I'm cold! (help with Englander SH-55)

[azs]

Earlier this winter I bought an Englander SH-55 pellet stove from Lowes and installed it myself. After initially running it on high with the doors and windows open to burn off the paint or whatever, I've only turned it on for short periods of time because it always smells like pellets and I am concerned about the quality of air that I am breathing. I've put high temp caulking on all the pipe joints and between the pipe and the wall thimble. I've tried looking for smoke with a flashlight and feeling for cold air coming in any gaps when the stove is not on. I can't find any gaps, but there is definitely a layer of pellet dust around the back of my stove. I have attached a picture. I am wondering if there could be a leak in the back of the stove before the exhaust pipe. I was just running the stove and looking for gaps and now and my lungs are burning. So there is definitely a problem.

 

[CladMaster]

That dust is from the pellets when you tip / pour the pellets into the hopper. I have the same problem, the dust gets everywhere around the stove. Some bags have more dust / fines than others.

Lungs burning ! Explain ?

Anyway, run that thing, that's what your got it for, it's heat output via cheap wood fuel over oil.

 

[Jackfire]

I agree the dust is from yur hopper mine does it also. Fire it up

 

[Jason845845]

Buy a carbon monoxide detector and let it rip.

 

[Jackfire]

They will run u anywhere from 4o on up

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

A new stove will produce a strong odor until the paint is cured, curing the paint requires the stove to be operated on high for a period of time, this really should be done outdoors before the stove is installed.

Now are you also saying that you have a wood smoke odor?

You also get pellet dust curtsey of the shipping and handling of the pellets.

Then there is ash.

Curing paint has a chemical smell to it, you may sensitive to is as well.

 

[workinprogress]

I have the same stove and it took a few days of burning to finally get paint smell to go away.

I did find a couple things which might help you but these might not be related to the smell.
1. If you are using the duravent venting you might want to seal the long seams on each pipe with high temp silicon.
2. Remove the back panel of the stove and look carefully around the vent pipe to sealant is all the way around.
3. Confirm the hopper gasket is sealing well. I had to make adjustments in the latches. (see manual for method).

How is your system vented?

 

[azs]

This is definitely not a paint smell. I have a woodstove, which is my only other source of heat (no oil). I remember the paint smell from when my woodstove was new 2 winters ago. Also from the first time I fired up the pellet stove a few months ago and ran it on high for many hours to burn off the paint smell. This doesn't smell like that paint and it doesn't even smell like wood smoke, it smells like pellets. I burn biobricks of the exact same brand in my woodstove and I never have this problem with the woodstove.

I was actually just running around looking for my carbon monoxide detector so I could put batteries in it. I will try sealing the vertical seams on the pipes and removing the back to make sure seals are good. I didn't realize that the exhaust could come up through the hopper. It doesn't seem to be sealed all that well. Maybe I am not closing the hopper correctly There is a push button on the hopper that is supposed to prevent the auger from moving when its open, but it doesn't seem to actually do anything.

I got the duravent kit so there is a wall thimble and then a T and 4 or so feet of vertical pipe and then another T and an end cap. Pretty standard, but I could have made mistakes installing.

 

[azs]

I just took a white cloth and wiped the dust off the ground around the stove. It's not white ash and its not light brown pellet colored, but dark brown, very fine particulate.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Do you have any wood allergies?

That stove has a gasket-ed hooper and you may have to adjust the latches to get it sealed.

If that switch isn't working I'd have a chat with ESW about getting it replaced if it fails testing.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The convection system in the stove is going to pick up and spread any crap that is in your house air.

 

[azs]

I live in Maine and burn wood 24 hours a day for all my heating needs. This is really different from just being sensitive to wood or dust. Being in my house when the pellet stove is burning is like standing outside under the vent for the stove. That's why I don't just run the stove anyway. Neither the vent exhaust or the house smells like smoke to me, they bother smell like pellets. I don't know what is normal for a pellet stove. I haven't been around them.

 

[Chrisnow86]

Check the bolts that hold your combustion blower on.. Make sure they are nice and tight..

 

[azs]

Is they weren't what would be happening?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You would have smoke spillage in your stove room.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I live in Maine and burn wood 24 hours a day for all my heating needs. This is really different from just being sensitive to wood or dust. Being in my house when the pellet stove is burning is like standing outside under the vent for the stove. That's why I don't just run the stove anyway. Neither the vent exhaust or the house smells like smoke to me, they bother smell like pellets. I don't know what is normal for a pellet stove. I haven't been around them.

The stuff that comes out of all wood fires are aromatic hydrocarbons along with other irritants.

I also live in Maine and my pellet stove is used for heating the house, further my wife has asthma and I have several allergies.

If there is any leak anywhere in the pressurized exhaust system inside the house or inside the thimble you will get smoke and those aromatic hydrocarbons.

If you made a mistake installing and sealing at the thimble on the outside of the house or on the installation of the OAK the exhaust can end up inside the house.

If you are also running your wood stove you could also have a situation where things are now exiting via the wood stoves air intake system.

Take your pick and start eliminating them one by one.

 

[CladMaster]

Pellet stoves are a different beast from chopped wood burning stoves, chopped wood stoves don't have help with feeding fuel and air and no exhaust fan, they rely on natural draft to burn and manual feeding of chopped chunks of wood every 6 - 12 hours or so, whereas a pellet stove is a pour and forget unit until the next fill.
Wood stoves are radiant heaters, pellet stoves are forced air heaters with some radiant characteristics of a wood stove.

Pellets will give off a smell, even when burning. If you don't have a tight seal on all the connections you are going to get smoke / burning wood smell in the house.

Some stoves need more than 10 hours when new or just repainted to cure the paint, I know this as my new stove took over 12 hours to cure and for the smell to go away.

Once the exhaust vent gets hot and expands, it will seal it's self if the gap is not too big. I have one seal that seals it's self after 10 minutes, it leaks white / blue smoke and then fades away.

I have a CO detector in the same room as the stove and a smoke detector 6 feet away in the next room to alert me of any problems, so far these have not been tripped by the stove, but the wife has tripped the smoke detector when cooking many times.

 

[SKOAL MAN]

Put some newspaper in the burnpot and have someone plug the exhaust outside on first startup with a cold stove, if there is a leak you will see it! I know exactly the smell you are talking about. When I first hooked up my stove it had a smell I just couldn't put my finger on and it gave me a headache! It ended up being little pin holes in 90° the smoke from pellets smells nothing like a wood stove, its more like car exhaust. I found it by putting my nose up against every joint and smelled the leak, then I waited until it got dark and used the newspaper and a spotlight and saw the smoke. One little dab of silicone and the smell was gone!

 

[azs]

Okay. I guess its a leak somewhere. I'll track it down or call a stove shop when I run out of ideas. It's comforting to know that pellet smoke isn't supposed to smell like regular wood smoke and that a pinhole leak could cause this problem. Also, SmokeyTheBear, you mentioned the OAK. How should that be? It's not securely attached to the stove, if that is an issue. Its also always covered in ice from the wall to the stove. Could that indicate a problem with the installation of it?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

That OAK needs to be securely connected to the stove and the area around it on the outside must be sealed to the house.

Further if the OAK is located to close to the vent termination it can and will suck exhaust gases into the stoves combustion air path a bad thing.

That little looseness there could indeed be your source of aromatic hydrocarbons.

The stove would be sucking bad air in from outside.

That is also an incorrect installation.

Oh one other thing you can get the regular smoke odor from a pellet eater, the leak needs to be other than a little one and/or you have to have a poor burn going in the stove.

This will occur sooner rather than later if that OAK is indeed sucking exhaust gases.

Please let us know what you find, as the list of things to check isn't exhausted yet.

Since you are a wood stove operator you should understand the importance of air flow, it is the same with a pellet roaster it must be correct or troubles occur. It really pays dividends if you take the time to become familiar with the two air flows through your stove and any possible interactions with the conditions in your house.

 

[heat seeker]

To add to Smokey's excellent comments:

A leak in the venting or stove gaskets would be even worse if the house is under negative pressure. Smoke would just get literally sucked into the room.

 

[bogieb]

You listed your outside exhaust pipe configuration, but what about the inside configuration? do you have a clean out. If so, those are pretty common leakers. I used high temp silicone tape to seal up that end. It can be removed relatively easily when the cap needs removed for cleaning. Also, elbows can leak too, so I wrapped those up as well. If you can use silicone tape, that will help immensely as caulk is very difficult to get into all the areas around the pipe. Of course if you don't have any inside clean out, or elbows, this little nugget of information is useless to you, so TIFWIIW.