New here... Questions

[Almosthere]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick introduction to "break the ice" I guess. I am 100% new to the pellet stove world thanks to purchasing a new house. I know this stove can't be that difficult to figure out, but honestly I am smart enough to know there are smarter people than me that can answer/address my issues with ease. I hope I can explain exactly what is going on.

St.Croix Prescott EX manufactured date says: 11/01

Stove was just cleaned by my dad who has burnt pellets for years and serviced his own machine.

The stove lights easily with a starter block and burns great for 25 minutes. During this time, the heat that it produces is extremely hot, but after 25 minutes or so the stove only produces lukewarm heat. I actually let it run today for 4 hours to gather some data to provide you guys. During this extended burn, the stove was running on the max setting and entire time (after the 25 minute range) and I could set my hand on it without being concerned of burning myself. The air, as previous stated, was lukewarm. I know my pellets are good since I am actually getting them from my dad who is a die-hard believer of pellet stoves. What could be creating this issue? I am very mechanically inclined; therefore any suggestions can be troubleshot with ease.

 

[MSmith66]

I would try a good break down cleaning again of the stove and "Scrap" the walls of the stove, remove the top plate covering the baffle area and use a good stiff wire, part of a hanger, between the baffles and run the baffle rod all the way back an fourth, you should hear metal to metal. There are postings on this forum on cleaning a St. Croix pellet stove. Im not saying your dad did not cleaning it well. St. Croix is a very tuff stove to clean, the manual does not inform the owner of the cleaning passage ways behind the back wall. Good Luck.

 

[alternativeheat]

There are a couple of extra steps to cleaning a StCroix, there are passages that have hatches that need to be removed and as mentioned you then rod that out with wire... Once you know about this it's a non issue to do periodically. It's a common question you are asking regarding them, we just had another guy in here a few weeks ago with more or less the same issue and we get a few each heating season.

 

[jzm2cc]

Ditto on the full cleaning of exhaust channels.

I assume the igniter has failed as Prescotts don't need to be lit manually.

We're you running in manual mode on max heat setting or in t-stat or Smart stat modes?

Was the flame 6 plus inches tall or just barely out of firepot? If small flame on high setting it was probably just idling on low setting since it's waiting for thermostat to call for heat.

Try to test it again in manual mode with max heat setting. These stoves put out impressive heat.

 

[Almosthere]

Two things I have noticed:.
1. The stove blows hot air on warm up.
2. If I manually feed the the fuel it keeps the temperature and flame up there.

I am really starting to think it's a problem with the feed rate. As soon as I manually feed the pellets in the flame comes back and temperature output increases. Once I get the flame up and transition to a feed rate, the flame decreases in size drastically and subsequently heat disappears.

 

[jzm2cc]

Count how many seconds the auger feed light is on for the highest setting and do same for lowest heat setting. If the same time it's probably just idling. Keep in mind it takes about 90 seconds for stove to advance upward for each heat level (1,2,3,4,5). So from low settikng tho highest it should take about 6 minutes in total.

An example of what I'm asking.

High heat, light on for 6 seconds, off for 6 seconds.
Low heat, light on for 3 seconds, off for 9 seconds

 

[johneh]

Are you on a T Stat ?
Is the stove set in manual or T Stat switch position ?
Manual here http://stcroixstoves.com/pdf/Prescott-Manuals.pdf

 

[Bioburner]

My thoughts are the stove is lighting properly but is looking for thermostat to tell it to ramp up but is stuck on idle. I have no access to the manual.

 

[rona]

Two things I have noticed:.
1. The stove blows hot air on warm up.
2. If I manually feed the the fuel it keeps the temperature and flame up there.

I am really starting to think it's a problem with the feed rate. As soon as I manually feed the pellets in the flame comes back and temperature output increases. Once I get the flame up and transition to a feed rate, the flame decreases in size drastically and subsequently heat disappears.

I would shut down then unplug it. Now plug it back in and start your fire. Now push start button. I had trouble getting his fall and m
Needed to reboot the control board. After doing that it worked fine

 

[heat seeker]

Do you have a thermostat connected to the stove?