Hooking up a thermostat

[jhall299]

Hi,

I'm new to pellet stoves and this will be my first winter. I purchased an Ashley/King 5500XL and have it installed in my work shop. The hookup went well and the stove seems to be working fine. The instructions for the stove say that it can be used with a thermostat, but give no instructions for hooking it up. When I was installing the stove I noticed two lugs on the control board marked thermostat. There were two smaller posts in between the lugs marked thermostat that had a shorting jumper on them. I assumed that to hookup the thermostat I should use a simple thermostat that closes the contacts to ask for heat and opens to turn off. I further assumed that the jumper between the thermostat lugs was what bypassed the thermostat connections and kept the heater running all the time. To test things I remove the shorting jumper and connected some thermostat wire to the two lungs. I shorted the wires and turned the stove on. The stove started and all seemed good. Next I removed the short from the wire and waited for the stove to shut down...it didn't. It just kept on running. So, now I'm not sure what to do and can sure use some help. If anyone has an idea please give me a clue.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[wb2bhc]

I am not sure about your particular stove, however stove shut downs are not instantaneous.
The exhaust blower has to stay on until the fuel in the burn pot is used up .
I would try it again and give the unit time to do it's thing.

Have a warm and toasty winter

Jay

 

[jhall299]

Well, I let it run a couple hours after I opened the circuit. I'll try it again this weekend.

Any other clues folks may have will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Jabbers]

I have the same stove just got it hooked up. I e-mailed ussc but no response on the thermostat.

 

[rap69ri]

With the jumper removed the stove is just running in a sort of idle mode. It will continue running like this until it runs out of fuel. When a thermostat is connected to my stove it shorts to call for heat which increases the pellet feed rate, it opens and the stove then idles until heat is called for again.

At least this is how my stove works with a thermostat.

Hope this helps...

 

[Shortstuff]

I think I found your owners manual (broken link removed to http://www.usstove.com/Dealers/images/owners_man_2115.pdf) and it shows the wiring diagram on p.19 but I don't see any connections for the thermostat - perhaps it's not labelled in the manual.

As someone mentioned, once you remove the jumper between the two posts, it does take a while for the stove to go through its shut-down procedure. For example, when my stove is burning and the thermostat is calling for heat, the combustion blower is running (which in your manual it's called the exhaust blower) the convection blower is running (in your manual it's called the distribution blower) and the auger will run intermittently. The auger will rotate for about a second or two then pause for about 5 seconds then turn for a second or two then pause for about 5... etc.

Now if I was to turn my thermostat off (no longer calling for heat) while it's in the middle of feeding pellets, the auger will stop immediately and no longer feed pellets into the fire pot. Within about 5 minutes the pellets in the fire pot will pretty much be nothing more than glowing red embers until they eventually go out. All the while, my convection blower continues to blow warm air into the room for about 8 minutes or so then shut off. A minute later, the combustion blower shuts off and all is done.

So try removing your jumper while it's feeding pellets when burning and see if what I just described (or something similar to it) happens with your stove. Just give it some time. If it does eventually shut down, then you've got the right connections for your thermostat.

Hope this helps.

Steve

 

[jhall299]

I think rap69ri may have the answer. I did notice that when I opened the circuit the flame went down to a lower setting. I'l do some better testing this weekend now that I know what to look for.

Jon

 

[johnchap]

agree with letting it do "it's thing" my stoves take awhile to shut down ... using a thermostat may lead to early death of ignitors but I have had decent luck (they are usually not cheap) sometimes I run stove temp and keep at low when it is really cold otherwise the stove is on then off then on then off etc ...

 

[rap69ri]

My Englander doesn't use the ignitor when on the thermostat, it just idles when heat isn't called for. It doesn't shutdown and restart. The Englander is a lower end stove and those fancy features aren't built in

 

[woodsman23]

My st croix shuts down to low then after 1 hour of not calling for heat it shuts down. This is in the smartstat mode.

 

[yoscratch]

woodsman - what is the other option besides smartstat? I have a St Croix prescott and use a thermostat and smartstat mode - starts up when heat is called for when thermostat satisfied goes to low for one hour then shuts down. I have gone through an igniter per year and wondering what to do about it. I use a set back thermostat so i know that i save just enough to pay for another igniter every year vs running the stove 24/7. But I wonder if there is another option for when you just need some heat then it can shut right off.

 

[hossthehermit]

My Revolution has a 3 position switch. Man., Tstat., and Smartstat. Manuaal will run the stove at the set feed rate. When you get warm, push the On/Off button and it goes out in a couple minutes. When you get cold, push the on/off, starts back up. Thermost mode keeps it running at a pilot (idle) setting until it calls for heat, then kicks it up to to the set feed/blower rate. Smartstat works like tstat, but if it doesn't call for heat for an hour, stove goes into shutdown

 

[ylomnstr]

woodsman - what is the other option besides smartstat? I have a St Croix prescott and use a thermostat and smartstat mode - starts up when heat is called for when thermostat satisfied goes to low for one hour then shuts down. I have gone through an igniter per year and wondering what to do about it. I use a set back thermostat so i know that i save just enough to pay for another igniter every year vs running the stove 24/7. But I wonder if there is another option for when you just need some heat then it can shut right off.

I've got the St. Croix hastings. I think the other option is that it goes into shutdown mode as soon as the thermostat temp is reached, then kicks on when it calls for heat again. This to me seems like it would hurt the igniter even more. Smartstat mode seems to be the smartest. I hope I don't have to deal with igniter issues!

 

[yoscratch]

I have had the stove 3 years and I am on my 3rd ignitor. Its easy to replace, but a hassle and $115.

 

[eernest4]

I have a pel pro 46,000 btu /hr pellet stove from dannon group edmunton ca.
I just called factory service about getting an optional wall thermostat which they were highly reluctant to sell me until they found out my stove was out of warranty. The reason was because the thermostat set on off /on mode uses the ignitor to restart the stove whenever heat is called for. maybe up to once per hour, depending. Because of this, the $90.oo ignitor + shipping + installation
goes bad on a yearly basis.

When the stove is opperated manually,the ignitor lasts 4 to 5 years instead of needing seasonal replacement.

the other mode of the thermostat is on the high feed rate/ low feed rate mode.
When heat is called for the auger motor feeds pellets at high feed rate & when temp is satisfied, the auger reverts to low feed rate or what is refered to in other posts on this thread as idle mode.

Before attempting to install a thermostat. I would carefully read my owners manuel or download the owner's manuel from the mfg website if you dont have a manuel. Then I would call factory service to request specific information
reqarding the thermostat installation.

Your stove has a computerized motherboard to control its functions & you risk
burning your motherboard up with a micky mouse installation of factory unauthotized parts. This is why I was willing to fork out 175.oo + shipping to get the factory thermostat instead of trying to install a universal thermostat from ace hardware for 12.99 without installation instructions.

When factory service pointed out to me that at over 100.oo per ignitor ,per year,it was probably cheaper to just let the stove run all night, I agreed
but I may rethink that considering the new higher price of pellets.

Your lack of shut down,if occuring, may have something to do with the jumper settings, what pins the jumper connected.

On my pellet stoves motherboard, the jumper determined weather the stove opperates in manuel mode or thermostatic mode and also weather the thermostat opperates in off on mode or high feed rate low feed rate mode.

It sounds to me that your stove ended up in high feed rate mode when the thermostat was closed and low feed rate when the thermostat is open.

The can be changed to off on mode by the proper jumper connections or the use of another thermostat terminal on the motherboard if such a terminal is indeed provided.

Call factory service & I am sure that they will tell you but please be aware that off on mode will result in one year ignitor life regardless of the brand of pellet stove you own.

All ignitors are merely 110 volt electric heating elements, similar to what is seen on an electric stove & have a set & finate number of times that they can cycle off & on. Once that # of cycles is approached , certain failure is imminate .

 

[jhall299]

I finally got the chance to work on the stove again this weekend. As stated earlier the Ashley stove cycles between whatever setting you have your stove set to and idle based on whether the thermostat is calling for heat or not. I guess this is probably best for extending the life of the ignitor. When the idle is keeping things too hot you just switch the stove off. Thanks for all the info.

Jon