Us King Stove 5500 M keeps overflowing pellets when put on heat range 3 or above.

[Us King Stove]

Hello,

I have a Us King Stove 5500m Pellet stove that keeps over flowing when put on heat range 3 or above. To try to fix the issues I have installed an outside vent to get air, drilled some more holes in the burn pot to get more air, taken the whole thing apart and vacuumed and cleaned very well. I took the exhaust fan apart and spun it and it seemed to spin fine. I cleaned that out and oiled the bearing, and replaced the door and window gaskets. I also sealed up the two ash trays that go down to the ash pan. I am at my wits end with this thing always over flowing. I literally took the whole thing apart and cleaned it and have done lots of research. I know there is a way to adjust the feed rate, however if i do that, wouldn't that be similar to just turning down the heat range? IF i turn down the rate it feeds at level 3, wouldn't it just be at a lower range closer to what 2 or 1 was set at? I can get plenty of heat from level 3 and 4 but if i put it on those, within one day it is over flowing and i have to completely shutdown the machine and it is all caked up in the pot. If anyone has any suggestions i'd love to hear them. Thanks
Joe

 

[Jeremy6500]

Hello,

I have a Us King Stove 5500m Pellet stove that keeps over flowing when put on heat range 3 or above. To try to fix the issues I have installed an outside vent to get air, drilled some more holes in the burn pot to get more air, taken the whole thing apart and vacuumed and cleaned very well. I took the exhaust fan apart and spun it and it seemed to spin fine. I cleaned that out and oiled the bearing, and replaced the door and window gaskets. I also sealed up the two ash trays that go down to the ash pan. I am at my wits end with this thing always over flowing. I literally took the whole thing apart and cleaned it and have done lots of research. I know there is a way to adjust the feed rate, however if i do that, wouldn't that be similar to just turning down the heat range? IF i turn down the rate it feeds at level 3, wouldn't it just be at a lower range closer to what 2 or 1 was set at? I can get plenty of heat from level 3 and 4 but if i put it on those, within one day it is over flowing and i have to completely shutdown the machine and it is all caked up in the pot. If anyone has any suggestions i'd love to hear them. Thanks
Joe

I had this issue with my USSC 6500. For me it was a combination of air flow and pellet feed rate. It sounds like you have addressed any air flow issues with your cleaning etc. From there I would look at adjusting my feed rate. I have founds that fine tuning those will give me the most/best heat while using less pellets. The previous home owner had the rates extremely high. The pellet bucket would overflow like crazy and it didn't seem to produce more heat.

 

[tlc1976]

Been a long time since I used a 5500. But If you turn down the heat range, does it slow the exhaust fan a little to compensate? As opposed to setting a higher heat range to get a higher fan speed, then lowering the feed rate?

 

[SidecarFlip]

If it has a 4 button board (which I presume it does, look in the WIKI for adjusting the feed rates the adjustment procedure is the same as a 6039-41 USSC.

I think you need to start by cleaning your venting, Sounds to me like its loaded with fly ash. Leaf blower time.

 

[Jeremy6500]

If it has a 4 button board (which I presume it does, look in the WIKI for adjusting the feed rates the adjustment procedure is the same as a 6039-41 USSC.

I think you need to start by cleaning your venting, Sounds to me like its loaded with fly ash. Leaf blower time.

Good call on the venting. I just did this with mine over the weekend. I have a USSC 6500 and a PP130. Ash in the venting definitely messed with my stoves.

To the OP. Up in the USSC troubleshooting section there are Tech manuals for the different stoves. I didn't see your particular manual, but the how to section of the manuals about how to program it are all pretty much the same. I wonder if cleaning your vent piping, adjusting your feed rates and exhaust fan would help with this issue. I checked last night and for my 6500 I have low feed rate set to 1.6pph. This acts as a pilot light for me and produces enough heat that this is what I run on 75% of the time. I then have the high feed rate set for 5pph. I also dropped my draft fan low level down from the default 150 to 100 if I remember correctly.

The default on mine for feed rate is 5pph on low and 13pph on high. My pot would overflow like crazy with these settings on anything above heat setting 1. Not sure why this is the factory default because it seems WAY out of wack with what works.

I also did a little experiment last night by bumping it up to heat setting 3 (my highest). It took a little time for the air temp to come up, but it definitely got hot and started sweating us out.

I have mine set to run on a thermostat, so it runs on heat range 1 the majority of the time and only ramps up to 2 or 3 (depending on what level I choose) when the thermostat calls for heat.

 

[ARC]

IF i turn down the rate it feeds at level 3, wouldn't it just be at a lower range closer to what 2 or 1 was set at?

Only if you make drastic changes, little changes make a big difference.

A couple of questions:

Is this a four button control board Heat Range, Room Fan, Draft Fan, Aux?

Does heat range go from 1-5 or 1-9?

Does stove run well on HR-1?

If stove runs well on heat range one then you will not want to change the lower feed rate or draft. You can only change settings for heat range 1 or the highest heat range 5 or 9. All the other ranges(heat and draft) adjust incrementally based on those two numbers. To start check the C Codes , get a note book and write the numbers displayed down and then write any changes you do after that. This way you can always set the numbers back to were they worked the best.

Pay attention to C2, C3, C4 and C5 those are feed rate and draft which eventually you will be adjusting to get a better burn on Heat Range 3. Do not change any settings at this point, first see what they are set at then you can make one small adjustment each time and run the stove to see if it improved.

To adjust the operation constants, press the hold the MODE and AUGER DELAY buttons simultaneously
for 3 seconds. The display will show “C-1”. Use the HEAT RANGE UP or HEAT RANGE DOWN buttons to
change the constant number (see the list of vales below). When the desired constant is displayed, press
the ON button to toggle between viewing and editing the value. While editing a parameter, use the AUX
again to return to the constant number list. Press the OFF button to exit the operational constants
mode.
 C1- Reset to defaults (hold Mode and Auger Delay buttons for 3 seconds to reset all to defaults).
 C2- Fuel Lbs. per Hour HR 1 (0-5.0) – This is the fuel rate in pounds per hour for a heat range
setting of 1. The default is 1.75 lbs.
 C3- Fuel lbs. per Hour HR 9 (0-5.0) – This is the fuel rate in pounds per hour for a heat range
setting of 5. The default is 4.5lbs. The fuel rates used between setting 1 and 5 are linearly
interpolated between these two settings.
 C4- Draft Fan Level HR 1 (0-500) – This is the draft fan output level for a draft fan setting of 1.
The default is 150
 C5- Draft Fan Level HR 9 (0-500) – This is the draft fan output level for a draft fan setting of 9.
The default is 350.

 

[SidecarFlip]

If it is, the firing rates are all algorithms programmed into the control chip and altering one also alters the other firing rates. I have mine set on custom firing rates but the unit still must be kept clean no matter what.

Not only is the PPH rate changed but the combustion air rate changes as well as the default room air blower changes.

USSC has to have the most 'user friendly' controls of any unit. Problem is USSC is very closed mouthed about the actual flexibility of the control board. probably has to do with liability, I imagine.