I'm cold and afraid of getting colder

[mjbrown]

thanx nps,

i went back to edit and hit the wrong button to post,and didnt realize it until after...my bad.hands are as big as the keyboard as well , so sometimes its unavoidable...lol

 

[drizler]

2 or 3 bags a day and its still not hot? I just can't figure that unless your place is 2650SF or doesn't have a roof. Where is all the heat going to, it has to go somewhere if the pellets are burning at all. I know it sounds lame and simplistic but have you tried a few bags of different pellets. I could see it if the pellets weren't being fully burned possibly but otherwise you have to be creating heat. I use about a bag a day on average all winter with 1400 sf. If not completely crap fuel the big headache with these stove types is their getting dirty and plugging up. It seems like every pellet stove make has one or more special little places where the ash will build up and eventually make it run badly. On my Coundtyside its in the area back behind the sides of the burnpot behind the phony firebrick. You pop out the 2 knockouts and it is almost always jammed full of ash on one side. I can't speak for yours but it likely has a special place back there too. Of course if yours has been running as dirty and badly as yours has there will be a lot more fallout and crud back there.
At least Winter is getting long in the tooth. With the warmer days you are almost out of the woods for this season. You will soon have all summer to figure it out.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

im with driz, 2 bags (80 lbs) in 24 hours is a lot for 650 sq ft. im heating twice that with half that. you must be losing a lot in the insulation department. i cannot imagine what my house would be like if i burned that much fuel in 24 hours. either a baffle is not placed right or a similar issue allowing the heat generated by the fire to bypass the heat exchangers in the unit and leave through the exhaust, or you are losing heat through leaks at a monumental rate. any pellet stove ive ever encountered should heat 650 square easily burning 80 lbs a day.

 

[mjbrown]

mike and driz,

i too have had the same problem as lisa and bruce, with the same breed of stove...i have come to the belief that the cheap charlie? pelpro is just that...CHEAP. the only thing cheap about it is the fact that it is slightly cheaper than the upper model in price, but when it comes to feeding it look out.
in the past month i have fed minealmost 2 ton of pellets.unacceptable. this will be the first and last winter with the cheap charlie. i am currently looking at the harmon p38 and the dealer assured me that if this stove wont heat my home and do it for 1-1 1/2 bags a day then he will refund my money.
like most, i bought what i could afford at the time and have regretted it ever since.now that i know that i am not alone with the actions of my stove, i would urge any new person looking at pellet stoves to stay away from the cheap charlie/pelpro...put a little xtra with your money and buy an englander from home depot if you cant afford the big name models.


mike brown
hartland , maine

 

[drizler]

You might do well to take a good look at that upstairs insulation like Mike says. Man to burn 2 bags a day heck the heat has to go somewhere, its either up the flue or out the roof. The front of that stove should be so hot that you would singe yourself a foot in front of it. Otherwise it must be pumping right up the flue. It's nice to have one of those little lazer thermometers. I got a cheap one a month or so back and seem to use it about everyother day for oe thing or another. Just today to check the head temp on my snowmobile and the coolant temp. Really neat for only $30 from Harbor freight last time I looked. It must have been a deas as they had to backorder but it was worth the wait. It is handy for finding hot and cold spots on the ceiling, hallways you name it. They say the range is 8' but it appears to work quite well 20 -30 feet away for general temp readings. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96451

You might try sticking a thermometer in the end of your flue and seeing just how hot it is coming out of there. Mine via the lazer says its uaually around 200 give or take.

Hey summer is comin and the racoons and skunks have started waking up so it looks like you survived in spite of Cheap Charley. It sounds like you have a new anchor for mooring someoones boat or at least 25 bucks worth of scrap if you drag it to the yard so don't just toss it by the side of the road. Spring is a good time to get up in that attic and go to beefing up that line of defense as you can't much have too much of that up there. Get squared away and if you can swing bucks and storage it might save you a lot ot buy up a couple tons for next year as April seems to be the time when they are universally cheaper. Keep the faith, next year will be better!

Hey and on the directions, don't feel bad. Most things I get I look at them for reference then just do it the way it makes sense. Most directions are so bad that they either show you little useful visually or the directions are a translation and something gets lost between Chinese and English. For the life of me I don't know how anyone who isn't a full blown motorhead like me manages to do anything themselves. The only good thing is that the good companies usually post them online nowdays which is a help a year or 2 later.