Hello all...
I've been lurking these pages for the past two days to hopefully figure out my problem that has just turned up with my Prescott EXL. I have gone through most of the issues that are here, but I haven't been successful getting my stove to come back to normal.
So the main issue that I have noticed, if running on 3 or 4 the flames do not act like they used to. They are very tall (hitting the baffle) in the middle with the smokey tips as if the damper were not properly positioned. However on the right and left sides of the burn pot the flames appear to be normal. The burn pot eventually fills up and the flames appear to go up into the pellet shoot. For reasons you'll see below, I turn it down very quickly and it runs like it should. I've read everyone's responses about thorough cleanings and some I did not know. So let's start with some history on the stove.
It was brand new in 2006 (not bought by me). Apparently the person who owned it thought you could just keep adding pellets and never clean it. They eventually had a hopper fire (hence the reason I turn the stove down when this phenomenon occurs, LOL). I'm not sure when the stove was traded in, but of course the former owner blamed it on the stove. The stove shop I have been going to for years with my wood stove had a tent sale and they refurbed the EXL. $1200 later I brought it home and replaced my wood stove. Got tired of making sure the wood was perfectly seasoned...blah blah blah. Plus an apartment I had a few years ago had a pellet stove as it's main heat and I liked it much better.
The vent pipe is 4 inch going up approx 5 feet to a 45 degree into a 6 inch spacer into a 45 going in the opposite direction (had to do this because the old wood stove pipe was centered on the top of the stove where the exhaust on this stove is in the back...stove would have stuck way out in the room). That 45 is going into a 4 inch to 6 inch increaser. That is attached to the already existing 6 inch chimney from the wood stove. That goes straight up approx 12 feet give or take. I do not have the exact measurements right now.
Last year I did not have this issue at all. It ran like a champ all season. Over the summer I made sure to clean the entire stove (however, I never used the rubber mallet technique until today, WOW). I have never tried the LBT as I had heard that it can damage the combustion fan. That was from the stove shop, so I have never tried it.
I used 1 ton of New England Pellets last year, 3 tons of a cheaper version that I cannot remember the name (shame on me) and then one ton of "Comfy Cozy" that were a replacement for the stove shops normal Cubex.
So this year I started burning in October overnight. I didn't learn my lesson and bought cheap pellets (shame on me again). They were Home Depot specials. Never again. The stove actually was running fine with those. I never went above setting 2 however because it didn't get super cold at night. Wasn't until last week that I noticed this happening when it started getting colder and I was using the higher settings at night. So I went to the stove shop, I was told it was my pellets. Cheap pellets, buy ours. So I bought 5 bags of Cubex from them to test their theory, then stopped at another place and bought 3 bags of Okanagan's since I saw the name on this site. Two nights, same results. Can't burn above 3 without having issues.
So today, I got on the roof, checked the vent cap. It's clear. Cleaned the chimney (for a second time this year) to make sure I didn't miss anything. Tapped on the back wall of the stove, wow, craploads of ash came out. Thought this was going to do it. Pulled the combustion fan out, cleaned that hard to get to ash tube, I've done everything that I have read on here. Still have lazy flames at level 3 or higher. Damper can be open slightly (tried the pencil) to all the way open. Flames get better when it's all the way open, but never like they should. I do not have an OAK, forgot to mention that, but remember this stove worked like a champ all last year.
Any suggestions? Sorry for the wall of text. Was trying to make sure I covered everything you guys would ask. Any questions, send em my way, I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Thanks in advance. I do believe I will be frequenting this site from this day forward.
Later....
I've been lurking these pages for the past two days to hopefully figure out my problem that has just turned up with my Prescott EXL. I have gone through most of the issues that are here, but I haven't been successful getting my stove to come back to normal.
So the main issue that I have noticed, if running on 3 or 4 the flames do not act like they used to. They are very tall (hitting the baffle) in the middle with the smokey tips as if the damper were not properly positioned. However on the right and left sides of the burn pot the flames appear to be normal. The burn pot eventually fills up and the flames appear to go up into the pellet shoot. For reasons you'll see below, I turn it down very quickly and it runs like it should. I've read everyone's responses about thorough cleanings and some I did not know. So let's start with some history on the stove.
It was brand new in 2006 (not bought by me). Apparently the person who owned it thought you could just keep adding pellets and never clean it. They eventually had a hopper fire (hence the reason I turn the stove down when this phenomenon occurs, LOL). I'm not sure when the stove was traded in, but of course the former owner blamed it on the stove. The stove shop I have been going to for years with my wood stove had a tent sale and they refurbed the EXL. $1200 later I brought it home and replaced my wood stove. Got tired of making sure the wood was perfectly seasoned...blah blah blah. Plus an apartment I had a few years ago had a pellet stove as it's main heat and I liked it much better.
The vent pipe is 4 inch going up approx 5 feet to a 45 degree into a 6 inch spacer into a 45 going in the opposite direction (had to do this because the old wood stove pipe was centered on the top of the stove where the exhaust on this stove is in the back...stove would have stuck way out in the room). That 45 is going into a 4 inch to 6 inch increaser. That is attached to the already existing 6 inch chimney from the wood stove. That goes straight up approx 12 feet give or take. I do not have the exact measurements right now.
Last year I did not have this issue at all. It ran like a champ all season. Over the summer I made sure to clean the entire stove (however, I never used the rubber mallet technique until today, WOW). I have never tried the LBT as I had heard that it can damage the combustion fan. That was from the stove shop, so I have never tried it.
I used 1 ton of New England Pellets last year, 3 tons of a cheaper version that I cannot remember the name (shame on me) and then one ton of "Comfy Cozy" that were a replacement for the stove shops normal Cubex.
So this year I started burning in October overnight. I didn't learn my lesson and bought cheap pellets (shame on me again). They were Home Depot specials. Never again. The stove actually was running fine with those. I never went above setting 2 however because it didn't get super cold at night. Wasn't until last week that I noticed this happening when it started getting colder and I was using the higher settings at night. So I went to the stove shop, I was told it was my pellets. Cheap pellets, buy ours. So I bought 5 bags of Cubex from them to test their theory, then stopped at another place and bought 3 bags of Okanagan's since I saw the name on this site. Two nights, same results. Can't burn above 3 without having issues.
So today, I got on the roof, checked the vent cap. It's clear. Cleaned the chimney (for a second time this year) to make sure I didn't miss anything. Tapped on the back wall of the stove, wow, craploads of ash came out. Thought this was going to do it. Pulled the combustion fan out, cleaned that hard to get to ash tube, I've done everything that I have read on here. Still have lazy flames at level 3 or higher. Damper can be open slightly (tried the pencil) to all the way open. Flames get better when it's all the way open, but never like they should. I do not have an OAK, forgot to mention that, but remember this stove worked like a champ all last year.
Any suggestions? Sorry for the wall of text. Was trying to make sure I covered everything you guys would ask. Any questions, send em my way, I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Thanks in advance. I do believe I will be frequenting this site from this day forward.
Later....