Just about to fire it up..

[smittaine]

Hello everyone, I've lurked around here before but today's the day I finally fire up my 55-TRPIP. I built the hearth, tiled it, yesterday I made the holes for the thimble in anticipation for the final piece ( 45 degree elbow ) to show up in the mail. I hear the piece is there waiting for me to get home from work, but I've got a problem...

I added up all my chimney pieces and used the Vortex Venting, 15 EVL. So I used 3". I know it's right on the cusp but hey, saved a couple bucks, however, I forget to add the 45 degree elbow in my calculations. So now it's at 18 EVL, 7' vertical, 1 tee, 1 90 , 1 45 , the rest horizontal.

So now I've got an issue, everything is installed but not used yet. So I could rip it all down and try and return the pieces, then buy it all in 4" and reinstall. Or just run it and hope for the best? It's such a piss off for a multitude of reasons but the one that's getting my goat is I'm pretty much out of wood to burn but have a fresh ton of eagle river pellets in the garage. It's been pretty frosty this year up in the hills.

Any quick thoughts before I head home? Wing it? Ditch it? Cry a bit?

 

[Lake Girl]

Likely can't return... Is there any way to reconfigure so one of the elbows can be removed or lessen the 7' vertical? It will mean more frequent cleaning. Could try to contact England Stove Works...

 

[smittaine]

No i don't think so, it'll break my clearances if I make it shorter. I don't mind cleaning the chimney if that's the only downside, I do my wood chimney a couple times a year anyway

 

[Tails1]

I have one of these stoves, took some fiddling to get it dialed in but now works great and can produce loads of heat. Also it seems to be a design that puts very little ash out the exhaust, I only cleaned my pipes once this year like a week ago and there was hardly anything in there. I had a few bags of lousy pellets that made a lot of ash, if I hadn't burned those I doubt there would have been any ash in the exhaust at all. This stove also has a strong exhaust blower, going over the evl slightly I doubt would be an issue unless you were over 3000feet elevation from sea level.

 

[smittaine]

Great to hear. I've been running it for a days now and it sure throws heat out, my only concern is that it seems like there's too much airflow in the combustion area because there's so many ambers flying around and not always a flame extending past the top of the burn pot.

 

[Tails1]

Great to hear. I've been running it for a days now and it sure throws heat out, my only concern is that it seems like there's too much airflow in the combustion area because there's so many ambers flying around and not always a flame extending past the top of the burn pot.

What are your bottom three settings? Mine are 2 4 1. I had reduced the fuel and air on mine as I have a tight house and don't need too much heat, and I like to run the stove with a thermostat in hi/low mode to save wear on the igniter. I was using some poor quality pellets and I had to raise the low air burn to 6 or my glass would get dirty. Now I am using better ones I put it back to 4. The heat setting is 7 and so is the room blower fan. When the thermostat calls for heat the stove and exhaust blower spools up and makes a hot fire until the thermostat stops the call for heat then the stove will slowly return to idle. In idle mode you will barely ever see flames above the burnpot. If the house gets too warm ie: mild weather I just turn the stove off. As it stands a bag of pellets lasts almost two days in weather like this.

My stove also makes a lot of embers flying around each time more pellets drop which is fine providing burning pellets themselves aren't being thrown out of the burnpot. When I had my air setting (middle button) up at 7 it would do that. Also it is normal for the flames to rise and lower as it runs, the higher the heat setting the larger the flame however will still drop below the burnpot then rise again as more fuel is fed.

 

[Tails1]

Hello everyone, I've lurked around here before but today's the day I finally fire up my 55-TRPIP. I built the hearth, tiled it, yesterday I made the holes for the thimble in anticipation for the final piece ( 45 degree elbow ) to show up in the mail. I hear the piece is there waiting for me to get home from work, but I've got a problem...

I added up all my chimney pieces and used the Vortex Venting, 15 EVL. So I used 3". I know it's right on the cusp but hey, saved a couple bucks, however, I forget to add the 45 degree elbow in my calculations. So now it's at 18 EVL, 7' vertical, 1 tee, 1 90 , 1 45 , the rest horizontal.

So now I've got an issue, everything is installed but not used yet. So I could rip it all down and try and return the pieces, then buy it all in 4" and reinstall. Or just run it and hope for the best? It's such a piss off for a multitude of reasons but the one that's getting my goat is I'm pretty much out of wood to burn but have a fresh ton of eagle river pellets in the garage. It's been pretty frosty this year up in the hills.

Any quick thoughts before I head home? Wing it? Ditch it? Cry a bit?

View attachment 195663

Is that a dog on the couch or a fluffy blanket?

 

[smittaine]

Ha! It's a big fluffy dog on a blanket.

I'm going to most likely put mine on a thermostat sometime before next burn season, but for right now it's running from 4pm until 10am then getting shut down during the day. Temperatures are just below 0C and I haven't gone above heat setting 3 yet. I'm still trying to find what works best but right now it's on 5-2-1. This seems to be the only setting where i can have the flame modulate from the top of the burn pot to the top of the pellet chute without a constant dance of embers and partial burnt pellets flying around when nothing is falling into the pot. The glass seems to be staying fairly clean, just a little dark around the perimeter but I expect that on any setting. I do wonder which is more efficient for heat output, a constant flame or less fuel and more air to create a hotter smaller burn.

As it stands right now, on heat/blower setting 3 on the settings above, in my late 70's house I'm burning about a bag every 24hrs and it's keeping about 2200 square feet a comfortable 22 degrees C.

 

[Tails1]

Ha! It's a big fluffy dog on a blanket.

I'm going to most likely put mine on a thermostat sometime before next burn season, but for right now it's running from 4pm until 10am then getting shut down during the day. Temperatures are just below 0C and I haven't gone above heat setting 3 yet. I'm still trying to find what works best but right now it's on 5-2-1. This seems to be the only setting where i can have the flame modulate from the top of the burn pot to the top of the pellet chute without a constant dance of embers and partial burnt pellets flying around when nothing is falling into the pot. The glass seems to be staying fairly clean, just a little dark around the perimeter but I expect that on any setting. I do wonder which is more efficient for heat output, a constant flame or less fuel and more air to create a hotter smaller burn.

As it stands right now, on heat/blower setting 3 on the settings above, in my late 70's house I'm burning about a bag every 24hrs and it's keeping about 2200 square feet a comfortable 22 degrees C.

The hopper will hold two bags but it is a tight fit. Setting 5 seems high for fuel, when I had mine up there the air also had to be at 5 (or higher) or I would get a dirty burn. You want the air just low enough to maintain a clean burn, any higher than necessary just pushes more heat out the exhaust.
There should be no black soot buildup if things are right, the firebox walls should be brown to light tan and the viewing glass only get hazy not black.

 

[smittaine]

Yeah I thought it was a little high for feed rate too but no part of the glass or firebrick are black, the glass is pretty clear everywhere except for the perimeter which is just more hazy but still transparent. Maybe I'll lower it back down to 4-2-1 tomorrow if the glass gets any dirtier.