first stove install

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TheSmith

New Member
Nov 17, 2007
47
maine
I am in the process of installing my first pellet stove in my basement.we have recently had the home remodeled turning it from a ranch style into a cape.my goal is to help with heating costs now that we have more living space.the first floor of the home has very limited space so the basement was my only option.the stove I purchased is a englander and heats 2200 sq ft.these forums helped me greatly in my purchasing decision and instalation method, so thanks to all.I am running the vent out of the concrete and up past the roof line, how far past the roof should I go? I want to make sure the unit has a natural draft in a power failure.
I rented a hilti hammer drill and 4" masonry core bit for the hole from the local rental shop.The foundation is poured concrete and has rocks mixed in.Im am about 6 1/2 inches in and noticed the bit lost a few teeth, I did not hit any re-bar, so my guess is rocks mixed in the cement foundation took its toll on the bit.the only thing the rental shop said was "it doesnt like re-bar and these bits are expensive". so with about 2" to go im going to continue and hope the rental shop doesnt try and charge me for the bit.Once the hole is complete the rest should be easy.my foundation also does not have alot of exposure on the outside, so I dug out where the pipe will exit and am installing a steel basement window well around the vent.
I noticed a few other posts for basement installs and wanted to share how my project was going.aside from the bit issue everything seems to be going smoothly and will post pics when completed.
 
just noticed one other issue im concerned about.the wall hangers are 3", near the peak of the roof there is a slight overhang that will reduce to about 1".the pipe will be about 18" above the roof line. should I be concerned about the 1" clearance? does anyone know of wall brackets that have longer legs, say to give 5 or 6" clearance or will I have to make something custom?
 
ok, looking for some suggestions.I fired up my stove for the first time today, it ran for about 30 minutes and seemed to be working as it should, then I noticed the auger stopped feeding pellets into the pot.It eventually died out.I hunted through the manual, and found that a vacume issue could cause this.Im no engineer but it looks like this vacume is a safety device so if the exhaust gets clogged the stove shuts down.I removed the pellets from the stove including the pot and turned it on to listen for the auger sound, when I remove the clean out T cap the auger operates.I have checked all the vent pipe, nothing was clogged, any ideas? Its a englander 25puf model with the 240lb hopper.
 
how many total ft of flue pipe? what diameter? how many elbows, sounds like when you took the cap off the tee you released some back pressure, this is the reason i ask the above questions. a little more detailed description would give me more to work on
 
I have 2 elbows and 12' outside, with a 3' section inside down to the stove. it is 3" pipe but I read in the manual 15' was acceptable for 3". Im not in a high elevation either.Could a single section of "bad" vent cause this? or am I pushing the limit with 3" pipe?
 
just a update, I spoke with mike on the phone the other night , englander has great customer service! we tried adjusting a vacume settings and I fired up the stove.The auger seemed to keep feeding noe but it produced a dirty flame on this setting and alot of smoke, so I shut it down.when time permits there is one more thing I am going to try, I will remove a section of pipe temporarily, revert to the factory vacume settings and see if it keeps feding pellets, If it does Ill be bringing the 3" back to home depot and will be upgrading to 4". HD doesnt carry 4" and cant or wont special order it wich makes no sense to me since they carry 3" duravent! I did find a reasonable online store http://www.hearthsidedistributors.com/
so far they have the lowest price ive found on pipe, if anyone knows of a cheaper one please let me know!

thanks again mike for taking time to help me out
 
well today I finally had time to to some more "testing".I removed 2 sections of pipe (6ft) and fired up the stove.still no pellets.went back to the stove removed the cleanout cap and here come the pellets.So, with finding that tidbit of info I started to think there was something going on with a section of pipe.I took the entire stack down and inspected each piece, nothing looked out of the ordinary untill I got down to the clean out tee.I noticed a excessive amount of black soot inside on the appliance adapter.I looked into the exit pipe that comes of the blower with a flash light and noticed something kinda crumpled inside the pipe.I grabbed a screwdriver and low and behold I pulled out a small piece of cloth possibly from a rag.who would have thought to look here! The stove I bought was a floor display at home depot and I put it on hold, along came the forklift to put it away for later pickup.My best guess is a brilliant employee decided to shove a rag in there to keep the opening free of debris.Never having any exp. with pellet stoves before I did think the output of the blower seemed a little low during the dry run, but wasnt sure so went ahead with the project anyway.When I find my cord to my camera ill post a pic of what I found.I hooked everything back up after a good cleaning and the stove runs like a champ!My basement was 74degrees in less than a hour!
In a way it gives me a good idea of how safe this stove actually is, if something is wrong it will shut down.Thanks again mike for your help with this, since this was a open box item Im pretty sure this would be a homedepot caused problem.
 
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