new envrio empress problems

[john57]

help!

I am the owner of a new enviro empress wood stove insert looking for some help

1. The stove shut off after a couple hours of use, and heat level would flash on level 3 setting.. dealer replaced circuit board and fixed the problem for 2 days. I called the dealer again and they told me not to use the 1st level setting, use the second level. The stove still shuts off but now will not flash on any setting, and it wil not turn on using the power button unless I unplug the stove then plug it back in. (it does say in the owners manual it can take 30 seconds for the stove to turn on but this does not happen)

2. There is no constant flame, it goes to real high fire then to none, almost in a cycle....Is this normal?

 

[Obie25]

Is this a pellet stove or a wood stove? I was a new owner and it took me a while to figure out how it all works. Once I did though I have been running the stove 24/7 for the past two weeks. My wife likes it about 70 in the house at all times. Anyway...what I found works for me...is the following steps

1. Put a handful of pellets in the fire box.
2. Crank the stove up to 5.
3. Wait about 1/2 hour or so then adjust the level down to three.
4. Adjust the air flow so that you get the desire flame (wait about 5 minutes after each adjustment)

Hope that helps. Not sure if even answers your question!

 

[john57]

Pellet stove, and I use Heartland pellets...Called the dealer this morning they are sending some out. Hopefully it gets resolved, my family has bought 4 stoves from this dealer!

 

[nanama72]

I am a new enviro empress owner also and I can never use my stove on setting 1 or 2 because the pellets come out to slow and it goes up and down and down and just smoking embers. I have posted about this and it seems all the empresses do this. With some pellets, I can only use level 4 and 5 and keep it alive. With other pellets, I can turn it down to 3 and it won't go out but will still put out some good heat. We are running our stove also 24/7 and it works fine that way and keeps the house around 70 - 72. If we wanted to keep it 62 like last year, we would be in trouble, but that's when we were using oil and I don't mind using pellets the way we were using the oil. It helped me to know that most people with this stove can not use level 1 or 2, just like my stove.

 

[john57]

Hey Burning Chuck, with keeping it on 3 or higher how much do you burn in one day. For the 2 days I had the stove running (on level 1, which I guess is a no-no) it brought my house (2000sq ft) down stairs to 73 degrees and upstairs to 68.... When it got in the 30's at night the house temp only dropped down to 72 and 67. I was using 8/10 of a 40 lb bag

 

[nanama72]

what sort of pellets are you using? We're going through about 2 bags a day. It seems like if we could only get the damper to shut down more, we could probably keep it on lower settings. Our dealer is completely overwhelmed with new installs, so the likelihood he'd come out is slim. If you have an empress and you're able to use it on level 1 and 2, why are so many of us not able to?

 

[hearthtools]

Length of the pellets may be a factor
Longer pellets feed LESS at a time and on lower setting the fire my go out because only a few drop and can not keep a fire going
then sometimes after 10 minutes a bunch drop and smother the fire.

Air adjustment and the Low feed TRIM setting on the control board with help this.

Do you you the stove on Thermostat?
If so ON and OFF mode?
or
High and low Mode?

If you are using a Stat I reciment only using in on HI LOW mode
and never run the stove below the 3 level and 5 is best
because the stove will run HOT and clean and then the Stat will turn it down to low when no heat is needed.

ON and OFF STAT mode is not the best because if you do not clean out the burn pot every day the STOVE WILL fault out and not light because you burnpot is full of crap
and you will wake up one night cold and bitching out the stove.

 

[john57]

Heartland pellets, which I bought in the summer around $360 a ton... The dealer set the damper all the way to the left. I was told at the point of sale that I will use about 1 bag a day. If I am told to put it on level 3 to fix my probem and then burn 2 bags a day I will not be a happy camper! I was also told by the installer when they replaced my circuit board that there is a TSB from Enviro to add extensions on the legs to get better air flow. This was not done to mine yet

 

[john57]

Moderator--- The unit is not on a stat. Also, I did clean out the stove both times after each bag

 

[hearthtools]

Heartland pellets, which I bought in the summer around $360 a ton... The dealer set the damper all the way to the left. I was told at the point of sale that I will use about 1 bag a day. If I am told to put it on level 3 to fix my probem and then burn 2 bags a day I will not be a happy camper! I was also told by the installer when they replaced my circuit board that there is a TSB from Enviro to add extensions on the legs to get better air flow. This was not done to mine yet

There are hundreds of brands of pellets the brand does not tell us anything there are hundreds of brands and every batch no matter what brand is different.

How long are the pellets?
if 50% of the pellets in a bag are over 1 1/4" then this is considered long pellets

the amount of pellets you use per day depends on how much heat you need and this is adjusted by your head settings.
Yes if you keep you stove on setting 3 all day long you will use about 3 pounds an hour.

IF YOU USE A THERMOSTAT you will save pellets because the TEMP in your house will be regulated automatically

Say you leave you stove in 5 setting and have a thermostat and the HI LOW mode
the stove will run on High a little less than 5 pounds per hours ( DEPENDING ON LENGTH OF PELLETS SHORTER PELLETS FEED MORE AT A TIME)
get the house warm and then turn it down to LOW about 1 pound per hour.

But you need to get your stove dialed in or working correctly.
Have your dealer set the air with a MAG. to be sure you have proper draft.
You also want to make sure you have you ash pan latch tight.
I sell a lot of empresses and my customers use some crap pellets and the only call I get for service is normal the #2 light flashing because the Vacuum switch tripped because the Hose port plugs up.

 

[nanama72]

Even if our stove is clean it will still just make embers and smoke up the house or go out on lower settings. It just seems like our stove likes a healthy supply of pellets to keep a good burn going. Also have not tried the stat. I'm pretty much convinced it will smoke up the house or go out when it goes from High to low. Also, when changing levels, the damper has to be adjusted to get optimal burn, even going from 5 to 4, so I'm not sure how that would work with the thermostat since it would presumably just be lowering the pellet rate. It also takes about 15 minutes to start up after cleaning. I've noticed other people are using purell or firestarters to get their stoves going. Is this recommended?

 

[hearthtools]

TSB from Enviro to add extensions on the legs to get better air flow. This was not done to mine yet

what ???
how is extending the legs give you more air flow
Air flow is POWERED from your COMBUSTION BLOWER.

 

[Obie25]

Hmm...this is interesting..how people operate their stoves! I'm also guessing that the type of pellets will dictate which level you will use. We found three to be the lowest setting we could use with the pellets that we are using. It does even say in the manual that the lower settings might not be suitable for certain pellets.

 

[nanama72]

Have you been able to use the thermostat?

 

[hearthtools]

Even if our stove is clean it will still just make embers and smoke up the house or go out on lower settings. It just seems like our stove likes a healthy supply of pellets to keep a good burn going. Also have not tried the stat. I'm pretty much convinced it will smoke up the house or go out when it goes from High to low. Also, when changing levels, the damper has to be adjusted to get optimal burn, even going from 5 to 4, so I'm not sure how that would work with the thermostat since it would presumably just be lowering the pellet rate. It also takes about 15 minutes to start up after cleaning. I've noticed other people are using purell or firestarters to get their stoves going. Is this recommended?

(for my advice here on Thermostats Im refurring to the EMPRESS, WINDSOR, MINI and MERIDIAN pellets stoves NOT THE OMEGA or any other brand)
98% of my customers that have a Thermostat ready stove use a Thermostat or a Thermostat remote.

The control board Lowers the COMBUSTION blower speed (via VOLTAGE DROP) when it goes from Normal high burn to LOW or a KEEP FIRE when the stat is NOT calling for heat.
so if you have your Air adjusted correcly from the start you will not need to adjust the air going from a high burn to a low burn.

The best STAT funtion in HI LOW because if you have a Properly functioning stove and you clean the burn pot out every few days the stove will not go out because it likes fire.
It may build up and the fire will be dirty if you go more that 4 days with a Average pellets but is will stay going.

But with and ON and OFF mode thermostat when the stove shuts off you will have a layer of Ash or clinker in the bottom of the burn pot.
EVERY TIME the stove has a shut down cycle more and more of the ash and or clinker will build up and block the Air holes in the bottom of the pot and sometimes even the HOLE for the ignitor and the STOVE WILL NOT LIGHT UP.
THIS IS WHY I WILL NOT SET A CUSTOMERS STOVE TO ON AND OFF MODE for any of our Enviro stove EXCEPT the OMEGA because it has a SELF CLEANING burn pot.

 

[nanama72]

Thanks a lot from your explanations. We'll give it a try with the thermostat as you suggested and see if we can reduce our pellet use. Thanks.

 

[hearthtools]

Hmm...this is interesting..how people operate their stoves! I'm also guessing that the type of pellets will dictate which level you will use. We found three to be the lowest setting we could use with the pellets that we are using. It does even say in the manual that the lower settings might not be suitable for certain pellets.

This is a common problem and normally addressed in the Technical Part of your manual.
Most stoves have a LOW FEED trim setting to adjust the amount of pellets it will feed on the low setting to keep the stove from going out from NOT having enough fuel.
I know a few stoves that have this for years
ENGLANDER
Whitfield Advantage IIT and Advantage Plus have a low trip pot setting for the auger and combustion fan speed
Control Board type Enviro, Breckwell, BASCA, Kozyheat, have a TRIM SETTING ON THE CONTROL BOARD(they all have the same board manufacture)
The Enviro OMEGA you can adjust the TRIM setting for ALL HEAT SETTING.

 

[hearthtools]

Even the NON control board stoves have the same probem with low feed
and enviro fixed this problem with changing the auger ON timer from a one second to a three second timer

See this thread
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/24431/

 

[john57]

Moderator---Mabey I was feed a line of BS from the installer... All I stated about the TSB is what I was told. Can you answer my question on why my stove will not turn on unless I unplug it from the wall and then plug it back in? There are no electrical problems in my house. Father in law is an electrican

 

[hearthtools]

Moderator---Mabey I was feed a line of BS from the installer... All I stated about the TSB is what I was told. Can you answer my question on why my stove will not turn on unless I unplug it from the wall and then plug it back in? There are no electrical problems in my house. Father in law is an electrican

Could be a bad control board.

Do you have the stat option set to MANUAL?
Depending on if your stove is 2007 year control board with the option switch on the front of the control board or if it is the older board with a Jumper you have to move at the back of the control board.

If you do not have a Thermostat this with make the same thing happen.
with the board set on ON and OFF thermostat mode you can not turn the stove on from the control board.
but with the boards build in POWER RESTORED auto restart feature when you loose power (unplugging) and power is restored the stove will automatically start back up.
there is a 3-10 second delay from the time you plug in the power and the stove will start up.
this is a tell tell sign the Jumper or stat is set to ON AND OFF stat.
I found this out Tuesday when I when to a customers house that has a WINDSOR (older version of the Empress)
he WILL ONLY USE IS STOVE IN ON AND OFF THERMOSTAT MODE.

he said his stove worked fine but it would not shut off with the WIRELESS thermostat.
Turned out that He had NEVER changed his batteries in his REMOTE thermostat RECEIVER connected to the stove
He only change the battieries in the HAND HELD.

anyway when I was playing with his stove trying to figure out what was going on
I noticed that when you unplug the stove and then plug it back in it would start up automatically even if the thermostat was not callling for heat.

 

[hearthtools]

Moderator---Mabey I was feed a line of BS from the installer... All I stated about the TSB is what I was told. Can you answer my question on why my stove will not turn on unless I unplug it from the wall and then plug it back in? There are no electrical problems in my house. Father in law is an electrican

is this a free standing or fireplace INSERT ??

 

[hearthtools]

Never mind I see in your first post that this is an insert

There is a jumper setting on the MOUTHER BOARD that is mounted behind the panel in the stove
they might not have the thermo stat Setting set to MANUAL

 

[hearthtools]

here is the jumper settings on page 10 on your TECH manual.

 

[john57]

Moderator---I had it installed by the dealer...I do not know how he has the stat option set. I assume this is a 2008 model, (it was installed in september-08) Its funny, my brother has the same exact stove, (installed this month) and uses the same exact pellets and has none of the problems that I have.

 

[hearthtools]

Moderator---I had it installed by the dealer...I do not know how he has the stat option set. I assume this is a 2008 model, (it was installed in september-08) Its funny, my brother has the same exact stove, (installed this month) and uses the same exact pellets and has none of the problems that I have.

see my post
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/276542/