Heat Tech not heating room it's in

[DG2408]

My wife and I recently purchased a house with a HeatTech insert in the family room. The unit was installed in 2002 and was last serviced in 2009. The stove was not run at all from July 2012 till now ( we are not sure about prior to that.)

We've replaced a bad circuit board already but have run in to another problem. The unit seems to operate properly but it is not heating the room it is in. Our house is 2100 sq ft with a pretty open floor plan.

We have been running this unit on a daily basis and more times then not it won't even warm up the room its in. The family is usually camped out right in front of the unit for the warmth.

I have cleaned the inside of the unit as there was hardly any ash inside it. I checked and we have good seals all around.

Not sure if this makes a difference or not but there is a 2 inch gap around the stove itself to the flange. Seems more cosmetic then function but definitely cheapens the unit quite abit.

I have contacted the company several times and have had less then stellar service from them.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Is your convection fan running and if so is it clean?

 

[DG2408]

Is your convection fan running and if so is it clean?

I'm still learning but if the convection can is the fan that blows hot air in to the room then yes.

Is there a way to check its cleanliness without removing the insert?

I took the Insert apart and found it is supported on the heart by two bricks on top of each other.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I'm still learning but if the convection can is the fan that blows hot air in to the room then yes.

Is there a way to check its cleanliness without removing the insert?

I took the Insert apart and found it is supported on the heart by two bricks on top of each other.

There is likely no easy way to check unless you have a flexible device with a camera or other optical system short of pulling the insert out.

I do not know the layout of that particular stove but there are only so many things that prevent heated air from entering the room and only so many things that are required for the stove to actually heat the air in the room.

Room air gets sucked into the room air system through the grill work of the insert and pumped out of the stove by the convection blower system. You can not expect air to come out of the system if it is blocked from entering the area around the insert nor can heated air exit the system if the output of the convection blower is blocked nor if the blower itself is caked in crud be it dog fur or pellet fines. This is but half of the story, the other half deals with how clean the heat exchanger surfaces are and the air flow through the burn pot. If this air flow is too high then a lot of heat that would get transfered across the heat exchanger just gets dumped up the flue.

Speaking of such a critter (flue critter that is) if the flue is not properly blocked off by a block off plate (hopefully a properly insulated one). it is possible that a lot of your room air is going right up the chimney before it gets much of a chance to heat the room up..

Then we can discuss things like the heat content of the pellets you are burning and the firing rate of the stove.

 

[DG2408]

There is likely no easy way to check unless you have a flexible device with a camera or other optical system short of pulling the insert out.

I do not know the layout of that particular stove but there are only so many things that prevent heated air from entering the room and only so many things that are required for the stove to actually heat the air in the room.

Room air gets sucked into the room air system through the grill work of the insert and pumped out of the stove by the convection blower system. You can not expect air to come out of the system if it is blocked from entering the area around the insert nor can heated air exit the system if the output of the convection blower is blocked nor if the blower itself is caked in crud be it dog fur or pellet fines. This is but half of the story, the other half deals with how clean the heat exchanger surfaces are and the air flow through the burn pot. If this air flow is too high then a lot of heat that would get transfered across the heat exchanger just gets dumped up the flue.

Speaking of such a critter (flue critter that is) if the flue is not properly blocked off by a block off plate (hopefully a properly insulated one). it is possible that a lot of your room air is going right up the chimney before it gets much of a chance to heat the room up..

Then we can discuss things like the heat content of the pellets you are burning and the firing rate of the stove.

What should be my first course of action. Is this something I can trouble shoot my self or am I better off calling in the pros

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I have no idea what you are capable of, it isn't hard. It can be messy and you may need physical help. The place to start is with the manuals for that unit, read them from begining to end a couple of times.

The device is two air moving systems one on each side of the heat exchanger. They both have to function and have a source of air. Everything else flows from there. The room air system is a straight suck room air in and blow it out through the heat exchanger into the room. The combustion air system is a suck the air in through the burn pot and blow it up the flue, about 1/3 of the way sits the burn pot with pellets getting dropped or pushed into it. The combustion air should all (well that's the theory) go through the burn pot the hot exhaust gases get pulled up and through the heat exchanger by the combustion blower these gases are confined to a couple of channels that end in the combustion blower chamber usually at one entry point. Then they go up the flue and out of the building.

The feed system controlled by the firing/heat range setting determines how many pellets get burned per hour the more pellets that get burned the more heat that gets produced. Then more heat gets extracted by the convection system.