PDVC, throttle back?

[MadMax31]

Finally finished my flue pipe yesterday with ambient being 34, like a heat wave compared to -10 were used to seeing...

Anyway, I shut stove off at 11pm as it was 78 in my house. Before I left for hockey I set heat for 2 and fan for 2 and even the Wifey complained it was "soo hooott".

Hopper full of Hamers, but I have some Green Supremes, and NEWP that may burn cooler? Id rather just let it roll at idle than start and stop, Maybe close up hopper plate a touch? I dont really want to mess with the 3 lower buttons if I can avoid it...

House is 4 months old, tight and stacked with insulation. I could drop it directly below in basement, all my rafters are in line, floor to ceiling to roof... Than it could crank all it wants in basement.

 

[kofkorn]

Without an auto start/stop stove, you're going to be limited to what you can do when it starts to warm up. Definitely swap away from the Hamers, and save them for the next cold snap (hopefully next year). You can also adjust the hopper plate too. There will come a point where you will end up having too few pellets dropping to sustain a flame. These stoves tend to have a 5-10 min cycle where the flame will rise and fall, it's the nature of the double auger system. At the low point of the cycle, the flames may actually go out. Normally the hot embers will re-ignite the next pellets that drop. It's ok for a little bit, but if you slow down the stove too much, you will have times where the pellets don't re-ignite, and the stove will shut down.

It's ok to play with two of the bottom three buttons (LFF and LBA). Don't adjust the AOT. I would cycle your Low Fuel Feed and Low Burn Air down, LFF first. let it run for a half hour or so with each adjustment to let it settle in. Get it to the point that the flames are just about to go out at the low point of the cycle.

Once you've done these things, you're going to be about the lowest point that your stove can run reliably. Beyond that, you'll have to manually shut the stove down.

Good luck!

 

[MadMax31]

I heard Hamers were good so I bought them, I didnt read they burned hot until after the fact. Maybe Ill get lucky and only need to buy cheap pellets to supplement my boiler. Ill see how it goes if I run it on 2 from the get-go rather than 5...

 

[kofkorn]

Forgot to mention to record the lower three button settings before adjusting. No harm done if you put them back to teh way they came.

Our PDV is heating close to 2500 sq ft through the worst nights we've had this year. The only time the furnace came on was when the wind blew the front door open one night and I didn't discover it until morning. The drawback to having a stove that can heat so well is that it can be overpowering early and late in the winter season. I just chalk it up to the little extra effort to save money!

Good luck!

 

[jeremygrimm]

Kofkorn. I just got my stove with a double auger system (25-pvd) and I noticed this same thing happening with the fire going out and coming back. I'm also running on 7-9 to keep us hot. (2800 sqft total) I keep hearing a tapping sound which I'm assuming is a clog? How do I limit that. I'm not going through near the pellets I am suppose to be at those settings. I'm guessing a good cleaning on the lower auger would help maybe. But any other thoughts?

 

[MadMax31]

Came home and fired her up, and after start-up set for 2-2. Kept house at about 70 all night. Until 2am. I awoke to the sound of pure silence. Shouldve checked hopper before I went to bed.... Since my hopper is completly empty now, and I can try a bag of La Cretes, or Green Supremes and see how much heat they give off.

 

[kofkorn]

I keep hearing a tapping sound which I'm assuming is a clog? ... ...I'm guessing a good cleaning on the lower auger would help maybe. But any other thoughts?

Not sure what tapping you are hearing. I occasionally get a thump or groan when the auger cuts through a pellet. The only thing that I can think would possibly tap would be the motor housing on one of the augers. The housing rests on a tab and if the motor isn't properly aligned on the auger it's possible it could cause a rhythmic tap.

One other possibility is that you are hearing the stove ping when it heats up or cools down. That's an inherent issue with any stove, and not much you can do to stop it from happening. It occurs when various pieces of the stove expand/contract with the temperature changes. If you keep it at a reasonably constant temperature, it won't happen as often.

Good luck!

 

[Beaudeen]

The auger motor will lift up when a pellet has to be chewed up to get through and then drop and hit the metal brace under it. Check to see if you have bumpers under the auger motors. A piece of gasket material will silence the bump.

Over time, that drop of the motor will wear through the gearbox.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Yes. I have the gasket material on there. It only does it when the hopper is full. Like its tapping when it's not feeding. I'm guessing chewing through pellets. I'm going to do a good cleaning of lower auger area to see if maybe I can help elimate some clogging.

 

[Beaudeen]

Kofkorn. I just got my stove with a double auger system (25-pvd) and I noticed this same thing happening with the fire going out and coming back. I'm also running on 7-9 to keep us hot. (2800 sqft total) I keep hearing a tapping sound which I'm assuming is a clog? How do I limit that. I'm not going through near the pellets I am suppose to be at those settings. I'm guessing a good cleaning on the lower auger would help maybe. But any other thoughts?

So your getting good heat out of the stove, but think you should be burning more pellets..??

If your getting good heat...leave it alone..

 

[jeremygrimm]

Well I feel I'm getting good heat but on c mode on 9-9 I don't think a bag should last me 14 hours.

 

[jeremygrimm]

It could be getting clogging issues cause I'm burning pennington. They don't seem to be very good pellets

 

[Beaudeen]

We are hi-jacking this guys thread.

on a 6-9 setting I can run 17 hrs on a full hopper which is just under 60lbs (bag&1/2)..I've never run on a 9-9 setting..so..12 hours for you is great...I wouldn't mess with it any more as it seems liked your dialed in...leave it alone...you can monkey around with these things too much.

Post back on your old thread if ya like.

 

[jss227]

I run the lower buttons on my 25pdvc at 1-5-1. Evan at this setting it out heats my 25ep. I have yet to run the stove for more than an hour over heat range 6, and then only when the temps are below zero.

 

[MadMax31]

Ill wait to tinker, its feeding nice and slow on 2 today. Dropped in Greenways to see the difference from Hamers. Soon as I figure this stove out, it'll be muddy outside... But Im ok with that...

 

[somdpellethead]

I had similar issues with my PDVC with milder weather and Hamer pellets. I added a thermostat , closed my restrictor plate to max setting and lowered my low fuel burn by one #. Since that I've been very happy and rarely overheat anymore. If I do that just means its a good time to shut down and deep clean. I played and tweaked a lot early this winter but stove is running very consistent and trouble free now.