New to Pellets - Hampton GCI60 -

[steven doucette]

I just had a new Hampton GCI60 pellet stove and I'm not sure what I've gotten my self into. I have a couple of general question that i hope someone can answer. 1st off I purchased 2 tons of pellets from Home Depot, they say premium pellets on the bag, but I'm beginning to wonder. After one week I have quite a bit of ash built up, at least I think it is a lot. ( I do plan on cleaning at least once a week)

Here are my questions:
what is the purpose of the Fuel Type Setting? I've had it set on Regular but just changed it to Premium because that's what it said on the bag of pellets.

What would be the reason to change the combustion fan trim and/or the feed trim? I've tried different combinations, but I don't really notice a difference. What should I be looking for?

If I have the stove set on a 3 heat level, what should I see in the burn pot?

thanks for any information.

 

[Bryan Sacks]

Hi steven,

I recently bought the same exact stove. I'm in Philadelphia, and around here the big box store pellets tend to be of lesser quality than the pellets that can be found in some specialty shops. even the one that say 'premium' on them from Loews (and Home Depot to a lesser degree) were quite sooty and produced less heat than the Hamer's I'm currently burning. I try to clean 2-3 times a week.

Can't answer the combustion fan trim question.

The burn levels indicate the rate at which pellets are fed into the burn pot. So at level three you should see a fair amount of pellets being dumped into the pot. The issue I sometimes have is that if I don't empty the burn pot of ash between uses, the ash layer on the bottom of the pot is thick enough to impede the ignition of the pellets (or at least that's what it seems to me is happening). On those occasions the pellets just keep feeding into the burn pot, the burn pots fills up with unburnt pellets, and there's no ignition.Clearing the ash solves the problem.

Btw: you might want to post a picture of your stove. It helps some of the folks around here believe you actually have one (I'm not kidding).

 

[skibumm100]

Hi Steven,

Where in NH are you? I know Armstrong in Manchester was selling that stove for a good price. I have been looking seriously at that stove and the Enviro M55 Cast (same stove, basically). If you're in Manchester there are a couple of places to get really good pellets. Hearthworks in Hooksett has Vermonts and Cubex. There are some other places that carry good pellets, too. Check the sticky at the top of the Pellet Forum for local pricing. Since you're new to pellets I would recommend starting off with a really good pellet until you get the hang of it. It'll just be easier to learn and you won't have to fight stove problems and pellet problems at the same time. Once you get it burning good, then experiment with the other pellets you bought so you can figure out how to burn them up. What are the big box pellets you bought? Green Supremes, Fireside Ultras or something else? You will need to set your combustion fan trim to get a bright, lively flame without blowing the pellets and all the embers out of the burn pot. There should be instructions in your manual to help you along. Do some reading here and check out some of the Youtube videos to see what a correct flame looks like.

There's tons of information on this site. Use the search box at the top of the page. Don't panic.....we'll help you get it running right.