Golden eagle 5520 burn pot over flow issues

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whosthat

Member
Sep 27, 2011
24
maine
hey all i was wondering if you guys could help me out with my stove.

Im having burn pot over flow issues after the stove runs for awhile, it just piles up even on the lower settings with the damper all the way open.

I't starts out strong but over the course of 2 hours or so the burn pot plugs and I have to shut the stove down and clean it to keep it from over flowing. I've tried 3 different brands of pellets (green team being the worse, green supreme the best) I've tried no OAK and with OAK, I've tightend the door, and made sure the ash pan is sealed. I've even drilled the burn pot holes slightly larger witch helped, but not enough.

The manual says you shouldn't need to run the damper past 1/2 way open but im all the way all the time, I'm also not high above sea level. I'm starting to think its a poor design because everything is working but I dunno I'm at a loss, the only idea I have left is to seal the large air wash on the door closed and see if that helps.

Can anyone help me out?

P.S I'll try and post pics soon my camera is MIA at the moment.
 
whosthat said:
hey all i was wondering if you guys could help me out with my stove.

Im having burn pot over flow issues after the stove runs for awhile, it just piles up even on the lower settings with the damper all the way open.

I't starts out strong but over the course of 2 hours or so the burn pot plugs and I have to shut the stove down and clean it to keep it from over flowing. I've tried 3 different brands of pellets (green team being the worse, green supreme the best) I've tried no OAK and with OAK, I've tightend the door, and made sure the ash pan is sealed. I've even drilled the burn pot holes slightly larger witch helped, but not enough.

The manual says you shouldn't need to run the damper past 1/2 way open but im all the way all the time, I'm also not high above sea level. I'm starting to think its a poor design because everything is working but I dunno I'm at a loss, the only idea I have left is to seal the large air wash on the door closed and see if that helps.

Can anyone help me out?

P.S I'll try and post pics soon my camera is MIA at the moment.

Talk to us about your venting, cleaning, and the settings you are running at.

Burn pot pile up is an airflow issue.
 
So, is this on a constant burn setting?

If your burn pot is piling up and the pellets aren't burning but you have a huge flame, then I am going to put in my vote that you have an air leak somewhere into the firebox that is making it so that air is not being pulled through the burn pot.

Door gasket? I don't know if a plugged fresh air inlet would lead to this same symptom as well.
 
I can't really tell all of lengths in your vent however you are likely very close to being over limit for 3" vent this will mean that the stove must be kept cleaner than normal to operate for a decent interval between cleanings with a lot of pellets.

I also do not understand why you have your OAK outlet at the same level as your vent (while the stove will get air this way there will be a reduction in any natural draft), the other thing about your OAK installation is it has a bend that really isn't needed if it was on the other side of your vent. OAKs have the same issue with air flow restrictions as a vent does. The will reduce the air flow to some degree.

You didn't show us the outside of the venting and OAK and that can be as important as what is on the inside.

I'll have to get a copy of the manual to go any further.
 
Now a few questions and things to do.

1: Is the OAK connection at the stove on the outside of the air intake tube? If not it must be otherwise you have added additional restriction to your combustion air (this will require that the damper be open more than the manual indicates).

2: Does the burn pot fit snugly in its receptacle? If not please post a picture of the burn pot so we can see if a gasket can be made for it (this can and frequently is a source of a burn pot air bypass and will lead to the condition you are having).

3: Perform the dollar bill test on at least two separated points on each side of the door to check the door gaskets and post the results of that test.

4: If your stove has an ash pan that is in a separate compartment that opens to be removed please do the above check and report on the gasket there.
 
j-takeman said:
Basement install. It could have some more elbows and rise on the outside? Killing the evl numbers.

The really bestest (sorry Mrs. Flagg) part is your friend the fixed all out combustion blower.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
j-takeman said:
Basement install. It could have some more elbows and rise on the outside? Killing the evl numbers.

The really bestest (sorry Mrs. Flagg) part is your friend the fixed all out combustion blower.

Breckwell and now US Stove seem to love that! But for the most part many of the other manufacturer's have variable speed blowers and some trim adjustment. Set the damper with a mag and hardly ever need to move it again!
 
Ok heres the deal theres a decent size gap around the burn pot that could be an issue and also the door did ok on the dollar bill test except in the highlighted area.

Something else to note stove airflow starts strong but gets low after time, I know this from running without the oak and placing my hand around the air inlet. It has good suction to start then slows to practicly nothing after a few hours. my guess is as the burnpot gets restricted the stove draws air from the easier source, the door airwash.

Burn pot overflows on all settings except 1, heres some pics to help:

P.S I know the OAK placement is stupid, I didn't think it through at the time, but I don't think its the problem as removing the OAK doesn't help whatsoever.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Ok first about the no change when you removed the OAK, a change should happen if the final bend is removed. If the OAK is restricted (that is one of the effects of extra bends, both for OAKs and vents) and the house air is also not enough you may get no change when you pull the OAK that is not the same thing as removing the bend.

Replace the door gasket that gasket must not fail the test along the entire door, this is also a burn pot bypass not planned for.

Do the same test on the ash pan gasket. The ash pan has latches and they must compress the ash pan gasket. Penetrations into the ash pan area are burn pot air bypasses not planed for.

Another place I've heard them having problems with at one time was the where the legs were fastened to the stove, I have no Idea how it is done now but you might find leaks around bolts, more burn pot air bypasses. Seal with 600 or 800 degree silicone.

If that air wash can be adjusted adjust it so there is less of a gap this is a burn pot air bypass that was planned for but the gap may not be the correct size.

If there is a lip that goes around the burn pot and it is deep enough to hold a gasket fashion one that goes around the burn pot. You should if the lip is deep enough get it to stay in place by compression, seal that 1/8 inch gap this is also a burn pot air bypass and doesn't help with ash ejection.

Under that wind shield over the OAK is there a screen or something?

Last but extremely important clean the stove from stem to stern getting into any ash traps and using a leaf blower.

Stoves that reach pileup conditions frequently are filled with ash as the owner experiments with control settings, dampers, venting, and intake air.

Now for something else that is important to understand about the combustion system on your stove, the damper must be adjusted for every firing rate change. The combustion blower does not change speed to track the feed rate setting. So some means of marking the damper control settings must be used and further every different pellet brand may require minor tweaking so you have to keep an eye on it.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Ok first about the no change when you removed the OAK, a change should happen if the final bend is removed. If the OAK is restricted (that is one of the effects of extra bends, both for OAKs and vents) and the house air is also not enough you may get no change when you pull the OAK that is not the same thing as removing the bend.

Replace the door gasket that gasket must not fail the test along the entire door, this is also a burn pot bypass not planned for.

Do the same test on the ash pan gasket. The ash pan has latches and they must compress the ash pan gasket. Penetrations into the ash pan area are burn pot air bypasses not planed for.

Another place I've heard them having problems with at one time was the where the legs were fastened to the stove, I have no Idea how it is done now but you might find leaks around bolts, more burn pot air bypasses. Seal with 600 or 800 degree silicone.

If that air wash can be adjusted adjust it so there is less of a gap this is a burn pot air bypass that was planned for but the gap may not be the correct size.

If there is a lip that goes around the burn pot and it is deep enough to hold a gasket fashion one that goes around the burn pot. You should if the lip is deep enough get it to stay in place by compression, seal that 1/8 inch gap this is also a burn pot air bypass and doesn't help with ash ejection.

Under that wind shield over the OAK is there a screen or something?

Last but extremely important clean the stove from stem to stern getting into any ash traps and using a leaf blower.

Stoves that reach pileup conditions frequently are filled with ash as the owner experiments with control settings, dampers, venting, and intake air.

Now for something else that is important to understand about the combustion system on your stove, the damper must be adjusted for every firing rate change. The combustion blower does not change speed to track the feed rate setting. So some means of marking the damper control settings must be used and further every different pellet brand may require minor tweaking so you have to keep an eye on it.





yep im going to replace the gasket as I do have a major air leak somewhere, I managed to get the stove to work right by laying stove gasket over the airwash gap, when I did that I actually had to close the damper a bit because the stove was burning fuel to fast on the highest setting.
burn pot doesn't over flow like that, but I still need to fix the actual problem witch I think is the door gasket. I also tightend the ash pan no leaks there, and yes that is a screen over my oak.

At least I can keep it running right in the meantime by plugging the airwash.

P.s any suggestions for gasket material for burn pot gap? I think its a really good idea to seal that. Thanks
 
whosthat said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
Ok first about the no change when you removed the OAK, a change should happen if the final bend is removed. If the OAK is restricted (that is one of the effects of extra bends, both for OAKs and vents) and the house air is also not enough you may get no change when you pull the OAK that is not the same thing as removing the bend.

Replace the door gasket that gasket must not fail the test along the entire door, this is also a burn pot bypass not planned for.

Do the same test on the ash pan gasket. The ash pan has latches and they must compress the ash pan gasket. Penetrations into the ash pan area are burn pot air bypasses not planed for.

Another place I've heard them having problems with at one time was the where the legs were fastened to the stove, I have no Idea how it is done now but you might find leaks around bolts, more burn pot air bypasses. Seal with 600 or 800 degree silicone.

If that air wash can be adjusted adjust it so there is less of a gap this is a burn pot air bypass that was planned for but the gap may not be the correct size.

If there is a lip that goes around the burn pot and it is deep enough to hold a gasket fashion one that goes around the burn pot. You should if the lip is deep enough get it to stay in place by compression, seal that 1/8 inch gap this is also a burn pot air bypass and doesn't help with ash ejection.

Under that wind shield over the OAK is there a screen or something?

Last but extremely important clean the stove from stem to stern getting into any ash traps and using a leaf blower.

Stoves that reach pileup conditions frequently are filled with ash as the owner experiments with control settings, dampers, venting, and intake air.

Now for something else that is important to understand about the combustion system on your stove, the damper must be adjusted for every firing rate change. The combustion blower does not change speed to track the feed rate setting. So some means of marking the damper control settings must be used and further every different pellet brand may require minor tweaking so you have to keep an eye on it.





yep im going to replace the gasket as I do have a major air leak somewhere, I managed to get the stove to work right by laying stove gasket over the airwash gap, when I did that I actually had to close the damper a bit because the stove was burning fuel to fast on the highest setting.
burn pot doesn't over flow like that, but I still need to fix the actual problem witch I think is the door gasket. I also tightend the ash pan no leaks there, and yes that is a screen over my oak.

At least I can keep it running right in the meantime by plugging the airwash.

P.s any suggestions for gasket material for burn pot gap? I think its a really good idea to seal that. Thanks

There are all kinds of gaskets, I usually visit my local Aubuchon hardware store and have used both rope gasket and flat window gasket.

What ever you do anything at the burn pot needs a sealant that can stand well over 1200 degrees or it will flare and disintegrate if not burn merrily.

There are various fiber gasket sheets however they have to be under compression to form an effective gas tight seal.

A lot of burn pots have a lip that runs around them I really couldn't tell from the pictures what yours actually looked like. I've also seen burn pots warp if the pile up situation continues as the smothered stuff is more a metal workers charcoal forge than a wood fire.

I have a sturdy thick piece of rope gasket just held in by the burn pot lip on my stove. This was the revised burn pot setup that the manufacturer had for my stove.
 
Thought you guys might want to know I resolved my issue, and this is for anyone else that has this stove and trying to figure this problem out.

Breckwell Tech support told me today the door was poorly engineered, they have a gasket kit that closes the massive airwash, and are giving it to anyone who owns this model stove regardless of warranty. This is a problem they only recently discovered after investigating all the complaints.


The stove is a really a nice stove, and puts out tons of heat, somebody just screwed up on the math for the airwash.


Anyways thank you guys for the help, and the suggestions that I'm going to use like the burnpot gasket, best place to get help around.

other then me breaking the hinge block this turned out ok
 
Glad someone finally admitted to the air issue. That is not the only stove in their lineup with that and other burn pot air bypasses as the old IBC forums talk about.
 
I also had the same problem. I closed that gap around the burn pot with a piece of metal held tight to the pot then self tapped it down.never thought about the air wash or I would have kept it. It was nice except for that issue, I called numerous times trying to fix it nothing but text book faq answers. I finally got fed up and returned it. Bought the golden eagle talon which my brother in law has and works great. I do like that stove though too bad I didn't get a decent answer from the manufacturer I wanted to fix it.
 
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Breckwell Tech support told me today the door was poorly engineered, they have a gasket kit that closes the massive airwash, and are giving it to anyone who owns this model stove regardless of warranty. This is a problem they only recently discovered after investigating all the complaints.

I'm new to the site. But I need to spin up on the topic since I'm about to purchase my second stove. My 1st stove, the 5520 is also basement installed with similar configuration using a clean out tee and one elbow to pop out of the basement after 6 foot rise above the concrete and 1.5 inch black iron OAK with only 2 elbows.

I have had same air leak issues on my stove. I knew that the ash pan was one source since sometime I can see some daily through the edge....i have adjusted the tiny little bolt/nut combo on this to best I can and afraid the little plastic turn clips will bust off. But when ash pan is sealed, I can make it through the night without pot overfill if I set the stove on the lowest 1&3 trim setting.

So, after reading this very nice thread - and nice pictures - I will call Breckwell and ask for this air wash fix kit. What exactly does this kit do?

(Is there a part no or other reference?).

Thanks again - this thread answered some of my questions on this stove. I really need to run the stove this winter on 2 or 3 in order to cut the oil bill, and at least 1 or 1-4 trim during the night.

Jeff
Charlton, NY
 
Likely it plugs up part of the air wash so the stove doesn't draw room air over the burn pot instead of drawing the air through the burn pot.

Pellet stoves operate by pulling the proper amount of air through the pellet pile from under the burn pot. Since the combustion blower only moves a fixed amount of air through the stove if the air it moves comes from any place other than through the burn pot and there hasn't been an allowance made for this air the stove is starved for burn air, thus the burn pot build up.
 
I received the part (5520FFK - 5520 "Field Fix Kit"). Need to install and see how it goes...

and the odd think is, it does not seem to include a fix for the air wash, just a gasket behind the burn pot housing
 
Update: I installed the 5520 FFK fix kit a week ago now....the gasket behind the burn box and 2 strips of window gasket to reduce the air wash gap length by about 8 inches. So far there is very noticeable improvement. I can run the stove for short periods of time of setting 2 or 3. I can run stove constanly on 1 without burn pot overfill. I don't need to use the low trim setting now. I can leave the stove on 24hr on 1 without worry. Still need to empty the burn pot at least every 48 hours. While it is not perfect, it is much better than pulling the stove out and replacing it. There is still the center section of the air wash - I could plug that up some more in the future. Jeff.
 
I also had the same problem. I closed that gap around the burn pot with a piece of metal held tight to the pot then self tapped it down.never thought about the air wash or I would have kept it. It was nice except for that issue, I called numerous times trying to fix it nothing but text book faq answers. I finally got fed up and returned it. Bought the golden eagle talon which my brother in law has and works great. I do like that stove though too bad I didn't get a decent answer from the manufacturer I wanted to fix it.

Do you have a picture of this fix? I have same issue still even after several a number of tuning I have done. I have closed the air wash gap 80% to just a little 2 inch in the center of the window - now the window ashes up, but no matter stove does run better, I also added bold with wing nuts on center on each side to the dang ash drawer to make it seal much better to the housing. I still have burn pot overflow issues - particularly with all hardwood pellets (Inferno) that tend to burn longer. I also now have starting issues where the stove will burn itself out e.g. too much air (air vent full open) on 1 setting, but if I set on 2 - it will just overflow too quick - say after 4 to 6 hours it will begin to overflow. I keep tuning the stove to work better, but I think what is needed is a time-based trim on the combustion fan where it will run at a slower speed during start-up, but then speed up after the stove is hot to prevent burn pot overflow. Any try to wire up a solution like this?

Thanks, Jeff
 
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