'Nother stove & placement thread, sorry :P

[alternativeheat]

Cool, when you gonna fire that sucker up anyway ? !

 

[R9R]

'bout 8:00 last night lol. Had to run to town to get some pellets. So left it on 3 for a while as the manual says for first burn. Tstat on the wall said 75 in probably an hour (first time I looked at it). Left on 1 overnight and still says 75! Obviously the br's are cooler, but it's the same (our maybe even a little better) than when we were running the furnace Although I'm still having a hard time with the fact that I have a fire in a box in my brand new house. Kinda freaking me out a bit lol. It'll be fine after I'm used to it I'm sure, it's just getting there.

 

[alternativeheat]

Well the key to that concern is "the fire is in the box" ( I never got the concept of an open fire in a fireplace by comparison). My wife and I have had stoves starting with gas ranges, then wood stoves and coal for 45+ years, so the pellet fire was just more of the same to us. We like the glow in the living room with the lights turned down low actually.

So congratulations on a good and successful install ! FWIW, the main part of our house is 73-75 deg 24/7 LOL.

( if you don't have that stove on a surge protector, do it as soon as possible, it has an expensive board in it that needs surge protection)

 

[R9R]

True, as long as its in the box we're good lol. And its on a 2100J (I think it was) protector already. Rather fry $20 than however much that board is Wife just refilled the pellets around 2pm so seems like we're doing well so far. I can definitely see how the glow would be nice!

 

[alternativeheat]

True, as long as its in the box we're good lol. And its on a 2100J (I think it was) protector already. Rather fry $20 than however much that board is Wife just refilled the pellets around 2pm so seems like we're doing well so far. I can definitely see how the glow would be nice!

Next thing to get down is your cleaning schedule and what to clean when. But other than a couple of scrapings or brushings here and there you probably don't need to think about doing that for a couple of weeks yet..

Sounds like it's gonna heat your house fine ?

 

[R9R]

I think it will. The glass is black as hell now but I think I remember reading that kinda happens. But overall I think it'll do nicely.

 

[alternativeheat]

I think it will. The glass is black as hell now but I think I remember reading that kinda happens. But overall I think it'll do nicely.

You might have some settings to mess with yet, I wouldn't expect black glass in less than 24 hours, if black at all.. Maybe a little build up of some tan ash on the glass that just wipes off with a paper towel.

 

[bogieb]

'bout 8:00 last night lol. Had to run to town to get some pellets. So left it on 3 for a while as the manual says for first burn. Tstat on the wall said 75 in probably an hour (first time I looked at it). Left on 1 overnight and still says 75! Obviously the br's are cooler, but it's the same (our maybe even a little better) than when we were running the furnace Although I'm still having a hard time with the fact that I have a fire in a box in my brand new house. Kinda freaking me out a bit lol. It'll be fine after I'm used to it I'm sure, it's just getting there.

View attachment 195937

Even though I came from a house that had a wood stove, I too had some reservations about the P61a when it was first installed. Probably because I had never even known anyone with a pellet stove so had no first, second or third hand knowledge - just stuff I read here on the forum. I was actually more concerned with leaving it running while I was gone at work so I only ran it while at home for the first couple of nights. Then I gained confidence in the system and left it on to do its thing while I was gone. It took very little time for me to come to terms with it.

 

[Lake Girl]

Get that ash vac yet? Just got a Powersmith off amazon to replace the cheap Cleva that I bought at Menards. The Cleva would get clogged up fairly quickly (metal mesh and paper filter) and never had much suction power. The Powersmith has almost as many amps as my Shopvac and picks up ash just as well. It has a dacron filter along with a small paper filter so not likely to clog.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060EUA32/?tag=hearthamazon-20
Mine came with the Dacron filter (which it doesn't state) and I bought another one. Guess I'll have a spare... The tool accessories might be a nice idea especially the hose attachment... Years ago I got the micro tool kit for a shopvac and just attach a hose to that but that looks like a good set-up.

PS: Congrats on the new stove! You'll get over those newbie jitters ... had the same concern as it was years ago that we had a wood stove in the house (had an outside boiler for a while).

Glass should be grey or tan not black. May have to lean the fuel feed or increase the air slightly.

 

[R9R]

Hey that's the vac I was going to get anyhoo Glad to hear good about it. Yes we're on full day #2 now and I'm a lot more comfortable. Also eased by the fact that the main room is dern near 80 bahahahha

Yep glass is black. Think tomorrow is going to be shut down & clean glass day. Then I'll bump up the draft fan. Everything is on auto right now.

I super appreciate everyone here and their input You guys are awesome for us noobs

 

[R9R]

 

[alternativeheat]

Ya shouldn't be black. I watched a video of one of these stoves in operation and the guy said he had been burning it a week and the glass had some tan staining in the upper corners. You need to move some settings, I'd adjust a little tonight actually. You're gonna gunk it up running like that. I don't know if you intend for the main room to be 80 or not but it sounds like you could trim the fuel setting back a little and maybe the combustion air up a little.

Also, you're gonna need some sort of vac sooner than later, FWIW.

80 should be warm enough for you !! What's the outdoor temps running there these days anyway ?

 

[R9R]

80 isn't really the intent that's why it's been sitting on #1 heat range lol. I'm shutting it down now. Can't really see the flame anymore which makes troubleshooting difficult to say the least

After a good glass cleaning and burnpot dump (since I'm in there) I'll play with the settings. I did read an old post about adjusting feed rates for the great settings tho not sure I want to try that just yet.

 

[alternativeheat]

Ya you need one of the USSC guys to guide you on that. If it was my stove I probably could figure it out. Basically you move the feed down and run it a while, you can always turn it back up. Same with combustion air, only turn that up not down. When you get the feed and air right ( nice flame, not black on the glass) you might find you can move it off heat range 1. Most stoves don't run there cleanest at the lowest heat setting. You might also find that you could bump the heat up a little , then adjust the fuel and air for a cleaner burn. You're a pretty smart guy, you can get this set .

 

[R9R]

O and temps are low 30s daytime to teens at night right now lol

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[R9R]

Well glass is clean again and scooped out most of the ash. Was just a lot of accumulated ash on the glass and came off easy. She's a runnin again! Gonna try and tweak the draft fan before bed.

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[R9R]

So after more reading (cause that's what I do apparently lol) leaving it on heat #1 and DF #3. Tried DF #2 and flame still seemed kinda lazy. And by that I mean a lot more like a campfire than say during startup. I hope that's right lol. We'll see what it looks like in the AM.

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[Lake Girl]

DF is draft fan? ... should be increasing that not reducing or reducing feed.

 

[R9R]

Yep DF = draft fan. Left on #3 all night and have tan coating on inside of glass and not as much heat in house. But it's down to low teens I believe.

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[R9R]

OK so I looked at my weather app thingy - and the RealFeel (temp w/wind chill included...?) was 3. So I guess I can't complain too much lol. I bumped heat up to #2 and DF up to #4. We'll see how it goes. Seeing a bunch of ash fly around. Then the pellets plunk in the burn pot and throw even more. Ugh. But that's probably a pellet specific thing. Using TSC white bag/green design for now. iGepr (sp?) didn't find anything on the barcode. But they work at least

Think I'm gonna try and find some cheapie thermometers for a few rooms, and one for outside on the window. And order the ash vac

 

[alternativeheat]

Some ash flying around in the stove is normal, sometimes it looks like sparklers . Often with stoves set right it's common to see a few of the pellets kind of dancing or wiggling in the burn pot( especially on a drop or feed cycle) but not flying out of the burn pot. That generally is a good burn rate, I know it is in my Harman. If they fly up out of the burn pot then obviously that is too much air. The flame should be lively the tips of flame fairly bright but not turning white, white flame is always an indication of too much air. You have a lot of heat potential in that stove if all you are raising the level to is HR 2 with wind and teens outside. As you go up in HR you might have to increase feed a little bit too. If you're getting tan ash on the door vs black before, you are doing good by the sounds of it.

I've had good burning all winter on TSC pellets, though I live in a different area and probably are supplied from Main Wood Prod around here, the blend has been good and hot with lower mid ash levels. FSU ( Fireside Ultra), for instance, are ashier. TSC pellets give me moderate sparklers and a light tan streak on each side of my stoves door glass. If I don't clean the glass for a while that eventually bridges over the top of the glass.

 

[R9R]

So left on heat 2/draft 4 all day. Glass is covered with tan ash. Better than black at least. Turned down to heat 1/draft 3. Not so awesome. Now on heat 1/draft auto. Not sure that's doing wonderful either. I tried heat 1/draft 4 and a burning pellet flopped out of the burn pot. Not doing that combo again lol. Thinking if it doesn't improve maybe just run on 2/4 and shut down for a while. Glass need cleaned again anyway

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[alternativeheat]

What is not "so great" about heat 1/draft 4 ? Was heat 2/ draft 4 too hot in the house ? Isn't auto what gave you the black glass ?

 

[R9R]

On heat 1/draft 4 a burning pellet flopped out of the burn pot. Kinda freaked me out lol. I think before on "auto" I didn't have the draft fan on auto. Apparently you can adjust a few things manually and I don't think I had the draft fan on true auto. Wouldn't swear to it tho. Done with dinner so maybe I'll clean the glass and try H1/D4 again and sit here with it.

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[R9R]

On the bright side my electricity used Monday compared to Sunday was down 75%

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