Help New Enviro Meridian Low Heat

[S&T]

Hi All
Need some help with a new Enviro Meridian Pellet stove been burning for 2 weeks today except for 3 days last week when we were down to -20C (-4f), stove never threw enough heat had to use furnace. It seems to be burning dirty and not throwing much heat. Running on 3, 4 or 5 need to clean the stove every day, burn pot fills up to overflow, on setting 2 it can go 36 hours. It does heat enough around 0C (32F) but gets a whole lot colder then that here in Eastern Ontario.

Have tried 2 different pellets Canadian Tire CanWick 12 bags and now Cubex hardwood. Stove was self installed, has 3 inch venting. Not new to pellet stoves have an old EF V Evolution that broke down 2 years ago, bought that new 2007, was floor model, using same venting for new stove. It heated great but tried the propane furnace for 2 years, can't afford that it would be almost $400.00 a month 12 equal payments, old stone house. So we decided to buy new Pellet stove, liked Enviro but wanted bigger stove, more reliable and maybe save up and fix old one for basement, so went with the 45,00btu one. The old stove heat output sure beat this new one seeing old one was only rated at 30,000. It is currently tore apart in basement, that will be another thread one of these days.

So far have set pellet feed rate down and combustion rate up, made no difference. Using same venting as old stove, venting was all cleaned before new stove install. Called dealer they blame the pellets, said could do a service call but we don't have $200.00 for a service call, out of work at the moment. Salesman asked what he would like them to do for me, not really sure except some hints what might try. I can't see a service call doing any good anyways. Have enough experience with a pellet stove to know what the flame should look like. Tried 2 different pellets, brother inlaw and nephew both burning Cubex with good results and they both using a big box store stove. Looking like i should have went cheap instead of spending the extra on an Enviro. Dealer doesn't think venting would be an issue, stove is rated for 3 inch pipe. Have the clean out T at the bottom, then 4 feet up then 90 out 3 feet at slight angle up, worked fine with old stove.

Sorry for the long post, trying to get all the information there that might be needed. Any ideas to try would be appreciated, just at one of them points life where can't really afford the hit of problems with a new stove if the stove is the problem. Will try to attach a pic of the burn pot at 24 hours at setting 3, 4 and 5 look the same just a hair worse as settings go up. The date on pictures will be wrong, never set that.

Enviro Meridian, new in crate, Build date June 2017.

 

[johneh]

Hard to tell from your description what the cure is could be
lack of combustion air . I see you are in Eastern Ontario so am I
Pm me with your address and if I am close I may be able to help .
Buy the way welcome to the forum
John

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

If you look on p. 9 of your user's manual, you will see the location of the slide damper control, sticking out on the left, as you face the stove. Try pulling it out a centimeter or two, and see if that helps. I have a different make and model from yours, but it is made by the same people, and I run with the damper open a little more than halfway.

When you find a good position, mark your control so that you know what it is. On my stove, at least, it is very easy to knock it out of position while cleaning.

 

[corkman]

You may also want to look into the high ash pot liner for the meridian. I had similar issues with my meridian a few years back. Swapped out the liner and fed it quality softwoods and big difference

 

[JRemington]

The Maridian is a good stove. You have a combustion air issue. John knows these stoves. You do have the ashpan locked and the draft lever out far enough?

 

[S&T]

Hard to tell from your description what the cure is could be
lack of combustion air . I see you are in Eastern Ontario so am I
Pm me with your address and if I am close I may be able to help .
Buy the way welcome to the forum
John

I haven't had internet or would have replied sooner. Thanks might have to do that.
Right now the weather network says its 21F with wind chill of 8F, the stove is at #4 heat setting, exhaust blower #3 (factory is 2) Pellet feed #1 (factory is 4) nice looking flame air intake pulled out about inch and three quarters. Room is 19X14 and its at 65 F, has a doorway to kitchen also. Either that room has both windows open or I am not getting 45,000 btu.

So far Canadian Tire CanWick 12 bags, Cubex hardwood 25 bags, LG softwood 16 bags, + 3 Cubex hardwood my pellet dealer gave me from different skid he was burning in his Harmon, all the same result, not much heat and full burn pot after 24 hours. Dealer says pellet quality, will do warranty service call but if not find anything wrong then I am on the hook for $300.00. Well most service calls for warranty I had over the years its always something not the furnace, TV, Computer etc. Fault its something that's not covered or just don't see anything wrong lol.

 

[S&T]

You may also want to look into the high ash pot liner for the meridian. I had similar issues with my meridian a few years back. Swapped out the liner and fed it quality softwoods and big difference

I asked the dealer about trying a high ash burn pot, they said it wouldn't make any difference has to be the quality of pellets. 4 different brands and batches of pellets now, all do the same thing.

 

[S&T]

The Maridian is a good stove. You have a combustion air issue. John knows these stoves. You do have the ashpan locked and the draft lever out far enough?

I have made sure everything is shut and tight but one question, how tight is tight enough when it comes to the ash drawer? I tried the dollar bill test using a piece of blank paper cut to the size of a dollar and on the glass door the seal is tight that you can't pull the paper out. On the ash drawer its just like this video that I found at a thread at this site, not very tight, paper pulls right out easy. If pull the ash pan out some stove will shut down as it should.

Post I found on this site. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/enviro-wood-pellet-stove-dollar-bill-test-pass-and-fail.86631/

 

[S&T]

A little update. Still no luck with the different brands of pellets, Can get the stove to last a day and that is all before burn pot is full, Here is a pic of the last pellets i tried, LG softwood, stove is at #4 heat setting, exhaust blower #3 (factory is 2) Pellet feed #1 (factory is 4) nice looking flame. Only setup that gets day before cleaning burn pot. Other settings burn pot will over flow in 24 hours. Only thing close to working better is having that blow torch look to the flame but that has to be too much air on 4 setting, all the heat would be blowing out of the vent to the outside. Kind of feel that might be happening some with the exhaust on 3 and pellet feed all the way down to lowest setting. Lowest feed rate on 4 different pellets seems strange to me. Cant see how that stove could burn all the different brands of pellets same way that bad. My old EF-5 burns them all. Here is what it does.

Got the old 2005 EF-5 Evolution going in my basement, has a bad motherboard I think, not getting any voltage out to exhaust blower motor, got it hot wired with a dimmer switch but all the safety sensors working. I cleaned it at day 5, at #3 heat setting, same pellets as the Meridian. It was still burning usually clean every 2 or 3 days just wanted to see how it would do on same pellets, small ash pan full, glass dirty. Great little stove. I thought the New one with higher BTUs would heat the house but guess I might better have saved $3000.00+ and just fixed old stove it throws just as much heat.

Thanks again all, guess next step is to contact Enviro and see what they have to say. Have a good idea since the stove was self installed even though i got the old EF-5 working fine, installed that myself when bought it new and used it fine for years and installed it in the basement myself now and it just burns away happily.

 

[JRemington]

If this is a new stove the Dealer should at least come and check it with a magnahelic gauge. The Cubex are probably the best pellets this year. Pull the draft lever all the way out. Start the stove and set the heat level all the way up. Then set the combustion trim all the way up and the feed trim on three. If that doesn’t help give me the Dealers name and I’ll contact Enviro. That stove is under warranty. Could I ask what they sold the stove for?

 

[S&T]

If this is a new stove the Dealer should at least come and check it with a magnahelic gauge. The Cubex are probably the best pellets this year. Pull the draft lever all the way out. Start the stove and set the heat level all the way up. Then set the combustion trim all the way up and the feed trim on three. If that doesn’t help give me the Dealers name and I’ll contact Enviro. That stove is under warranty. Could I ask what they sold the stove for?

I have had the stove running at them settings for 4 hours now. It is throwing heat out at them settings, staying at 85 in the room right now but pretty mild weather out today. Has a good full high flame. Looking like i will be lucky to get 8 hours out of a bag of pellets, started with a full bag in hopper. Not sure about the burn pot build up yet hard to say, will shut the stove down when the hopper is near empty and see how full the burn pot is. I have stayed away from using the number 5 setting, says in an insert that comes with stove manual that 1 or 5 is only used to accommodate different pellet sizes. I did try setting 5 once but with factory settings just in case pellet size was a problem but never made the heat it is right now and ash filled the burn pot.
Will keep you updated.
Thanks

 

[JRemington]

I have had the stove running at them settings for 4 hours now. It is throwing heat out at them settings, staying at 85 in the room right now but pretty mild weather out today. Has a good full high flame. Looking like i will be lucky to get 8 hours out of a bag of pellets, started with a full bag in hopper. Not sure about the burn pot build up yet hard to say, will shut the stove down when the hopper is near empty and see how full the burn pot is. I have stayed away from using the number 5 setting, says in an insert that comes with stove manual that 1 or 5 is only used to accommodate different pellet sizes. I did try setting 5 once but with factory settings just in case pellet size was a problem but never made the heat it is right now and ash filled the burn pot.
Will keep you updated.
Thanks

When you have bad pellets settings are different
Leave the draft open and you can turn the combustion trim back down to three as long as you have a brisk fire. We have had all kinds of grief with bad pellets this year. Even with proper draft settings the pots are building up.

 

[Don2222]

Looks like that ash build up in the burnpot is full of moisture! Is that stove in a very damp basement?
Looks like it needs dry burn air! How about trying Selkirk DT Venting?

 

[S&T]

When you have bad pellets settings are different
Leave the draft open and you can turn the combustion trim back down to three as long as you have a brisk fire. We have had all kinds of grief with bad pellets this year. Even with proper draft settings the pots are building up.

Got 6 hours out of the bag of pellets at them settings, room stayed at 85. Was little ash in the burn pot so more like what it should look like. I will give it lots of air, looking like going to have to keep a little lower flame on the stove at 3 and 4 to keep pellets burning and just empty the burn pot every day seeing it does not burn right with the lower air settings. Know going to be giving up heat like that but what can you do. Took a little video of the auger light so could time the off and on and it seems perfect, was thinking maybe over feeding.

Hard to believe all them different brands of pellets doing the same thing but reading through the threads here and other spots seems the East has had a lot of pellet trouble this year like you said, you would know better then me. Been reading a lot like the Douglas fur softwood pellets, but they are a bit more expensive. Will keep an eye out for any other pellets to try.

Thanks for your help will keep you updated if i find anything else out.

 

[S&T]

Looks like that ash build up in the burnpot is full of moisture! Is that stove in a very damp basement?
Looks like it needs dry burn air! How about trying Selkirk DT Venting?

Stove is in my living room. The old stove in the damp basement just burns away and doesn't complain. I store the pellets in my garage so they stay out of the weather. I have excel vent for both stoves, was told it was suppose to be the best. Don't have outside air for the stove, spot its in would have to go through 18 inches of stone, old stone house, was a bugger to make the hole for the vent, a few hours of pounding with a small sledge and steel chisel.

 

[Don2222]

All the Selkirk DT pellet venting needs is a larger hole for the smoke pipe because it brings outside air In around the hot smoke pipe and warms the air and dries it out. I had the same problem and it helped a lot in my case on my Avalon Astoria.