Hi all,
I recently purchased a used St. Croix Prescott EXL on Craiglist. After getting it home and cleaning it out I realized that it was missing some parts. St. Croix helped me determine that it's an older model stove built in 2001 and I was able to locate replacement parts for the cera-bricks (using the after-market steel brick plates), heat exchange baffle, and the exhaust pipe gasket.
All venting in the room, including the vent adapter connection, was sealed with high-temp RTV silicone. The door gasket and window gasket were also in very rough shape and replaced.
This stove is installed in a walk-out finished basement area in place of a Harman Invincible that ran wonderfully for 4 years, until we moved it upstairs to heat the main living area of our house. The St. Croix was intended as its replacement. The venting has a roughly 6-ft interior rise before exiting through the thimble in an exterior wall to a vent hood about 2-fit off the ground. No vegetation around the vent.
Despite all this, I notice some odd things when running the stove. My only pellet stove experience is with the Harman, so I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or some of this is to be expected.
1. Smoky smell - It was a lot worse before I super-sealed the venting and replaced all those gaskets, but it's still there, especially on startup. My last time running it was for about 48 hours before I just couldn't take the smell anymore. I tried the dark room and flashlight trick, but I don't see any smoke.
2. Lots of soot on the window - I've tried running it with the air intake both closed and opened. Fully opened is better, the flame is nice and active, but I had to clean the glass 3 times in one day. Seems not quite right. Admittedly I have not experimented with different opening sizes yet. (BTW - I know everyone GLOWS about Harman, and maybe it's overstated, but I only have to clean the glass every 2 weeks in that stove. I've never had to adjust the air intake.)
3. Pellet feed rate seems high - Despite the feed rate being set at 1, it drops pellets about every 7 seconds. Even with the rate at 1 and the temp set as low as possible the distribution fan continuously blows hot air. Even with the cold weather we had the last few days it was too warm in my family room which is about 15 x 20 and 10-ft ceilings. My Harman could run at a very low setting for days, just enough to make it not freezing, then I could crank it up if we wanted to use the room for a while.
I'm debating whether to keep playing around with it by doing research on sites like this, or call in an "expert" from a stove shop. I'm hesitant to call for service because the stove is kind of old and I feel like it's hit or miss whether they would even know enough about my stove to help me. The newer model of this stove is very different than what I have.
Anything else I should try?
I recently purchased a used St. Croix Prescott EXL on Craiglist. After getting it home and cleaning it out I realized that it was missing some parts. St. Croix helped me determine that it's an older model stove built in 2001 and I was able to locate replacement parts for the cera-bricks (using the after-market steel brick plates), heat exchange baffle, and the exhaust pipe gasket.
All venting in the room, including the vent adapter connection, was sealed with high-temp RTV silicone. The door gasket and window gasket were also in very rough shape and replaced.
This stove is installed in a walk-out finished basement area in place of a Harman Invincible that ran wonderfully for 4 years, until we moved it upstairs to heat the main living area of our house. The St. Croix was intended as its replacement. The venting has a roughly 6-ft interior rise before exiting through the thimble in an exterior wall to a vent hood about 2-fit off the ground. No vegetation around the vent.
Despite all this, I notice some odd things when running the stove. My only pellet stove experience is with the Harman, so I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or some of this is to be expected.
1. Smoky smell - It was a lot worse before I super-sealed the venting and replaced all those gaskets, but it's still there, especially on startup. My last time running it was for about 48 hours before I just couldn't take the smell anymore. I tried the dark room and flashlight trick, but I don't see any smoke.
2. Lots of soot on the window - I've tried running it with the air intake both closed and opened. Fully opened is better, the flame is nice and active, but I had to clean the glass 3 times in one day. Seems not quite right. Admittedly I have not experimented with different opening sizes yet. (BTW - I know everyone GLOWS about Harman, and maybe it's overstated, but I only have to clean the glass every 2 weeks in that stove. I've never had to adjust the air intake.)
3. Pellet feed rate seems high - Despite the feed rate being set at 1, it drops pellets about every 7 seconds. Even with the rate at 1 and the temp set as low as possible the distribution fan continuously blows hot air. Even with the cold weather we had the last few days it was too warm in my family room which is about 15 x 20 and 10-ft ceilings. My Harman could run at a very low setting for days, just enough to make it not freezing, then I could crank it up if we wanted to use the room for a while.
I'm debating whether to keep playing around with it by doing research on sites like this, or call in an "expert" from a stove shop. I'm hesitant to call for service because the stove is kind of old and I feel like it's hit or miss whether they would even know enough about my stove to help me. The newer model of this stove is very different than what I have.
Anything else I should try?
