Sparks from chimney Castle serenity...

[Sytamra]

I get some sparks from the chimney on my castle serenity, and at high elevation in northern New Mexico I worry about starting a fire.
I know I should fashion an external control for the incoming air, but I crushed t-12 in December and accessing the slide is difficult.
My question is about incoming air VELOCITY. The exhaust fan is trying to pull "x" cubic ft. Of air thru the firepot per minute. When the stove drops pellets onto coals in the firepot it produces a shower of sparks and some make their way out the top of the chimney.
The slide valve is about 30% open......does the smaller opening increase the velocity of the incoming air and maybe I should open it up to slow down the incoming air velocity and prevent the popcorning and excess sparks? Or should I close it up?
Kinda confused about feeding air to the fire but not giving the fire too much air OR too much air velocity and lots of sparks and a potential fire. suggestions?

 

[Ssyko]

The slide damper is mainly to adjust your fuel to air ratio, to get good heat and complete burn of your fuel. How long is your exhaust vent? You might be able to close it off a bit but small embers and what we all call fire flies are pretty normal in pellet stoves. I wouldn’t think they would make it through the stove and out of the pipe.

 

[Sytamra]

The slide damper is mainly to adjust your fuel to air ratio, to get good heat and complete burn of your fuel. How long is your exhaust vent? You might be able to close it off a bit but small embers and what we all call fire flies are pretty normal in pellet stoves. I wouldn’t think they would make it through the stove and out

The exhaust is about 12 ft. I see firefly especially on shutdown but they go about 5 feet and disappear, but it till worries me.

 

[Jake86]

Kind of obvious question, but do you have both the right and left ash deflectors released from their retaining pins? From the manual: Stove emissions should be visually checked on a regular basis. Emission visibility is an indicator of inefficient combustion. First thing it recommends is a good cleaning. Is the fire acting lazy? See sticky notes.

 

[Don2222]

Hello
A minimum of a 3 feet vertical rise in the stove venting is recommended for many reasons including this. What does your stove venting look like?

 

[Overfireinthehole]

A riser on the outside of the house would help but also, the more dust you have in Your pellets the more sparks you will have. it helps to dump your pallets in a bucket outside before you dump them in the hopper to try and get some of the dust to blow away. It also helps to burn really clean pellets.

 

[Johnny lu]

I have the same issue. I closed the air intake door a little bit and ran it on manual at level 3. Worked fine. Occasionally this is a common thing from what I was told.