Whitfield Advantage II air wash

[mikefamig]

I'm new to the group here but not new to pellet stoves, this is my third season burning two Whitfield Advantage stoves. I did however just learn something new about my stoves that I have a question about and thought that someone here may be able to help me out.

When cleaning my secondhand stove recently I noticed that the previous owner had installed a rope gasket blocking the air wash system on the top edge of the window. Thinking that I was doing a good thing I repositioned the rope to allow air to flow through the air wash as intended. In the days following the cleaning I noticed that the glas did stay cleaner but also that the magnetic thermometer which is stuck to the front of the stove was reading consistently ~50 degrees cooler than before I moved the rope. Now I just had to prove to myself that it was indeed the air wash system that cost me the 50 degree loss so again I re-positioned the rope to block the air wash and sure enough I regained the 50 degrees. As a matter of fact the stove is burning even hotter than in the beginning! The thermometer is attached to the door just above the glass and with the air wash blocked I get about 225deg on 2, 325deg on 3 and so on and there is a 50 to 75 degree temperature loss by opening the air wash. I rarely run the stove above a setting if 3.

So here's my questions:

Has anyone here experienced this?
Is there any reason that I shouldn't leave the air wash blocked and enjoy the extra heat?

I know that this is not an exact science and that there is no black or white answer but I'd appreciate your opinions on whetner blocking the airwash is going to cause heat damage to the stove. I also thought that maybe some of you might like to try for yourselves, hey pellets aint cheap!

TIA, Mike.

 

[hearthtools]

It is a trade off
Cleaner glass or
a little bit more heat
50 deg surface temperature is not going to translate into much more heat out of the heat exchange.
air sucking across the front of the stove is the reason for the loss.

I would find someone that has a Inferred heat gun and test the difference of the temp coming out of the heat exchange just for fun.

 

[mikefamig]

Rod:

Thanks for the reply. I don't think that I understand your comment? It seems to me that from 200 degrees to 250 degrees is in the neighborhood of a 25% gain and nothing to sneeze at. Doesn't a hotter door mean a hotter heat source (burn pot) and hotter heat tubes? I'm getting almost as much heat on a setting of 2 as I used to get at a setting of 3 and that translates into a big savings over any length of time.

Mike.

 

[hearthtools]

My theory is that the heat is still there but just in a different location on the stove.
Just because it is cooler at the door does not mean it is cooler at the heat exchange or hotter exhaust gasses.

Most of the Heat exchange out of the stove comes from the Convection air through the Heat exchange tubes.

You measure Efficiency at the exhaust of the heater not at the surface of the heater.

The only real way to tell what your heat loss is by seeing what the exhaust gas temperature is. This is where the real heat loss efficiency is measured.
You would have to compare With the two types of door set ups.
Using the same fuel
Same settings.
Starting out with a clean stove.

 

[mikefamig]

Oh I see what you're saying now and agree that what I did was not very scientific but on this stove the thermometer is very near the exhaust tube and I'm convinced that there is a considerable difference in heat coming into the room. I like your idea of trying an infrared thermometer and just might shop around for one. It would be a neat toy to have around the house and garage and I've seen some cheap ones around. It would be ionteresting to use it to check out the insulation around my house. Could you recommend one that cost under $50?

 

[JTinCT]

Mike, I have the same stove as you. I read your post and you perked my curiosity. First however, be careful with you 25% difference calculation. It is not possible to use Farenhiet for true temperature calculations. An example of this is, 2 times 100 degrees is 200 degrees, right. So then 2 times 32 degrees may be 64 degrees? What if we double 0 degrees or even -7 degrees. See the problem. In order to truly calculate percent difference with temp we need to use Kelvin which is simply, Celcius plus 273 degrees. Celcius and Kelvin use the same scale. O degrees Kelvin is -273 Celcuis which is absolute zero. Once the temp has been converted to a scale that starts at zero our calculation begin to have more meaning.

I purchased an infared thermometer from Hobbytown USA for about $30

 

[JTinCT]

I just plugged in your numbers, if 200-250 is in C there is about a 10% difference in the glass temp. If it was in C, as I assume, there is a 7% difference.

 

[hearthtools]

Still you cant go by the glass temp
you have to go by the exhaust temp increase to see if you are loosing heat or if the heat is just transfered to another location of the heater.

the loss in glass temp could be put back into the heat exchange.