Quadra-Fire Mt Vernon AE question

[BigJohnfromCT]

Hello folks. This this is my first post on Hearth.com. I'm new to the pellet world, I've only had my stove just under 2 years, but not new to the world. That is, I'm old. Well not that old. I'm trying to figure out how to get the most heat from my stove. I live in Danbury, CT which is in the western part of the state. My wife and I bought this house in February of 2010 and had the stove installed by the dealer in March. The house is approximately 3600 sq. ft. contemporary with high ceilings and the pellet stove is the primary source of heat, backed up by a propane fired hot air furnace. Pretty much the stove runs flat out, day and night. I have had very little trouble with it. I do a light cleaning every week (fire box, fire pot, ash pan and glass) and a heavier cleaning (all of the above plus the baffle and clean out port on the bottom of the chimney) every other week. I had been burning Hamer's Hot Ones but started having some trouble with them as the pellets were getting very long (2+ inches) ocassionally causing auger jams and there seemed to be a lot of pellet dust in the bottom of the bag. I switched to New England pellets and they seem to work better but burn a little cooler.

Here are my stove settings: Heat output is set to high, the unit is set to burn hardwood pellets, Flame Height is -3. I keep it a minus 3 on the advice of the dealer. It seems that when I get closer to zero the unit starts to resonate really loud. Convection blower spped is set to normal vs. quiet.

This is a great unit and, although I ask a lot of it, it just runs and runs. Oh, forgot to mention, I run about 2 bags a day, 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening. Any thoughts on how to squeak a few more BTU's out of it would be appreciated. Thank you.

John

 

[CT Pellet]

Hello folks. This this is my first post on Hearth.com. I'm new to the pellet world, I've only had my stove just under 2 years, but not new to the world. That is, I'm old. Well not that old. I'm trying to figure out how to get the most heat from my stove. I live in Danbury, CT which is in the western part of the state. My wife and I bought this house in February of 2010 and had the stove installed by the dealer in March. The house is approximately 3600 sq. ft. contemporary with high ceilings and the pellet stove is the primary source of heat, backed up by a propane fired hot air furnace. Pretty much the stove runs flat out, day and night. I have had very little trouble with it. I do a light cleaning every week (fire box, fire pot, ash pan and glass) and a heavier cleaning (all of the above plus the baffle and clean out port on the bottom of the chimney) every other week. I had been burning Hamer's Hot Ones but started having some trouble with them as the pellets were getting very long (2+ inches) ocassionally causing auger jams and there seemed to be a lot of pellet dust in the bottom of the bag. I switched to New England pellets and they seem to work better but burn a little cooler.

Here are my stove settings: Heat output is set to high, the unit is set to burn hardwood pellets, Flame Height is -3. I keep it a minus 3 on the advice of the dealer. It seems that when I get closer to zero the unit starts to resonate really loud. Convection blower spped is set to normal vs. quiet.

This is a great unit and, although I ask a lot of it, it just runs and runs. Oh, forgot to mention, I run about 2 bags a day, 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening. Any thoughts on how to squeak a few more BTU's out of it would be appreciated. Thank you.

John

Hi John. Welcome to the madness. Its a rowdy bunch here. The absolute best way to maximize the heat output and efficiency of your stove is to keep it clean. The more ash that builds up on the heat exchanger, the less heat you will get. It acts as an insulation and even though your pellets may be producing heat, most of it is shooting right out the exhaust pipe...causing polar bears up north to fall through the ice. Keep it clean and you're gunna be fine.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

Welcome John we just started playing around in this thread https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/a-couple-of-mt-vernon-ae-questions.103106/

What he said.
You're heating a big space and you have the BTU's per hour limited by setting the flame height to -3...I saw that you did that because of a resonance in the venting, there has to be another way to dampen the resonance. Mine rumbles once in a while, but not too loud and not often. Does it when the ash draw isn't seated, but that isn't the only time.
Another thought is that an outside air source (OAK) for combustion air might give you some improvement in efficiency. There have been lots of lively discussions about that as well. Try a search for OAK.

 

[hooter04]

I burn newp in my stoves,and I set my fuel type to softwood.I think it runs longer on the softwood fuel setting.If you really want it to throw more heat,put it on the sunflower seed fuel type.One problem with that is you'll go through more pellets,but it puts out more heat.

 

[john193]

Welcome to the forum. Judging by your description it sounds you are doing everything right. I too would suggest bumping up the flame height. Given your square footage I think the stove is working as designed.

 

[smoke show]

I'll jump on the bandwagon. jack up that flame height!

 

[JoeS]

Sunflower seed setting and start with -5 flame height.

This will get you max heat.

I'm surpised the length of the Hamer pellet is giving you problems, never had that issue.

 

[mralias]

Welcome to the madness. Its a rowdy bunch here.

he he