Ok, went through a weekend troubleshooting my pellet stove and working on getting it ready for winter. Bought a few bags of pellets from Lowes and threw away the few handful of old ones left in the stove from the previous owners. Year 2000 Enviro-EF4 Insert.
Questions/Troubles:
1.) The slide damper has MINIMAL effect on the flame and burn. For testing sake, I closed it all the way (pushed the slider in) and let it sit to adjust. After 15 minutes, it was still burning and spitting out ashes. I was expecting to see a tall lazy flame with lots of black smoke and soot (close damper ALL the way). Instead it just burned like a blow torch and when I opened the damper all the way, all that would happen was a few of the more burned up pellets would flicker around the burn pot, no difference in flame or burn. That said, I read previously on this site that the air intake on the back of the pellet stove insert (round tube near auger motor) needed to be closed off a little bit to help. I am going to try that this weekend with metal duct tape, the plan is to completely tape over 3/4 of the tube and cut it open until the desired flame is achieved. The stove is chewing through pellets due to too much air, the Dial-A-Fire has to be either at the 3:00 position or on Max all the way in the red zone to keep the fire going, any lower and it will burn down way too quickly. My stove was updated with the 3-second auger switch too (timed it). Is there any reason that the damper would have almost no effect on the flame?
2.) The convection blower on my unit is on the fritz. I tested it and it appears the bushings are bad (slight scraping noise when turning it by hand). Now, it works on MAX but when the pellet stove is chugging along, I would assume that I could dial the fan back to slow down the heat pumping into the room. I know my blower would cut out with little power, but if I turn it all the way down to minimum where I know it doesn't work, it still blows heavy on MAX. My assumption is that this is a safety feature to keep the stove cool, but should it blow on MAX all the time?
Thanks, I am hoping to become a pro at this little bugger soon enough.
Questions/Troubles:
1.) The slide damper has MINIMAL effect on the flame and burn. For testing sake, I closed it all the way (pushed the slider in) and let it sit to adjust. After 15 minutes, it was still burning and spitting out ashes. I was expecting to see a tall lazy flame with lots of black smoke and soot (close damper ALL the way). Instead it just burned like a blow torch and when I opened the damper all the way, all that would happen was a few of the more burned up pellets would flicker around the burn pot, no difference in flame or burn. That said, I read previously on this site that the air intake on the back of the pellet stove insert (round tube near auger motor) needed to be closed off a little bit to help. I am going to try that this weekend with metal duct tape, the plan is to completely tape over 3/4 of the tube and cut it open until the desired flame is achieved. The stove is chewing through pellets due to too much air, the Dial-A-Fire has to be either at the 3:00 position or on Max all the way in the red zone to keep the fire going, any lower and it will burn down way too quickly. My stove was updated with the 3-second auger switch too (timed it). Is there any reason that the damper would have almost no effect on the flame?
2.) The convection blower on my unit is on the fritz. I tested it and it appears the bushings are bad (slight scraping noise when turning it by hand). Now, it works on MAX but when the pellet stove is chugging along, I would assume that I could dial the fan back to slow down the heat pumping into the room. I know my blower would cut out with little power, but if I turn it all the way down to minimum where I know it doesn't work, it still blows heavy on MAX. My assumption is that this is a safety feature to keep the stove cool, but should it blow on MAX all the time?
Thanks, I am hoping to become a pro at this little bugger soon enough.
