Martin Venturi Stove owners

[trobb]

Newbie here and need some advice.
I have a Martin Venturi pellet stove.
Like most pellet stoves it has forced air which also pushes the smoke out.
Here is my problem...
When burning there is no smoke smell at all, after I turn the stove off...which stops the fan pushing the smoke out, the next morning my basement is filled with smoke smell.
I have experimented with a few differant things to no avail.
Once you turn the stove off you can watch the firebox fill with smoke and it just trickles
out the pipe outside, and the pot just sits and smolders all night.
I have Simpson Duravent that is sealed up good and tight and I have already replaced
the rope gasket on the door.
I have done the dark room and flashlight thing...nothing.
The only thing I can think of is that the outside draw is not pulling the smoke out fast enough.
I also tried cracking the ash door and it seemed to really help push the smoke out faster.

Any ideas?

 

[Dr_Drum]

When you "turn off" the stove the fan stops? Are you unplugging it? To my knowledge the exhaust fan should continue to run for some length of time until the fire and smoldering is completely out and the stove temp drops below a set temp. Adding more positive draft to the exhaust venting will help, but that fan should stay running (I believe).
Mike -

 

[smalltown]

I agree with Dr_Drum. I am running a Quadrafire Castile and once the thermostsat stops calling for heat and the stove begins its shutdown sequence my exhaust fan will run for a while. Not sure but it seems to be 5 to 10 minutes after which everything is cooled down.

 

[trobb]

No, it stops everything.
The pellet feed is ran by a thermostat, the problem with that is no matter how low
you set it, it will still feed the pot right about the time the fire goes out.
I unhooked the thermostat in hopes of it not feeding and then the fan would still
blow the smoke out but it didn't work...still feed the pot.
Short of redoing the mother board I don't know what else to do.
I was going to put an inline off/on switch to the thermostat but after finding out
the auger still feeds the pot when unhooked...I'm really confused now.

 

[littlesmokey]

Unfortunately I am not familiar with your stove, put it would be the first one not to have a shut down cycle I am aware of. The Thermostat will control the feed to maintain temp, but there should be a way to turn the stove off. The exhaust fan should run until the low temp sensor in the exhaust stream hits the low shut off point. I would check with the dealer or manufacturer for the steps necessary.

That doesn't anwser the other question. Smoke smell through the night may be caused by negative air pressure. Others will suggest different sources, but the most likely to me would be air infiltrating backwards in the flow stream. Air is being drawn in through the stack and backwards through the burn pot and out the air intake. An OAK could eliminate that, or seeing why there is a pressure difference. Could be your furnace, water heater or other source demanding fresh air and using the stove as the path of least resistence. I would look for the other source and see what you can do about supplying it with air.

One forum member last year had a coal boiler with a blower that was sucking the basement dry. openned a window in the old coal shoot and problem solved. May want to see if you have a similar situation before blaming the stove for this part.

 

[trobb]

Needing to interact with you on your stoves operation to make sure mine
is acting right.
Any owners out there?

 

[krooser]

All hear are crickets.....

 

[jtakeman]

All hear are crickets.....

chirp, chirp, chirp chirp, chirp, chirp chirp, chirp, chirp

Sorry, just had to play along.

Anyway. I never heard of that brand. Maybe someone out there has. Its still early in the season. We will get to high gear soon.

Good luck. Hope you get some info!
jay

 

[hearthtools]

sorry I did not see this before

this stove is one of the original.

Bottom feed.
Positive air.

what questions do you have because I cant type everything im thinking here I will be here all day.

Just be sure all your doors are sealed tight and the HOPPPER LID is the most important to keep closed and shut tight or you will get smoke in the hopper

 

[hearthtools]

No, it stops everything.
The pellet feed is ran by a thermostat, the problem with that is no matter how low
you set it, it will still feed the pot right about the time the fire goes out.
I unhooked the thermostat in hopes of it not feeding and then the fan would still
blow the smoke out but it didn't work...still feed the pot.
Short of redoing the mother board I don't know what else to do.
I was going to put an inline off/on switch to the thermostat but after finding out
the auger still feeds the pot when unhooked...I'm really confused now.

Ok this is a Positive air stove
it pushes air into the burn pot Unlike most other pellet stoves that suck the combustion air.
this stove works just like the Pellet master stove so if you search for pellet master here you will get some ideas also.

it is bottom fed

the thermostats only job is to turn the room air blower to low and the feed rate to a keep fire mode (low) when not calling for heat.

when you shut this stove off it shuts off the feed and combustion blower but the room air blower will stay on so it cools.
THIS IS WHY IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE A MINIMUM OF 8 FEET OF VERTICAL 4" VENT PIPE ON THIS STOVE. so it drafts the smoke out of the stove when you shut it off.

 

[hearthtools]

Please give us more info on your stove

Free stand or insert?

How is it vented. Out the wall and up or just up. Is it connection to a wood stove pipe or chimney?

 

[trobb]

Freestanding with the collar on top of the stove.
I have 4" Simpson Dura-vent ran straight up about 3+/- to and elbow
straight out a wall thimble, then I have about 18" of pipe outside and it is horizontial, with the end
cap being a 45 degree turndown.

Upon working with it over the weekend I noticed that the smoke is coming back through
my blower motor after the stove is turned off, not all the time though...so that leads me to believe it's not drawing to good.

Also, the blower motor that blows the warm air does not stay on when the unit is off.
Is that right? Never heard of a stove that does not have a fan to run a "cool down" stage
after the unit is off.

Anyway, I'm buying more pipe today and hopefully if I can improve the draw on it.
If that don't work I'm selliing it...

Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

[trobb]

THIS IS WHY IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE A MINIMUM OF 8 FEET OF VERTICAL 4" VENT PIPE ON THIS STOVE. so it drafts the smoke out of the stove when you shut it off.[/quote]

When you say 8' do you mean all together or like 3' inside the house and 5' outside?

 

[hearthtools]

THIS IS WHY IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE A MINIMUM OF 8 FEET OF VERTICAL 4" VENT PIPE ON THIS STOVE. so it drafts the smoke out of the stove when you shut it off.

When you say 8' do you mean all together or like 3' inside the house and 5' outside?[/quote]

I recomend 8 feet out side also because you need a way to suck the smoke out of the horizontal pipe
it really needs draft to get the smoke out of the stove.

as for the room air blower not staying on the limit switch might have went out on it and someone bypassed it.

 

[FireintheHole]

Just wondering if you had it running on a t-stat. Maybe switching to manual setting and then shutting down would go through the
fan cool down cycle. ( Some electronic glitch in the stove?)

 

[rickwa]

sounds like a circuit board problem. but if that is the way it is suppose to work with all the vertical rise and such that is a terrible control system for a pellet stove

 

[hearthtools]

this stove and the pellet master have a very basic control board
it only controls feed times to the auger and the the idle mode if the stove is connected to a stat.

it does not control any other function or change voltage to blowers but to turn the unit on when you flick the switch.

 

[mattwade808]

I just bought one tonight but haven't brought it home. I'll have it in front of me tomorrow night. I've been looking for some information on it too. Is there a manual online perhaps? The one I bought is not functioning but all the motors turn. It seems to be an auger jam. I'll follow this thread I think. Good luck in your quest

 

[hearthtools]

I merged you two threads together

 

[mattwade808]

Here's a link to a page that has a link to the Venturi FS3 manual in pdf form in case it helps anyone in the future.

http://www.api-assembled.com/support/martin/martin.htm

 

[trobb]

Well I added 200 dollars of more pipe in hopes of improving the draft...no luck.

 

[hearthtools]

Well I added 200 dollars of more pipe in hopes of improving the draft...no luck. This SOB is driving me nuts and will for sale very shortly. Sad thing is... is when its burning its an awesome machine, when the fire goes out is when things go south and I can't seem to fix it. I appreicate all the advise to this point and feel free to pimp your stove because I will be looking for another so any pros and cons on certain brands would be great. Wish I woulda found this site before I bought that POS I wound up with.

So you only have a problem with smoke when you shut it off?
If so it is a draft problem

Photos of your venting systems will help us.
Cell phone camera works great.

Make sure you have a rise in the horizontal pipe.
also not sure what unit you have FSII or FS III but make sure the chamber behind the firebrick that goes up into the 4" vent connector is clear.
Make sure your door, hopper lid and ash pan are sealing AIR TIGHT

I sold about 150 of them back in 1990 and 91and still have about 50 that I know of that I service and still working fine.

 

[trobb]

Crazy thing has whipped me man. I think I am gonna get a more modern unit, cut my losses and take it like a man. Accorrdong to the operations manuel everything is working as it should...all except the smokey house. So I'm throwing up the white flag and moving on. The pellet stove theroy has sold me thought, I gotta 2 story house and that stove in my basement kept it at 68 on a 26 degree night. Not done burning pellets just yet, just done with ole smokey, lol.

 

[johnny1720]

Here is a quick solution.

Put a small toggle switch on the auger motor. Then when you want to turn the stove off disconnect the power to the auger. Then after about 5 minutes turn the stove off.

Problem solved without actually solving the problem of not enough draft.

Johnny

 

[hearthtools]

Here is a quick solution.

Put a small toggle switch on the auger motor. Then when you want to turn the stove off disconnect the power to the auger. Then after about 5 minutes turn the stove off.

Problem solved without actually solving the problem of not enough draft.

Johnny

you will never burn all the pellets up to stop it from smoldering.
it is a bottom fed stove has a large auger that feeds directly from the bottom of the hopper to the bottom of the pot.