Today Im making America Great Again... Castle Serenity

[sfsurfdude69]

Hello Fellow Americans and Hello Fellow Pellet Stove Owners...
Right Here. Right Now Ive complete the "Fresh Air intake" portion of my overdue venting for my stove.
The few months Ive used it, Ive taken indoor air out of laziness? No. Ive just had other priorities. With that said, the drafts I felt prior to now are gone. Duh...
But here's my situation. One day I closed a bit further the exhaust door and went through a bag in 18 hours. The following bag I opened it quite a bit more, presently when Im burning on manual and at 72 degrees the blower causes my almost burned pellets to shoot out the burn pot and fly around inside.
Initially the flame will be at about 4 inches high and then 20 or so minutes into the burn the flame is nearly non existent and the room air fan goes to low and eventually I get a low temp alarm. Finally with that it shuts down.
This cycle before the eventual shut down I changed the cycle to Temp, 61 degrees. It is now on a low speed and the flames are fairly high, basically reaching the top of the interior of the stove. The glowing or nearly burned pieces of pellets are still sort of flying around inside as well.
After a few minutes now I have the 4 inch flame with the low fan speed for room air. My house is about 750 sq ft in the area I am heating, its actually centrally located in my kitchen next to my range. Fortunately in Spokane the last few days haven't been below zero, Ive shut it down during the day today. I just cant seem to get the right mix with this stove for some reason. Prior to this I didnt want to mention that I had not been using the fresh air intake but now I guess Im coming out of the closet so to speak. Any suggestions for making my stove great again?

 

[vinny11950]

Hi, Surfdude. Sounds like your stove is feeding more pellets, and some are not getting burnt, but it is hard to tell what is going on without knowing the controls of the stove.

Also knowing the type of exhaust vent you have and how clean it is helps too. A dirty stove will burn inefficiently, and we usually start seeing dirty stove issues from the middle of the burning season on. People just don't realize their air paths and exhaust vents are clogged up.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Hello Fellow Americans and Hello Fellow Pellet Stove Owners...
Right Here. Right Now Ive complete the "Fresh Air intake" portion of my overdue venting for my stove.
The few months Ive used it, Ive taken indoor air out of laziness? No. Ive just had other priorities. With that said, the drafts I felt prior to now are gone. Duh...
But here's my situation. One day I closed a bit further the exhaust door and went through a bag in 18 hours. The following bag I opened it quite a bit more, presently when Im burning on manual and at 72 degrees the blower causes my almost burned pellets to shoot out the burn pot and fly around inside.
Initially the flame will be at about 4 inches high and then 20 or so minutes into the burn the flame is nearly non existent and the room air fan goes to low and eventually I get a low temp alarm. Finally with that it shuts down.
This cycle before the eventual shut down I changed the cycle to Temp, 61 degrees. It is now on a low speed and the flames are fairly high, basically reaching the top of the interior of the stove. The glowing or nearly burned pieces of pellets are still sort of flying around inside as well.
After a few minutes now I have the 4 inch flame with the low fan speed for room air. My house is about 750 sq ft in the area I am heating, its actually centrally located in my kitchen next to my range. Fortunately in Spokane the last few days haven't been below zero, Ive shut it down during the day today. I just cant seem to get the right mix with this stove for some reason. Prior to this I didnt want to mention that I had not been using the fresh air intake but now I guess Im coming out of the closet so to speak. Any suggestions for making my stove great again?

Greetings fellow Serenity operator.
Firstly, I'm not going to be the one to correct you on the fresh air intake, but I feel quite certain that you will be corrected that it is an "OAK" or Outside Air Intake.

The "exhaust door"? By that do you mean that little metal piece that is held in place by one screw and is behind the fire pot? That would actually be on the inlet side of things, and I dont care what it is really called. But it has to work in tandem with your exhaust blower settings in the control panel.

You will see more or less "sparks" in the burn chamber as each bag of pellets may have more or less fines. But whole pieces of pellets should only be blown out of the burn pot on shut down. Otherwise, you need to slow your exhaust blower setting in the control panel. Your owners manual will tell you how to do that.
Basically, you have one fan/blower in the burn side of the things that both pulls air into the fire and blows exhaust out the chimney. So that inlet gate behind the burn pot will have to be adjusted to work with the blower setting to get right burn mixture.

The shut down due to low temperature does have a lot to do with the burn settings, though it is a fully separate fan system. If you do not have the fire set right to keep the stove within guidelines, the sensors will think that your fire has gone out and will put the stove in shut down mode. So you do need to get the fire settings right first. Sometimes you can also send the stove into shutdown due to low temp if you have the room blower set too high for the amount of heat the fire is putting out. If you take too much heat away from the stove too fast, the sensor will think that the fire is out as the hot surface that sends heat into the room is now not as hot as it should be.

The flame will raise and lower in the Serenity. This is normal characteristic by design. But if you have flames all the way to the top, then way low that you can barely see it, settings need changed. By design the Serenity is forgiving to pellet quality, but if you change brands or types, you will likely have to do some setting changes to meet the quality of the new pellets.

 

[sfsurfdude69]

Proper terminology indeed is important and I know this to be true, when I am involved in providing my experience to someone on Painting after 30 yrs experience I have used a condescending tone once in awhile as my eyes are rolling back in thew sockets in my head... So your tolerance is appreciated.
I will lower the fan speed on my room air blower as I did change it as far as I know
blower speed on the burn side I am also lowering, the gate on the back of the burn pot either I have it too closed off or too far open when I adjust it. Too closed I hear a whistling sound on start up and everything in the burn pot is flying all over.
Currently the stuff flying around (hoot ash) is when the pellets are being dropped into the burn pot. The flame is about 4 inches high. One thing for sure my chihuahua who is 18 yo loves laying on a pillow in front of my serenity all day long.
I will ck in once Ive made some adjustments.

 

[alternativeheat]

Based on the little I know about the Serenity but from observing the forum, your damper gate should be open about 1/3, then adjust your exhaust/combustion fan for a nice flame with clean even tips. It sounds like you have an uneven match between your damper and exhaust blower speed right now.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

So you want to make America Great with a Chinese pellet stove......??......????????

 

[Deezl Smoke]

So you want to make America Great with a Chinese pellet stove......??......????????

Burning American pellets????

 

[Lake Girl]

Would it be helpful to do a hard reset to factory settings and start all over? That way changes can be recorded (written down) as you go along ... leaving at least 1/2 hour before making any more changes. That way you have a log of the best options on settings for blowers and damper.

 

[Talegas]

Interesting.. i do have the same issue (shutting off after first burn for about an hour or two). I saw that every time pellets came down the chute, sparks would fly , but i did not notice "whole pellets" flying off. I did look into the burn pot (from above and through the glass while the fire was going) and did see the burning pellets all "exited" moving around with the blowing wind.

I also do not have an OAK in place.. i like the idea of "recycling air" which sort of worked out to clear out all that burned oil smoke from the first burn.. makes me wonder if having that much "freedom" to suck air from within the room is allowing for that huge flow of air.

by the way, anyone care to share the link where you guys explained how to manuf a handle to adjust the damper? I searched for it and ended up in this post, lol.

 

[rich2500]

By design the Serenity moves alot of air through it, try small adjustments at a time closing the air gate, if it still moves to much air then you need to back the exhaust blower voltage down in small increments.I will look to see if I can find my pics of how I extend the air gate out the side. Found them

 

[Talegas]

By design the Serenity moves alot of air through it, try small adjustments at a time closing the air gate, if it still moves to much air then you need to back the exhaust blower voltage down in small increments.I will look to see if I can find my pics of how I extend the air gate out the side. Found them

Thank you!.

so for the looks of it, facing the appliance is the left side panel the one i need to remove. Regarding the V for the venting fan, i'm a bit hesitant to play with it as my venting consist of 4" pipe (about 4 feet), 3 90 degree elbows and then about 13 ft of 8" Class A pipe going on the side of the house. I would think i need the blowing power to ensure air movement through all of that.

I will try the damper first.. right this moment.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Thank you!.

so for the looks of it, facing the appliance is the left side panel the one i need to remove. Regarding the V for the venting fan, i'm a bit hesitant to play with it as my venting consist of 4" pipe (about 4 feet), 3 90 degree elbows and then about 13 ft of 8" Class A pipe going on the side of the house. I would think i need the blowing power to ensure air movement through all of that.

I will try the damper first.. right this moment.

You can easily put the exhaust blower settings back to where they are. I would not hesitate to try blower settings even with your chimney design. You might be surprised how well a warm chimney can pull air upward.

You can access the air inlet gate from either side, but it is easiest from the left when facing the stove.

 

[alternativeheat]

8" vent is going to draw like crazy once warm and the 4" portion won't be as restrictive as 3". I have all 4" vent and it has good draft, course it goes up 26' but it's just natural draft right from the stove on up.

 

[Talegas]

Thank you Rich, Deezl. I did modify the opening, and it was a PITA trying to open the left side as it was closer to the wall than the right one. Either way, i marked the original position and i might do the soldering of a handle to make it available from outside later on (after this season).

One question tho, does it mean that you leave the screw a bit lose in order to adjust it via the added handle? no concerns about vibration make it vary through time?

 

[Talegas]

8" vent is going to draw like crazy once warm and the 4" portion won't be as restrictive as 3". I have all 4" vent and it has good draft, course it goes up 26' but it's just natural draft right from the stove on up.

26'?, holy cow!!

The serenity manual does call out that if you go beyond 20' of straight up pipe, you "may require" adjustments to the combustion motor V and/or intake damper. Another reason why I really liked the idea of buying the Serenity.. its very descriptive and complete manual.

 

[alternativeheat]

Yep, the P61 has a 3" outlet, I adapted to 4" right at the stove. The horizontal run is about 2 ft or so to a clean out T, then it runs right up through the old chimney through a 4" stainless liner. Never an issue, in a power outage it drafts naturally with no smoke in the house.

8" would draft even better. But Harman's only requirement is 4" at about 17 ft total evl or more.

 

[sfsurfdude69]

So you want to make America Great with a Chinese pellet stove......??......????????

So you want to make America Great with a Chinese pellet stove......??......????????

What I bought was a Pellet Stove which was affordable, while shopping I didnt take the time to see where it was made. My statement about making America Great Again had more to do with the day I opened with that statement which was the day of the inaugural speech that President Trump made to which I found humorous and I knew it might push some buttons. How I meant it on my behalf was the fact that I had finally completed the installation of my fresh air intake after a few months of operating without it.


Someone once told me that the meaning of things depends largely on the time of day it is expressed.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

What I bought was a Pellet Stove which was affordable, while shopping I didnt take the time to see where it was made. My statement about making America Great Again had more to do with the day I opened with that statement which was the day of the inaugural speech that President Trump made to which I found humorous and I knew it might push some buttons. How I meant it on my behalf was the fact that I had finally completed the installation of my fresh air intake after a few months of operating without it.


Someone once told me that the meaning of things depends largely on the time of day it is expressed.

Fair nuff. Going with that, maybe it's too early in the morning to say this then, but.....with all other stoves being 2k and up thru more money than anyone has, did you really think a stove at less than half of that would be from the USA? Now, not everyone does metal fabrication or knows the costs of running a business here. But over the past 25+ years, the USA has been at a competitive disadvantage in the manufacturing department. Just say'n.

 

[pageyjim]

I thought there were many ironies in the title but no big deal. I also felt it had much to do with the day it was posted.You have to admit the Chinese comment was begging to be said. More importantly I was wondering if you feel any difference in how the stove itself runs and if comfort level around the home is the same, better or worse. Not trying to start an OAK war.

 

[Talegas]

Someone once told me that the meaning of things depends largely on the time of day it is expressed.

More importantly, the state of mind of who hears it. For example my saying "i'm hungry" to my wife when she is barely awake vs. half way into the afternoon. At one point i'll get slapped , at the other i'll get a nod in agreement.

 

[Talegas]

. Not trying to start an OAK war.

Me neither, but i really have to say that the OAK might need to play into the settings i am trying. I reduced the exhaust blower V on the stall 3 and 4 and 5 by 5V but even in stall 1 the pellets sort of jump (little chunks that are less than half the length of the original pellet). I thought maybe since i don;t have an OAK installed, that the "unrestricted" intake airflow would make my changes in V not work as expected.. I do want to put one, but need to figure out its locations (maybe a window one like a dryer which i could remove during summers?).

I think i'll have to start once again and take more notes and timing of burn ..get a scale to weight pellets as to measure consumption (which would be rather difficult as temp changes daily).

 

[pageyjim]

Don't have your stove but it seems to have more variable settings than most. Which of course is a good thing but may take some time to get down.