Changed from Wood & Sons to O'Kanagan Pellets - Bad Move?

[hobby8691]

England Stove 25PDV, I went from burning Wood & Sons for five years and decided to try O'Kanagan pellets that were on sale for the same price. I've burned two bags and the results were the same, almost totally blacked out glass, clinkers and my burn pot is full of ash. When I burned Wood & Son, the glass remained only slightly sooted, and the burn pot was almost free of ash. Nothing has changed when using the O'Kanagans but the results were 180 degrees from the Woods Pellets. Heat is good with both and with the O'Kanagans I do notice less ash in the bottom of the stove but the black glass has me concerned.
My settings: Normally I use the 2 setting with the blower set at 8. My Low Fuel Feed is at 4, the Low Burn Air is at 8, and the Air On Temp is set at 1.
Stove is cleaned and vacuumed daily. Smoke pipe is also cleaned weekly using leaf vac.

Any help would be appreciated,

David

 

[ericofmaine]

Have you done the burn pot mod? I ask because I get black-ish glass but the mod took away the glass airwash, not that it ever worked that great in my opinion.

I'm running VT's right now and minimal ash, great heat, but the glass gets ashed over. I' d rather have the heat than worrying about seeing the fire. It seems to me only running at "2" for your heat setting could be part of the problem? Your only, essentially, just above idle. I'm not at home to check my settings right now, but the first two of your "bottom 3" seem off to me.

Eric

 

[hobby8691]

Thanks Eric, I will try upping my heat setting from 2 to see if this helps. I did the burn pot mod lower right & left holes plugged with knockout covers a couple years ago, but I have not done the burn pot plate hole drilling.

 

[Ssyko]

 

[hobby8691]

Sskyo, What does this mod to the burn plate do as far as air flow? And is it recommended to purchase an extra plate for the mods or is this a proven working modification? I'm feeling like a newbie here since I've owned the stove for 18 years and never had any problems with black glass until I changed to O'Kanagans. I thought maybe the pellets were to blame. Thank You for the reply, I've dealt with Mike Holton years ago when I first purchased the stove and the service was top notch. Again I appreciate the response.

David

 

[Ssyko]

If it aint broke dont fix it. But i spent 2 seasons fine tuning my old 25pdvc and i had it burning on 2 for days and not sooting up the window. Plugging the holes do more than anything, but the lil diamond in the middle of the burn plate centered the flame and allowed air on each side to help burn everything. If you aquire a plate use the old one to modify. 😎

 

[hobby8691]

Thank You, I have ordered an extra plate so I can modify my old one. One question I had, is that my original burn plate doesn't have the two large semi-circular holes in the very bottom of the plate, but I see when ordering a replacement plate both styles (With large semi holes and without) are available for the PDV stove. My question is - are these large holes also to help air wash to the burn pot?
Also, what is recommended to plug the holes in the plate?

Thanks in Advance,

David

 

[Ssyko]

Plugging the holes i used a metal tape on both sides. (Will eventually let loose). At the time (about 10yrs ago) they did not have plates without the larger half moon cut outs) so i would say it would make a difference, i fine tuned with the half moons. I no longer have that stove to continue the project.

 

[ericofmaine]

My plate doesn't have the semi-circle cutouts either. That said, I modded my plate and never looked back. I think the biggest thing is that by plugging the holes near the front of the stove you focus all of the combustion air where the fire actually is. I also think they played a small role in the airwash for the glass but as I've said before, I'll take more heat over watching flames. Not that its a heavy build up by any means.

Eric

 

[ericofmaine]

As for plugging the holes, I think I used JB Weld.

Eric

 

[hobby8691]

Eric & Ssyko, Thank you guys so much for the information. I have my extra plate on order. I did find my heat mode set on "D" and changed it to "C" as recommended on older threads. It did not make any difference on the sooting on my glass window however. I am anxious to try out the plate mods and will report back on the progress and hopefully a solution found. I just found it strange that changing from one brand of premium softwood pellet to another produced such soot on the glass. I'll keep tuning until I fix it or run out of the ton of O'Kanagans.
Thanks again for all of the help,

David