US Stove 6039 - Question about insulation

[goode2shoes]

I've read so many posts that stated that members are heating their homes with this model of pellet stove.

I've invested a lot of time,effort and money into our used 6039 and I'm not getting the result that other's brag about.
Of course different fuels will give different results, etc. I'm wondering if my unit should be insulated to hold the heat on the heat chambers. I'm curious to find out if everyone's firebox is insulated or not.

I find it curious that the top front of our firebox has insulation but no where else????

I've attached 3 pictures depicting what my 6039 looks like for review and comments/suggestions.

Any comments, suggestions, advice, information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wwert]

The insulation is there to prevent firebox heat from transferring to the hopper so it does not get too hot. Insulation in my opinion is not the answer. You need to burn quality fuel and learn to dial in your stove. There is a bit of a learning curve involved. How does your flame look? Is it brisk and whitish yellow. I think you also need to tear the stove down and clean everything, particularly the ash clean out. Don't be afraid to rap on the liner in the fire box with a mallet to loosen all the ash. Good luck.

 

[goode2shoes]

wwert,

Thank you for the explanation regarding the insulation. I feel much better now knowing that is elimanated from the possible cause(s).

I've invested a lot of time, energy and money on trying to bring this used unit up to standard. I always thoroughly clean the stove after every 6 bags of pellets and cleaning out the exhaust blower, combustion blower, using rubber mallet and beat the sides and back of the fire box (after removing the firebrick), cleaning out the troft behind the back wall through the 2 holes behind the firebrick, exhaust pipes, etc.

I am a new pellet stove owner and have only purchased 2 tons of pellets this winter. The first ton was Indeck hardwood and the current/recent ton is Ozark hardwood.

I've had the stove at HR-5 for over an hour now and it is only putting out heated air of 152 degrees (heat taken with instant read thermometer). I would think it should be putting out much hotter air than that! Correct?

My fuel feed rate is: HR1 - 2.5 and HR9 - 5.5.

When I have the stove at HR1 through HR4, I have the damper pulled out from 3/4" to the HR4 setting at 1 1/2".

When I have the stove at HR5 I have the damper pulled out 1 3/4".
When I have the stove at HR8 to HR9, I have the damper pulled out all the way.

I'm wondering if I need to raise the fuel rate more? As I hope you can see in the pictures that the level of fuel in my fire box isn't coming up to the level of the axle of the agitator. So can you advise me if I should have more fuel in my fire box? Could that be my problem? I just don't know what other mechanical problem I could have.

I've attached pictures of the fire and the fire box for you to look at regarding the quality of the fire. It is much easier for you to actually see what kind of fire I have than me trying to explain/describe the type of fire I have.

 

[wwert]

that looks pretty lazy to me, the flame I mean. Try less air and be patient. Check your door gasket and ash door gasket, the closers may be adjustable and should be reasonably tight. Good luck

 

[goode2shoes]

that looks pretty lazy to me, the flame I mean. Try less air and be patient. Check your door gasket and ash door gasket, the closers may be adjustable and should be reasonably tight. Good luck

Ash door gasket?????

Where is that? In the firebox?? there is only the damper and the 2 slides.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

that looks pretty lazy to me, the flame I mean. Try less air and be patient. Check your door gasket and ash door gasket, the closers may be adjustable and should be reasonably tight. Good luck

Ash door gasket?????

Where is that? In the firebox?? there is only the damper and the 2 slides.

Where do those slides go? I'm curious.

Are their covers on tight?

 

[goode2shoes]

The 2 slides (part of firewall) have screws on both sides of each slide. 1 slide on each side of the fire box. I loosen the screws, removed the slides and clean ash that has been built up behind the firewall.

I then replace the slides and tighten the scews to the point that there is no "slop" of the slides. Meaning you can not move the slides when you pull up on them or wiggle them from side to side.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Ah, ash trap clean outs.