I closed the damper today as far as the slide would let me. Seems like theres still a lot of airway open though. This did nothing to change the flame at all. Still smacking the roof of the stove. The control panel temperature gauge is what I was talking about. As for piping I have it straight run out the back (about a foot from the wall) then outside about 3 ft up from the T. I clean the outside once a week. Only been running it about a month now so it's never that dirty. I left a message with them today, no call back though
That's kinda what I am getting at, the flames hitting the roof of the stove can be from too little air, not too much. If the fan is running correctly, the pellet load will glow and the flame will be a few inches tall, on average, and nearly straight up like a jet engine flame.
When there is too little air, or virtually no air, the flame will look a fireplace or wood stove flame. Tall, lazy, smokey and very full of color. When my stoves start up, sometimes the pot gets pretty full before sparks fly and the pellets ignite. When this happens, the pellet load in the pot is so dense that the air can not get through. The flame will be quite tall and hit the roof of the stove for a minute or so. I can see a bit of smoke coming out of the exhaust when I watch outside.
When standing in front of the stove facing it, to your left, there is a panel on the side of the stove that can be removed via 4 small screws. It is the back half of the side of the stove. That is how you access the exhaust blower. See is it is running or running well. I know it is supposed to run in order to get a vacuum signal to the vacuum switch to operate, but it may be that your controller is not functioning properly or something like that.
On heat setting one, manual, you should be able to get around 16 to maybe 18 or so hours of run time on a 40# bag of pellets that the stove is set up for.
Your exhaust piping, if I read it right, sounds fine. In fact, the vertical piping may even be enough in the right circumstance to create a draft which "may" be enough to continue the pellet burn in the absence or near absence of fan speed. I dont know for absolute certain, but vertical piping once worm, will pull air through the stove.