Pellet Stove Techs...PLEASE HELP. At the end of my rope with this thing.

[imacman]

EarthStove, that sounds promising.

Is 9 hours of "good" burning what you got before, or is this better?

You say that the orange burning pellets are extending farther towards the edge?....that sounds promising too.

I'd like to see the video, but in any event, keep us informed how it goes.

 

[EarthStove]

Ok,
Here we go again. Been burning perfectly for 10 hours and within the hour something has happened with the burning.

NOTHING has changed in the house or on the stove with regards to settings. Yet, within the hour the ash sitting in the burn pot has gotten less and has been replaced with more and more burning pellets glowing orange - Almost to the edge of it the burn pot.

This is just nuts. Its almost like the combustion process has changed somehow allowing the pellets to burn slower and thus more pellets are staying burning pellets and not converting to ash.

Have any of you ever seen anything like this? I mean come on, how can a stove burn perfectly for 10 hours and then all of a sudden start acting stupid.


Combustion fan slowing down after hours and hours of use? Only to work better once the stove is shut down and then restarted.

Control board speeding interval between pellets being fed?

 

[Countryboymo]

I did see something about the electronics breaking down and not putting out like they are supposed to over time. I also know that some electronics in cars work great until things get warm and then can act up. I have no clue how to diagnose this other than before and after voltage readings to see if things are getting out of range.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Just about everything in a stove is subject to heat induced problems, electronics is but one thing that hates heat.

Have you timed the auger?

Motor bearings can cause problems after having been run for awhile. Usually if they tighten up they squeal.

I don't know how that burn pot inserts in the stove but if there is a way for it to bend away from its proper position it is possible that prolonged heat could warp it enough to cause an air pypass. Normally I'd expect to see an ash build up though.

 

[lmjr]

In 13 years what mechanical components have you replaced?

Bearings and gearboxes will take their toll in time.

Do some disassemble and check for binding or even slop from excessive wear.

If mechanical parts have been replaced already as when required, then I would say your 13 year old control board has a erratic rheostat problem.

Rheostat could be replaced with correct replacement part by electronics tech.

 

[Nicholas440]

Just a crazy thought, but if it ran great for 10 hours then just reverted back to its problem, I would clean it again, let it cool, and try run it once more and watch it again. If it goes again for many hours then goes bad again, I would suspect a heat induced electrical issue such as the slowing of he combustion blower, or my personal pick something on that control board is getting too hot. Its just a shot in the dark or wild guess but it is possible.

Boy these stoves can be a real pain in the rear sometimes. I have read some real horror stories here and Im sure you have too. I hope you get this resolved soon.

 

[EarthStove]

In 13 years what mechanical components have you replaced?

Bearings and gearboxes will take their toll in time.

Do some disassemble and check for binding or even slop from excessive wear.

If mechanical parts have been replaced already as when required, then I would say your 13 year old control board has a erratic rheostat problem.

Rheostat could be replaced with correct replacement part by electronics tech.

Nothing has been replaced on the stove.

I checked all the augers/auger motors and everything appears to be in working order. I will run the stove again this weekend when its colder and check the heat out near the control board.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

In 13 years what mechanical components have you replaced?

Bearings and gearboxes will take their toll in time.

Do some disassemble and check for binding or even slop from excessive wear.

If mechanical parts have been replaced already as when required, then I would say your 13 year old control board has a erratic rheostat problem.

Rheostat could be replaced with correct replacement part by electronics tech.

Nothing has been replaced on the stove.

I checked all the augers/auger motors and everything appears to be in working order. I will run the stove again this weekend when its colder and check the heat out near the control board.

Just a crazy thought on this end but by any chance did you close the windows or anything towards the end of your burn?

 

[EarthStove]

nope.

In 13 years what mechanical components have you replaced?

Bearings and gearboxes will take their toll in time.

Do some disassemble and check for binding or even slop from excessive wear.

If mechanical parts have been replaced already as when required, then I would say your 13 year old control board has a erratic rheostat problem.

Rheostat could be replaced with correct replacement part by electronics tech.

Nothing has been replaced on the stove.

I checked all the augers/auger motors and everything appears to be in working order. I will run the stove again this weekend when its colder and check the heat out near the control board.

Just a crazy thought on this end but by any chance did you close the windows or anything towards the end of your burn?

 

[Major91]

Guys I am not familiar with this stove at all, but isn't that a big fire? Could it be feeding to many pellets?

I have the TP440 Earthstove and looks fine to me. My feedrate/blower set to high is bigger than that....

 

[Major91]

Here are a couple more shots of the burn pot.

You can see how the metal has become distorted. I heated those areas up today and banged them back and almost got the metal back to the way it was before - then I hit the holes/cracks with the welder. Closed everything up and have a fire burning now. I will report back with an update.

Here is a shot from the back of the burn pot. You can see were the air holes are and how they cracked open a bit.

By looking at your burn pot that cannot be the issue.......

 

[Major91]

At looking again at your burn pot you do have a very good amount of pellets spilling out into the inside of your pot.........that i have not seen in my stove....

 

[Major91]

nope.

In 13 years what mechanical components have you replaced?

Bearings and gearboxes will take their toll in time.

Do some disassemble and check for binding or even slop from excessive wear.

If mechanical parts have been replaced already as when required, then I would say your 13 year old control board has a erratic rheostat problem.

Rheostat could be replaced with correct replacement part by electronics tech.

Nothing has been replaced on the stove.

I checked all the augers/auger motors and everything appears to be in working order. I will run the stove again this weekend when its colder and check the heat out near the control board.

Just a crazy thought on this end but by any chance did you close the windows or anything towards the end of your burn?

Where do you store your pellets? Them Hammers look kind spongy to me.........

 

[erollins]

I too was going to ask if there was a difference in the pellet storage area. Excessive moisture in the pellet could cause an improper burn.

What were the wind conditions? I am guessing they dropped off at dark, or perhaps dropped off with the sunset then picked back up in a different direction afterwards. Is that when your problem started to reappear? If the wind changed directions it can change the "pressure" in your house. We have an ice fishing shack with a cheap barrel stove that if the wind swings to the southwest with an east window open it will reverse the draft in the stove and draw air down the stovepipe and smoke out through the damper smoking the interior.

I didn't take the time to look at all of your backstory, but what kind of exhaust setup do you have? Did you change your stovepipe around the time this problem started occurring? An insulated stovepipe will draw equally well under most conditions, but an noninsulated stovepipe will cool off depending on the weather reducing your "draw" and making your blower work harder.

 

[EarthStove]

Pellets are stored where they have always been stored in the garage. It's bone dry in there and insulated etc. What you see is some of the pellets that kinda got shredded by the auger and fell into the blower area.

 

[summit]

souinds like a new stove or new pellets to me...

 

[EarthStove]

At looking again at your burn pot you do have a very good amount of pellets spilling out into the inside of your pot.........that i have not seen in my stove....

When I ran it that time I didn't have the firepot seated quite right and it allowed some pellets to fall down there. This last burn I did not have pellets falling like that.

Do you have any of the problems I describe in here with your earthstove?

Do you ever oil/grease any components behind the stove?

 

[EarthStove]

Here are a couple more shots of the burn pot.

You can see how the metal has become distorted. I heated those areas up today and banged them back and almost got the metal back to the way it was before - then I hit the holes/cracks with the welder. Closed everything up and have a fire burning now. I will report back with an update.

Here is a shot from the back of the burn pot. You can see were the air holes are and how they cracked open a bit.

By looking at your burn pot that cannot be the issue.......

Why do you say that?

 

[EarthStove]

I took the entire damper off the combustion blower. So there there should be a good deal more air flow now from the combustion fan. If this does not work I may consider a 75cfm fan. The one int he stove now according to everything I have read is 45cfm.

 

[seige101]

Just for Sh!ts and giggles how are your gaskets on the door and ashpan if applicable? I have an enviro empress that burns fine but after about 12 hours has the same signs as you are describing if the door or ash pan is not properly latched. A quick cleaning and shutting the door and ash pan properly always solves the problem.

 

[EarthStove]

Just for Sh!ts and giggles how are your gaskets on the door and ashpan if applicable? I have an enviro empress that burns fine but after about 12 hours has the same signs as you are describing if the door or ash pan is not properly latched. A quick cleaning and shutting the door and ash pan properly always solves the problem.

Well,
The dollar bill test tells me that the door gasket is OK. The ash draw gasket is kinda old but I am not seeing or smelling any leaks.

 

[seige101]

You would not see or smell a leak since the firebox is at a negative pressure. In my case sufficient air is not pullet through the fire pot. This causes a taller lazier flame regardless of damper possition being wide open or normal setting. This makes it start building up with ash and the pellets start to smolder and build up in the burn pot over flowing to the floor of the stove. Perhaps you could upload that video to you tube, a brief clip of the stove running after you clean and start it up and a brief clip after is has been running 12 hours and starting to perform poorly.

 

[EarthStove]

You would not see or smell a leak since the firebox is at a negative pressure. In my case sufficient air is not pullet through the fire pot. This causes a taller lazier flame regardless of damper possition being wide open or normal setting. This makes it start building up with ash and the pellets start to smolder and build up in the burn pot over flowing to the floor of the stove. Perhaps you could upload that video to you tube, a brief clip of the stove running after you clean and start it up and a brief clip after is has been running 12 hours and starting to perform poorly.

I think earth stoves are positive pressure stoves.

 

[EarthStove]

Interesting twist to this problem.

I took off the back of the stove and realized that I had not moved the damper from the 50% position on the combustion blower motor. Friday I removed the damper completely. Burned two nights now and while the burning was better the first night the right hand side was still not as good as the left hand side with regards to the amount of ash that was being left behind. Yesterday I shut the stove down and cleaned the burn pot and removed a couple of small clinkers. I noticed that while the stove was burning Friday night that it looked like the fire pot was not quite straight...It was not that far off but a bit. It looked like the right hand side was closer to the front of the stove then the left hand side. So I did my best to align it properly and then started it back up. This morning I noticed that now the RIGHT hand side of the fire pot looked like the left hand side did almost completely void of ash while the LEFT hand side had the same ash build up that the right hand side had the previous night I also noticed that the alignment was NOT as good as I thought it was before I started the fire and the left hand side of the fire pot was now closer to the front of the stove.

This leads me to believe this...The alignment of the fire pot is either not allowing the air to flow equally to both sides if it's out of alignment to one side or the other AND/OR perhaps one side of the fire pot is getting more pellets because of this slight alignment difference. This is crazy! I cannot think of any other reason why this would happen and the only thing I did was change the fire pot positioning and added the decorative logs (which really should not affect anything anyway because they sit on top of the burn pot and do not affect air flow or shouldn't anyway).

 

[imacman]

Interesting twist to this problem.

I took off the back of the stove and realized that I had not moved the damper from the 50% position on the combustion blower motor. Friday I removed the damper completely. Burned two nights now and while the burning was better the first night the right hand side was still not as good as the left hand side with regards to the amount of ash that was being left behind. Yesterday I shut the stove down and cleaned the burn pot and removed a couple of small clinkers. I noticed that while the stove was burning Friday night that it looked like the fire pot was not quite straight...It was not that far off but a bit. It looked like the right hand side was closer to the front of the stove then the left hand side. So I did my best to align it properly and then started it back up. This morning I noticed that now the RIGHT hand side of the fire pot looked like the left hand side did almost completely void of ash while the LEFT hand side had the same ash build up that the right hand side had the previous night I also noticed that the alignment was NOT as good as I thought it was before I started the fire and the left hand side of the fire pot was now closer to the front of the stove.

This leads me to believe this...The alignment of the fire pot is either not allowing the air to flow equally to both sides if it's out of alignment to one side or the other AND/OR perhaps one side of the fire pot is getting more pellets because of this slight alignment difference. This is crazy! I cannot think of any other reason why this would happen and the only thing I did was change the fire pot positioning and added the decorative logs (which really should not affect anything anyway because they sit on top of the burn pot and do not affect air flow or shouldn't anyway).

IMO, remove the fake logs and save them for the summer to make the stove "look nice", and get the firepot as centered as possible. If the fire is burning well now, forget about which side the ash builds up on....does it really matter?? My englander always seems to have more ash on one side than the other, but I could care less as long as the fire is burning clean & hot.