Santa Fe Owners What Speed Do You Run At

[sante fe]

I run on medium mostly except real cold nights in Jan,Feb . Do most of you guys run med. Also ?

 

[helismash]

I would be interested to hear what others have to say also. My dealer told me to leave it on high. I was told I would get more heat out of it that way but I see others say they run on medium.

 

[gerryger]

I run mostly on high especially in Jan and Feb

 

[pro5oh]

never tried anything but medium, just switched to high to see what happens

 

[whit]

Run on high except when people are in that room, when I set it back to medium or low. Trying to have it encourage the heat to spread from the room it's in, which is a dining room so often unoccupied.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Last winter I ran the Sante Fe (main stove for most of house) on high and used the thermostat. It would run about 50% of the time. Seemed like the blower was way to slow on Low and barely adequate on medium. This year I wired the blower to stay on high no matter what the heat setting. It's been warm so far so I am running on low and it keeps up fine with outside temps in the 40's but doesn't shut off. Using about 1 pound an hour with the feed gate setting I'm using.

 

[ssupercoolss]

most of the time i have it on hi using the thermostat. i have alot of mis-fires that way though, sometimes i would come home to a pretty chilly house. the build up of ash, and the constant relighting would build up so much when i came home there was a pile of unburnt pellets sitting on top of a pile of ash. i rewired the stove a few years back like tj, and i can turn the fan on hi manually, or leave it H-M-L, wherever the switch is set. i felt this was a mistake on Quads part, the fan on low is rediculous. today was a little cold and the stove was hot this morning, so i couldnt clean the burn pot so i put it on low feed and switched the fan to high.

anyone else have alot of misfires, and what seems to me more than frequent cleaning of the burn pot? i know i am running a pretty junky pellet right now, need to get down to the good stuff, but even with the pellets the stove likes the best it seems pretty frequent.

 

[tjnamtiw]

most of the time i have it on hi using the thermostat. i have alot of mis-fires that way though, sometimes i would come home to a pretty chilly house. the build up of ash, and the constant relighting would build up so much when i came home there was a pile of unburnt pellets sitting on top of a pile of ash. i rewired the stove a few years back like tj, and i can turn the fan on hi manually, or leave it H-M-L, wherever the switch is set. i felt this was a mistake on Quads part, the fan on low is rediculous. today was a little cold and the stove was hot this morning, so i couldnt clean the burn pot so i put it on low feed and switched the fan to high.

anyone else have alot of misfires, and what seems to me more than frequent cleaning of the burn pot? i know i am running a pretty junky pellet right now, need to get down to the good stuff, but even with the pellets the stove likes the best it seems pretty frequent.

The only time I had misfires last year was with the crappy, super-long CWP pellets. They gave me very inconsistent feed and frequent bridging across drop chute. I NEVER have buildup in my burnpot except for a thin crust. All ash is blown out of the pot. If you have buildup IN your pot, you don't have enough airflow for one reason or another. Are all 8 small holes open? Is your trap door hanging down too far so that you can slip a dime between it and the burnpot? The usual questions about cleaning the exhaust path, of course.

 

[ssupercoolss]

Are all 8 small holes open? Is your trap door hanging down too far so that you can slip a dime between it and the burnpot?

yes all 8 holes are open. and i do check to make sure they are not plugged up frequently. should i be able to slip a dime in between? i bet its pretty tight right now. i do give it a good cleaning removing the top plate and the pieces on the backwall inside. i am intrigued that all the ash is blown out of your pot. how often do you have to dump your pot?

at one point i commented on another board about not having a gasket on my door on the top of it. i was informed it was for the airwash. but i also remeber something about older models dont have it on the top, and newer models dont have it on the bottom, or vise-versa. i can, of course be dreaming all this stuff up too.

 

[whit]

anyone else have alot of misfires, and what seems to me more than frequent cleaning of the burn pot? i know i am running a pretty junky pellet right now, need to get down to the good stuff, but even with the pellets the stove likes the best it seems pretty frequent.

Misfires are very rare for me - maybe a couple a season. Buildup in the pot differs widely according to which pellets I burn. All of them leave a little ash by the end of the day. But really bad pellets can half fill the pot with clinkers and ash. Good ones, and its just dusting the bottom, maybe 1/8 inch. A pot half-filled with clinkers and ash can easily misfire.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Are all 8 small holes open? Is your trap door hanging down too far so that you can slip a dime between it and the burnpot?

yes all 8 holes are open. and i do check to make sure they are not plugged up frequently. should i be able to slip a dime in between? i bet its pretty tight right now. i do give it a good cleaning removing the top plate and the pieces on the backwall inside. i am intrigued that all the ash is blown out of your pot. how often do you have to dump your pot?

at one point i commented on another board about not having a gasket on my door on the top of it. i was informed it was for the airwash. but i also remeber something about older models dont have it on the top, and newer models dont have it on the bottom, or vise-versa. i can, of course be dreaming all this stuff up too.

How often do I dump my pot? Every couple of days, when the ash builds up on either side of the pot, I stop and clean everything. I scrape the bottom of the pot with a wood chisel by pushing straight down and twisting. The buildup does not even cover the bottom little holes. I guess I must be burning decent pellets based on what some people are saying. I've burned all three brands available down here in Ga and never had any pot buildup. It DOES get blown out.
For the trap door, I've been told that a dime should NOT be able to be slipped between the trap door and the burn pot. The design of the bolt fastener is another Chinese fire drill. It should be a shoulder bolt that tightens just before locking down the door. Oh well

My Castile has no gasket on the top of the door and my Sante Fe has no gasket on the bottom. Both were made the same month and year so it must have been transition time! The Sante Fe window stays cleaner.

 

[sante fe]

I dump the pot once a day now. Burning home depo presto log pellets so a little scrapeing is need. Once a week I pull the plates and brush and vac the tubes.

 

[Vinelife]

The Sante Fe is an awesome stove.. ... I keep mine on high....stays cleaner, stay warmer..