Installing a thermostat to a Regency GF55 Pellet Stove

[LRRifleman]

Hello!

Just before Christmas, I purchased (and had installed) a Regency GF55 Pellet Stove. Sadly, I trusted a local business that I knew had been in the area for well over 15 years.

The sales pitch was great, virtually all my questions were answered ... then the stove was installed. The installation was a butcher job. First, the installers picked up the wrong hearth pad, then while they were waiting for a corner pad, they cut a hole in my wall that became an oblong. Then, I was told the safety gate was more to keep pets over kids away from the stove (the component kit which they never looked at provided for intallation to "fix" the gate. At the time of sale, I was told the stove would come with a thermostat. A month later, I was then told they had been given bad info, and that a standard (buy at local hardware store) thermostat could be wired into the stove, but they could not show me were or how ... or if a special bus was required.

How do I wire/connect a thermostat to the pellet stove to "control" my pellet burn? Do I need a special thermostat?

As an aside, I am burning about 50+ plus pounds of pellets per day, depending upon outside temperatures.

 

[imacman]

I just looked at the owners manual, and while they specifically mention using a thermostat, I see NOTHING in the manual that talks about, or shows the hook-up (terrible manual).

If you're familiar w/ the stove, un-plug it and open the side or rear panels nearest to the control board. On the back of the control board, there should be a set of screw terminals , possibly labeled "thermostat" on the board. There might be a small jumper wire in there right now too.

Generally, these units will run with an ordinary millivolt stat....the same as you would have on your home heating system. Programmable ones will work too. IMO, I'd be calling the dealer back....they need to confirm that a regular millivolt stat is OK on your stove.

if so, it would use the RH & W connections on the stat, to the terminals I mentioned above. The stove would then run on the "automatic" setting.

BTW, welcome to the forum! Sorry it had to be due to a poor dealer, but it happens a LOT!

 

[Don2222]

Hello

See Regency control board back with yellow arrows in pic below pointing to T-Stat connection at the bottom left of the board.

Well, I have been testing pellet stoves with T-stats. In short we recommend the Lux T-Stat with a high swing setting.

T-Stat manufacturer's are finally adding pellet stoves to their instructions to say it will work with them. Unfortunately there is a difference of any T-Stat with the millivolt capability that do work on pellet stoves and T-Stats that work and have a high enough "Swing Temperature" Setting to really work well with a pellet stove's Auto On/Off. The high Swing Setting keeps the pellet stove from short cycling! This means turning the pellet stove back on before it has completed the shut down cycle! Sure it works but it is hard on the igniter and uses more pellets!

So the must have feature is a "Swing Setting" from 1 - 9. Each number represents 0.25 deg F that the actual room temperature can be either higher or lower of the set point for the T-Stat to open or close!
Example:
Swing Temp of 8 is 2 Deg F. So the if the T-Stat is set for 70, then the T-Stat will turn the pellet stove ON when the room temp is below 68 Deg F and OFF when the room temp is above 72 Deg F.
This gives the stove ample time to startup and shutdown!

Now for the Shop or WorkShop. In this case I want to control WHEN I want to turn the stove on and when I want to turn the stove off. So if I am not there it does not come on automatically. If I have to leave, then I can turn it off and it will stay off!

I tried the Digital Non Programmable LUX DMH110 with a max Swing Setting of 3 and it did not cut the mustard. Good manual job for the shop but did not work with a pellet stove! It short cycled the Quadrafire and the Pelpro so, not the stove's fault it was the T-Stat. 0.75 Deg F of swing is NOT enough.

So finally today, I found at Lowes the LUX TX1500U. This is cool. It has the 1 - 9 Swing Setting and I like # 8, and even though it is a 5-1-1 programmable T-Stat there is a Dip Switch to turn it into a Manual T-Stat! Cool, it cuts the program stuff out and can be used manually and very easy! Great for the workshop1

However if you do what the Program stuff it can be switched on for your home or whatever you wish!

See pics below:
Red Arrows show where to connect the two wires from your pellet stove.
RH and W1 and leave the jumper there! Simple if the diagram does not confuse the Heck out of you!
Also dip switch 2 up will set the T-Stat back to manual from the default.
Clic to enlarge​

Attached Files:

 

[smwilliamson]

Simple, back of control board, plug into the green terminals or the red leads out of it.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Old post folks ....

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Yes, but good info and sometimes the poster is still around!