FP30 pacific energy, brand new have a couple questions

[PChuck]

Hi Everyone,
I have the FP30 arched with countryman sourrond. Its brand new and I have been burning for about 2 weeks all day long I have a couple questions.
My fan gets really noisy once the unit starts to cool down. Makes a loud vibrating sound. Anyone else experienced this?
I have a mastercraft infrared Heat gun and have been monitoring the temp. Where is the proper place to measure the temp? I have been measuring it just about the glass on the door. Approx 1/4” above the glass and have gotten temps in the 800’s. I’m quite concerned! (Have had damper closed)
What does face temp mean?
Seems like I have huge amount of draft my chimney is approx 30’ in height. I put a full load of dry ash and cherry on a small amount of coals. Put the the damper all the way closed right from beginning. In about an hour I had ALOT of flames. Temp at top of glass was 800. Temp door frame 1/2 above the glass was 750?
Thought having damper closed all the way from beginning would have prevented this...
Any input would be appreciated thanks

 

[gusguy]

Is your fan on a rheostat or or a simple switch. My fan is controlled by a rheostat and at a certain speed I get a bit of vibration, just adjust the speed till it goes away. Minor adjustment is all it needs. As for temp, measuring the door is pointless. You need to get a temp on the stove body. I have a magnetic therometer on the stove body above the handle and it fairly similar to my cheap ir gun. There's not a whole lot of info on these stoves compared to others but there's a group of guys here that have a pretty good handle on them.

 

[gusguy]

If you look above the handle you'll see the therometer. This seems like the best spot for an accurate reading.

 

[Mike M.]

Most of us on here with the FP30 have blocked 1/2 to 3/4 of our OAKs. I did this and monitored temps when my unit was new. Now I just try to avoid glowing red stove parts and call it good. 800 for a short time period is not that concerning. Try letting it burn down further before the reload. I haven't checked the actual temp of mine in 2 years. Try to keep the fire in your control, larger splits, pack tighter, unslpit rounds ect.

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[PChuck]

View attachment 237690
If you look above the handle you'll see the therometer. This seems like the best spot for an accurate reading.

I have a simple on of switch, ill get a rheostat to control speed. Ill get a therometer on the stove. When I use the IR temp sensor on stove body I havent seen the temp over 650. So I think thats a good sign. Im going to try larger peices of wood when I load it fully. See if that helps

 

[PChuck]

Sorry don’t know all the lingo, OAKs? And how do I cover that?

 

[PChuck]

Think I got it outside air intake? I didn’t install that on my unit. I do have a vacu stack for my cap. I live in an extremely windy spot. (Shore of Lake Huron. ) I do believe this ads to my draft

 

[Mike M.]

Yes outside air intake = OAK. Do you have access to the location this would normally be connected to via pipe on the unit?

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[Mike M.]

Here is a pretty typical load for me. This is one oak, one elm and one box elder split in the FP30. House is 74 and this should heat until morning or so. Temps outside down to around 10 degrees tonight.

 

[Mike M.]

Here is the fire a few minutes later, air almost all the way off. Flames are lazy, secondary burn is strong. Fan is at about 1/2 speed. You can see someone decided to crash on the rug I was attempting to dry...

 

[Tater1985]

Most of us on here with the FP30 have blocked 1/2 to 3/4 of our OAKs. I did this and monitored temps when my unit was new. Now I just try to avoid glowing red stove parts and call it good. 800 for a short time period is not that concerning. Try letting it burn down further before the reload. I haven't checked the actual temp of mine in 2 years. Try to keep the fire in your control, larger splits, pack tighter, unslpit rounds ect.

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Hey Mike, have you had glowing red stove parts before? If so which ones should someone be on tje lookout for?

2018 Pacific Energy FP30

 

[Mike M.]

My experience is the air wash plate for the door window is the first to glow red on non cat stoves. Happened to me a handful of times on different units but for sure try to avoid this situation.

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[PChuck]

Here is a pretty typical load for me. This is one oak, one elm and one box elder split in the FP30. House is 74 and this should heat until morning or so. Temps outside down to around 10 degrees tonight. View attachment 237777

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Hey Mike
Those are some thick pieces of wood. Mine are much finer. I can fit probably 8 pieces of wood in my box (north to south)
I think my bracket or piece of angle iron that the baffle sits on. That piece closest to the window, Often has a slight glow. I re loaded the stove that had some hot coals and only put 4 pieces of wood in. Could have put 3 or 4 more pieces of wood in. That bracket had a slight red glow. Had my damper fully closed. I’m pretty convinced I’m over cooking this thing!
Spoke to dealer and going to put in 4 inch reducer at bottom of chimney try to slow things down. Might hold off having anymore fires until dealer looks at it. Quite concerned hopefully haven’t damaged it to much.
Also another factor High winds.

 

[PChuck]

Today the dealer came over switched the fan out for a new one. And still have a very loud vibrating sound. Sound starts when the fireplace is cooling down. Tried putting rubber washers under fan bracket, that hasn’t helped. Any tips?
Going to install rheostat switch this week. Hoping if I slow the fan down this wont happen....
Also due to high draft blocked the secondary air intake. And put a reducer in the chimney to slow things down. Seemed to help a little bit.

 

[Tater1985]

Today the dealer came over switched the fan out for a new one. And still have a very loud vibrating sound. Sound starts when the fireplace is cooling down. Tried putting rubber washers under fan bracket, that hasn’t helped. Any tips?
Going to install rheostat switch this week. Hoping if I slow the fan down this wont happen....
Also due to high draft blocked the secondary air intake. And put a reducer in the chimney to slow things down. Seemed to help a little bit.

The rheostat should help, thats how i get rid of my vibraring squeal of a noise. Mine comes from the craftsman surround vibrating.

When you say blocked off secondary air do you mean your OAK? Also im curious where this reducer was installed at? I feel like ours may benifit from some type of reducer as well, so i am curious.

2018 Pacific Energy FP30

 

[saydinli]

Today the dealer came over switched the fan out for a new one. And still have a very loud vibrating sound. Sound starts when the fireplace is cooling down. Tried putting rubber washers under fan bracket, that hasn’t helped. Any tips?
Going to install rheostat switch this week. Hoping if I slow the fan down this wont happen....
Also due to high draft blocked the secondary air intake. And put a reducer in the chimney to slow things down. Seemed to help a little bit.

Did the dealer install the reducer? How much did they reduce it by?
I have 30' of chimney in a high wind area and they (PE & dealer) reduced my chimney from 6" to 3.5" and installed a modified adjustable heat shield at the chimney flue that blocks part of the flue opening to slow down the draft. Works well now.

 

[PChuck]

Installed reducer at the beginning of chimney just above baffle went 6 to only 5(they forgot to bring a smaller one) Going to get them to put in 4inch or 3.5. Not the OAK but secondary air intake. You have open the bottom plate and follow the metal piece on the back of your fireplace it runs down and there’s an opening on bottom.
I believe it’s the countryman surround that is making the rattleing sounds. Put pressure on the corner and the sound stopped. Going to put a rubber wedge or something in there to see if that will help.

 

[Mike M.]

I get a very slight rattling at certain fan speeds and fire temperature. Nothing that doesn't go away quickly with an adjustment. Have noticed that plate at the top of the unit with its sliding ability. Makes perfect sense that it could be used to reduce the chimney draw/draft. I also thought it was a flame shield.

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[Inspector 53]

Today the dealer came over switched the fan out for a new one. And still have a very loud vibrating sound. Sound starts when the fireplace is cooling down. Tried putting rubber washers under fan bracket, that hasn’t helped. Any tips?
Going to install rheostat switch this week. Hoping if I slow the fan down this wont happen....
Also due to high draft blocked the secondary air intake. And put a reducer in the chimney to slow things down. Seemed to help a little bit.

I had the same problem!! Dealer had to pry back the duct work that the fans blow into. Worked like a charm. FYI the ducts are in a very hard spot to get your hand into. Hope this helps!!

 

[ender1981]

I'm about to buy an FP30 arch. I'm pumped. It'll replace my ZC propane fireplace the builder installed (cheap pos) that only has 27k btu's and is expensive to run. The cavity the builder created for that should work for any ZC fireplace i would want. The only thing i need to be careful of is weight since i'm installing it inside the bump-out. In this common colonial style house, the bump out where they put the ZC propane fireplace is above the garage inside the family room and the fireplace is light so they probably don't build in support for more weight than they needed. The lennox POS fireplace weight 150lbs, this will be 650 i think i read, so i'll have it installed 8" outside the wall, and i'll frame out a floor to ceiling wall that i'll put a brick vanear on.

Can't wait. I've wanted to heat my home with wood for a decade but money always had to go to other things. You know how it is. Anways, i'll give it a review after its installed since i haven't found many of those on this model for some reason. I don't know why. It seems like a best in class unit from what i have found out there. Not having to dick around with catalytic converters is a plus.

 

[woodi]

Today the dealer came over switched the fan out for a new one. And still have a very loud vibrating sound. Sound starts when the fireplace is cooling down. Tried putting rubber washers under fan bracket, that hasn’t helped. Any tips?
Going to install rheostat switch this week. Hoping if I slow the fan down this wont happen....
Also due to high draft blocked the secondary air intake. And put a reducer in the chimney to slow things down. Seemed to help a little bit.

I just had a FP30 installed and I definitely know where the vibration noise is coming from. The mounting bracket the fan is attached to is too tall and hits the backplate of the fireplace & if you are unlucky like me, the bracket the fans mount to vibrates despite being tight via the 2 wing nuts at the one end. I had the same noise and it would vibrate at different times regardless of having a rheostat.

Fortunately I started using my fireplace before it was enclosed (shhhh….) and was able to inspect it closely and compare it to a new unit in a local shop. Even the new one from the factory sitting on the floor had a notch ground out of the rear plate for additional clearance on one side...there are 4 possible spots for this to contact.

Since I had room to access this area, I was able to remove the fans with the plates installed by unscrewing the 2 wing nuts and grinding a notch at the contact points. I notched all 4 points even though only one spot was rubbing as the other 3 points were extremely close. Even at this, I still had a noise at certain RPMs of the fan and that would very. This is caused by the fact PE only used 2 fastening points on the fan plate to secure it to the fireplace and it is at one extreme end. Gravity should keep it down on the other end but it's not adequate. I ended up loosening the 2 wing nuts and placing a small blob of silicone under the one side that was vibrating and let it cure and retightened the nuts.

I have been running the fan for a week now and vibration free at all RPM's and heat. We are very happy with the performance of the fireplace. PE does have a quality control issue in the area of the fans that could easily be improved by providing slightly more clearance at the discharge of the fans (ie no touching the backplate) and also by adding one more fastener near the opposite end of the long fan mounting plate to stop the vibration.

I have a couple pics I'll try and post.

 

[woodi]

This is the unit in the showroom. There is a notch ground out where the fan plate meets the back plate (not a shadow). I was able to get a grinder in and notched all 4 spots. If you only have access through the firebox, I'd suggest removing the fans, then grind the fan plate down maybe 1/8".
Forgot to mention, my temperature switch also died very early. I wired in a bypass switch so I don't have to rely on it.

 

[ender1981]

My fp30 arch was installed the other day. I did my burn in fire to bake on the paint. The fan is too loud for our liking, i'd like to install a variable switch. Right now its wired to a lightswitch with a simple on/off. I see you talk about Rheostats, but is there any way to do a finished good looking install with those? they seem to be commonly mounted to, or under the fireplace from the few pics ive seen. I'd like a pretty wallplate install, but using a better variable dial like the few i see on amazon. I assume i don't want to just use the cheap knob light switches that would dim light switches? are there electronics not included in those? forgive the newb question

 

[begreen]

Yes, you need a blower speed controller, rated at least at 3 amps. This one might work:
(broken link removed)

 

[ender1981]

That is perfect! thanks! i may get two. one for the main blower, and one for the heat transfer kit i may not have even needed. My living room is 78, upstairs just outside our bedrooms (open concept colonial) is 72. bathroom other end of the house is 71. I may look at returning the heat transfer kit, haven't installed it yet. still in the box.