outside air for pellet stove

[scottm]

I have a breckwell p23 pellet stove installed it last year was not impressed with it....should all pellet stoves be installed with a outside air kit....will this make a difference in the burn? I do not have one installed right now but it is easy enough to do if it would help

thanks

 

[begreen]

This depends on one's install. Often outside air is not required. But in tighter homes it may be.

How large is the house? Can you give more information on what you were disappointed with? What were the issues? What worked well and what didn't?

 

[scottm]

stove installed up stairs approx 1100 sq. ft. pretty well insulated......sooty glass after 5-6 hrs......didnt feel it was producing enough heat on the #1 seeting at the high trim level

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Im no fan of breckwell by any means, but, when i had a p23 hooked up it put out so much heat that it would shut down on the high setting. I dont remember how to tweak them, but it sounds like you have a lack of combustion air problem or a over feed problem. I remember putting a stove top thermometer on the top of it and got 600* temps off of it. Thats impressive for a convection pellet heater. Are the pellets piling up in the pot? if so open the damper. Are the flames lazy? if so open the damper. Is the damper all the way open and is the pellets still filling the pot? if so decrease feed rate. If the feed rate is at the lowest setting, and its still piling pellets, then maybey you have a bad control board. The burn pot should keep up with the feedrate. The main reason i didnt like breckwell is that i had to adjust the air at every setting (low med high etc). If i were you i would go out and buy a millivolt thermostat, hook it up, find a speed that you like, and leave it, let the thermostat do the work.

 

[Homefire]

Don't you think if you are burning your air supply in your home the wise move would be to provide more fresh air?
I know in homes with several kids fresh air is seldom an issue due to all the traffic.
I can say from personal experience that my pellet burner seems to burn hotter and cleaner with the fresh air connected to the outside.
You could use hose from your vacum or pool to test your stove. Just connect it up and run it to the nearest window and do the test burn.

Good luck to you.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

first, you need to adress your burn efficiency, it should heat without outside air, once you have that down, then adress the outside air issue. Thats a good test idea homefire.

 

[begreen]

That should be a reasonable fit. Was the stove new last year? You can check outside air by opening a window in the room a crack. If there is a dramatic improvement in the stove, then it likely needs an outside air kit. But, there are other factors that could affect burning, such as the quality of the pellets, the air damper setting, improper venting, overfeeding or a clogged burnpot.

What heat setting are you normally running the stove at? I haven't burned a Breckwell but it appears that #1 equals lowest setting, #5 = highest. It sounds like #4 would be the normal setting to run the stove at.

How does the flame look when burning? It should be bright with short flames, not orange and lazy.
It could be that the high trim level is feeding too many pellets. Try the normal setting for a while. More fuel does not necessarilly mean more heat. It can mean more soot from poorly burned fuel.
Does the air damper work properly? That is, when you move the air damper rod, does the air damper plate move correspondingly?