cleaned magnum baby countryside and now it isn't burning right!

[Heatherlb]

Hello, we have had our countryside for nearly a year now, at first it was a nightmare due to bad installation by a wet certified installer and dealer. After a lot if fighting they finally came out in the summer and took off the extra 5 feet of piping outside the house, and changed the cap.we started this fall and it ran like a dream! The heat was pumping and we could run it for 55 hours with very little build up and finally the inside of the stove wasn't built up with a thick layer of soot in 8 hours or less! Until...

Yes, until my husband gave the stove a good cleaning two nights ago. Now it looks as if it is running fine but it isn't, we can only have it running from 6 or 7pm until 8am the next day. We always have it on setting 3 or 2. It also is not outputting heat like it was.

He doesn't think he did anything while cleaning, but logic says otherwise.it is NOT a coincidence that it magically stopped working right immediately after he cleaned the stove.

HELP, I really need to figure this out and attempt to fix the problem myself. First I need advice and to do my homework.

Thank you!!

 

[jrsdws]

First thing I'd double check is the damper setting. Perhaps it got bumped and moved incidentally? Has there been a fuel change after the cleaning? This is almost certainly a matter of airflow.

 

[smwilliamson]

Check the damper, its on the back of the air intake...most likely needs to be almost all of the way open. Ash pan needs to be secure and latched. Door must be making a good seal. If he cleaned the vent, make sure he didnt obstruct it...like leaving a tool inside it

Did you change pellets?

 

[ChandlerR]

I was thinking the exact same things. The first thing I thought of is that the burn pot is not seated properly. It doesn't take much and if it's not seated right, too much air goes around it and you'll get a crappy burn. damper's #2, Door seal or ash door seal would be my next guess.

Let us know how it's doing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[DexterDay]

Do a search up top on Baby Countryside. Plenty of help and Mod's to be made on that unit.

They burn pretty poorly unless they have the Pellet Pot (very thick Cast Iron) and High CFM combustion blower.

If you have a stainless steel pot (corn pot) and the lower CFM exhaust blower, then it could use an upgrade or a Mod.

Is the burn pot sitting in the receptacle correctly? Are all gaskets sealing properly? When was the last time the unit was cleaned well (combustion blower clean, area behind firebox/horseshoe are, exhaust)?? I know you said he cleaned it, but the area behind the back plate is crucial and cleaning combustion blower vanes helps a lot).

My buddy (member barnyard849x) has a Baby and it can go Days without touching it. But he has done a few things to improve airflow.

 

[Heatherlb]

Hi there,

He has doubled checked and re-cleaned everything to make sure nothing was missed and it still is not burning right. The pot at an hours burn now looks like it did after 30 hours burn time (or longer). Like I said before the stove was burning and working FANTASTIC after the removal of the extra 5 feet of piping on the outside of the house until my husband did a deep clean, so it HAS to be something he may have bumped/altered while cleaning with the shopvac. The air flow is wide open so we are really at a loss for what it might be. It should not need a mod because it was running perfectly up until it was cleaned. My husband doesn't seem to think that he did anything but it simply makes sense that something happened during the clean that altered how the stove is functioning.

We would love to contact the idiot who we purchased the stove from and also did the installation but he is, like I said, an idiot. We are STILL waiting for him to come back and replace the two clips on the side of the stove that he broke during the install for flip sakes!

I really do not want to go through the winter having to turn the stove off every 6 to 8 hours, it is no way to function when the weather dips down to -20 ( Celsius). we used to be able to leave the house in the morning and be at work/school all day and not worry, now we have to turn the stove off at 7 am and turn it back on at 7pm, the house gets a bit chilly when it is nearly 20 below - as you can imagine. I refuse to use electric heat while having the highest electrical costs in North America. To heat our home with electric heat it costs us 600 to 700 $'s every two months for nearly 8 months. Hence why we spent 4 thousand on the stove and installation in the first place!

Thanks for listening!

 

[Heatherlb]

I should also say that prior to my husband cleaning the stove we could have the damper at about half or less and it worked perfect, at around the 36 to 40 hours he would turn it to full open to help get more time out of it and we could then burn up to 50-60 hours. That is impressive!

 

[ChandlerR]

Heather, I still say this is an airflow issue. If you look at the stove, picture where the combustion air travels. It comes in through the intake where the damper is.. From there it goes to the bottom of the burn pot chamber where it's drawn in by the combustion blower. If you remove the burn pot, you'll see two square holes with the metal from the holes bent out at the top. The air is drawn through the burn pot and up into the fire or combustion chamber. There is a "horseshoe" on the back wall of the combustion chamber. It has two openings on the bottom on either side of the upside down "U" and two slots way up high in the corners next to the two outside tubes. The Horseshoe is connected to the exhaust (combustion) blower and from there, out to the exhaust pipe. Somewhere in that whole mess, is a blockage, most likely as a result of the cleaning. Ash was dislodged and most likely moved to a spot where it's blocking the airflow on startup. I have read in the Magnum forums that sometimes ash builds up on top of the horseshoe. It's impossible to get at it. Tapping the horseshoe might dislodge it. Running a small tube connected to a shop vac might get it. The only way to really clean it is to drill a small hole on the side of the horseshoe, either blow into it or run a small tube through it, then tap it and install a pipe plug. If you want, I'll try to find the article on the website. I read that one guy didn't want to drill so her removed the stove and brought it outside where he tipped it on its side where all the ash fell out and he was able to vacuum it up and the stove ran better than new. I've had my stove for five years, torn it down to the last bolt, cleaned it and reassembled it...never did the horseshoe thing but that said, it runs great. I have to get up at 5am tomorrow so I'll look for the article tomorrow night if I can.

 

[ChandlerR]

Heather...check out this link...

http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=6817&highlight=clean+baby+countryside

 

[ChandlerR]

Here's the detail on the hole...

http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=8907&highlight=horseshoe

 

[ChandlerR]

Hmmm...wonder what happened to Heather? I was interested to see if she found the problem. (sigh)

 

[DexterDay]

Me too....

 

[Heatherlb]

Hi there, I apologize for not returning to this thread for quite some time. Shortly after my last post I became ill so it was the last thing on my mind.

We are still having issues with the stove, having said that my husband really hasn't done a thing to it either. We recently purchased a higher CFM blower and it made a difference but it still isn't running as good as it should. I know it has to do with the cleaning he performed so long ago, he has yet to blow out the "U" and I would bet very good money that it is the issue and a higher CFM fan wasn't necessary. I would have thought drilling the hole and blowing out the "U" would have been the smartest route to fix the issue prior to spending the money on a new blower and having it shipped to Canada. but ....

Now we are having issues with the fan, not long ago it stopped spinning and I asked my husband if he cleaned it when he did his cleaning of the stove ... I already knew the answer but had to ask to make sure. He didn't... in my opinion with something that has fans, moving parts and you are dealing with ash, wood pellets and shavings you should most definitely do a complete cleaning and greasing of moving parts if necessary. So he took the fan off and used a air compressor to clean it off, it was caked with dust and dirt. So that was a month ago and it suddenly stopped moving again and it can barely be moved when you take it off and try to push it yourself. Would you say it is broken entirely?

 

[Bioburner]

Has the motor any oil ports to possibly give it's bearings a couple drops of oil? Several of the fasco motors do. Most of my experience with Magnum products is with the Countryside. Blow out the motor and clean the fins of the fan too.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Why cars arem't made with grease fittings on the suspension anymore. when it fails, buy a new part......

 

[ChandlerR]

If the motor is hard to turn, it's usually one of two things. 1) the motor bearings are dry and it has seized or is about to. 2) the fan is hitting the backing plate, but in your case I'm guessing not because you would have heard the racket...unless there is carbon or ash behind the blades. That's easy enough to check by looking.

My guess is the bearings are dry. That's too bad because the motor isn't that old.

 

[Don2222]

Hi there, I apologize for not returning to this thread for quite some time. Shortly after my last post I became ill so it was the last thing on my mind.

We are still having issues with the stove, having said that my husband really hasn't done a thing to it either. We recently purchased a higher CFM blower and it made a difference but it still isn't running as good as it should. I know it has to do with the cleaning he performed so long ago, he has yet to blow out the "U" and I would bet very good money that it is the issue and a higher CFM fan wasn't necessary. I would have thought drilling the hole and blowing out the "U" would have been the smartest route to fix the issue prior to spending the money on a new blower and having it shipped to Canada. but ....

Now we are having issues with the fan, not long ago it stopped spinning and I asked my husband if he cleaned it when he did his cleaning of the stove ... I already knew the answer but had to ask to make sure. He didn't... in my opinion with something that has fans, moving parts and you are dealing with ash, wood pellets and shavings you should most definitely do a complete cleaning and greasing of moving parts if necessary. So he took the fan off and used a air compressor to clean it off, it was caked with dust and dirt. So that was a month ago and it suddenly stopped moving again and it can barely be moved when you take it off and try to push it yourself. Would you say it is broken entirely?

Hi
Which fan are you having trouble with? Exhaust or Convection (Room Blower)

This is how to clean the top of the horse shoe!
Here is a video I made on the cleaning hole! I have done it to at least a dozen stoves now! Works Great!
The higher CFM blower MF-3650 does help burn the pellets better and so does the new Wood Pellet Fire Pot! The corn pot is in my video. :-(

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[Watcher1]

Hello, we have had our countryside for nearly a year now, at first it was a nightmare due to bad installation by a wet certified installer and dealer. After a lot if fighting they finally came out in the summer and took off the extra 5 feet of piping outside the house, and changed the cap.we started this fall and it ran like a dream! The heat was pumping and we could run it for 55 hours with very little build up and finally the inside of the stove wasn't built up with a thick layer of soot in 8 hours or less! Until...

Yes, until my husband gave the stove a good cleaning two nights ago. Now it looks as if it is running fine but it isn't, we can only have it running from 6 or 7pm until 8am the next day. We always have it on setting 3 or 2. It also is not outputting heat like it was.

He doesn't think he did anything while cleaning, but logic says otherwise.it is NOT a coincidence that it magically stopped working right immediately after he cleaned the stove.

HELP, I really need to figure this out and attempt to fix the problem myself. First I need advice and to do my homework.

Thank you!!

I've got a few ideas here. I ran a baby for like 3 winters in WI. I thought about the longest I could run it on 1 or 2 and yes I could go a day and a half. I wonder about you exhaust pipe being pluged. if it goes up at all then you need to clean it out. The exhust fan can get dirty between the fan blade and the backing plate. There is a fiberglass gasket but you can use red high temp silicone to reseal when you put it back together. Also do a serch on here "Magnum" and you will find more hints. There is a lot to cleaning these out. Hope you get it.

 

[Heatherlb]

I've got a few ideas here. I ran a baby for like 3 winters in WI. I thought about the longest I could run it on 1 or 2 and yes I could go a day and a half. I wonder about you exhaust pipe being pluged. if it goes up at all then you need to clean it out. The exhust fan can get dirty between the fan blade and the backing plate. There is a fiberglass gasket but you can use red high temp silicone to reseal when you put it back together. Also do a serch on here "Magnum" and you will find more hints. There is a lot to cleaning these out. Hope you get it.

 

[Bioburner]

You are back?

 

[Heatherlb]

Well, after replacing the room air blower and really stressing the importance of cleaning the stove thoroughly, we can now run our stove without shutdown for roughly 90 hours. Incredible!

We had a hole drilled on the side that has a brass plug that is very secure but makes for convenient access with an air hose nozzle. My husband did an initial blast and did not do it again until I asked him to really go at it with the air, as well has giving it a thorough cleaning ( pipes, stove, etc). I explained that the initial air blast did clean some built up ash out but it more than likely moved the blockage because it still wasn't running quite right.

I'm an all or nothing/do it right the first time kind of person so I was gently persistent, which has paid off, finally!

We do have a few issues still with the stove and they are as follows :

Window gets dirty quickly due to husband covering 97% of the "wash" with metal high heat tape, I feel it is no longer needed now that air flow isn't choked off but... I'm working on that and hopefully once he removes it the window will stay clean.

Room is very dusty with black residue, its a nightmare for me to clean constantly and I've been battling it since the day we had the stove installed. What is causing this?

There is a strange sound that comes from the auger gear box, sometimes it happens every single time the auger drops pellets, sometimes it doesn't. I encouraged my husband to look at it when I had enough of the odd zapping sound ( it isn't quite a zap it sounds like a clutch grind/zap/slip, hard to explain) he cannot fix it or figure out what it might be. Has anyone had this issue?

Thanks everyone!

 

[SidecarFlip]

Hi
Which fan are you having trouble with? Exhaust or Convection (Room Blower)

This is how to clean the top of the horse shoe!
Here is a video I made on the cleaning hole! I have done it to at least a dozen stoves now! Works Great!
The higher CFM blower MF-3650 does help burn the pellets better and so does the new Wood Pellet Fire Pot! The corn pot is in my video. :-(

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That looks like lung cancer city..............................

 

[rafmt]

Hello....this is a air nozzle that I rigged up to clean the horshoe area. It is an air gun with the tip removed and a compression fitting and a 20 inch piece of brake line. The line is soft enough to bend as needed. I was able to drill a very small hole, quarter inch and then seal it with a bit of high temp silicone. I would think since you upgraded to the higher cfm blower you should be able to have your air wash opened to at least 50%. I have my air wash open 2 inches. It keeps an area completly clean and the rest get dirty. It's just something I have learned to live with. I have yet to put in the bigger blower. I have tweaked mine to run perfectly with the smaller one.The dusty black residue doesn't sound good at all.

 

[SidecarFlip]

The 'dusty black residue' sounds to me like leaky venting.

 

[Bioburner]

The 'dusty black residue' sounds to me like leaky venting.

X2