Help with a Ningbo Grace Pellet Insert.

[dcampbell2482]

I am a new pellet stove owner and would like some help with a pellet stove. I have followed the manual but have not had much success. I thought I would see what those with more experience have to say.
I purchased this from a local shop which sells this brand (Ningbo Grace). I have not found much info on the internet about it. I went to this shop as it is the only local shop in my area. So far I am pretty pleased with this stove but I am a little confused about the operations and fine detail. My local shop does not seem very knowledgeable about the settings that I have asked. This unit has a digital control to the side that allows you to control the combustion air, feed rate, and blower air. I would like to know how your stove is performing at its best. I know that elevation, temperature, and other items can affect the combustion. I am at around 2000' in elevation. What type of feed rate should I be looking at? The stove has a setting for on for 4 seconds every 4 seconds. Can you experienced users give me any tips?

 

[BrotherBart]

Welcome. Some advice to responders. Any post flicking chit at the stove because it came from China will be deleted. Yeah I am in one of those moods.

Just help the OP or don't post.

 

[Lake Girl]

Welcome to the forum. Tried to find the manual on-line to get an idea of the controls but no luck and not familiar with the stove.

What is your pellet vent size 3" or 4"? If 3", what is the configuration (feet of horizontal and vertical, 45 or 90 elbows, clean-out)? Do you have an OAK (outside air kit)?

What settings are you currently using? What does the flame look like (tall, short, lazy, fierce)? Seems like a fairly high feed setting...

Pics would probably help to show flame quality, control board and we just like pics of stoves in general

 

[dcampbell2482]

Welcome to the forum. Tried to find the manual on-line to get an idea of the controls but no luck and not familiar with the stove.

What is your pellet vent size 3" or 4"? If 3", what is the configuration (feet of horizontal and vertical, 45 or 90 elbows, clean-out)? Do you have an OAK (outside air kit)?

What settings are you currently using? What does the flame look like (tall, short, lazy, fierce)? Seems like a fairly high feed setting...

Pics would probably help to show flame quality, control board and we just like pics of stoves in general

Thanks for the reply.

The vent size is a flexible 3 inch pipe that is about 4 feet long. It connects to a 8 inch pipe that was an existing chimney. The length of the 8 inch pipe is around 10-12 feet. I just hooked up the OAK today. I am currently running the stove on a p1 setting which is suppose to be high ( It is set to feed for 4 seconds every 5 seconds). Once the thermostat is happy it is suppose to drop to p4 which is the low settings ( feeds 2 seconds every 8 seconds). The digital panel is in Celsius and I can adjust the convection blower and the heat blower. Current setting for P1 Convection is set to 100 and Heat at 165. I have no reference to what unit of measure that stands for (I am guessing maybe cfm?). I will attach some pictures of it fired up once I do a cleaning and I have a good base to start from.

Thank you for the help.

 

[chken]

I am a new pellet stove owner and would like some help with a pellet stove. I have followed the manual but have not had much success. I thought I would see what those with more experience have to say.
I purchased this from a local shop which sells this brand (Ningbo Grace). I have not found much info on the internet about it. I went to this shop as it is the only local shop in my area. So far I am pretty pleased with this stove but I am a little confused about the operations and fine detail. My local shop does not seem very knowledgeable about the settings that I have asked. This unit has a digital control to the side that allows you to control the combustion air, feed rate, and blower air. I would like to know how your stove is performing at its best. I know that elevation, temperature, and other items can affect the combustion. I am at around 2000' in elevation. What type of feed rate should I be looking at? The stove has a setting for on for 4 seconds every 4 seconds. Can you experienced users give me any tips?

Well, on for 4 secs every 4 secs means it's on all the time? Or do you mean it's on for 4 secs, off for 4 secs? If that's the case, then it's on for about 50% of the time. That equals my setting of 3 on my stove, which equates to about a 4 lb/hr rate, or about 32k btus. It's my most common setting on a normal winter day of between 25 degrees to 35 degrees. As for combustion air, higher elevations need more than at sea level. Read the sticky at the top of the forum for tips on how to improve your burn.

 

[Lake Girl]

Not sure how much help I'll be ... As a rule of thumb, most pellet stoves are more efficient in the mid-range; p3, p2 in your case. Most manufacturers do not recommend running on highest power level for too long.

Any idea of the BTUs it is rated for? Depending on where you are in the US and the extremes of temps, you may want to think about a softwood (spruce,fir, pine) pellet as they do throw more heat, have lighter ash... they do cost more.

General rule of cleaning the pellet venting and internal exhaust passages of the stove is about every ton of pellets. Not sure about your stove specifics but there are clean-out ports that need to be opened, brushed and vacuumed (smaller diameter hose attached/taped to your ash or shop vac. Keeping it clean, keeps it working at its best!

 

[dcampbell2482]

Thanks again everyone for all your help. I will check out the sticky and see how it goes. When I have the stove on the low setting the flames stay in the burn pot. Is that normal for a lowest setting? I almost forgot to answer a question. The stove is rated for a max of 13KW/ I think that is around 44k btus.

 

[dcampbell2482]

Well, on for 4 secs every 4 secs means it's on all the time? Or do you mean it's on for 4 secs, off for 4 secs? If that's the case, then it's on for about 50% of the time. That equals my setting of 3 on my stove, which equates to about a 4 lb/hr rate, or about 32k btus. It's my most common setting on a normal winter day of between 25 degrees to 35 degrees. As for combustion air, higher elevations need more than at sea level. Read the sticky at the top of the forum for tips on how to improve your burn.

I think it means on 4 and off 4 because I can hear the auger motor kick in for about 4 seconds then four seconds later it kicks again.

 

[dcampbell2482]

Here is a pic of the stove on P1, pardon the glare its very bright out today. This is with the 4 on and 4 off with a blower speed of 170 and convection fan of 100.

 

[chken]

Thanks again everyone for all your help. I will check out the sticky and see how it goes. When I have the stove on the low setting the flames stay in the burn pot. Is that normal for a lowest setting? I almost forgot to answer a question. The stove is rated for a max of 13KW/ I think that is around 44k btus.

Yep, 13kw is 44k btus. As for low, staying inside the burn pot, that's pretty typical. The picture of 4 on/4 off, seems a bit low though.

 

[Lake Girl]

Really like your hearth - love the stone. How much was the stove? Sounds like your stove guy needs to gain a little experience with the stove himself... You'll get there with a little experimenting with different levels and different pellets. If your manual is like most, it may not be as helpful as you'd like ... Hopefully a few will chime in with helpful hints.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

My suggestion would be to try different settings and take notes. Eventually you will get her dialed in nice. Try burning the same pellet until you get up to speed as well. Biggest thing is to keep it clean....especially the exhaust path.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

Its nice you can adjust your combustion air....it will help you fine tune the burn which is a bit of an art. Do you know the scale of adjustment? I see you are at 170, does it go to zero and stop the combustion blower? I prefer to run my Convection (room heat) blower higher than the default for the heat setting.

 

[dcampbell2482]

Thank you all again for the comments and help. I have been busy for the last few days trying suggestions and settings. Here is some more info for the experts. After hooking up my OAK I have had to constantly adjust the combustion fan. I will get a nice tall straight flame and then sometime through the night it will turn to a low flame and I will turn the oxygen down again to get a desired flame. I never changed the feed rate just the combustion fan. Is this normal , because Its going to be hard and babysit this thing all the time? Things are not adding up last night the outside temp was 15 and comb fan was set at 83 temps dropped to 5 had to drop comb fan to 80.Came home from work today to another low flame and 34 temps adjusted the comb fan to 78-79. Some additional data when the stove is running what I think to be good I get air temps of 225 and air grate is 250. I also looked into the settings some more and the exhaust temps are about 177. I am getting some black soot on the glass but I dont know how much, if any is normal. I am cleaning it every other day and have some clinkers in the burn pot. How many clinkers are normal? I have not tried to stop the comb blower yet, I may turn it to 0 just to check. I hope this info can help in some way. These cold mornings are for the birds. I am gonna stick with it a bit longer but if things dont improve Im gonna send it back, which I dont want to because this electric is breaking the bank. Thanks again.

 

[P38X2]

If I were you, I'd be back at the dealer saying help me understand the workings of this stove and help me get it straightened out, or it's coming back. That simple.

Unfortunately, there's simply not many, if any, owners of that stove on this site. Being from China, have you done any research to determine if it's a rebadged "something else"? In other words, is it an identical twin, or brother, to a more common stove some people might own?

I assume it was fairly inexpensive vs the domestic stoves that are available. Have you looked at ESW stoves? They're quite affordable and a HUGE number of folks on the form own them. To boot, the senior tech for ESW posts to the site on a regular basis. AMFM energy also sells refurbished ESW's at very attractive prices.

I really hope you get it straightened out and it works for you, but I get the feeling there's more trouble down the road for you. Hopefully it's only a matter of making a few adjustments here and there...which is what your dealer should be helping you with.

If there's a return window closing on you, you'll obviously need to get answers soon.

The hassle of returning it, getting a high electric bill, and finding a new stove, will be nothing compared to the possible irritation you could be facing in the future should you keep it.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

Thank you all again for the comments and help. I have been busy for the last few days trying suggestions and settings. Here is some more info for the experts. After hooking up my OAK I have had to constantly adjust the combustion fan. I will get a nice tall straight flame and then sometime through the night it will turn to a low flame and I will turn the oxygen down again to get a desired flame. I never changed the feed rate just the combustion fan. Is this normal , because Its going to be hard and babysit this thing all the time? Things are not adding up last night the outside temp was 15 and comb fan was set at 83 temps dropped to 5 had to drop comb fan to 80.Came home from work today to another low flame and 34 temps adjusted the comb fan to 78-79. Some additional data when the stove is running what I think to be good I get air temps of 225 and air grate is 250. I also looked into the settings some more and the exhaust temps are about 177. I am getting some black soot on the glass but I dont know how much, if any is normal. I am cleaning it every other day and have some clinkers in the burn pot. How many clinkers are normal? I have not tried to stop the comb blower yet, I may turn it to 0 just to check. I hope this info can help in some way. These cold mornings are for the birds. I am gonna stick with it a bit longer but if things dont improve Im gonna send it back, which I dont want to because this electric is breaking the bank. Thanks again.

Sounds to me like you are turning the combustion air too low. The flame should be relatively short unless you are on a high setting. Also, are you running hi/lo? If so your flame height will change as it toggles back and forth. From most likely a very small flame to a larger one.

 

[Mt Bob]

You should have got a manual?If you post it someone maybe can help.They use that controller in something like 10 stoves,but there is 2 different kinds of controllers.

 

[dcampbell2482]

I do have it set for High low but the thermostat has never been satisfied so it is on high all the time feed 4 off 4 seconds. I will try to make a pdf of the manual but its not very helpful.

 

[chken]

Thank you all again for the comments and help. I have been busy for the last few days trying suggestions and settings. Here is some more info for the experts. After hooking up my OAK I have had to constantly adjust the combustion fan. I will get a nice tall straight flame and then sometime through the night it will turn to a low flame and I will turn the oxygen down again to get a desired flame. I never changed the feed rate just the combustion fan. Is this normal , because Its going to be hard and babysit this thing all the time? Things are not adding up last night the outside temp was 15 and comb fan was set at 83 temps dropped to 5 had to drop comb fan to 80.Came home from work today to another low flame and 34 temps adjusted the comb fan to 78-79. Some additional data when the stove is running what I think to be good I get air temps of 225 and air grate is 250. I also looked into the settings some more and the exhaust temps are about 177. I am getting some black soot on the glass but I dont know how much, if any is normal. I am cleaning it every other day and have some clinkers in the burn pot. How many clinkers are normal? I have not tried to stop the comb blower yet, I may turn it to 0 just to check. I hope this info can help in some way. These cold mornings are for the birds. I am gonna stick with it a bit longer but if things dont improve Im gonna send it back, which I dont want to because this electric is breaking the bank. Thanks again.

Maybe it's me, but it sounds like you are going the wrong way with the air. If the flame becomes lazier while burning it needs more air. If there is any black soot, it needs more air. Less air is the opposite of what I'd try. All the rest seems reasonable, ie temps, clinkers. Clinkers are impurities in the pellets, however, some people mistake residue from poor combustion to be clinkering. You need to up the air.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I do have it set for High low but the thermostat has never been satisfied so it is on high all the time feed 4 off 4 seconds. I will try to make a pdf of the manual but its not very helpful.

How big is your house? And the room it is in? Seems strange to me that when it is 34 out that the stove cannot satisfy the thermostat.

 

[dcampbell2482]

Chken, I tried your suggestion and turned up the air to stock settings 113 in this case. I am getting several ambers flying around with a low flame. How many ambers are normal?

Ihatepropane, The house is 1800 sq ft. The room where the heater is in is about 16 x 24. We have to keep it about 80 for heat to get to other rooms but that is usually a struggle. Until I started turning down the comb air. We was able then to hold 77 pretty easy.

Thanks again all you have been a great help.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

Chken, I tried your suggestion and turned up the air to stock settings 113 in this case. I am getting several ambers flying around with a low flame. How many ambers are normal?

Ihatepropane, The house is 1800 sq ft. The room where the heater is in is about 16 x 24. We have to keep it about 80 for heat to get to other rooms but that is usually a struggle. Until I started turning down the comb air. We was able then to hold 77 pretty easy.

Thanks again all you have been a great help.

Several embers and a low flame is normal. What you don't want is the flame to go out, pile up and re-ignite. What do you consider low? I would guess that maybe a six inch flame would be normal when running in hi of hi/lo. How many bags are you going through a day?

If your thermostat is indeed never satisfied and hooked up correctly you should be going through 2.5-3 bags a day (42kbtu)

 

[dcampbell2482]

Several embers and a low flame is normal. What you don't want is the flame to go out, pile up and re-ignite. What do you consider low? I would guess that maybe a six inch flame would be normal when running in hi of hi/lo. How many bags are you going through a day?

If your thermostat is indeed never satisfied and hooked up correctly you should be going through 2.5-3 bags a day (42kbtu)

I am going through 1 bag a day. I have it set to feed for 4 seconds every 4 seconds. The burn pot is 4-6 inches deep. When the comb air is at 113 my flame may come out of the burn pot an inch or so. It may spike on occassion to four inches outta the pot.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I am going through 1 bag a day. I have it set to feed for 4 seconds every 4 seconds. The burn pot is 4-6 inches deep. When the comb air is at 113 my flame may come out of the burn pot an inch or so. It may spike on occassion to four inches outta the pot.

There's your issue.....you definitely are not running any where near max....either you have the stat hooked up wrong, have a bad stat or are not in an "auto" mode.....your stove is running on low and you should have a small flame. Also, when running on low it will burn a little dirtier.

 

[chken]

If I were you, I'd be back at the dealer saying help me understand the workings of this stove and help me get it straightened out, or it's coming back. That simple.

Unfortunately, there's simply not many, if any, owners of that stove on this site. Being from China, have you done any research to determine if it's a rebadged "something else"? In other words, is it an identical twin, or brother, to a more common stove some people might own?

Looking at their website, it appears that Ningbo tries to mimic European pellet stoves. The insert most looks like a Rika Integra to me.