New to pellet stoves and a couple of questions.

[HillbillyMD]

Hello all. Browsing these forums really put me in a good position I think when I went and bought a used pellet stove. As a result of all of the great posts here, I have been able to take the entire thing apart, clean it thoroughlly, and put it back together with it actually working again. That tip about using the hammer to knock out the ash behind the front plate was invaluable. Now I have the stove working pretty well I think, it is a St. Croix Afton Bay, but I do have a couple of questions/issues I have not been able to find much if anything on.

I hooked up a thermostat to it, moved the jumper over as the instructions state, but when I do, when the thermostat calls for heat, the stove does not feed at the same rate as it should or actually as it does without the thermostat. So for example, if I have it set on 6, the highest it can go and do not use the thermostat, the pellets feed at the proper rate. The service manual I ahve states, the feed light should be on for almost 6 seconds on that setting. When I enable the thermostat, on the same setting, the feed light only stays on for about 3 seconds and the fire is obviously no where near as hot as it should be. Has anyone heard of anything along these lines? When I bought it, the guy pointed out the potentiometers on the control board and stated you can adjust them to where you like. I have a feeling he has made some adjustments but I don't see anything that relates to what I am seeing.

The other pressing question I have would be ash or soot buildup on the glass. On any setting but 5 or 6, there is a very noticable amount of dark soot that forms on the glass. If I run it any lower, wow, talk about a pain, not only does it not really seem to heat very well but the glass gets really sooty. If I run it on high, it burns off and I can clean it but I really thought I should be able to provide heat at a lower setting for say over night.

The area I am trying to heat is a detached garage, 38' x 40' with 16' vaulted ceilings in the front half and 10' ceilings in the back half. The back half also has an 18' x 16' that is 8' high upstairs and is completely open to the lower level where it meets the vaulted ceiling. I have just finished insulating and putting up all of the sheetrock and on 5 or 6 setting, the stove seems to maintain a nice 70 degrees but I would really like to take advantage of the thermostat and be able to keep it at around 60.

In any case, thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Yikes, first post here and no replies.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Yikes, first post here and no replies.

Is the stove set for high/low if it is set for high/low when you turned it on did you set the firing rate to the rate you want to be the high rate?

 

[DexterDay]

Welcome to the Forums..

What brand of stove do you have? And Pics give many more responses. We love pics...

Go to "Your Control Panel" at the top pf the screen. Then Edit Signature and add your stoves make and model. Helps us with any questions you may have. Cant help, if we dont know. Every stove Manufacturer is unique in its operation. Although they are simply an air pump, they all have there own special attributes.

 

[wwert]

Great stove. Ran 1 for years with no issues. Can't help with the thermostat issue but you should be crispy with it running on 6. The biggest issue with that stove is clogged ash fly traps, even after you vacuum them you should remove the fake brick back walls and pound the steel walls with a rubber mallet. Take a piece of electricians fish tape and go up through the ash clean outs and run it up and down and sideways and you will be amazed at the crap that comes out. Close the damper on the air intake down to a pencil width and adjust slowly from there and you should be able to get a great flame. Lastly use some anti seize lube on the versa grate cam and shaft and that thing should burn a lot better.

 

[imacman]

What brand of stove do you have?

Dex, the op stated in his first post that it was a St. Croix Afton Bay.

 

[imacman]

....you should remove the fake brick back walls and pound the steel walls with a rubber mallet....

Wow.....not again in the same post. Hate to say this, but does anyone really read the posts??? :roll:

Once again, the OP stated in the first post that he did this: "That tip about using the hammer to knock out the ash behind the front plate was invaluable"

 

[jtakeman]

We are all sleepy today and still getting over the New Years hangovers. :sick:

To the OP, Sounds like you have the stove in high/low and the stat isn't calling for heat or not connected properly. If its fine with the stat wire disconnected, check to make sure the stat is a millivolt stat and is properly connected as in which terminals the wires are hooked to.

What stat you got so we can check what terminals you need to connect to and whether or not you need to have any jumpers on the stat terminals. Hope I explained it right, Head still hurts a bit! ;-)

 

[heat seeker]

I don't know if you have a digital or analog control, so if yours is analog, ignore the following. It sounds to me like you have an old analog control, since my digital has 5 heat levels and no pots on the board.

I know you have done the hammer thing, but have you cleaned the ash trap that is above the ash pan? You may or may not have a third door there, older units don't have one. The Leaf Blower Trick would probably work wonders for you. I think that you may still have an airflow problem. Also make sure the area at the rear of the heat exchangers is clean - it's right above the passage you cleared with the hammer. You'll need to remove the baffle to see in there.

Ignore if you have an analog control:

When the thermostat calls for heat after idling, the stove does not go to the desired firing rate immediately. Mine works its way up, level by level, pausing for about 2 ¼ minutes at each level. You'll need to wait about 8 or 10 minutes for it to reach max firing rate. I think that is to avoid dumping a bunch of pellets onto a small fire and smothering it.

Even running in manual mode, increasing the firing rate still has a delay.

 

[wwert]

Wow I thought a rubber mallet was a different instrument than a hammer. Sorry I wasted your time.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Thanks for the replies guys, I figured with the holidays and such that many might not be looking at this all the time.

SmokeyTheBear - The manual doesn't state anything about high/low setting, it actually states that it will run on 1 when the thermostat is not calling for heat and will run at whatever setting you have it set on (2-6) when it does call for heat. Specifically it states to set it for whatever will cause a rise in heat for the room.

wwert - Certainly will heat me out of the place if I leave it on 6 for to long. Very happy with the stove overall. I don't have a piece of electricians tape but I did use a piece of 10 guage electrical wire that I could bend up there and poke around behind the ash traps. Every time I thuoght I was done cleaning it, more crap would fall out of that thing. The versa grate appears to be working fine actually. I didn't want to touch it since it was doing what it was supposed to do.

j-takeman - I haven't seen anything in any of the manuals saying it can be set to low/high mode versus what is described earlier. The thermostat is definitly calling for heat. You can manually increase the temperature on the thermostat and you will hear the combustion fan kick in and the pellet rate does in crease, just not to the desired setting.

heat seeker - It is an analog control panel. the ash traps are clean, I was able to get out a lot of junk hidden back there when I took it all apart. Still need to do the leaf blower trick but have to go buy one first. I have cleaned the heat exchangers, would like to figure out how to get them out to do a real good cleaning on them but couldn't figure out how. You mention a baffle to clean behind for the exchanger and I don't recall seeing that, maybe not thinking to the right thing. I do like the idea of when it calls for heat after idling it does not go to the desired feed rate immediately. I am sure that when I timed it, I did not wait 8 - 10 minutes for that to happen.

Thanks again for all the advice. Never knew running a pellet stove could be so much fun to tinker with.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Well, minor update here.

Pellet feed is still going at the same rate with the thermostat enabled, the light stays on about 3.4 seconds pretty consistantly. I have though added an outside air kit (homemade from dryer vent pipe) and the stove does run well on low now. Still has soot issues at that low rate but I think that is acceptable. Still can't figure out why the feed rate is slower than when it is not enabled on a thermostat. Next step is to adjust the potentiometers and see if I can get anything better out of it.

I live in Maryland and tonight and tomorrow will be the big test for it. Right now it is keeping the garage at 60 degrees pretty easily.

 

[HillbillyMD]

One more update. I went ahead and tried each variety of tests.

Initial turn on, with thermostat on and calling for heat, fuel feed light is on for ~3.4 seconds.
After waiting 10 minutes, with thermostat on and calling for heat, fuel feed light is on for ~3.4 seconds.
Initial turn on, with thermostat setting disabled, fuel feed light is on for ~5.3 seconds.
After waiting 10 minutes, with thermostat setting disabled, fuel feed light is on for ~5.3 seconds.

All of the above was done on setting 6, the highest setting it can go on. The service manual states that on that setting you should have the fuel feed light on for 5.1 - 5.5 seconds. So the question I guess still remains, why the difference between when thermostat is enabled with the jumper versus not being enabled.

Not as pressing of an issue since it is keeping the garage warm, I just want to make sure I am getting the most out of this I can.

Thanks again for any replies. Letting it cool down to clean it to get ready for overnight now.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Have read here so far, no pics, it didn't happen. Here is my stove after just having cleaned it. This is running on thermostat mode.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Thanks for the replies guys, I figured with the holidays and such that many might not be looking at this all the time.

SmokeyTheBear - The manual doesn't state anything about high/low setting, it actually states that it will run on 1 when the thermostat is not calling for heat and will run at whatever setting you have it set on (2-6) when it does call for heat. Specifically it states to set it for whatever will cause a rise in heat for the room.

That is known as high/low mode. The high setting is what you select with the control and the low setting is level one (the lowest level).

Now you are telling us that there is no difference between 1 and any setting you turn the stove too.

Sounds like the control hasn't a clue or it isn't seeing the t-stat. Your choice.

What is the t-stat you are using and how do you have it wired to the stove.

 

[save$]

Have read here so far, no pics, it didn't happen. Here is my stove after just having cleaned it. This is running on thermostat mode.

Wow! Big flame. I don't usually see a flame that big, but my house is warm so it must be ok.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Actually, I scrolled back and I don't think I ever described what it is doing on low mode. The stove does appear to work properly on when not calling for heat. the fuel feed light is only on for just over 1 second each cycle which is what the service manual says it should be. The only issue I have is that the feed rate is lower than the actual setting it is on when in high mode from the thermostat versus when not on the thermost. The low mode or 1 setting either way works as expected.

The thermostat I have is just a cheap Ritetemp 6022. It had the option for a swing setting of 2 degrees which is why I got it but ended up setting the swing down to .5 since the stove never cuts off when on thermostat anyway. It is hooked up at the stove by 2 wires in the only locations it can go on the control board. I don't think there is any specific order as to which one goes in which slot but I don't know about that for certain, just assumed it didn't matter. On the thermostat itself it is wired to the 2 wire heat configuration using the W and Rh connections per the manual.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Actually, I scrolled back and I don't think I ever described what it is doing on low mode. The stove does appear to work properly on when not calling for heat. the fuel feed light is only on for just over 1 second each cycle which is what the service manual says it should be. The only issue I have is that the feed rate is lower than the actual setting it is on when in high mode from the thermostat versus when not on the thermost. The low mode or 1 setting either way works as expected.

The thermostat I have is just a cheap Ritetemp 6022. It had the option for a swing setting of 2 degrees which is why I got it but ended up setting the swing down to .5 since the stove never cuts off when on thermostat anyway. It is hooked up at the stove by 2 wires in the only locations it can go on the control board. I don't think there is any specific order as to which one goes in which slot but I don't know about that for certain, just assumed it didn't matter. On the thermostat itself it is wired to the 2 wire heat configuration using the W and Rh connections per the manual.

Ok, now that you have filled in some information, exactly how do you tell the stove to use the t-stat? Is it by removing the jumper that was across the t-stat terminals and installing the t-stat or is there another set of jumpers on the control board that must be changed as well.

Why I'm asking is because a number of control boards require two jumpers to be changed and some of these also have other jumpers that change things other than just operating the stove on a t-stat.

Mine for example has a switch that replaced a set of jumpers to tell the board what mode it was in, in addition my board also has a multi position jumper that allows three different firing rates to be selected.

I suppose I should look at the manual for your unit and see what is what on control board.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Was looking to copy and paste a picture but couldn't find one I could get access to quickly. There are only one set of jumpers on the control board comprised of 4 pins. The instructions show that for use without a thermostat, you jump the top 2 of the 4 pins which is the way it was when I got it. To enable thermostat control, you move the jumper to the bottom 2 of the 4 pins. It is an older model and most new manuals show either the digital board or a board that also has external thermostat connectors on the back of the stove which I do not have either of.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Was looking to copy and paste a picture but couldn't find one I could get access to quickly. There are only one set of jumpers on the control board comprised of 4 pins. The instructions show that for use without a thermostat, you jump the top 2 of the 4 pins which is the way it was when I got it. To enable thermostat control, you move the jumper to the bottom 2 of the 4 pins. It is an older model and most new manuals show either the digital board or a board that also has external thermostat connectors on the back of the stove which I do not have either of.

Which is why I can't verify much by reading what's on line.

The manuals also do not go into any detail for the most part.

On some stove control boards there are selection pins that also change firing rates. Even on stoves of the same model these pins have totally different results as they change the flippen tables or bulk fill normally unused slots.

ETA: Try sending an email to Even Temp or St. Croix.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Thanks for trying, much appreciated. Will see if I can send either or both an email and will update when/if I get an answer.

 

[HillbillyMD]

Update: Corresponded with someone from Even Temp for quite a bit and basically the end result was that the control board would need to be replaced to fix this problem. Even they said it was an odd sounding problem. Unfortunately they do not make this control board anymore so I would have to buy a retrofit kit and upgrade to a digital control board. The system is working well enough to not justify spending $250 to make it a little hotter on thermostat mode so I guess I will just let it go until something more significant happens I guess.