New to having a pellet stove

[jp57]

Hello all....my wife and I recently purchased a home that has an existing Englander 55-SHP10 pellet stove. Our old house had a wood stove and I was finally getting the hang of that when we up and sold the place. LOL. Now we have the pellet stove and I have absolutely no idea how to run the thing.

Could someone give me a few pointers, do's/don'ts, etc. and point me in the right direction on how to efficiently and safely use the stove, please?

I will be cleaning it out this weekend following a video I saw on Youtube, so at least I'll start off with something clean.

Any advice, suggestions, pointers would be greatly appreciated. I've never even seen one in action and none of our friends have one so I'm starting from scratch over here.

Thanks

 

[bogieb]

Welcome to the wonderful world of pellet stove warmness! I don't know anything about your stove, but if you don't have a manual, make sure to download one off the net (Google is your friend). In general a clean stove is a happy stove. Unfortunately each stove is different in its interpretation of cleanliness, and in how often it gets to its definition of dirty.

For general safety, much like for a wood stove, make sure you have a CO detector, smoke detector and fire extinguisher nearby. Hopefully they never come in handy, but being prepared is better than taking a chance.

I will let the Englander guru's bring you up to speed on stove specific details.

 

[bags]

X 2 of what bogieb said! Read your manual, understand it, and follow it. Research here, all over the net, Youtube etc; I see you've found stuff on the Tube already

There are tons of people here with Englander stoves and your specific unit. They will chime in soon. They do it all of the time. No need to worry because there are many here that offer good help.

Good Luck! P.S. Read that manual and study up!

 

[Doug Doty]

You are on the right path, clean it extremely well, add some pellets, not full at first, in case you have to vacate them for some unforeseen reason, start it up and see how it goes, I'd stay close at first.

I am only 1 week experienced but I will tell you one of my ahha moments in learning is when I realized that handling the pellets is your largest producer of additional dust in the house. I am evaluating options to load the hopper and minimize the dust plum. You do not notice it much in the daytime compared to evening hours with low light beaming around and through the dust plum as you pour.

 

[bugman31964]

checkout www.englandstoves.com lots of good info there, cleaning, operation instruction, etc.

 

[Doug Doty]

checkout www.englandstoves.com lots of good info there, cleaning, operation instruction, etc.

That link says it is a " for sale" web address when I followed it ??

 

[bugman31964]

That link says it is a " for sale" web address when I followed it ??

sorry try this www.englanderstoves.com. I forgot the er.

 

[Chrisnow86]

First thing i would do it give it a nice old cleaning!! englanders are not happy stoves when they get dirty so keep on that... for some pointers here is the dvd for running them

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watch this and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!!

go to youtube there is a series of videos on how to clean and operate

 

[jp57]

I got home after work on Friday and cleaned it out because it looked like this:

and this:

I didn't take any pics after I had finished, but I'm thinking I'll need to replace the inner rope door gasket soon.

I then proceed to RTFM and then fired it up for the first time. Only problem with that was that I did not realize at first that while my stove is a 55-SHP10, it was built before 2004 and does NOT have auto-start. So I wasted a few minutes waiting and staring at un-burned pellets before I realized this. Oops! Once I figured that out, I added some starter gell the previous owners left, lit it up, closed the door, and turned it on. Results = FIRE!!

I kept the feed setting and fan low just so I can see how the thing runs. So far, so good. Will wait until it gets cold again (Thanksgiving) and will fire it back up and crank it up a bit to see how much of a difference changing those settings make. Wish me luck!

Oh...quick questions...the previous owners weren't exactly neat-freaks and there is dust and hair in the back of the unit by the motor and thought it would be a good idea to clean it. Is it better to vacuum that junk off or blow it off using compressed air?

 

[Polar Bear]

Did you happen to clean your blowers? I am guessing if they let it get to "that" point, maybe they didn't do their annual maintenance.

 

[kofkorn]

If you have it, a vacuum with a gentle brush attachment would work well. Make sure that you clear the dust/hair off of the intake of the room blower. This is where it tends to collect the most.

I think you'll find a VERY large difference between running on 1-1 and 9-9.

As others have said before, the key to the Englanders is to keep them clean. One of the things that I've found to work well is to clean and vacuum the insides as much as possible. Then I'll give it a good shot of compressed air (from my compressor, not a can). To keep the ash dust down, with the baffle plate removed, I'll start the stove with the ON button and then I'll immediately press the OFF button. This will start the combustion blower running and will suck most of the dust up the exhaust pipe. I'll also run my vacuum with the hose just inside of the door. Then I'll run the air hose attachment and blow it inside of the holes behind the baffle plate, moving the air to hit as many spots as possible. This tends to dislodge most of the extra ashes that I can't reach with the vacuum.

I've been running ours as the main source of heat in our house going on our 8th season. We've been very happy with the stove.

Good luck!

 

[jp57]

If you have it, a vacuum with a gentle brush attachment would work well. Make sure that you clear the dust/hair off of the intake of the room blower. This is where it tends to collect the most.

I think you'll find a VERY large difference between running on 1-1 and 9-9.

As others have said before, the key to the Englanders is to keep them clean. One of the things that I've found to work well is to clean and vacuum the insides as much as possible. Then I'll give it a good shot of compressed air (from my compressor, not a can). To keep the ash dust down, with the baffle plate removed, I'll start the stove with the ON button and then I'll immediately press the OFF button. This will start the combustion blower running and will suck most of the dust up the exhaust pipe. I'll also run my vacuum with the hose just inside of the door. Then I'll run the air hose attachment and blow it inside of the holes behind the baffle plate, moving the air to hit as many spots as possible. This tends to dislodge most of the extra ashes that I can't reach with the vacuum.

I've been running ours as the main source of heat in our house going on our 8th season. We've been very happy with the stove.

Good luck!

Dumb question...where exactly is the "intake of the room blower" on this stove?

Thanks!

 

[kofkorn]

Once you remove the back panel, and looking at the stove from the the rear, the room blower is on the left. The intake will be on the opposite side of the blower from the motor. (it changed sides on the newer stoves) On my stove, the intake is on the right side (from the rear) of the blower. It has a mesh covering that collects dust. As you've never run this stove before, and considering the other dust in your unit, it may be a good idea to take the blower completely off (four bolts holding the flange and two wires) and give it a good cleaning.

Good luck!

 

[jp57]

Once you remove the back panel, and looking at the stove from the the rear, the room blower is on the left. The intake will be on the opposite side of the blower from the motor. (it changed sides on the newer stoves) On my stove, the intake is on the right side (from the rear) of the blower. It has a mesh covering that collects dust. As you've never run this stove before, and considering the other dust in your unit, it may be a good idea to take the blower completely off (four bolts holding the flange and two wires) and give it a good cleaning.

Good luck!

Thank you very much. I'll give that a good cleaning as well. Like I said, the previous owners didn't exactly keep up on maintenance and cleaning. I'll probably also clean out the vent pipe...no telling if/when they cleaned that out.

Also, as you can see from the picture the gasket on the glass is falling apart. Is that something that should be taken care of sooner rather than later?

 

[kofkorn]

The gasket around the window wouldn't concern me too much. The one around the door is more important. An easy way to check the window gasket would be to use an extinguished match right after you start the stove up (before the room blower comes on). If you see any of the smoke from the match drawn into areas around the window, then you may want to consider it.

You can check the door gasket by pinching a dollar bill between the door and the flange. If it can be pulled out with a gentle tug (repeat several times around the door), then the door gasket needs to be replaced.

My window gasket looks similar, but is holding fine. I just take a pair of scissors to the loose pieces every now and again to clean them up.

 

[HD41]

I got home after work on Friday and cleaned it out because it looked like this:

and this:

I didn't take any pics after I had finished, but I'm thinking I'll need to replace the inner rope door gasket soon.

I then proceed to RTFM and then fired it up for the first time. Only problem with that was that I did not realize at first that while my stove is a 55-SHP10, it was built before 2004 and does NOT have auto-start. So I wasted a few minutes waiting and staring at un-burned pellets before I realized this. Oops! Once I figured that out, I added some starter gell the previous owners left, lit it up, closed the door, and turned it on. Results = FIRE!!

I kept the feed setting and fan low just so I can see how the thing runs. So far, so good. Will wait until it gets cold again (Thanksgiving) and will fire it back up and crank it up a bit to see how much of a difference changing those settings make. Wish me luck!

Oh...quick questions...the previous owners weren't exactly neat-freaks and there is dust and hair in the back of the unit by the motor and thought it would be a good idea to clean it. Is it better to vacuum that junk off or blow it off using compressed air?

Compared to my stove. I don't see the retaining taps for the impingement plate. Is it a shadow or has it been burning with it upside down.

 

[jp57]

Compared to my stove. I don't see the retaining taps for the impingement plate. Is it a shadow or has it been burning with it upside down.

I do not believe that there any tabs on my impingement plate...I noticed that was different when compared to the clean-out video I watched on YoutTube. It could be that they changed the design on the 2004 and up models??

 

[kofkorn]

It's an older stove, so I don't know what the configuration of the tabs are on his version. To the OP, make sure that the bottom of the impingement plate is up against the back wall of the stove. On the newer stoves, there are two tabs just above the insert that hold it in place. Your's may not have them..