Help Tuning A 25-PDV

[jintoreedwine]

Hi all, this is my first year with a pellet stove and I am trying to get a sense for what is normal for my stove and what isn't. I have searched around the forums for pictures and videos of this stove burning and only found a few, which didn't really help me get a benchmark.

Just to get this out of the way, about 3 weeks ago I completly cleaned the chimney (I have a 13.5' vertical chimney and I used DuraVent Pellet Pro 3" pipe for it -- that goes into a clean-out T which connects to the exhaust blower.) I also have an OAK installed. Last week I removed the plate in back of the stove and fished a hose in and around the clean-out holes as best as I could (spent maybe 10-15 minutes trying to make sure I got as much as I could.) I've put about 1.25 tons through this season so far and despite the fact that the stove is an 08, I did purchase it new this year, so it started the season as clean as is possible.

Anyway, I have been burning Lignetics pellets for most of this year and they seem to have burned quite well. After a bag, the plate in back of the stove, and most of the inside of the stove is covered in a gray/white ash which is light and vacuums up easily.

Yesterday I tried a bag of Big Heat pellets, which I found at the local super market (yeah, I know, weird place to buy pellets at.) I have run a few other brands of pellets through the stove so far, just to see how they burned, but never had anything quite like this. Here are the pics, I want to know if this is normal or not:



That is the stove burning on 5-7. Notice the black streak on the right side? That's what I'm not sure about. When I cleaned the stove out, the inside also had that black substance on the walls and such. Here is the stove burning on 6-8:



The black spot has grown, perhaps expectedly. Normally, I find the stove runs cleaner on the higher settings, but it doesn't seem to be the case with these pellets. The pellets are quite small in length (average is _maybe_ 1/2".) I noticed this, and before I put the pellets in I adjusted the chock plate in the hopper to be as closed as possible. I also lowered the LFF to 2 and set the LFA to 9 (slowly, overtime, watching to see how it impacted the burn.) I'm not sure if that has an impact on my stove model year or not on the higher burn settings. ESW support told me it did, but on the forums, most people think that is only on 09 stoves and newer -- so I don't really know what is going on there.

Anyway, is this just normal behavior and the Lignetics pellets just happen to be more well behaved and these Big Heat pellets -- or is there some kind of adjustment I can make to improve this?

If this is normal, well, fine -- I just don't want to dirty up the stove if this is just something that is set incorrectly, or if this is just caused by these pellets being cruddy?

Hoping some other 25-PDV owners can chime in with their experiences .

 

[Beaudeen]

Sounds totally normal...stick with the good pellets that leave a fine white/grey ash...the softwoods seem to work the best in my stove. I run in mode C with the lower settings set to 6-4-1 and usually on 3-9 on the upper settings unless it's a cold one outside. 1 Bag per day but up to 1 1/2 on setting 6-9 and up if you need to go there. I really seem to have more control of the heat in C mode than D.
The hardwood pellets (curran) really make a mess of the insides with heavy black ash that needs to be cleaned out more.
As for the hopper choke plate, mine is wide open and I've never touched it in 5 years.

 

[SKOAL MAN]

Sounds totally normal...stick with the good pellets that leave a fine white/grey ash...the softwoods seem to work the best in my stove. I run in mode C with the lower settings set to 6-4-1 and usually on 3-9 on the upper settings unless it's a cold one outside. 1 Bag per day but up to 1 1/2 on setting 6-9 and up if you need to go there. I really seem to have more control of the heat in C mode than D.
The hardwood pellets (curran) really make a mess of the insides with heavy black ash that needs to be cleaned out more.
As for the hopper choke plate, mine is wide open and I've never touched it in 5 years.

If you are on mode "C" at 6-4-1 there is no way you are going thru only a bag a day at heat setting 3! Even at setting 1 you should burn at least a 40# bag in 24 hrs, especially if the hopper choke is all the way open. Unless you are on a thermostat?

 

[Michael6268]

x2

 

[Beaudeen]

C mode 3-4-1...my bad

Forgot that I had throttled it down last week.

1 bag/22 hours/3-9

 

[jintoreedwine]

Sounds totally normal...stick with the good pellets that leave a fine white/grey ash...the softwoods seem to work the best in my stove. I run in mode C with the lower settings set to 6-4-1 and usually on 3-9 on the upper settings unless it's a cold one outside. 1 Bag per day but up to 1 1/2 on setting 6-9 and up if you need to go there. I really seem to have more control of the heat in C mode than D.
The hardwood pellets (curran) really make a mess of the insides with heavy black ash that needs to be cleaned out more.
As for the hopper choke plate, mine is wide open and I've never touched it in 5 years.

Hmmm, interesting. I certainly don't have a problem sticking with the pellets that have been burning well, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing . I have been trying to find a place that sells softwood pellets around where I live so I can try them out, but haven't had much luck yet.