whitfeild advantage 3 adjustment questions

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Jmak135

New Member
Jan 30, 2011
8
New jersey
First pellet stove just started up and pellets popping out of pot into bottom of stove need some guidance on properly adjusting it this doesnt seem normal . my wife says it stinks and is noisy i dont really notice it . any sugestions ?
 
Fear not, we have a lot of Whitfield owners here, and Im sure there will be several possible solutions to this problem shortly. Pellets that jump out of the pot is not normal. You might have too much air I dont know I dont have a Whitfield stove so I am not familiar with them.

Im sure its an easy fix however, and the experts will be here soon.
 
My Whitfield is the Advantage I so it's different from yours but the thought that comes to mind, though not from experience, is wondering about the quality of your pellets. I'd wonder if they're poor quality, as in made from soft wood (making them too light to just drop and stay in place). My combustion blower doesn't put out enough force to kick pellets out of the pot and I doubt that yours does either, that would be more power that is needed or wanted. I'd suspect that some pellets are getting deflected by the edge of the pot and are never getting into it, rather than jumping out of it.

As for the stink, there's a small opening somewhere in between the sections of your venting pipes. You won't be able to see it, but it's there. You, or your wife, will have to try to sniff it out and seal it with high-temp silicone sealant. But if you open the door after the fire gets going, it will let invisible smoke out into the room, so you shouldn't open the door until there is no more flame -red-hot coals is OK.
 
Pellets pop corning is usually a sign of the damper being open to far.

The wood smoke stink is likely the result of a poor seal in the venting from the combustion blower until it exits the building. It can also be the result of not having a seal around the vent on the outside of the building and smoke being drawn in around vent. Then there is any unsealed window or door that is close to stove vent.

Under certain conditions it is also possible to have smoke exit the stove through air washes (if any), bad gaskets, even the air intake, and the hopper.

In a darkened room using a red light (or even white) to back light along the vent you can usually find the leaking seal.
 
"Pellets pop corning is usually a sign of the damper being open too far." Perhaps so, not all pots, air holes, and blowers are created equal but the term "pop corning" makes me think of pellets that might have moisture in them, causing a steam explosion within the pellet, blasting it up and out. But I have no knowledge that that is a real possibility.
I don't know how newer dampers might be different from mine, but with mine there is no different between the damper being opened 1/2" or 3". The distance that makes all the difference is between closed fully and open about 3/8", any greater opening has no greater effect. My air intake pipe is only 2" diameter, which, if converted to a rectangular shape, would be about equal to the damper opening of 3/8" wide X 3" high. It's a very simple mechanical design, precision isn't a factor. I would guess that newer designs have more precise control of the damper opening.
 
A 2" diameter pipe has a cross sectional area of 3.14 square inches that 3/8" by 3" rectangle has a cross sectional area of 1.13 square inches.

Care to guess what one of the effects is across all combustion blower settings when you vary the damper?

Yep blows the pellets right out of the pot, in particular those that are partially burned.

The term pellet dance comes about because of the same effect, when the airflow through the pot is correct, you should be seeing a flame that ranges in color from intense orange/yellow preferably more towards intense yellow, with blue just above the burning pellets, and the pellets doing the shuffle.
 
jmak, welcome to the site, I have an advantage 3 and if you open the draft control on the left side to much it will expel the pellets from the pot. Please state how you set up the stove to start with, type of vent pipe straight out or vertical? what is your current draft setting.
 
The best way to seal out the smoke smell is to use the sticky backed hight temp foil tape on the joints.

Carefully coat the joint with the stoves outlet with hight temp silicone sealer.

Tape the joints and if the pipe has a 45 or a elbo, tape those joints too.

One wrap is plenty.

Adjust the draft rod on the LH side of the stove, so the collar ism against the side of thr stove panel.

The "pop corning" is just a symptom opf too much air blast up through the grate.

If your vent pipe connects to another chimney, you need to make sure that it too is sealed.

You should not smell any smoke at any time if all is well.

Snowy
 
well here it goes i did'nt realize i had a damper rod lol it did'nt come with stove but i shined light with a mirror back there and see where it screws into the i would gess the damper gate so im going to tractor supply 2 morrow and pick me up some 1/4 20 threaded rod and make me a damper door rod .
Do they make a auto igniter for these stove i havent found the gel to start it yet so i used a burnz-o-matiac torch.
Thank you guys so much you have been very helpful i will keep you posted on my progress.
 
The smoke stink could come from lighting your pellets with the torch since the door has to be open to do that. If there's any smoldering in the process, the smoke can and will escape into the room, as I re-learned again today when I opened my door to help the dying/ failing ignition material and got an escape of smoke out the open door. It's best to have an easily ignited fuel source in the pot that you light quickly, then promptly close the door. I've been using odorless lamp oil sprinkled on little pine cones, but lamp oil isn't cheap so I'm thinking I should get some kerosene to replace it. I don't think kerosene lights very well since in Vietnam we used to spray it on the dry dirt around dusty areas to seal the dust with a coat of oil. Dropping a match on it would not light it, it would go out, so perhaps I'll experiment with a little gasoline mixed in with a lot of kerosene to raise its volatility a little. Do others with manual ignition has some better methods? I'd like to hear them.

I learned from this post that my old Advantage I is different from the more modern stoves, in that it does not have any combustion blower control, only a convection blower rotary knob, and an auger feed-rate knob, so my blower isn't as strong as the newer stoves' blowers since my pellets don't move aside from slowly crumbling as they burn down.
 
Jmak135 said:
well here it goes i did'nt realize i had a damper rod lol it did'nt come with stove but i shined light with a mirror back there and see where it screws into the i would gess the damper gate so im going to tractor supply 2 morrow and pick me up some 1/4 20 threaded rod and make me a damper door rod .
Do they make a auto igniter for these stove i havent found the gel to start it yet so i used a burnz-o-matiac torch.
Thank you guys so much you have been very helpful i will keep you posted on my progress.

Be sure that you also provide a stop for that rod so once you get the damper set up correctly you have a means of insuring it stays set where it should.

ETA: A torch is just about the fastest way to manually light a stove.
 
If you have the install/owners manual, follow the directions for setting the damper.


As Smokey mentioned there needs to be a collar on the rod to stop it at the correct spot.`

Here is the procedure to set the damper on that stove.

With the rod threaded into the damper, pull the rod all the way out (with a used stove, run the damper in and out a few times to be sure) then with the rod all the way out install the collar on the stove so it is 2-1/4" from the side of the stove then lock the collar.

Now push the rod in until the collar touches the stoves side panel.

This setting should be close to perfect.

If you still get "Popcorning" you can loosen the collar and slip the rod in a tad more.

I have found that the factory adjustment location to be spot on.

You can get a factory type rod and handle from Dave over at "Wood Heat stoves"
He is here on the forum too.

Great folks that can help out a bunch.

Here is a Piccy showing the draft rod and the collar setup

Good luck

Snowy
 

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Here are some piccy's of my pipe showing the metal tape at the joints.

Not even a hint of smoke after installing the tape.

This pipe is the newer NO silicone required stuff. Still had some hints of smoke though.

Using a little "pen laser pointer" , darken the room and go around all the joints with the laser on.
Any leaks will show up quite well in that red laser light.

Uisng a small LED pen light will work too.

Just shine the light along the joints and look from below the level of the pipe and any smoke whisps will show right up.


Snowy
 

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well i made a draft rod and wow what diffrence it makes what should the settings on the control board it has adjustments for auger speed and combustion air ? found a leak. the door gaskit is bad can see inside stove. still seems to produce alot of ash . i cleaned the stove completely today removed the blowers and cleaned them they were nasty the stove is much quieter now and the blower for the heat output seems to work better . i am running a vertical 4'' flex pro king chimney liner .i didnt see anywhere on here where you could purchase the top trim peice for the insert around the fireplace opening so i made one it looks good. thanks again guys for all youre input its a big help
 
Jmak135 said:
.
Do they make a auto igniter for these stove i havent found the gel to start it yet so i used a burnz-o-matiac torch.
Thank you guys so much you have been very helpful i will keep you posted on my progress.

i believe they do!
call lennox to confirm that part number 12040002 will work... 800 655-2008
(2 kits left, and they will likely not be re-stocked(ever...)
 
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