Mt Vernon Insert-Alot of ash and jumping pellets

[ColdinVT]

Hello,

We have currently been running our new Mt Vernon AE insert for a few weeks now and I have concerns that our settings are not correct and I do not know what to adjust it to.
It has not been too cold up here in VT, mid-high 40's during the day sometimes 50's and 30's at night. We are using upwards of a bag a day to maintain about 67 degrees in our house. (it's heating about 1200 sq ft).
The house is bigger (a long ranch) but we weren't expecting it to heat to the far sides of the house.

My concern is that there is alot of ash in the surrounding firebox and not in the ash tray. In about one day the ash is deep enough that it starts to fall into the actual fire pot if I don't vacuum it out. Considering this was sold to us as an auto-clean, low maintenance system I was surprised to see so much ash build up.

The stove is typically running on low-medium and we often have no flame as it drops pellets, flames up and is strong to reach the baffle area but pellets and ash pop up into the firebox then the flame drops again to be almost non existent until more pellets drop.

Should we be aiming to have a constant flame?? Should we turn up the thermostat so that it isn't running on low??

Obviously we are new to pellet stoves and need any help/advice you guys can give us! Thanks!!

Here is what I know about our settings:

Set at 74 (although our standard thermostat that runs our oil baseboard says its only 67 which seems accurate).
Flame height +1 (we had it at +3 and there was no difference in ash)
Hardwood pellets
Temp differential=1 degree
Temp Calc=0
Normal blower
No outside air kit (this was based on the suggestion of our dealer because our house was built in 1968 (standard insulation and new windows).

We are burning what I think are cheap pellets from Tractor Supply. TS brand, 100% hardwood.
We will be purchasing Vermont Wood Pellet next year which I am hoping makes a big difference.

 

[Wilbur Feral]

The only good thing about the thermostat on the MVAE (I have a free standing unit) is that you can try multiple settings rather easily. The stove itself is great, but they put half the brains in that stat, which is not a great idea because you are forced to use only that stat, which can be flaky. That said, though, your settings seem reasonable and the stat is not likely an issue. I would try flame height at 0, and all on automatic. You may want to experiment with the utility pellet setting with those pellets, but that's likely unnecessary. Also, having ash in the firebox is normal, and a few pellets as well. Try letting it go an extra day or two, and see if all is OK. It may just be that you were expecting all the ash in the ash pan, and that's just not going to happen. The best way to monitor ash in the MVAE is the ash pan. I clean my MVAE only once per week even in the dead of winter, and it runs almost nonstop when it's cold, although with Hamer's (0.5% ash).

The two things against you are 1) a pellet that many have reported as being rather ashy, which may necessitate more frequent cleaning compared to a higher quality, low ash pellet, and 2) Your dealer gave you VERY bad advice re: no OAK. Read the many posts about why an OAK IS important. It has nothing to do with how well the stove burns in anything but the best-sealed homes, in which it is "doubly necessary". But in most homes, including a "1968 home with standard insulation and new windows", the problem is that your MVAE is pumping warm air OUT of your home at about 50-80 cubic feet per minute, UNnecessarily. Thus, your stove must work much harder / run longer, to heat the cold air drawn into your home at an accelerated rate, because you have no OAK. Your dealer obviously knows about nothing about how a home performs in terms of air exchange, even if he can safely install a stove. I would force him to come back and do the job properly. You may need to pay a bit more, but beat the price down considerably because of his failure to PROPERLY install your stove in the first place. In ANY modern pellet stove installation install, No OAK = Improper Install. Your stove is burning longer than necessary because you need to heat up the air being pulled in to replace the combustion air, because of no OAK.

 

[kappel15]

All the above is very good advice, and I would try setting the flame height on high as per your manual. When flame height is set on high, it is set for all other settings.kap

 

[john193]

Good advice. I'll just reiterate that the fly ash goes all over the place within the stove. Wait till you remove the baffle after a months burn!

The ash pan mainly catches clinkers that the autoclean mechanism drops. This system is by no means a substitute for regular cleanings of the fire pot. Left unattended for too long and the clinkers can eventually jam the arm. Ask me how I know.

I burn barefoot pellets and it takes about 12 bags for me to accumulate ash almost as high as the fire pot lip. It sounds like you are burning high ash pellets. The ash falling into the fire pot isn't a big deal as it will just make its way to the ash pan.

The last thing I will say about the MVAE is that it is not an aggressive stove. Meaning on auto, the stove prematurely goes to a low burn and as a result never gets to its set temp. A low burn can also yield more ash. The stove seems to be most efficient at a heat level of 3 or 4, referred to as medium or medium high, respectively. My suggestion is you experiment with manual at a heat setting of 3.

 

[cavermedic]

Good day -
I HIGHLY recommend the VT Wood Pellets. Our AE insert is sooooooo much happier with softwood that hardwood. I can go through twice as many bags of pellets before cleaning, and have an incredibly low amount of ash (I resist the urge to clean based on the visible ash, and go by how full the ash pan gets). WIth the VT Wood Pellets, I was sometimes cleaning every 25 bags and still getting only a pound of ash.

Another reason I like the softwood pellets - longer times between auto-clean cycles, so less fluctuation of temps in mid-winter.

I run on manual, medium until I need to kick up to MH. I am not convinced that on cold nights the High setting gives proportionally more heat for the amount of pellets burned, but I'll go there to keep the bride happy.

And being a guy, as much as I hate to admit I listen to my wife on something that makes absolutely no sense, she swears that on really cold nights set the thermo WAY above the desired temp. I say that on Manual it shouldn't matter (it should either running or not running), but she swears it has an effect on the flame height like you would see on Auto (greater differential = more burn). At about ten degrees out, our stove reaches a point where the heat out equals the cold in so we never get all the way up to the high thermo setting, but it does seem to help.