Problem with air control in 2010 Pacific Energy Vista

[rhoton]

I love my PE Vista but it's been giving me fits for several days now. Sliding the air control lever has absolutely no effect on the fire anymore. I have no clue what is wrong all of a sudden. I cleaned the stove thoroughly, checked all the gaskets, seals, cleaned the pipe...
I woke up a few nights ago because our little energy efficient modular had temps in excess of 85 degrees and I checked the wood stove: it was flaming brightly and was very very hot although I had turned down the air control all the way to off. I blamed it on the wood (too dry, too piney, too whatever) but this problem persists. At the same time, the door handle now gets almost too hot to touch with just two small logs burning in the stove and all the heat seems to be concentrated at the front of the stove. This would point to too much air coming into the stove but at the same time, two hand-sized brown areas are developing consistently on the door glass, one on the upper left, the other on the upper right, which is supposed to be a problem of not getting enough air - and sometimes flames shoot out of the front when I open it, all of it on only two small logs. I also get a lot of floating ash in the room when I open the door as well as smoke.

Could it be that the baffles are clogged? Does anybody have any idea why my stove suddenly does this??? Any help is much appreciated.
The front got so hot the other night that my cat had her tail hair singed when she walked by the stove and her tail brushed against the bottom of the stove door where the door meets the rest of the stove - didn't bother her much but this has never happened before with any of the 6 wood stoves I have owned in the past 15 years or so.

Barb

 

[begreen]

Hi Barb, not sure what's up. but your intuition to check for leaks is right on. It sound like there is an air leak, possibly on the bottom door gasket or the door glass gasket. Or, is there an ash pan on the stove? If yes, check to be sure the ash trap door is closed and sealing tightly.

If you can post some shots of the stove interior we can see if anything looks amiss. Also, how tall is the flue on the stove? Are you experiencing very high winds lately?

 

[nelraq]

Please check the little piece of bent steel that is screwed on to the stove--it must be done up VERY securely. There should be NO movement or "play" in this piece.

Your door latches onto this steel piece. It is held on to the stove with one small self tapping screw - which can come loose - creating the kind of fire hazard you are experiencing.

 

[mrfjsf]

[quote author="BeGreen" date="1294474390"] Or, is there an ash pan on the stove? If yes, check to be sure the ash trap door is closed and sealing tightly.
quote]

I have the same stove. A piece of charcoal from a recent cleanout got lodged in the ash trap door and wouldnt allow it to close all the way which let air rush up through. The stove will run away in a hurry like this. Id bet you had stovetop temps around 800 or so. If you do not have the ash system, id say you have an air leak elsewhere or the linkage on your air control is disconnected or something...maybe stuck full open? You should feel a decent amount of resistance when you move the lever.

 

[rhoton]

I cleaned out the stove and checked to make sure the ash pan trapdoor fits tightly, nothing lodged there, it snaps shut cleanly. I also placed a whole firebrick on the trapdoor, just in case. That disables the trapdoor function for the moment. I used paper to check the door gasket all the way around. It's so tight, I cannot pull out the paper at all. I checked the door latch, it's firmly attached. The only other thing I noticed is that my air control lever does not close the hole completely but I am not sure it is really meant to. It goes from an opening about 4 fingers wide to an opening about 1 finger wide. We had the stove professionally installed, as you know WA State is very particular when it comes to stuff like this, and inspected as well, and the length of the pipe is as it should be, no high winds lately. I went over the interior of the stove with a flashlight, nothing amiss there.
I can only assume there is a hairline crack somewhere.
Thanks for all the fast responses!

 

[n1st]

If the door is tight, it would seem to have to be the air inlet. Take the ash drawer out and look at the vent handle linkage as it travels to the back of the stove. When you you slide the vent handle side to side, does the vent door in the back on the bottom of the stove move - changing the size of the air inlet?

I had an issue recently on my Spectrum where the door gasket along the bottom edge had become un-cemented and had fallen down so it wasn't doing it's job.

Scott

 

[nelraq]

It's good to hear that your door latches tightly and that the gaskets are all good.

I'm betting that it's your ash dump. Even a very miniscule leak there will make your stove burn like crazy.

On my PE Spectrum, the ash dump was replaced. It was still a problem. The firebrick that you covered the dump hole with will do nothing--IMHO!

Get a tube of high temp silicone and, after cleaning the dump hole area and the trap door VERY WELL, use the silicone to seal the trap door shut. PE knows that they have a problem with this and they will supply you with a gasketed metal plate that you can install once the ash dump is removed. I was supplied with the plate,; but never used it because the silicone sealant worked very well!

The ash dump in the PE's is pretty useless anyways! You will likely find it easier to scoop the ashes out from above.

Here's hoping that this helps to solve your problem. I know how scary runaway fires can be!!

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Hi Barb, not sure what's up. but your intuition to check for leaks is right on. It sound like there is an air leak, possibly on the bottom door gasket or the door glass gasket. Or, is there an ash pan on the stove? If yes, check to be sure the ash trap door is closed and sealing tightly.

If you can post some shots of the stove interior we can see if anything looks amiss. Also, how tall is the flue on the stove? Are you experiencing very high winds lately?

This is where I would start if the stove was working normally one day and running wild the next.

 

[n1st]

If the ash trap door on the Vista is like my Spectrum, I don't see how the trap door could be the issue since, unless it's just been thoroughly cleaned, the door is under several inches of ash. I usually have 2-3 inches of ash in my stove, which would put the trap door beneath 4-5 inches of ash.

This year I've been burning Oak, and it creates a lot of hard pan, so I've been shoveling just them out - not using the trap door, and only using the ash pan to hold the hard pan.

My bet is the door/gasket, or air inlet/linkage.

 

[rhoton]

There really is no linkage, it's just a piece of welded steel with a sort of rectangular shape welded to a stick that turns into a lever on the outside that slides back and forth across a hole on the inside, there is nothing to adjust unless the steel has become warped since October 2010. I usually also have several inches of ash in the stove but next time the fire burns out, I'll examine the connection/seal between ash pan and trapdoor/stove a bit more to see if this could be the problem. What has me puzzled is also the fact that previously I was able to touch the door handle without any problems, now two small logs (10 inches long, 3 inches diameter) make the handle very hot and the entire front of the stove is getting much hotter as well.
Well, Monday it's a trip to the dealer, they either fix it or replace it...

Barb

Okay, I built a fire just now and the ash pan problem is it. I told my husband to stand in front of the stove and watch the flames carefully and he now says - after knowing what to look out for - that there are flames coming up between the firebricks and the extra one I put in there to cover the trapdoor. Then my husband pulled on the lever for the trapdoor and we are able to see very clearly that the flames are fed from that direction. I never paid much attention to where the flames were coming from before. Release the lever for the trapdoor and the flames become smaller, but are still very pronounced, and of course just two logs and the stove is humming. The hot door is probably due to the stove just getting very hot.

So, mystery solved - darned it, I liked the trapdoor, I really do not want a stove without an ash pan, I am getting too old to shovel all the time. Something apparently changed from using the trapdoor and/or trapdoor lever, well, it's more like a spring. Anyhow, I am not monkeying around with a wood stove (had a house fire caused by one 20 years ago), the way I see it the dealer must fix this.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYONE BEING SO HELPFUL!

 

[begreen]

If the ash trap door on the Vista is like my Spectrum, I don't see how the trap door could be the issue since, unless it's just been thoroughly cleaned, the door is under several inches of ash. I usually have 2-3 inches of ash in my stove, which would put the trap door beneath 4-5 inches of ash.

This year I've been burning Oak, and it creates a lot of hard pan, so I've been shoveling just them out - not using the trap door, and only using the ash pan to hold the hard pan.

My bet is the door/gasket, or air inlet/linkage.

We never use the ash trap, so it is not a problem for us. Like yours, ours has inches of ash packed over it. But we have seen folks that frequently use it get an occasional piece of charcoal caught in the trap door that wedges it open a little. That causes a bright hot spot in the fire at that location.

This problem sounds different. What is baffling is that the door seals are good, but it has the symptoms or door seal leakage. I am wondering if a weld popped on the airwash deflector or somehow the air wash is being blocked. That might explain the hot door. Also check that the door glass gasket is properly in place.