New Pellet stove owner with questions

[F4jock]

OAK- this isn't exactly easy for us to install. We would have to cut another hole in our building. its possible and an option if need be, but I would like to put this off for now.

in regards to the sooty flame, should we try opening the draft more on low? the stove is in my dads garage so he is the one playing with it most times. he said he found the stove seems to like the draft right around halfway open, maybe open or closed slightly more/less but generally in the 50% area. just wondering if maybe we need to maybe close it way down to like 25% on low?

as for our current exhaust setup- I found what I was talking about before, the Equal Vertical Length calculation. it would be easy for us to try lowering our score if you guys think that might help. sorry I had the score wrong its .5 for vertical not 1.

Current setup:
45 elbow- 3
2' straight horizontal pipe- 2
cleanout tee- 5
5' straight vertical pipe- 2.5

that gives us 12.5. we could pretty easily remove the clean out tee and vertical stack. that would give us a score of 5 rather than 12.5. our only reason for not originally going with that route was I believe our directions mentioned having some section of vertical pipe for good venting. however is searching around it seems straight out the back with a cap would be acceptable.


last night I was in the garage, actually dropping off a 2nd pallet of pellets, and was looking at the stove. burning on 5- high, we have a nice bright flame and everything appeared to be working correctly. the temp on the side of the stove said 32 and it was single digits outside, probably around 5. So I assume our stove is working as it should.

the bad part for us, which is unrelated, is that our torpedo heater decided to quit yesterday. So today my dads first priority is to try to get that looked at. We are also hoping to get some insulation picked up within the next few days.

Lower the score and open the draft on low fire. OAK still a good idea.

 

[Bioburner]

I would take a look at the photo eye of the torpedo heater first. They go weak and get dirty and shut the heater down and I would pull the filter either on the end or inline just as a matter of maintenance.

 

[Tiger Joe]

I would take a look at the photo eye of the torpedo heater first. They go weak and get dirty and shut the heater down and I would pull the filter either on the end or inline just as a matter of maintenance.

yeah did that last night before I left. All was nice and clean. sounds like the heater is "half-lighting" when you first turn it on. Got a shop not too far away from us that has treated us good repairing this before. We've had it for like 10 years so we could have just worn it out (it has run A LOT when we've needed it)

 

[Bioburner]

That sounds like filter or nozzle issue and a fresh plug won't hurt. Those heaters don't really have a fuel pump but a venturi effect using a vane air pump most of the time. Having diesels and living in MN, having a torpedo or two is a must.

 

[Tiger Joe]

That sounds like filter or nozzle issue and a fresh plug won't hurt. Those heaters don't really have a fuel pump but a venturi effect using a vane air pump most of the time. Having diesels and living in MN, having a torpedo or two is a must.

no plugs anymore. uses an igniter setup. why its headed to the shop for repair today. they are the only place close to get an igniter if that was the problem, so might as well have them check it if we have to stop there anyway

 

[Tiger Joe]

torpedo heater repaired. said it was dirty and one fuel hose was loose and needed a clamp(they don't come with clamps on them)

also talked to dad about the stove. he left it burning on 3 all night, it got down to -13 at his house last night. the stove said 32 on the temp display on the side, and the thermometer across the garage said 16. So I guess the stove is doing all it can.

We will see tomorrow how everything works with a properly functioning heater

 

[Bioburner]

torpedo heater repaired. said it was dirty and one fuel hose was loose and needed a clamp(they don't come with clamps on them)

also talked to dad about the stove. he left it burning on 3 all night, it got down to -13 at his house last night. the stove said 32 on the temp display on the side, and the thermometer across the garage said 16. So I guess the stove is doing all it can.

We will see tomorrow how everything works with a properly functioning heater

I was partly right about something being dirty. Used to have 3 of them. Down to one. Going to have a one day weather window, was up to almost normal here today with it being 29. Spent most of the day chasing around getting supplies for the next stretch of cold. Supposed to be only 8 for tomorrows high and -8 Sunday.

 

[Tiger Joe]

ok bringing this thread back from the dead.

Two major positives for us:
1- the garage is fully insulated
2- Our low temps now are only down to the upper 20s at night. highs around 50 during the day.

This past weekend we took off the vertical stack, which lowers our EVL score from 12.5 to 5.

We still cannot turn the stove down to low though.

here is the scenario from last night- stove was completely off for cleaning yesterday. dad lit the stove around 4pm, let it burn on setting 3 for roughly an hour or so, he lowered the stove to 1, the lowest setting, and set the draft halfway open. flame appears strong so he left it for the night. at 9 am this morning he notices brown/black soot on the side of his garage from the exhaust (this could be because the pipe is only roughly 10" away from the building.) When he looked at the stove, the temp on the display was 53, the glass is nowhere near clear, it is all hazy. Also dad didn't measure the exact amount of pellets it used, but he said it would easily take 1 bag. To use 40 lbs in 17 hours would put our consumption rate at roughly 2.4 lbs/hr. the stove is supposed to be rated at 1.5 lbs/hr on low. Dads exact words today were "it doesn't seem to make a difference if I put it on 1 or 3 it still uses the same amount of pellets"

Any ideas what else we could try?

 

[MSmith66]

You did mention at your first post that the garage is air tight. I would recommend and O.A.K on that stove. You should see a big difference on the performance.