Timber Ridge 55-TRPIP general questions

[Tails1]

I installed a new pellet stove (Timber Ridge 55-TRPIP) and have some questions regarding it.

I did have issues with pellet feed but after dialing in the combustion air and feed rate and switching pellet brand the stove is now working fine. It does have a noisy convection blower motor and there does not seem to be any oil ports on it. I will call them and see if they will send me another as this stove is brand new, it shouldn't do that.

The exhaust is installed by the book out the wall to a clean out tee then up the outside wall five feet to a shepherds crook at the top. This is the standard double wall pellet pipe and from the back of the stove it does get hot. I can touch it with my hand but only for a split second. Should this pipe get this hot? It does have a proper thimble through the wall but still makes me wonder. I am surprised this stove puts that much heat out the exhaust, seems wasteful. These pipes do not seem to be well constructed as they leaked smoke from the joints and I had to tape them with high heat tape.

The Ashes that accumulate from the burning pellets is a dark brown consistency much like ground table pepper, I would have thought these ashes should be grey/white like wood stove ashes. Is this normal? My viewing window glass does stay clean never gets black although it does get hazy, nor does there appear any creosote anywhere in the firebox or exhaust ports. This ash is light and fluffy.

As the stove runs and feeds pellets into the burn pot it creates fountains of sparks/burning bits of pellets every time new pellets drop into the burn pot. Does this mean my air settings are still too high? I already have my low air burn set at 4, if I go lower I fear a dirty burn. Any advice on this?

I am currently using the stove with a remote thermostat and it seems to be working as it should, shutting off and starting up again when the thermostat calls for heat. Can someone give me an idea how long I should expect the igniter to last by doing this, I think maybe it would be a good idea to purchase a spare.

As this stove is running in on/off mode with a remote thermostat I find the shutdown cycle to be quite long (>20mins). The stove goes into a low burn mode first and then eventually goes into shutdown mode. Does anyone know if this behavior can be modified? In mild weather this can overheat the house. Also want the stove to shut down on power failure by opening the thermostat circuit with a relay on ac failure, currently I think this long shutdown delay could be an issue. (Am using a 750 watt UPS) Basically I want the stove to enter the shutdown cycle as soon as the thermostat shuts off. The thermostat already has a short cycle delay of like 10 mins so there is no need for the stove delay before entering the shutdown cycle.

I will add more questions to this thread as I think of them, for now this post is long enough.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[railfanron]

I don't know your particular stove but the shutdown time is determined by how long it takes to completely burn up all the left over pellets. The combustion air temp is usually sensed by a probe in the exhaust flow or a snap disk on the combustion fan body. If you shorten this time there could be smoke exiting the stove from the door openings. My stove takes >20 minutes also to shut down. That is one of the inherent disadvantages of a pellet stove. As far as the pellets go every brand will burn slightly different and may have different color ash. Last years Pro Pellets had grey ash but this years American Pellet Company's ash is just like your ash is light and fluffy and black like pepper. They seem to be burning hotter and with less ash but that's only speculation as I have no proof.
Ron

 

[Tails1]

I don't know your particular stove but the shutdown time is determined by how long it takes to completely burn up all the left over pellets. The combustion air temp is usually sensed by a probe in the exhaust flow or a snap disk on the combustion fan body. If you shorten this time there could be smoke exiting the stove from the door openings. My stove takes >20 minutes also to shut down. That is one of the inherent disadvantages of a pellet stove. As far as the pellets go every brand will burn slightly different and may have different color ash. Last years Pro Pellets had grey ash but this years American Pellet Company's ash is just like your ash is light and fluffy and black like pepper. They seem to be burning hotter and with less ash but that's only speculation as I have no proof.
Ron

My issue isn't the length of time for the actual shutdown cycle, it's with the length of time after the thermostat shuts off until the stove actually enters the shutdown mode. It *seems to vary from 15-20 mins or more. I apologize, I should have been more clear about that in the op.

 

[railfanron]

The answer is pretty much the same. When my stove goes into shutdown it takes at least 10 - 15 minutes or sometimes longer before the convection fan turns off and then it goes into shutdown mode. That takes another 10 - 15 minutes on a cold day and longer on a warm day as the air coming in is warmer and cannot cool the stove as fast. My guess it's normal. The stove has to be sure that ALL the pellets have burned up. If the stove shuts completely off too soon there is a great possibility there will be some burning still going on and this could cause smoke and or dangerous gasses to enter the home through gasket leaks etc.
Ron

 

[Tails1]

The answer is pretty much the same. When my stove goes into shutdown it takes at least 10 - 15 minutes or sometimes longer before the convection fan turns off and then it goes into shutdown mode. That takes another 10 - 15 minutes on a cold day and longer on a warm day as the air coming in is warmer and cannot cool the stove as fast. My guess it's normal. The stove has to be sure that ALL the pellets have burned up. If the stove shuts completely off too soon there is a great possibility there will be some burning still going on and this could cause smoke and or dangerous gasses to enter the home through gasket leaks etc.
Ron

But here is the thing, if I walk over and press "off" then the stove immediately stops feeding pellets and enters the shutdown cycle (and SU is displayed on the control) with no delay. It's this delay *before entering the shutdown cycle when controlled by the thermostat that I want to eliminate.

 

[BUBIBEAR]

If you are running the stove with a remote t-stat ,than when shut it down by using the stop button on the control board .The t-stat still is calling for heat . Shut it of on the remote .

 

[Lake Girl]

It could be a programming thing with the stove on the thermostat. It may cycle longer until the thermostat definitely decides it's done running (think it may be the degree of swing?). This may save the ignitor in the long run rather than frequent short cycling. Good idea to get a spare ignitor though.

What pellets are you using? I find hardwood pellet ash to be more like what you describe....

As to the sparks from the burn pot, you do not want too much action in the burn pot so that large portions of pellets are jumping out. May want to reduce air and find the sweet spot... enough for a clean burn but not so much that they are popcorning out of the pot.

 

[Tails1]

It could be a programming thing with the stove on the thermostat. It may cycle longer until the thermostat definitely decides it's done running (think it may be the degree of swing?). This may save the ignitor in the long run rather than frequent short cycling. Good idea to get a spare ignitor though.

What pellets are you using? I find hardwood pellet ash to be more like what you describe....

As to the sparks from the burn pot, you do not want too much action in the burn pot so that large portions of pellets are jumping out. May want to reduce air and find the sweet spot... enough for a clean burn but not so much that they are popcorning out of the pot.

I will call England Stove works tomorrow about the t-stat thing. I was using hardwood pellets (which burned fine) but now I 'm using those granulco ones I got on sale which are pine/spruce softwood from Quebec. They smoke more at startup but burn hotter then the hardwood ones and seem to last longer.