Im asking about this stove for my inlaws. They recently purchased it and arent too sure of the options on it. Can a thermostat be hooked up to this unit? The house is way too hot on the lowest setting and they dont know how to rectify the situation...Any suggestions would be appreciated...
US STOVE 5500M
- Thread starter cuznvin
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
If it has the 'standard' USSC control board (heat, room fan, draft fan, aux) then you can put a thermostat on it. There is a jumper you have to remove on the control board before the stat will work. One thing to keep in mind is the stat wont shut the stove off, it will revert back to low when the stat isn't calling for heat. For example, if you set the unit to PR3, when the thermostat turns off the stove will operate as if it is set at PR1. If your inlaws house is too hot running on PR1, then a thermostat wont do them any good. How big a space are they heating?
If that is one standard control board, it also might have a changeable firing firing rate which can be used to lower the amount of pellets fed into the burn pot, the controller will adjust the combustion air feed in automatic mode.
cuznvin if you can get over there you might want to try this https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/924520/ be sure to write down what the low firing rate was before changing it.
Good luck.
cuznvin if you can get over there you might want to try this https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/924520/ be sure to write down what the low firing rate was before changing it.
Good luck.
Thank you.. I looked at the manual online and called them. They had it set on MODE AUTO and dont have a thermostat. They clearly had the settings wrong and even though they called the place they bought it from and US Stove, they werent getting the right information. I believe their house is 1800 sq ft. They thought they had it on the lowest setting and the house was 78 degrees. I told them the changes to make and hopefully this will help and then they can add a thermostat..
SmokeyTheBear said:
Unfortunately, they are in Michigan and Im on Long Island. I am going to see how the stove works once they take it out of AUTO mode. They said it didnt come off auto mode when they pressed the mode button, but they may have not held it down long enough or something. There is no way, on the lowest settings, that the stove will heat a 1800 sq ft house to 78 degrees. If they are still too hot after running on the lowest settings, then I will tell them about the auger settings....Thanks so much...
Ya think I'd have remembered to mention the feed rate setting since I just changed mine the other day. Good call Smokey. I bumped mine down from 2 pounds per hour to 1.75 (for the low setting) after I hooked up the thermostat. That seemed to work well for me, but if its above 35 outside the house keeps getting warmer even on low. My place is a bit smaller, right around 1700 square feet.
cuznvin said:
I hate to tell you this but those controllers have been known to sometimes be set higher than the book says. Just want you to be aware of that.
One other thing. If you suspect the settings may have been changed, press the aux up and aux down buttons at the same time for 3 or 4 seconds. That will put the control board back to factory default, which is 2 pounds per hour on low and 5 pounds per hour on high.
So they managed to lower the feed rate with the company's help. Everything is on low and it is still very warm in the house. 31 degrees outside. What is the lowest they can set the feed rate at?
For me it depends on the pellets. If I run somersets or AWF, I set the low end feed rate to 1.5 lbs/hr. For lower quality pellets i'll set it to 2lbs/hr. Its easy enough to change that it isn't a big deal for me.
Its too bad there aren't preset feed rate buttons. Press a button once for good pellets, press it twice when burning junk.
Its too bad there aren't preset feed rate buttons. Press a button once for good pellets, press it twice when burning junk.
Oh cool..We fly into GRR sometimes.. Thanks for your help. They bought the stove from Tractor Supply company...
Noob with insight and lotta 5500M questions. First, with regards to the control board on 2011 models. The company reps tell me they scuttled the manual mode because of design problems with the boards this year. You can hold the manual button down all day long and it won't matter a ding, dong, . . . well, you know. I'm up in Northern California and have much the same problems as the places where it should get really chilly like Michigan and Florida. Ha! Anyway, on low the stove sweats me out of a 1700 sq. ft. house at 85 degrees plus. The reply about the thermostat was absolutely correct. It was a waste of time and money to hard wire the board and still have heat blisters when the temp outside is +15.
My problem is the firebox and my ignorance of these things. The house I moved from had a Pacific Energy wood stove at 80K with 86% efficiency down to this 48K btu USS at full bore. supposedly. I took out ash in the pan once a day with the wood stove. This pellet stove on the other hand needs both a constant friend and a lover to keep it going every eight to twelve hours. My wife is getting suspicious about how much time I'm spending with the stove and not with her. The fire pot clogs shut on Goldenfire pellets made from doug fir. Here in the Northwest they are supposed to be top of the line, but they rarely drop throug the pot holes into the collection tray. This leaves a lazy fire that eats voraciously with dwindling returns until you clean it, and clean it and. . .? I could use a few tips here because it's a drag standing on the front porch twice a day scraping ash and fired on pine from the pot. I mean, while doug fir is technically a hardwood, it has all the glue renderings of yellow pine. I tried hardwood pellets and they were just as bad with twice the fly ash clogging the drafts. Any suggestion buys you a free ticket to watch if I have to chuck this stove out the front door.
Thanks all,
Doug
My problem is the firebox and my ignorance of these things. The house I moved from had a Pacific Energy wood stove at 80K with 86% efficiency down to this 48K btu USS at full bore. supposedly. I took out ash in the pan once a day with the wood stove. This pellet stove on the other hand needs both a constant friend and a lover to keep it going every eight to twelve hours. My wife is getting suspicious about how much time I'm spending with the stove and not with her. The fire pot clogs shut on Goldenfire pellets made from doug fir. Here in the Northwest they are supposed to be top of the line, but they rarely drop throug the pot holes into the collection tray. This leaves a lazy fire that eats voraciously with dwindling returns until you clean it, and clean it and. . .? I could use a few tips here because it's a drag standing on the front porch twice a day scraping ash and fired on pine from the pot. I mean, while doug fir is technically a hardwood, it has all the glue renderings of yellow pine. I tried hardwood pellets and they were just as bad with twice the fly ash clogging the drafts. Any suggestion buys you a free ticket to watch if I have to chuck this stove out the front door.
Thanks all,
Doug
Check for bad gaskets on the door and ash pan bin area if it has any.
Then please tell us about your venting and the hole configuration of your burn pot? We need the detail on the vent (every piece length, orientation, diameter, and the elevation you are at). A picture would be best on the burn pot.
Some folks have discovered that blocking the top row of holes on the burn pot helps a lot.
There have been cases of the air wash being part of the problem and partial blocking of that helps a lot.
Basically you have a case of burn pot air bypass, the goal is to get the air going into the burn pot below the pellet pile and not around the pellet pile or for that matter around the entire burn pot.
Then please tell us about your venting and the hole configuration of your burn pot? We need the detail on the vent (every piece length, orientation, diameter, and the elevation you are at). A picture would be best on the burn pot.
Some folks have discovered that blocking the top row of holes on the burn pot helps a lot.
There have been cases of the air wash being part of the problem and partial blocking of that helps a lot.
Basically you have a case of burn pot air bypass, the goal is to get the air going into the burn pot below the pellet pile and not around the pellet pile or for that matter around the entire burn pot.
There are a couple things to check in addition to what Smokey mentioned. Check the cleanout access 'doors' on either side of the burn pot near the bottom of the firebox. Mine were loose from the factory and that was causing air to bypass the burnpot. If loose, tighten the bolts that hold them in place. Behind the fake firebrick are two cleanout holes. I bought a couple metal plugs to cover those up. They pop right out for cleanout. My 6041 took a couple burns to get dialed in, but now it runs like I'd expect it should.
pelletash said:
Gee how is the new burner going to become one with his stove if we feed him all of the things it can be.
jaywalker, welcome to the forum.
Every stove is a bit different the basics are the same, depending upon the day of the week, the phase of the moon, and various endocrine levels of the folks building the sub assemblies and those putting them all together along with the package apes determines if all of the is were crossed and the t s dotted. Add in a self install and all bets are off.
Step one read the installation manual from cover to cover at least twice, then measure three times, go back and reread the manual, cut once keeping appendages out of the way, install, read the operations manual from cover to cover at least twice, plug it in, load the pellets, open the windows, hit the button, cross fingers and then start finding all of the problems.
If the manual for the 5500 is anything like the manual for the 6041, its heavy on install info and very light on operation/getting the best performance. Probably because every situation is unique.
Jaywalker- you mention the ash builds up in the burnpot. Does your stove have the agitator and is it turning periodically?
Jaywalker- you mention the ash builds up in the burnpot. Does your stove have the agitator and is it turning periodically?
Dear Friends of the downtrodden;
CONFUSION ALSO SAID: "MAN WHO ATTEMPTS TO FLY OVER PELLET STOVE WHILE DIAGNOSING PROBLEMS IS SURE TO HAVE CRACK UP!"
I first wanted to thank everyone who wrote a comment. Lots of good speculation there and it was all appreciated. Wish government was as responsive? Sighhhh!!
I also hope to remember all the questions to which I answer:
The fire pot on this stove is roughly 4X4X4 square with with a canted lip on one side to catch pellets dropping from the chute. It is raised on legs about 1" from the stove floor. MSL altitude here is 550'. (I live on hanger row next to our runway). There are about 64 4/32 holes drilled in the bottom for ash drop and up air flow. To the best of my knowledge the only agitator known to be an option is myself. My wife is just antagonistic which does little for moving spent ash around or out of the burn pot. The draft outlet is side vent, below maximum restriction of bends on premium twist lock dura vent pipe, 8' rise exterior with a hood which sides on the winter draft side of the structure. The entire unit was professionally installed by the same guy who put in my wood stove 14 years ago. The fit and finish of every cut he made left both the exterior and interior of the home looking as if it was manufactured for the home. Can't beef about this pro at all.
Fire God asked about door seals and the air wash. Seals are as tight as they can be considering the poor stamping of the door cut-out at the factory which leaves a quarter inch depression between hinge and the closing handle side. With just the draft fan running, I could not make a candle flame waver while moving it along the edges of the seals so I presume they are as tight as is humanly possible, considering. The door wash doesn't clean the door so I again presume that is already restricted to a point where it does not perform as it should.
Really Hot spoke of the two clean out tabs on both sides of the fire pot. I have these tight enough to where they can only be slid out with effort for cleaning. There is never debris of any consequence around or inside these two ducts.
Fire God was also right that unless the pull of the tides against Venus are properly aligned with a waning moon, the guy who is picking his nose as unfinished parts go by will radically change the quality of one stove over the next one down the line. That, sadly to say is the real reality of life as we know it. I doubt that closing off the side air vents would be of much help as they are the only burn pot air available when the main bottom vents seal themselves off completely. Hence, the stove would go out and I'd still be outside scraping at inopportune moments instead of planned adventures into the rain, sleet and wind.
Here is how a normal cycle plays out over a twelve hour period which may provide more insight. I clean the pot, the top of the housing into which the pot sits, the floor of that housing, the tops of the draft vents and push away as much fly ash around the stove floor as possible between full weekly cleanings. The firepot is scraped with a hardened putty knife that takes it down to factory original finish. If the bottom updraft holes are impacted. I use a stiff drill mounted brush to fully open them up again. The stove is fired. The updraft flows from the bottom up and the flame is aggressive, bright and clean as it should be. If you shut the unit down after about four hours, there is visible mounds of debris on the steel next to each bottom vent hole. After eight hours the debris is thick enough it covers 50% of the updraft holes, 85% after twelve hours and if you leave it a full day, the ash is a full inch deep with hot embers in the ash which is filling the pot. The flame is lazy and still burning but is being fed only by the three back holes in the pot. The lower up draft holes are long since buried in the ash. A man could pray for an agitator long before this last stage occurs but one doesn't seem to be available for this cheeeeep stove. Besides, the human agitator is already grumping on hands and knees while doing the mechanical work.
Now comes the strange part which confuses my addle little brain. The higher the setting, the better the burn. On "2" setting, you can go a day and a half, sometimes two before the scrape down becomes mandatory. Of course, the kitchen and bedrooms are well above 90 degrees and it is likely we would both be mummified before the stove actually choked itself out and neighbors complained about the odor from next door. On the "3" setting, we couldn't stand the heat and turned it down. The builder of this model home spared not one dime with foam over 6"wall and 20" blown ceiling insulation. Even the windows are triple pane.
Let's face it, I got a partial fill of propane for cooking and bathing after 8 months in this house. TSC sold me this stove for a little over a grand, seven hundred under Home Depot and a thousand under Sears. After a ton and half of pellets, the outlay for all things pellet stove was less than one propane fill. The stove owes me nothing at this point and it's only four months off the assembly line. I just wish it would play a little nicer to the guy who feeds and talks nice to it. . .well, most of the time.
Hope the above helped????
Thanks All,
Doug
CONFUSION ALSO SAID: "MAN WHO ATTEMPTS TO FLY OVER PELLET STOVE WHILE DIAGNOSING PROBLEMS IS SURE TO HAVE CRACK UP!"
I first wanted to thank everyone who wrote a comment. Lots of good speculation there and it was all appreciated. Wish government was as responsive? Sighhhh!!
I also hope to remember all the questions to which I answer:
The fire pot on this stove is roughly 4X4X4 square with with a canted lip on one side to catch pellets dropping from the chute. It is raised on legs about 1" from the stove floor. MSL altitude here is 550'. (I live on hanger row next to our runway). There are about 64 4/32 holes drilled in the bottom for ash drop and up air flow. To the best of my knowledge the only agitator known to be an option is myself. My wife is just antagonistic which does little for moving spent ash around or out of the burn pot. The draft outlet is side vent, below maximum restriction of bends on premium twist lock dura vent pipe, 8' rise exterior with a hood which sides on the winter draft side of the structure. The entire unit was professionally installed by the same guy who put in my wood stove 14 years ago. The fit and finish of every cut he made left both the exterior and interior of the home looking as if it was manufactured for the home. Can't beef about this pro at all.
Fire God asked about door seals and the air wash. Seals are as tight as they can be considering the poor stamping of the door cut-out at the factory which leaves a quarter inch depression between hinge and the closing handle side. With just the draft fan running, I could not make a candle flame waver while moving it along the edges of the seals so I presume they are as tight as is humanly possible, considering. The door wash doesn't clean the door so I again presume that is already restricted to a point where it does not perform as it should.
Really Hot spoke of the two clean out tabs on both sides of the fire pot. I have these tight enough to where they can only be slid out with effort for cleaning. There is never debris of any consequence around or inside these two ducts.
Fire God was also right that unless the pull of the tides against Venus are properly aligned with a waning moon, the guy who is picking his nose as unfinished parts go by will radically change the quality of one stove over the next one down the line. That, sadly to say is the real reality of life as we know it. I doubt that closing off the side air vents would be of much help as they are the only burn pot air available when the main bottom vents seal themselves off completely. Hence, the stove would go out and I'd still be outside scraping at inopportune moments instead of planned adventures into the rain, sleet and wind.
Here is how a normal cycle plays out over a twelve hour period which may provide more insight. I clean the pot, the top of the housing into which the pot sits, the floor of that housing, the tops of the draft vents and push away as much fly ash around the stove floor as possible between full weekly cleanings. The firepot is scraped with a hardened putty knife that takes it down to factory original finish. If the bottom updraft holes are impacted. I use a stiff drill mounted brush to fully open them up again. The stove is fired. The updraft flows from the bottom up and the flame is aggressive, bright and clean as it should be. If you shut the unit down after about four hours, there is visible mounds of debris on the steel next to each bottom vent hole. After eight hours the debris is thick enough it covers 50% of the updraft holes, 85% after twelve hours and if you leave it a full day, the ash is a full inch deep with hot embers in the ash which is filling the pot. The flame is lazy and still burning but is being fed only by the three back holes in the pot. The lower up draft holes are long since buried in the ash. A man could pray for an agitator long before this last stage occurs but one doesn't seem to be available for this cheeeeep stove. Besides, the human agitator is already grumping on hands and knees while doing the mechanical work.
Now comes the strange part which confuses my addle little brain. The higher the setting, the better the burn. On "2" setting, you can go a day and a half, sometimes two before the scrape down becomes mandatory. Of course, the kitchen and bedrooms are well above 90 degrees and it is likely we would both be mummified before the stove actually choked itself out and neighbors complained about the odor from next door. On the "3" setting, we couldn't stand the heat and turned it down. The builder of this model home spared not one dime with foam over 6"wall and 20" blown ceiling insulation. Even the windows are triple pane.
Let's face it, I got a partial fill of propane for cooking and bathing after 8 months in this house. TSC sold me this stove for a little over a grand, seven hundred under Home Depot and a thousand under Sears. After a ton and half of pellets, the outlay for all things pellet stove was less than one propane fill. The stove owes me nothing at this point and it's only four months off the assembly line. I just wish it would play a little nicer to the guy who feeds and talks nice to it. . .well, most of the time.
Hope the above helped????
Thanks All,
Doug
jaywalker said:
It is far worse than that Doug, far worse.
Those top side vents may be the last straw and a major reason the stove doesn't eject the ash. Blocking the top row of holes on my burn pot finished cleaning up my my burn pot air bypasses and that of many others on a variety of stoves.
There are also a few more places that needs to be checked as well.
If the fire box has any bolts that are holding other parts of the stove together passing through it or bolted together seams that would allow air into the fire box. A classic example would be a pedestal stove with an ash pan in the pedestal and nice well gasketed access for removing the ash pan, only problem was the the stove didn't quite sit evenly on the pedestal and there were tiny gaps at several spots along the top of the pedestal. End result was an air bypass,
Then there are the cases where the auger flight cover wasn't tight leaving a nice gap at the top of the cover where the end piece came up to meet the flight cover, end result when the pellet level got below the end piece there was an air bypass.
We can also discuss cases were the burn pot didn't sit flat in the receptacle allowing the air to come up around the burn pot on the outside, yup that is also a bypass.
Now after you have inspected the stove with a microscope and can't find any more possible air leaks we will discuss things like crap high ash pellets.
Enjoy your search. BTDT.
Jay: I have the same stove in my pole barn/shop. Im heating a 24x24 with 10'ceilings...r11 walls r30 attic, and uninsulated concrete slab. I need to run on about 3 to keep adequate heat. When i do a weekly cleaning and remove the two doors behind the firebox, they are packed with ash. I normall run on 3...then 1 overnight. In the mornings I do have alot of ash built up around the firepot....but little or none IN the firepot. I never stir the firepot as suggested in the owners manual. I do have an OAK. I also get significant ash buildup on the glass overnight...but a quick wipe with a paper towel takes care of that. You"re right...they do burn better on higher heat settings. With the super insulation it sounds like you have...amybe you just have too much stove???????
If you have a house with foam insulation as you described and triple pane windows you likely really need an OAK installed and are running a bit on the rich side if you haven't one installed this also results in an incomplete and more ashy burn.
Thanks, All
To burning chunk. Having a tight house is always a blip, other than the winds were 48mph yesterday and I didn't hear a thing inside. Could have been a bright calm day outside but was anything but that. Walked the dog around sunset and had to chisel ice off my face after the upwind trip back to the house. As for the garage? I can heat the garage to 60 degrees by simply leaving the laundry room door open on a "2" stove setting.
Back to Fire God. Nothing fit tight on this stove from the factory, I add RTV red here and there where safe, so an air bypass if I actually knew what that meant is probably occurring. Even the seams on the firebox side plates aren't flush and open a crack. The firebox did not ship in place in the stove but was inside taped down. Had to grind bad welds to get it into the holder. Suppose I could braze the entire faces on all sides but that seems a bit over broad. Did drill out the bottom vent holes .005 and the flame appears more responsive. Will see what the night brings. As for the OAK. Since I am a noob who has burned chunk wood since 12 in Michigan where I grew up, here, I have 13 acres of Oak on another parcel of land which fed the Pacific Energy wood stove. In this airpark I have only a smattering of Valley Oak? Also, since there is no real glossary of terms. . .HA!. . . I will take a wild guess that OAK has something to do with outside air. Already done that.
Too much stove for the house? Possibly, but the spec. sheet runs the gamut of 800-1800 sq. ft. At 1700 plus a garage. I thought I was hitting it a little low considering the mountains are in my backyard and it is Northeast cold here in the winter. Summers can go to 117. Now that is really a rush. 117 in the day time and falls to 35 at night. Ain't life grand? Actually, I thought the stove wouldn't make the grade as far as heating the entire house but was wrong, wrong, wrong! Which is the exact reason I bought cheeeep! Insofar as USS. Have replaced just about everything on this stove and yes, I've come out of the heat exchanger looking like Al Jolson on a few occasions so I am intimate with every square inch. After the drill out, if you believe the firebox should be brazed completely air tight, I can do that. My shop is set up for planes, helicopters and an occasional backhoe so a braze is just another small job. Even remember checking the auger earlier as you suggested. Welds are premium at the drop end. They didn't spare the RTV in the pellet box so I think that is good. Wish I had some potato chips right now because I can feel myself going faint from the mere thought of more labor. But, the country store is a block away and their prices are insane, like me?
Would kill for a 50#bag of muck farmed Michigan red potatoes because like the people here, everything grown in this state is pretty but tasteless. Sigh Beyond the box, I think we can move on to pellets. I've been burning wood now for over four decades and except for the terms used, I could probably become a pellet press by squeezing sawdust through trying to make sense of local town meetings. They are now attempting to tell us on what nights we can burn to keep warm. The locals would rather we engorge on propane which they tout as more friendly fuel????? If you come from the East, you have no idea how backwards California can be! Nough said. Let the games begin. :ahhh:
Best wishes all,
Doug
To burning chunk. Having a tight house is always a blip, other than the winds were 48mph yesterday and I didn't hear a thing inside. Could have been a bright calm day outside but was anything but that. Walked the dog around sunset and had to chisel ice off my face after the upwind trip back to the house. As for the garage? I can heat the garage to 60 degrees by simply leaving the laundry room door open on a "2" stove setting.
Back to Fire God. Nothing fit tight on this stove from the factory, I add RTV red here and there where safe, so an air bypass if I actually knew what that meant is probably occurring. Even the seams on the firebox side plates aren't flush and open a crack. The firebox did not ship in place in the stove but was inside taped down. Had to grind bad welds to get it into the holder. Suppose I could braze the entire faces on all sides but that seems a bit over broad. Did drill out the bottom vent holes .005 and the flame appears more responsive. Will see what the night brings. As for the OAK. Since I am a noob who has burned chunk wood since 12 in Michigan where I grew up, here, I have 13 acres of Oak on another parcel of land which fed the Pacific Energy wood stove. In this airpark I have only a smattering of Valley Oak? Also, since there is no real glossary of terms. . .HA
!. . . I will take a wild guess that OAK has something to do with outside air. Already done that.Too much stove for the house? Possibly, but the spec. sheet runs the gamut of 800-1800 sq. ft. At 1700 plus a garage. I thought I was hitting it a little low considering the mountains are in my backyard and it is Northeast cold here in the winter. Summers can go to 117. Now that is really a rush. 117 in the day time and falls to 35 at night. Ain't life grand? Actually, I thought the stove wouldn't make the grade as far as heating the entire house but was wrong, wrong, wrong! Which is the exact reason I bought cheeeep! Insofar as USS. Have replaced just about everything on this stove and yes, I've come out of the heat exchanger looking like Al Jolson on a few occasions so I am intimate with every square inch. After the drill out, if you believe the firebox should be brazed completely air tight, I can do that. My shop is set up for planes, helicopters and an occasional backhoe so a braze is just another small job. Even remember checking the auger earlier as you suggested. Welds are premium at the drop end. They didn't spare the RTV in the pellet box so I think that is good. Wish I had some potato chips right now because I can feel myself going faint from the mere thought of more labor. But, the country store is a block away and their prices are insane, like me?
Would kill for a 50#bag of muck farmed Michigan red potatoes because like the people here, everything grown in this state is pretty but tasteless. Sigh
Beyond the box, I think we can move on to pellets. I've been burning wood now for over four decades and except for the terms used, I could probably become a pellet press by squeezing sawdust through trying to make sense of local town meetings. They are now attempting to tell us on what nights we can burn to keep warm. The locals would rather we engorge on propane which they tout as more friendly fuel????? If you come from the East, you have no idea how backwards California can be! Nough said. Let the games begin. :ahhh: Best wishes all,
Doug
You mean you dare trash talk the local liberal do gooders that only want you to have to be the same as them and conform. Hell the code police aren't anywhere near that bad.
If after talking about things you had to do to assemble your new toy you haven't figured out what a burn pot air bypass is then you obviously don't understand tolerances and the impact that not meeting them has on what they are to be used for.
Simple explanation your stove operates on a fixed air flow rate for each firing setting.
That air flow rate has to match the fuel load being dumped into the pot at all times in order to completely burn the fuel.
If air is coming into the fire box from the outside it gets sucked up the flue taking the place of what should be drawn through the pellet pile in the burn pot.
This also means that if the burn pot doesn't sit properly in its receptacle some of that now improper amount of air can be sucked up around the burn pot, likewise some of it gets suck out of those top holes in the burn pot above the pellet pile.
In short all air being sucked through the stove other than properly accounted for things like a properly constructed air wash must go through the pellet pile in the burn pot that air that doesn't is bypassing the burn pot.
Have fun.
If after talking about things you had to do to assemble your new toy you haven't figured out what a burn pot air bypass is then you obviously don't understand tolerances and the impact that not meeting them has on what they are to be used for.
Simple explanation your stove operates on a fixed air flow rate for each firing setting.
That air flow rate has to match the fuel load being dumped into the pot at all times in order to completely burn the fuel.
If air is coming into the fire box from the outside it gets sucked up the flue taking the place of what should be drawn through the pellet pile in the burn pot.
This also means that if the burn pot doesn't sit properly in its receptacle some of that now improper amount of air can be sucked up around the burn pot, likewise some of it gets suck out of those top holes in the burn pot above the pellet pile.
In short all air being sucked through the stove other than properly accounted for things like a properly constructed air wash must go through the pellet pile in the burn pot that air that doesn't is bypassing the burn pot.
Have fun.
- Status
Similar threads
