Mystery Hole?

[sammypoodle]

I noticed this drilled hole in the firebox while cleaning today. This hole would allow inside inside air into the combustion chamber. My quess is this was a manufacturing mistake. Not to mention if a lit clinker or ash was to find this hole it could potentially get out of the combustion chamber while on and cause a fire. I am going to plug it up with a metal screw. Or is there a real use for this hole that I am missing and it should be there. I would like to hear everyone opinion. The first picture is the stove open and the second picture the door is closed. Thanks

 

[OU812]

Its to hold a match

 

[sammypoodle]

Seriously a match hole? Am I missing something here?? Why?

 

[OU812]

noooo dont use it to hold a match. That was just my guess and an uneducated one at that. The hole doesnt look big enough to pose a hazard though.

 

[cncpro]

I am not familiar with your stove at all so I could be way off here...

That looks to me like a hole that would be used to fasten the insert to the trim plate that covers your fireplace opening.

It is awfully hard to make much sense of the pictures though... They're both zoomed in so tight I can't really get a very good idea of the whole situation. I would guess that worse case scenario would be that there could be a cold draft from the chimney entering your house through that hole...

EDIT Uh, on second look I realize that the door closed pic is taken through the glass. It's starting to make more sense now...

Perhaps that hole could be where your vacuum sensor is located ? Which would mean that inserting a screw would render it ineffective or possibly even damage it ? Just guessin' still...

The biggest thing to keep in mind here is that pellet stoves run in a vacuum condition so if anything is passing through that hole it would be entering the combustion chamber and not the other way around.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

sammypoodle,

There aren't any holes in that location on my stove.

Maybe at one time their baffles were different and were fastened there. I'd talk to the folks at Hudson about it.

I think that OU812 is funning you.

 

[Doocrew]

I noticed this drilled hole in the firebox while cleaning today. This hole would allow inside inside air into the combustion chamber. My quess is this was a manufacturing mistake. Not to mention if a lit clinker or ash was to find this hole it could potentially get out of the combustion chamber while on and cause a fire. I am going to plug it up with a metal screw. Or is there a real use for this hole that I am missing and it should be there. I would like to hear everyone opinion. The first picture is the stove open and the second picture the door is closed. Thanks

My stove has the same hole Sammy. I believe they ship these stoves with the door off, so I am wondering if something that was screwed in there for shipping purposes. I will ask Al the next time I stop by the shop. There is a few new stoves in the showroom and I will take a look at them as well. I did notice that the new stoves were coming through with the modified burn pot.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

....
The biggest thing to keep in mind here is that pellet stoves run in a vacuum condition so if anything is passing through that hole it would be entering the combustion chamber and not the other way around.

Even that can present a problem as it will interfere with air flow which should enter from below the fire pot liner in the fire pot up through the fire.

While pellet stoves aren't air tight they need air to enter in the correct spots in order to eject ash as well as provide oxygen for combustion. Extra air entry locations can create lazy fires the same effect can be seen when you open the door on a pellet stove.

 

[sammypoodle]

I had a post ( https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/32195/ ) about a "tapping" sound that was driving me crazy. I plugged the hole with a screw since I could see nothing hooked up to it and no reason for it. It has been running for about 3 hours now with no "tapping" sound at all. This was a total unexpected fix but a very welcome one at that. I guess it was drawing air throught this small hole causing my issue? Now that i just said that...........

 

[sammypoodle]

Doocrew, Did you ever get the new burn for your stove? If so is this something we all should request. I do not think I have any burn issues but the burn pot does need to be cleaned every 2 -3 days due to the bottom of the burn pot gets clogged with a hard ash. I vacuum it up and I am ready to go again. I was wondering if the new design would help that and keep it a bit cleaner.

 

[Doocrew]

Doocrew, Did you ever get the new burn for your stove? If so is this something we all should request. I do not think I have any burn issues but the burn pot does need to be cleaned every 2 -3 days due to the bottom of the burn pot gets clogged with a hard ash. I vacuum it up and I am ready to go again. I was wondering if the new design would help that and keep it a bit cleaner.

No, I have not asked for one. I really have not had any problems with mine to speak of. Every once in a while I will get hard ash build-up and then I will go for weeks with no problems. I don't get it. Maybe the moisture content varies from bag to bag? Who knows.

 

[sammypoodle]

What a tremendous difference plugging that hole up was. I used to get ash on the door after just one day. Now most of the ash seems to be falling in the ash tray. Also my door is much cleaner. It used to get dirty after 24 hours. Plus no more strange sounds coming from the stove. A huge difference. My burn pot seemed to get clogged up after 2 or so days and I would have to clean it. Now that the vacuum is correct and the airflow is working properly the burn pot is still clean after 3.5 days. The longest ever. Thanks for all the tips. Amazing what such a small hole can do to effect the stove.

 

[hearthtools]

Not sure at that stove but alot of stove have a small hole in the front of the stove to put a Magnahilic to test the Negitive pressure for adjustment
Enviro has them Under the door.

 

[MButkus]

My Whitfield has two small holes under the bottom, into the firebox for pressure readings.

 

[Doocrew]

What a tremendous difference plugging that hole up was. I used to get ash on the door after just one day. Now most of the ash seems to be falling in the ash tray. Also my door is much cleaner. It used to get dirty after 24 hours. Plus no more strange sounds coming from the stove. A huge difference. My burn pot seemed to get clogged up after 2 or so days and I would have to clean it. Now that the vacuum is correct and the airflow is working properly the burn pot is still clean after 3.5 days. The longest ever. Thanks for all the tips. Amazing what such a small hole can do to effect the stove.

I plugged the hole on my stove and have not really noticed any difference.

 

[sammypoodle]

Mine, did two things. one I had this tapping noise and two my burn pot got clogged with clinkers after 2 days or so. My noise stopped and the burn pot is still mostly clear after about 5 days. I was cleaning mostly because the burn pot was clogged and the flame was getting lazy. You did not have that noise, which is good.