Experiences from another new Lopi Yankee owner

[Mainefire]

We live just outside Portland, Maine and have had our stove for about a week and a half now.
We ordered it from a local stove shop months ago.
We've run it pretty steadily as our original plan was to use it as our primary source of heat this winter.
Our house is cape-style, about 1550 sq feet, well under the max. square footage the Lopi claims to be able
to cover.
I note above our "original" plan was to use it as our primary heat source. It is still somewhat the plan but
our oil boiler is back on again. (We recently filled up the oil tank with a bio-blend so we don't have to feel as bad
about using it, however, the pellets are probably still better for the environment).

I notice some other posters have had issues similar to what we've been experiencing.

The stove is off right now because I'm not convinced the door is sealing tight enough.
We've had a few instances where we've smelled some of the wood smoke coming into the house.
Our windows are just a little drafty so I've wondered if it could be some blow-back from the chimney which
sticks out about 3 feet, straight out of the front of the house.
Next, the glass viewing window keeps sooting up. At first, I thought it was due to high moisture content in the pellets which
came with the stove. Another type of pellets we bought (Nature's Heat pellets from Pennington Seed) seem to burn better
however, after about 30 to 40 lbs of pellets are burned you can see a little soot collecting on the glass but after 60 to 70 lbs the glass
really needs cleaning if you want a nice view of the flames. Burn a few more pounds of pellets and parts of the glass are virtually black.
Also, the pretty brick-style backing keeps getting covered with dark soot after every few hours. I've given up on giving it much more than
a quick brush at cleaning intervals and right now it's quite black. I don't care too much what that looks like but I'm thinking it should take longer
before it gets so sooty?

I'm now betting these three symptoms are due to the door not quite sealing tightly enough at the top. I used a piece of paper, the same size and
nearly the same consistency as a dollar bill, stuck it in the door on all four sides as I re-latched the door each time. On the left side I really couldn't pull it
out without using excessive force. On the right side, it was also nearly impossible to pull out, same with the bottom. But, for the top of the door, I was able
to pull the paper through without using much force. Could there be enough of an air leak there to cause extra sooting and some smoke to leak out?

I can easily adjust the silver latches on the right side of the stove so they tighten more but when I tried to adjust the hinges on the left side earlier tonight I cut my hand. The top bolt was easy to access and loosen but the bottom bolt is a problem. It's tough to fit a socket in there and tough to get a good grip on the
bolt head; this is why my wrench slipped. I think there's a weld there that sticks up quite a bit. I have to take a better look at it tomorrow.

I notice another poster had an issue with the stove vibrating a bit or being noisy at cool-down. So far I notice the vibration changes or goes away when the hopper is fuller vs. emptier.
Other noise issues are that if you do plan to heat more than about 600 sq feet, you'll probably need to run the stove and fans at the medium-high to high settings when the temperature outside goes below freezing. The noise from this is right on the borderline of being annoying (when you're in the same room). Then if you need to run more portable fans to move the air around your house, you have the noise from these and you can get cool air currents flowing which aren't fun.

On the brighter side, overall, we're having pretty good luck using the stove to greatly reduce the amount of heating oil we would otherwise use. It has only stopped working a couple of times and we can only guess that once it was due to power fluctuation and once due to an auger jam that cleared itself up. Plus, sometimes it is very relaxing to sit in front of the stove and get "toastier" than you could with anything else.

We've found it is entirely possible to heat the whole house with the stove but there are so many variables involved, especially when it goes below freezing, that it's easier to set the pellet stove's thermostat a little higher than the oil-burner's thermostat, then the oil burner just rarely comes on. Plus, then we can keep the stove's settings on medium or medium low which makes the noise less of an issue.

I'd like to note a couple of chimney concerns and a pellet question or two but won't make this any longer.

If it wasn't for the door seal, smoke, and sooting issue the stove would probably be running all night again tonight (we use the wall thermostat)...

Thanks in advance for any advice... I plan to re-post again as soon as I can adjust the left hinges then run it for another day or so.
Scott

 

[imacman]

Hi Scott,

I have an Astoria, which is virtually the same stove, but with a different name.

As for the sooting problem, it sounds to me like you aren't giving the stove enough air. If you have a tall," lazy", orange flame, then you need to open the air control on the left side of the stove. On heat setting 2,3, and 4 and a clean stove, I have my air control set somewhere between 1 1/2 to 2.

The idea is to open it enough that the burning pellet embers are "jumping' a little at the bottom of the firepot, but not so much that burning pellets are flying out. The flame should be "active", and bright yellow, and the ash should be blown out of the firepot when new pellets hit, thus keeping the holes at the bottom clear & open.

As for the smoke smell, there may be a leak if the door isn't adjusted right, but try the above mentioned air adjustment first. If you still smell it, and can't get it fixed yourself (use the adjustment procedure in the manual), I'd get the dealer/installer involved.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mainefire]

Hi Pyro,

We went through with adjusting the door on the upper left hinge-side (still couldn't get the bottom loosened up but didn't need to). I tested the seal multiple times and it now passes the air-tightness test.
I've also opened up the restrictor even just a little higher than you note above (for heat setting 3 or 4). The wood smoke smell is now so much less it's virtually gone. The sooting on the brick insert is less now too.
The sooting on the glass is better but still pretty bad, building up every few hours then slowly getting worse. I'm wondering if I should take a few pictures of it.
I have noticed quite a bit of smoking from the pellets at start-up and I wonder if this is where most of the soot on the glass is from...
Also, I'm wondering about all the fine particles in the bags of pellets causing problems. We do hear a clicking noise, probably coming from the auger from time to time that we didn't hear last week...no full jams yet though.

Anyway, Thank You very much for your help so far!
Scott

 

[littlesmokey]

Mainfire:

The gap in the door is for the airwash of the glass. You have to let a little in to keep it clean. As you trim your combustion air and allow an increase, the soot should go down. I would think about your horizontal exhaust, though. You can get a lot out of a vertical rise of about four feet that will make a great deal of difference.

 

[imacman]

Hi Pyro,

We went through with adjusting the door on the upper left hinge-side (still couldn't get the bottom loosened up but didn't need to). I tested the seal multiple times and it now passes the air-tightness test.
I've also opened up the restrictor even just a little higher than you note above (for heat setting 3 or 4). The wood smoke smell is now so much less it's virtually gone. The sooting on the brick insert is less now too.
The sooting on the glass is better but still pretty bad, building up every few hours then slowly getting worse. I'm wondering if I should take a few pictures of it.
I have noticed quite a bit of smoking from the pellets at start-up and I wonder if this is where most of the soot on the glass is from...
Also, I'm wondering about all the fine particles in the bags of pellets causing problems. We do hear a clicking noise, probably coming from the auger from time to time that we didn't hear last week...no full jams yet though.

Anyway, Thank You very much for your help so far!
Scott

Glad you got the door seal issue fixed. The smoking when you first start the stove isn't the reason the glass is getting sooted-up.....that is mainly due to low burn temps. If you run it on heat #1 or 2 it soots up pretty fast. Once you start burning on #3 & 4, it should get better.

The clicking is probably from the auger, but as for the fines, try to not get them into the hopper. If you pour your pellets directly from the bag, when you get toward the end of the pour keep as much fines in the bag as possible.....you can even use something like a colander to sift them (outdoors or in basement, of course) if you want to get every last pellet. Some of us use a vacuum system to clean the pellets before pouring into the stove.

Last thing....did the dealer remove the auger drop tube flapper? Travis Industries told all dealers to remove it....it causes pellet jams. If your not sure, ask the dealer.....it's easy to do yourself even, and pretty much eliminates any pellet jams in the feed tube. It's shown in the section on "Daily maintenance - clearing the auger drop tube" (P. 29?)...take that flapper out, & leave it out!

Good luck!

 

[muss]

I have found the air restrictor adjustment on my Leyden to make a HUGE difference on my stove windows. And i've got ,well, not so good pellets. I vacuum the windows once a day when i clean the ashes out . I only have to wash them every 2 weeks . Also running on at least medium will make a huge difference for your airwash . Good luck. Muss

 

[peterpski666]

I have a Leyden stove and had my wife yelling at me yesterday, "The house is full of smoke"
What had happened is I had a handful of pellets get kicked out of the burnpot into the ash and continue burning.
The air wash from the stove cant kill that fire at first, and thus the wood smoke ends up in the house, not much, but noticable.
I have crappy pellets, Maine Woods, but it was those or none back in October, and they do keep the house warm. Next year I will be more selective.

Another thing I have noticed with mine is that I have had more auger jams (my feed plate is removed) which are fine if I am home to deal with them, but not so good
if I leave for a few days. Maine Woods other claim to fame besides high "other" content is large pellet size, which jam things up for the Leyden and I assume related models.

 

[Lobstah]

Mac,
I've never sifted or even worried about fines once I got up and running. Everything in the bag goes in, period. I've even dumped bags in that had "fluffies" from condensation, just to see what impact they would have?...Nuttin, nada, zip. Might get just a tad more fly ash, depending on the restrictor setting, but nothing really noticeable.

Jim

 

[RetireeBob]

Hi littlesmokey,
I'm kind of new at this, but did I read it right that there should be a small airspace at the top of the door for the airwash? My manual, Lopi Yankee, wants me to use a dollar bill and have resistance all around the door. It's almost impossible to check the bottom center of the door when it's closed.

 

[imacman]

......It's almost impossible to check the bottom center of the door when it's closed.

hey Bob, and welcome to the forum.

As for checking the bottom of the door seal, use a long strip of computer-type paper(it's close enough in thickness to paper money).....cut it lengthwise to about the same width as a dollar bill, and that should leave enough of it hanging out the front when you close the door to do the seal test.