Magnum Countryside 3500 Control Board Settings

[jdonna]

Wondering if anyone has any good settings for burning pellets in the Bio-Fuel pot? A dealer recently told me to try 6 and 7 on nob setting #3.

Have read through the tech bulletins and info on AES website and they discuss setting it on 1 and 1 for draft and fuel settings on rotary nob heat setting 1.

Looking to squeeze efficiency and a bit more heat out of this stove.

Also, has anyone tried running one off of a thermostat with any luck?

Any input would be great!

 

[jdonna]

Bumping this thread to the top. Tried setting back to 1 and 1 for draft and fuel, seems to burn good so far from setting 1 to 3.

 

[Lake Girl]

Hopefully others will chime in with specifics for the Magnum Countryside....

 

[Bioburner]

This is the only board I know in the Magnums. The fan speeds increase by the board with the feed-auger setting. Fine tuning is then done with the slide damper. If getting to much air even with the damper in may have to trim the lower corner of the slide.

 

[jdonna]

Thanks for the tip Bio. I have trimmed the lower air slide, a while back has helped with getting more heat out.

It was my understanding that the higher the blink setting on draft the faster the draft motor spins. The higher the blink on fuel, the less the auger feeds pellets.

I was reading though that when you change the draft setting it also changes the auger setting.

So what is the point then of having two adjustable trim pots?

It also seems that if you adjust one setting, that one setting on the board is the same on all heat settings.

Stove might have older technology, but it is pretty easy to work on and there is lots of tweaks that can be done.

 

[Bioburner]

As stoves have different installs, one trys to set stove up to meet those variances. Fuel differs widely especially corn. I am burning 10 percent moisture, 63 lb.per bushel corn. Never said the settings on thier stove makes much sense. Promo for stove claims 23 years. How long would Ford or Chevy last if they didn't change.

 

[jdonna]

I have never burned more than a bushel of corn through this stove in the last 5 years I have owned it, but I have heard it shines burning corn. Now that prices are down, I am thinking of making the switch. Wouldn't be too hard since both sides of the family still farm.

What stove are you running now Bio? I maybe have 700.00 into this stove from purchasing it used,rebuilding it and maintaining it. I could almost afford to cut my losses if there is something better out there.

 

[Bioburner]

You asked, PC45s on corn blend with pellet pot do great up to 50% corn. Will experiment more with straight corn now that it is cheap, but this is the second year for us having the Harmans.The Bixby 115 with the last firmware update is the same as the 120 with out the dials to my knowledge and burns great on straight corn with about a quart of pellets to a bucket of corn to keep the pucks from being to hard to cleaver. Went 6 weeks without cleaning it then forgot to empty ash pan and it quit.(tested its reliability) Is the backup to the Harman for the house. Rona is close to Granite Falls and is very well versed in Bixby. Bixby went under because of executive greed, not a bad product. Will touch it off and run on low(pound or so an hour) when things get below Zero because Harman does not give enough air with its wimpy fan. Hestia is running in the garage and will eat dirty pellets or corn great. I like it because it will run on a pound of pellets an hour with a huge fan to circulate the air in the garage to keep things from freezing. If I switch it to corn the pot-tray needs two pounds an hour to run on minimum. How bad off is the stirrer mechanism on your stove? Another good stove designed for corn is the St.Croix. Auburn being the one that is recommended to me by someone with a lot of experience with them. They seem to be going for about $800 around the state. Pellets left ash in exhaust path and corn is not a problem.

 

[jdonna]

Interesting info Bio, you have quite an array of pellet and corn stoves running. I am just running the magnum as a backup to burning cord wood and helping take the load off when we have cold snaps like we are currently experiencing.

Currently running the "Clinker Pot" or bio mass pot, stainless steel one not the cast iron version. The bushing, stirrer and pot were shot on mine. From what I hear you get 30% more heat with the pot and less fly ash.

I will do some more digging and research into the stoves you mentioned.

 

[Bioburner]

Depending on how much you used the stove in five years you probably got your money back in fuel savings. Just checked states propain prices and they are at a record average of 2.33. I've bought all my stoves used since 05 and all but the Harmans had a one season or less payback but they were used as principle heat. The Harmans will be even shortly because of the fuel price increase and the adding of corn to lower thier operating cost. Even the Hestia in the garage is saving 70 plus per month over use of propain. It's cost was $440 plus 166 in parts.

 

[channelcat]

I recently cleaned my exhaust vent pipes, removing them from the stove and reinstalling them. Now my exhaust fan is not working. Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be and how to fix it?

 

[Bioburner]

The fasco fan may well have a pile of ash in it that's hopefully preventing it from moving. If you remove the stove panel you might give it a jump start by trying to move the fans cooling fan with a poke of a screwdriver or small stick. You should hear it humming. This is a good use of a leaf blower to suck this stove clean. I have seen some large pieces of rusting stove get lodged in the fan. That double wall behind the firebox is a real pain to get at and keep properly clean. Good Luck, you'll need a large heaping helping