approved liner and the OAK. I bought a gauge, followed the directions in the manual but with the damper closed (all the way towards the stove) and the combustion trim on 1 the reading is still -.21. The flame looks based on the YouTube videos from enviro to be a bit to active. I contacted the dealer and his response is that no one uses the gauge and there is no support offered to him from enviro to trouble shoot these problems. I am hoping you all can let me know if there is a possible solution or if this is even out of spec enough to really waste any fuel. Any help is appreciated as I am new to this.

 

[NYBurner]

A couple of things…the mag setting suggested by eviro is a bit low imo, it leaves the fire burning dirty and will blacken the glass very quickly. With the damper set full closed it is still partially cracked, and having a good draft is a good thing.
How is your OAK run, up the chimney?
what is your blower trim set at?
did you let the stove run at heat 5 for about 30 min prior to doing the mag reading?
what is your feed trim set at?
do you have the updated model with the black convection blower, and have you done the auger restricter plate adjustment?
what pellet are you burning?

if you can answer those questions it will be helpful, and if you can get a couple of pics (or vid) of your fire at 3 ,4, or 5 so we can also see what you are seeing. My flame is typically lazy on the outside portion of the 'burn box' and the main flame inside the box is vertical and very light orange-yellow.

 

[ASWZ71]

A couple of things…the mag setting suggested by eviro is a bit low imo, it leaves the fire burning dirty and will blacken the glass very quickly. With the damper set full closed it is still partially cracked, and having a good draft is a good thing.
How is your OAK run, up the chimney?
what is your blower trim set at?
did you let the stove run at heat 5 for about 30 min prior to doing the mag reading?
what is your feed trim set at?
do you have the updated model with the black convection blower, and have you done the auger restricter plate adjustment?
what pellet are you burning?

if you can answer those questions it will be helpful, and if you can get a couple of pics (or vid) of your fire at 3 ,4, or 5 so we can also see what you are seeing. My flame is typically lazy on the outside portion of the 'burn box' and the main flame inside the box is vertical and very light orange-yellow.

Thank you for the reply. My OAK is run up the chimney. I ran the stove for an hour on 5 before taking any readings. I adjusted the combustion blower trim down to 1 and that is when I got my lowest reading -.21. I left feed trim set to the default 3. My stove was purchased in May of 2015. I am not sure if I have the black blower but I can check when I get home. I have not adjusted any restrictor plate (should I?). I have only run 5 bags through the stove on running chilly nights but have not been impressed with the heat output (but like I said its very early on with the stove). The longest I ran it (overnight) I ran in HI/LOW setting 3 and the defaults with thermostat it burned a 40lbs bag in about 13hours outside temps in the 40's thermostat set to 70. I am burning Lignetics pellets. I will post a video of the stove running as suggested. Since I am new is there a easy way to do that from an Iphone?

 

[NYBurner]

if you recently purchased the unit new I'd assume you have the updated blower, this is a pic of it. Notice the black head, you can see it on the right side of the stove with the side panel removed.


Here is a thread discussing the auger cover plate:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/enviro-m55-cast-fs-flame-pattern.92422/

Your burn rate sounds about right, but in thermo mode its all dependent on how often the house is calling for it burn at the 'hi' setting. If I run mine at heat 3 constant I can easily burn 40lb in about 8 hours. In thermo mode on a mild day it can last a lot longer.

I have mine in a finished basement living room and run up the chimney as well (from basement and up an additional 2 stories) with an OAK the same. If you do have the auger plate, and it is choked all the way down it is seriously restricting pellets. Take a look at the thread, read up on it and decide if you would like to open it up at all it made a nice difference for mine. The restricted flame may be why you're thinking the pattern does not look right.

 

[skinanbones]

i'd burn 10-15 bags and check with the mag agian. I've found that once there is some ash in the system that it slows down the draft a couple points.

 

[ASWZ71]

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Here is the stove on level 3 feed trim 3 combustion trim 1. Video shot after 1 hour run time.

 

[ASWZ71]

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Here is the stove on level 4 feed trim 3 combustion trim 1. Video taken after 1 hour at level 4

 

[ASWZ71]

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Here is the stove on level 5 feed trim 3 and combustion trim 1. Video after running on 5 for one hour.

 

[NYBurner]

great vids, the flames look very healthy to me honestly. I know the camera puts on a slightly more orange hue so it looks really good. You may want to look into opening your auger baffle a little bit, it will give a lot more flame and heat (and eat more pellets). My Heat 3 looks like your level 4 or 5 with the baffle up about 1.5 - 2". Just use a marker to set the original level so you know where to set it if you decide you want prefer to restrict it.

Also do you have the pellet selector set on 'premium'? In any case, it looks like it is burning very well currently.

 

[skinanbones]

I would open up your auger feed cover, moved it open at least one hole further. On 5 for an hour should trip the high limit heat switch if you more it too far

 

[Aquion]

I tried to calibrate my stove with a manometer a few years ago and had the same problem. I had to close the damper almost all the way to get the correct reading. I just eyeball it now, and that seems to work fine. I do vaguely remember somebody commenting on how the OAK can affect the reading. Can anyone confirm that the OAK should be disconnected when calibrating the stove with a manometer or magnehelic gauge?

 

[Cory S]

That flame looks terrible to me... Super lazy and lacking some oxygen.

 

[NYBurner]

Trying to video a flame always looks darker and doesn't show the full activity. Seeing his is rising vertical until it hits the upper baffle plate is about as good of indicator as you can get from video of an enviro. If you choke it out, the flame turns very dark and meanders like a rolling fireball on high burn. If anything, the flame would benefit from some extra fuel (opening the auger plate a bit)….it will make a solid vertical flame column.

skinanbones - I can run mine on 5 continuously with no issues, I believe flynn and others have said there is actually no need for the restrictor at all with the new convection blower. I have mine bumped open 2 hole slots running bare foots and have no issues.

Aquion- I can't see that removing the OAK would be beneficial. The Mag is simply a vacuum gauge reading the draft pull in the combustion chamber, pulling the OAK would not give an accurate representation of burn condition the stove operates in. As I mentioned earlier, I've found that enviro recommends a slightly low reading and the stove burns slightly dirty at those settings so I always bump mine open an extra 1/4" or so. You just need to watch your flame and adjust it accordingly, the Mag is really just a good starting point imo.

 

[ASWZ71]

Update: I have burned about 15 bags thru the stove. I was still not impressed with the output. I took the stove apart during normal cleaning and observed the draft adjustment door. I marked it at full close and then bent the adjustment bar to allow closing it further. I was able to get the stove in spec .17 WC with this crude adjustment. I will burn on this new setting for the next week to see results. I can say that upon backing the stove down to setting 2 I see much more flame activity then ever before at that setting but time will tell on performance.

 

[NYBurner]

did you move the auger restrictor plate up at all? If you're wanting more heat, you need to get more fuel into the fire….mine will melt your face off running at 4 or 5 if you stand in front of it.

 

[ASWZ71]

Not yet. I have run at setting 2 with the factory restrictor plate settings. I have seen a noticeable increase in flame and heat. It's amazing a small difference in draft makes such a difference. I need to order or build a set of rails so I can get at the auger plate. With the price of oil being so low pumping more pellets in this thing prob does not make much sense. Thanks so much for all the help so far! I will update again after I burn with these settings for a while.

 

[NYBurner]

I had a similar problem with mine initially. The reason you're seeing more flame is now that your air is restricted and you're slowing down the burn of the available fuel. There is not much you will be able to do to improve the heat output until you can get the plate opened up a bit….more pellets in = more heat.