New England Stove Works Pellet stove Soot Lazy Fire

[Cakane]

Model Number 25- CB 120/55SHPC Year 9/2018. Stove is cleaned weekly as per manual. All of a sudden glass turns completely black and fire is lazy. We’ve tried calling 800–245-6489 & 800-516-3636 and emailing company but that was fruitless. I know there is another direct office number because I had it and a lady had someone call us back within an hour. This was just this past December on another issue that was taken care of. Unfortunately I’ve lost that number. So if anyone can help with answer to the soot and lazy fire issue and might have the telephone number it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you
Cindy.

 

[heat seeker]

Sounds like an airflow problem. There are multiple possible causes. Combustion blower motor stopped, blocked venting, clogged stove passages, etc. Is the combustion blower even running?

 

[Dataman]

Mine did that and it was Chimney needed cleaning.

 

[Ssyko]

if you check your manual on pg's 31-37 daily, weekly, yearly maintenance may have to be performed more frequently do to the pellets/fuel and how they are burning. up here in norther NY there hasn't been a clean burn pellet this year, 9 brands i,ve tried have had excessively more ash than previous years due to the wet fall we had. you may have to tear into the stove and clean behind the baffle and pull the exhaust motor and clean it and the chamber. then you should at least check your vent to make sure nothing is obstructing it. we have seen quite a few charred remains of um things this year and plugged screens due to the ash.

 

[Cakane]

Sounds like an airflow problem. There are multiple possible causes. Combustion blower motor stopped, blocked venting, clogged stove passages, etc. Is the combustion blower even running?

Thank you so much for your reply. I shut the stove off this morning for a good cleaning later today. And I presume it is. I’ll have to ask my Husband. As I am relaying these messages. Will get back on this.

 

[Cakane]

if you check your manual on pg's 31-37 daily, weekly, yearly maintenance may have to be performed more frequently do to the pellets/fuel and how they are burning. up here in norther NY there hasn't been a clean burn pellet this year, 9 brands i,ve tried have had excessively more ash than previous years due to the wet fall we had. you may have to tear into the stove and clean behind the baffle and pull the exhaust motor and clean it and the chamber. then you should at least check your vent to make sure nothing is obstructing it. we have seen quite a few charred remains of um things this year and plugged screens due to the ash.

We thought it may be pellets as well as the possibility of the other issues you and others above mentioned. We have had more ash then we did in early fall. Thank you for your reply. We will definitely take all this into consideration and will get back to you to let you know how we fair.

 

[Cakane]

Mine did that and it was Chimney needed cleaning.

That’s a though also. Thank you.

 

[Cakane]

if you check your manual on pg's 31-37 daily, weekly, yearly maintenance may have to be performed more frequently do to the pellets/fuel and how they are burning. up here in norther NY there hasn't been a clean burn pellet this year, 9 brands i,ve tried have had excessively more ash than previous years due to the wet fall we had. you may have to tear into the stove and clean behind the baffle and pull the exhaust motor and clean it and the chamber. then you should at least check your vent to make sure nothing is obstructing it. we have seen quite a few charred remains of um things this year and plugged screens due to the ash.

My Husband has again done a complete yearly cleaning needed or not, including outside stovepipe. Within 30 minutes of the restart the glass is turning black. As you mentioned we also now believe it’s the pellets. Early in the Fall we didn’t have this issue probably because they were pellets were left from last season or early on. It seems all the pellets no matter where we are purchasing them from are causing the issue. Hopefully we won’t have such a wet summer again this year.

 

[Dataman]

How is the Cap up top? Clogged? Sure looks like poor airflow vs pellets. I had similar and it was cap was clogged a bit. Look at the smoke coming out. Seem right? Should be some. We had very wet Spring were I live and pellets were just fine. Heck I burned 5 bags of wet ones with lots of clumping and did not have any problems. 2nd Picture to me looks normal.

Pellets are dried before being made.

If a pellet mill uses fresh cut raw material, material exposed to the weather or high humidity, or a mix of raw materials that may contain moisture, they have to dry the sawdust to a consistent moisture level. Large dryer drums may use natural gas, propane, sawdust burners, or other fuels to heat the drum, driving off the extra moisture.


https://www.woodpellets.com/heating-fuels/pellet-processing.aspx

 

[Ssyko]

the problem Dataman is all the Mills in the North East region have had trouble getting any clean wood, there is one plant shut down due to lack of wood. so many have secondary sources (Pallets) I'm in NY and 9 diff mills(brands) have been ungodly dirty.

just cleaned and washed glass about 6 hr's ago

 

[Cakane]

the problem Dataman is all the Mills in the North East region have had trouble getting any clean wood, there is one plant shut down due to lack of wood. so many have secondary sources (Pallets) I'm in NY and 9 diff mills(brands) have been ungodly dirty.

just cleaned and washed glass about 6 hr's ago
View attachment 241006 View attachment 241007

Did you see my reply to you above and my photos. It seems your photos and mine are pretty much the same. So I think we now know the issue. Thanks again.

 

[Cakane]

How is the Cap up top? Clogged? Sure looks like poor airflow vs pellets. I had similar and it was cap was clogged a bit. Look at the smoke coming out. Seem right? Should be some. We had very wet Spring were I live and pellets were just fine. Heck I burned 5 bags of wet ones with lots of clumping and did not have any problems. 2nd Picture to me looks normal.

Pellets are dried before being made.

If a pellet mill uses fresh cut raw material, material exposed to the weather or high humidity, or a mix of raw materials that may contain moisture, they have to dry the sawdust to a consistent moisture level. Large dryer drums may use natural gas, propane, sawdust burners, or other fuels to heat the drum, driving off the extra moisture.


https://www.woodpellets.com/heating-fuels/pellet-processing.aspx

Thank you for responding to my question. Everything is cleaned and no clogs. My pictures came out reversed. The nice clean photo, picture number two is actually picture number one when it was first lit.

 

[Ssyko]

Did you see my reply to you above and my photos. It seems your photos and mine are pretty much the same. So I think we now know the issue. Thanks again.

yes i saw it. you could raise your combustion blower speed a little and see if it helps. but im still searching for some clean burn pellets! getting a ton of Lignetics this week hope there atleast a little better. that will take me into warmer weather i hope

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

We just got a ton of Cleanfire Douglas fir pellets, which is supposed to be Okanagan under a new name. If Ssyko is right (and I don't doubt him), that means that the Okanagans we burned must have been from last year, because these Cleanfires don't burn nearly as cleanly (there's irony for you).

I opened up the damper more and am wondering if I should bump up the combustion blower another notch, because my glass after 6 hours of burning is even worse than Ssyko's.

We also don't seem to be getting as much heat from these new pellets, either.

ETA: I'm glad to know I'm not doing anything wrong, but it's still frustrating not to be getting the performance I know is possible.

 

[Ssyko]

I got a ton of Logik-e this weekend. They are out of Quebec Canada, they were allways my favorite but last year were hard to get. They are burning hotter than any I’ve tried this yr, but still lots of ashes.

So if your near the city of Watertown Rudd’s farm and family carry them

 

[Joe.G]

I was having the same issue, I usually run Barefoot Pellets but was unable to get any this year, I purchased New England and Energex. The first ton of NE was fine just lower heat out put ( I usually Buy a Ton of NE to use in late fall and spring as they burn cooler then Barefoot ). The second ton my stove didn't want to stay running and would get really dirty. I did everything I could think of and the last thing I did was empty hopper and put a bag of Barefoot in that I had left from last year and the stove ran great.

I ended up Mixing the NE with the Energex until I used it up.