Anyone Have A KING Model # 5502M? - I'm Having Issues

[mainestratman]

New year.. new potential issue.

I cleaned the stove out really super well and we've started burning again, here and there (shoulder season, you know)... we're using the same brand of pellets that we found to be so very successful last year, and they are still just as good and hot as I remember them (Canawick).

However, the room fan (convection fan? Whatever the nomenclature) doesn't seem to be pushing much air. If I run the stove on HR-5, the inside of the pellet hopper gets so warm that I can hardly touch it (although the pellets get to about "warm" and that's about it).

I don't know if I'm imagining things or not, or if the fact that the newest addition to our pellet stove family (a 1991 Lopi 400PS) has spoiled me with its room fan... when I set that fan to "high", you KNOW it's blowing... like a thick warm blanket of air that wraps around you..

The King is still heating things up well and burning great... however, it seems there should be more "oomph" from the fan... if I recall correctly, it's supposed to be a 120CFM fan.. feels like about half of that. Perhaps there's an aftermarket fan out there that's a little more powerful, that doesn't cost half as much as the stove originally did?

Thoughts?

My thanks to you all.

 

[mainestratman]

Initial thoughts...

Rule #1: When cleaning out your pellet stove, utilize a flashlight!

When I vacuumed out the room fan, I used my shop vac, new filter, and the brush attachment.. after a few minutes of scrubbing the squirrel cage, it looked about how it did when I started, but lighter in color, so I assumed (yeah, I know) that I'd gotten it cleaned out pretty well.

Turns out, I only pulled out the top layer of animal hair.

So 15 minutes, scraping out the cage with a smallish allen wrench, then brushing it with an old toothbrush (I think it was old... but I put it back.. lol), then another few rounds of vacuuming... then a final inspection while utilizing a flashlight, and the difference in appearance is night and day. I am going to assume that will significantly increase my CFM and keep the stove from trying to melt.

I have gained wisdom this day!

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

That fan is super touchy if it's got caked dust. I used a brush on mine a month ago when I did the yearly. It should blow strong and it can be heard if running right.

 

[Dan Celentano]

Can anyone tell me at which heat (1-5) settings does the low and high speed auger rate effect?

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

When setting the variables on these stoves, you set the low (setting 1) and the high (setting 5). The other HR settings are then calculated on a curve by the control board. So when setting the feed rate (auger rate as you call it) you pick the rate for setting 1 and setting 5. The others are calculated for you by the control board.

 

[Dan Celentano]

When setting the variables on these stoves, you set the low (setting 1) and the high (setting 5). The other HR settings are then calculated on a curve by the control board. So when setting the feed rate (auger rate as you call it) you pick the rate for setting 1 and setting 5. The others are calculated for you by the control board.

Thank you

 

[mainestratman]

Good blustery winter, fellow 5502M owners.

I've run into some more issues with my stove... it seems that even on HR-5 with DF 1, it's nearly burning itself out. The RF is super weak: it's spinning and putting out warm air, but it's not as fast as I feel it should be. When I do a factory reset on it, for an instant, the RF kicks on and moves some air! But then it kicks back down, and regardless if I set RF to 1 or 9 or A, it all blows the same speed.

So, at the moment, I have DF 1, HR-5, RF 9. I've increased HR-5 to 5.00 in the C-codes and set C-18 to 1.

Specs on the stove: OAK installed and have a short 2' run (with about an inch rise), terminating in a t-cap. I am wired to a Walmart thermostat that's always worked well (and currently set to 80F). I'm burning Canawick, which have treated me really well in the past.

The stove is in a 450 sqft room, and right now is barely keeping it at 50F (15F outside). HR-5 is blinking (because it's on the thermostat?) and no matter what I do or adjust the "Auto" light blinking in time with the "5" in "HR-5".

Moving the RF and DF from A does not change the Auto light from blinking.

This stove nearly roasted us out of the house last winter, once I worked out all the bugs... this year, it's scarcely warming the place.

Thoughts?

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

Is it clean? Exhaust path clear?

 

[mainestratman]

Yes ,and yes.

For troubleshooting purposes (and because I don't trust things from Wamart to last more than a couple of weeks, I disconnected the t-stat and replaced the jumper on the circuit board. RF is screaming now.. lots of air moving through it. However, even with DF-1 and HR-5, I'm still burning through pellets super quickly... in fact, it seems to be getting worse.. the stove has gone out twice... :-/

At this point, I figure worst-case scenario I'll occlude the OAK vent outside. Duct tape is a cheap fix.

Still tweaking and letting it run.

 

[FirepotPete]

Why would you be running the DF lower than the feed rate (HR#)? The DF should be at or one higher than the feed rate. Unless you have changed the DF settings on the board (high/low) that stove should automatically adjust the DF per the HR rate.

 

[mainestratman]

Yes, I know this. However...

Having the DF at anything above DF-1 is basically blowing out the fire.

I bumped the High Feed Rate back up to 5.00, and I go back every half hour or so and manually toss a couple handfuls of pellets into the pot. That seems to be helping.

 

[FirepotPete]

Yes, I know this. However...

Having the DF at anything above DF-1 is basically blowing out the fire.

I bumped the High Feed Rate back up to 5.00, and I go back every half hour or so and manually toss a couple handfuls of pellets into the pot. That seems to be helping.

What is your HR1/HR5 set at? What is the DF1/DF9 set at?

 

[mainestratman]

HR-1 and the DF low/high are all factory default. HR-5 is set at 5.00.

 

[FirepotPete]

HR-1 and the DF low/high are all factory default. HR-5 is set at 5.00.

OK, what are the numbers showing to be factory default. Just because you may have reset to factory default you still have to check that those numbers indeed did change. Please actually press the HR down and AUX down buttons together to get the HR1 feed rate setting and the DF #'s high and low.

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

Since these are known to have improperly set defaults. I would verify they reset correctly.

 

[FirepotPete]

Since these are known to have improperly set defaults. I would verify they reset correctly.

Exactly. And even his setup will determine how the defaults might need to be tweaked. Although he says it ran good last season I would still like to see those numbers and hope that he had made a note of how he had the HR feed rates and DF rates set last year when it was running good.

I see he disabled the t-stat and put the jumper back on the board, that's a good start at trouble shooting. Now if the board is whacked out I'd think there should be a fault/error light blinking, I wonder if opening the door changes the DF light showing loss of vacuum? If any of these things aren't working right, I'd unplug from the power source for an hour or two, let the memory cache dump, plug back in, look at the numbers and retry starting and see how it runs.

 

[Bybyoil]

Why would you be running the DF lower than the feed rate (HR#)? The DF should be at or one higher than the feed rate. Unless you have changed the DF settings on the board (high/low) that stove should automatically adjust the DF per the HR rate.

Yup my 5502m adjusts to the heat range you put it in !