Enviro M55 Insert Multi-Fuel Stove

[flynfrfun]

J-
I know you have owned other brands and models of stoves. What is your opinion on the Enviro's efficiency? I've been curious about this for a while now. But without sitting next to two different stoves running at the same time at a similar pellet feed rate, it's hard to compare.

 

[jtakeman]

J-
I know you have owned other brands and models of stoves. What is your opinion on the Enviro's efficiency? I've been curious about this for a while now. But without sitting next to two different stoves running at the same time at a similar pellet feed rate, it's hard to compare.

I would say the quad is pretty close(slightly less?). But the Breckwell was no where near the Omega. Just changing stoves(nothing else) has me saved pellets.

 

[kykel]

30 lbs is not very much. If you go 7 hours on 30 lbs that would be a little over 1.5 bags a day. I averaged 2 bags a day on setting three with my old stove during the winter(hudson river saranac). New stove(enviro m55cast fs) seems to be about the same or maybe even a little less. Sorry to hear that your having trouble. J takeman posted a chart on pounds of pellets per hour on each setting. Maybe you can pm him and see if he can post it again and see what your stove should burn per hour on setting three

Thanks for the comparison Kykel. So, does the M55 in your opinion, put out about the same amount of heat as your old stove since they both use roughly the same amount of pellets on heat level 3? If so, then the efficiency is probably similar.

I'd love to hear comparisons from anyone else that has owned other stoves.

Seems to put out much more heat. old stove was rated at 40,000 btu New stove 55,000 btu

 

[Wachusett]

I can't comment on the insert, but the freestanding can hold 80 lbs. (2 bags). All owners will probably
agree; stoves will make some noise, but to me it sounds like pennies from heaven.

 

[flynfrfun]

30 lbs is not very much. If you go 7 hours on 30 lbs that would be a little over 1.5 bags a day. I averaged 2 bags a day on setting three with my old stove during the winter(hudson river saranac). New stove(enviro m55cast fs) seems to be about the same or maybe even a little less. Sorry to hear that your having trouble. J takeman posted a chart on pounds of pellets per hour on each setting. Maybe you can pm him and see if he can post it again and see what your stove should burn per hour on setting three

Thanks for the comparison Kykel. So, does the M55 in your opinion, put out about the same amount of heat as your old stove since they both use roughly the same amount of pellets on heat level 3? If so, then the efficiency is probably similar.

I'd love to hear comparisons from anyone else that has owned other stoves.

Seems to put out much more heat. old stove was rated at 40,000 btu New stove 55,000 btu

I meant, does it seem to put out similar heat at the same pellet feed rate in lbs/hr burned? I'm not asking for exact #'s, but you would probably notice if it is a lot less efficient or about on par with the other stove based on how much heat it puts out and your pellet usage.

 

[libirm]

J-T
On average how ofter do you empty the ash?
What pellets do you find works best in your stove?
Thanks for help.

 

[kykel]

Its still early in the season but I would say setting #3 on my enviro seems to put out more heat compared to old stove on setting #3. old stove never regerstered 85 on the thermostat in the room with the stove. Enviro did. It does hold 10 more pounds but when I wake up in the am and check hopper Im happy to see quite a bit more pellets in the hopper.

 

[libirm]

With the m55 insert- how do I make the trans sistion from 3" fresh air inlet and pipe to the 4 inch I have goin to the out side?

 

[flynfrfun]

With the m55 insert- how do I make the trans sistion from 3" fresh air inlet and pipe to the 4 inch I have goin to the out side?

I used 3" dryer venting for mine. What kind of setup do you have? Mine is in a pre-fab "doghouse" which is basically a pop out they built onto the side of the house for a gas fireplace. I changed the gas out for the pellet stove. So, my OAK goes straight out the back.

 

[flynfrfun]

Its still early in the season but I would say setting #3 on my enviro seems to put out more heat compared to old stove on setting #3. old stove never regerstered 85 on the thermostat in the room with the stove. Enviro did. It does hold 10 more pounds but when I wake up in the am and check hopper Im happy to see quite a bit more pellets in the hopper.

Thanks Kykel, good info to know.

 

[libirm]

The back of my m55 has the 3 inch fresh vent, as am sure you know, but I would to connect to my existing 4 inch that is there now from my previous stove fresh air vent

 

[kykel]

im sure they make a 3 Inch to 4 Inch coupler.

 

[jtakeman]

J-T
On average how ofter do you empty the ash?
What pellets do you find works best in your stove?
Thanks for help.

My Omega has a large as pan. Holds over a ton depending on what brand used.

I haven't found it to be pellet picky and seems to burn any pellet I can afford. Heat wise, The Douglas fir were about the best and also the cleanest. But tough to afford them. Also really liked the softwoods and 100% Oak pellets. But to be honest I bought this multifueler to burn what I can afford. So I have been burning cheap stuff in the shoulder season. And only splurging on Hamers-Okies-Spruce Pointes-Cubex-Turmans-BareFoots(might have missed a few others) when it gets bitter cold.

The flexability of this stove does make it a bit easier on my wallet, When it comes time to reload the fuel supply.

 

[flynfrfun]

This may be a little too early to tell for sure, but I seem to have dramatically improved the left leaning flame by reducing the draft. My thoughts are that with too much vacuum in the stove, it pulls the air too hard towards the exhaust which is on the left bottom side of the firebox. Also, I slide the burn pot and liner and grate as far to the left as it will allow. It won't move much, but on mine I can get 1/8" or so in total. 3rd, I make sure the iron firebox liner is pushed all the way to the back of the stove. The better it seals against the back of the stove, the more it forces the hot air up thru the heat exchangers and back down behind the liner. Since I have done these 3 things, my flame is standing pretty much straight up and is more consistent.

 

[Eatonpcat]

This may be a little too early to tell for sure, but I seem to have dramatically improved the left leaning flame by reducing the draft. My thoughts are that with too much vacuum in the stove, it pulls the air too hard towards the exhaust which is on the left bottom side of the firebox. Also, I slide the burn pot and liner and grate as far to the left as it will allow. It won't move much, but on mine I can get 1/8" or so in total. 3rd, I make sure the iron firebox liner is pushed all the way to the back of the stove. The better it seals against the back of the stove, the more it forces the hot air up thru the heat exchangers and back down behind the liner. Since I have done these 3 things, my flame is standing pretty much straight up and is more consistent.

Thanks for the tips, I will try this also when I clean the stove this weekend!!

 

[libirm]

Well-
Box for insert ready, wall painted, 2 ton pellets ordered, stove schedule for Friday install,
I am ready!

 

[kykel]

I was at brick fix today and there were 2 m55 inserts there. I bet one was yours.

what pellets did you get

 

[cuznvin]

Well-
Box for insert ready, wall painted, 2 ton pellets ordered, stove schedule for Friday install,
I am ready!

Who is doinfg your install? WHat pellets did you order?

 

[jtakeman]

Here is a chart on the agitator and feed rates for you fella's. This isn't in the manual yet. Hope you find it handy?

Enjoy!

 

[kykel]

Thanks again j
Enviro should be paying you.
Ive had a few problems with the stove that werent really problems. I just didnt know how certian things worked and couldnt find info in manual. you saved me a lot of grief and im very greatful that your on this site

Cusnvin called me Enviro King but that title belongs to you!

 

[Freddyp]

I finally got around to running some stats on my M55 Insert and have some updated figures. I added to this post about 2 weeks ago and was concerned with the high number of pellets I seemed to have been burning. Well it turns out that based on my stats I am burning close to a bag more a day than the manufacturer states.
This is what I did,, first I thoroughly cleaned the stove and made sure the hopper was completely empty.
Once emptied and vacuumed I then forced a full bag, 40lbs of Lignetis into the hamper - I could not get one more pellet into the hopper no kidding. Sherwood says I should have been able to get 50 lbs into the hopper - there was no way that is possible on my insert.
I then hooked up a Magnahelic gauge to the stove and ran the stove at all setting and adjusted the draft to between .15 to .17 across all settings.
I then ran the stove in the Premium Pellet setting, with combustion set at 3, feed rate at 2 and combustion rate at 3. These settings seemed to give me the amount of heat that I needed to heat the room. When I dropped the feed rating down to 1, I significantly lost my flame and got a lot of sparking, almost like an outside fire pit does when sap is ignited. I put the feed rate back to 2 and let the stove run until it was dry.
That took 9hrs and 10 minutes.
Based on my math for those settings I would be burning just a tad under 3 bags or 120 lbs in a 24 hour cycle. According to my local distributor/installer that seems to be to many pellets.
He has very few recommendations and is suggesting that he tries to adjusts something he called a pellet restrictor that he tells me was added at the warehouse to most M55's to try and reduce the amount of pellets allowed into the auger and lower the consumption.
I must say I am pretty upset and disappointed with this whole issue, but still love the M55. Overall it is pretty nice stove but in the peak of winter in Mass. I need to run that stove at 4 or 5 to generate the heat that I need which means I will be using 4 or more bags and still wont get an 8 hr cycle to take me through the night or day when I am not home.
My dealer/installer does not know enough about these stoves and keeps asking me to do the research and let him know what I find. Sherwood will not answer any e-mails and just forwards them back to the dealer who calls and ask me how to fix it all over again....not the best customer service!
Does anyone know of a person that is familiar with these stoves and may live in Mass that I may be able to pay to take a look at this stove??? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

[flynfrfun]

When you say you let the stove run dry...was it completely out of pellets? Usually, the stove will shut down with a good bit of pellets in the hopper. This is common on most stoves due to the shape of the hopper. So, if that is how it happened, you are not using the full 40lbs of pellets for the 9hr run and therefore your computations will be off by whatever is left in the hopper. Going from memory, I think mine will run for about 10-12hrs on heat level 3 (feed trim 3) on a full bag of pellets. I'll have to try it again sometime, but my house will get pretty hot.

Yep, running at heat level 3 non-stop will use pellets fast. I'm surprised you have to run the stove 24/7 on that high of a setting. I run mine on hi/low and it cycles between heat level 3 and 1, staying on 1 most of the time. I have a 1900sf 2 story well insulated house.

The best way to figure pellet usage in lbs is to fill the hopper all the way up, pushing pellets back into the stove as you go until it is chock full. Sounds like you did this. Then run the stove nonstop. When you refill (before stove shuts down due to no fuel) refill the hopper to the same point it was before. Weigh yourself on your home scale. Then grab the bag of remaining pellets and weigh again. The difference between the 2 readings is the amount of lbs left in the bag. Subtract that from 40lbs and you get the exact # of lbs of pellets the stove burned in that timeframe.

On a mid 40's day, my stove burns about 2.5lbs of pellets/hr keeping the room where the stove is located at 76F, the rest of the house is about 68-70F. This is on hi/low mode with heat level 3 as the high.

 

[flynfrfun]

Another thing...reading posts about guys only using 1bag/day and etc. can be misleading. Some people keep their houses a lot colder than others. And you always have to figure some people want to brag and make their setup sound a lot better than it really is. It's hard to compare unless you have owned another brand of stove and then you have first hand experience on how much heat should really come out of a stove when fed with a given quantity of pellets.

I've only owned the M55, so I can't really compare. It does eat a lot of pellets on higher settings, but so do other stoves of the same BTU size. I've heard Mt Vernon owners talk about how theirs gulps down the pellets when turned up too.

Is there someone at home 24hrs a day that you can't use a thermostat and have the stove drop the temp in the day when you are at work? That is how most people on this forum keep their pellet usage down.

 

[flynfrfun]

Sorry to keep posting...do you have the bigger convection blower on your stove? When I installed this on my stove, it made a big difference in heat output.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/78629/

 

[kykel]

Are you able to see the auger cover. If so is there a cover plate with slots where the screws are that hold the cover in place. If so you should be able to loosen the screws and slide the cover down. this should slow the amount of pellets that enter the auger.

It seems to me that if your going through that many pellets you should have quite a large fire in the pot. The more pellets that fall the bigger the fire.
How old is the stove. I know they had a problem with the inserts overfiring so they came up with the adjustable auger cover.

Its very disapointing that no one can give you an answer to your problem. If its a new stove they should replace it. if not they should try replacing the auger motor or control board. Id keep on them until you get results.