I want hot air

[mdelmonte]

My problem is I can’t get hot air to blow out of my stove - a Breckwell Big E. From what everyone’s saying, I should barely be able to stand in front of the blower. But mine blows lukewarm to warm air and this is getting really frustrating. I don’t have my vent pipe attached to anything (older house with plenty of ventilation) & it’s sitting one inch away from the backwall (as outlined by Breckwell). My stovepipe goes straight out the wall and up about 8 or 9 feet. I can barely keep the room temperature 60 degrees at the highest settings. Anyone have any ideas what my problem could be? And yes, I’m running it on manual. Thanks in advance.

 

[Shortstuff]

Well, I don't have a Big E, but here are my thoughts.

If you are getting a good air flow out of the stove into the room then the blower is fine. If you have a good flame and it appears to be burning well, then the only thing that I think it can be is that the heat is not getting from the flame to the heat convection tubes (or whatever the Big E uses). You have probably already checked, but be sure that area is thoroughly cleaned.

Unless it's something in the adjustments that I don't know about. Only trying to help.

Steve

 

[mdelmonte]

Breckwell tech called while I was out (of course)........my wife spoke to him...told him the problem, asked her to look inside the firebox if there was a metal plate on the right side.......she said no. Now I have to call him on Monday. Anybody know what plate it is that he says is missing?

 

[webbie]

1. Tell us about the size of the room, what it is open to, and how many lbs of pellets per hour you are using.

2. In my experience, the air blowing out of a pellet stove is not really hot...could differ with the model, BUT I think it differs more based on what the INPUT air is. In other words, I have a pellet stove in the shop and it takes hours before the air comes out decently warm because the air being pulled in by the blower is relatively cold.

 

[mdelmonte]

I just have a 1200 sq. ft. house on 2 floors. I would think that a stove rated to heat 2200 sq ft would about make us melt, but I can't get it much over 62 degrees in the room it's sitting in.

 

[buildingmaint]

If you are going through a bunch of pellets , and getting no heat you have a problem. If you are using a small amount of pellets[ LESS THEN A BAG A DAY, ADV IS ONE BAG A DAY TO 1 1/2 BAGS A DAY] I would say you are trying to heat on to low of setting [1OR 2 ] I run mine on the HIGH/LOW setting on the # 3 HIGH # 1 Low with a programable stat . Are both of your fans running ? You can see them if you take the side panels off . Each panel has three phillips head screws holding them on in the back , don't take them all the way out , groan to put back in . The air coming out of mine [ I PUT A STAT IN THE GRILL IN FRONT OF THE HEAT EXCHANGE TUBES ] is around 130 -150 degrees .

 

[webbie]

How many pellets (lbs) are you burning each hour? It is the pellets which produce the heat...not the stove.

Also, is the house new? Are both floors above grade and insulated?

For an example, burning 2 bags of pellets in 24 hours.....about 3 lbs per hour, would produce about 18,000 BTU per hour, or the size of 3+ plug in electric heaters or one Kerosene heater.

Very few pellet stove owners have ever gotten those "melting" temps.....especially in Maine! A woodstove may peak at 50,000+ BTU an hour, which can be quite warm, but pellet stoves are more slow and steady.

So most important for now is how many pellets you are burning...

 

[Xena]

In this thread I linked to, post #8, you said you tried a bag
of your buddys pellets and the stove then made
good heat and you were going to see if Sams Club would
take back the crappy pellets?

thread: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/25855/

 

[abbdog]

Do you have a damper.I have to run my breckwell with the damper out only 1/8" to get a tall flame, even on the 3/4 setting, or else the flame blows like a torch and does'nt get high enough to heat the tubes. If i pull it out 1/2-3/4",like the manual says, it won't heat good.

 

[mdelmonte]

I would say about at least 2 bags in a 24 hr period. Anybody know what this metal plate is that the breckwell tech referred to?

 

[mdelmonte]

Yes that's true. I can return the pellets, but right now no one else has any so I have to make the best of what I have.

 

[abbdog]

I would say about at least 2 bags in a 24 hr period. Anybody know what this metal plate is that the breckwell tech referred to?

Might be the removable metal ashdoors for cleaning.Keep us updated with the fix.

 

[smaxell1]

Yes that's true. I can return the pellets, but right now no one else has any so I have to make the best of what I have.

No one has ANY or no one has any in large amounts? I can buy pellets in half a dozen different places... I know of at least one that I could buy a ton from right now (as of yesterday).

 

[Stihl029]

Hi there...I was wondering if you have some kind of outside air kit on this stove. While I don't have your model stove, I have read other threads about negative pressures and such and the ability of a stove to put out heat. The size house you have one would think you'd be getting "cooked out" of it, not looking for heat. Is your small home newer in construction? Is it very airtight? These could be part of your troubles. Below is an explanation by Mike from Englander as to having an outside air kit, and why.

If you are running with house air these things are happening 1. you are pulling about a quarter of a room full of air out of the house per minute, this air must be replaced or a high amount on negative pressure will result. this means that every little leak in your house will be magnified as air is sucked in by the vacuum created by the removal of air. pulling outside air means your house is notattacked by these leaks as you aren't pulling this air out. now take that a step further, as air warms up it expands this creates Positive pressure which pushes against the same leaks so your house stays warmer in places not near to the stove as cold air doesn't get pulled in.

2. the stove will burn cleaner negative pressure over time will reduce the amount of available oxygen pulled through the fire. this results in a dirtier stove and lower heat output. it also soots pipes and can cause sooting on the outside of the house on exterior walls near the exhaust.

3. and most important, if the unit has run long enough to reduce pressure in the house and a power failure occurs the negative pressure could overcome the natural draft of the vertical in the flue and cause the unit to back vent through theintake causing smoke in the house. we at ESW try to avoid smoke intrusion as its simply not pleasant.

Hope this helps!

 

[mdelmonte]

I have an older "breezy" house - plenty of ventilation.

 

[unkuthz]

i just got rid of a englander 10-cdv that was doing the same thing so I took it back
because I was tired of fighting to get heat out of it.

Picked up a Big E to replace it, got it fired up and within an hour hour and a half it has raised the whole house up to 70 upstairs and down 50 outside temp heat setting on 3

when I first started it any air thru the register was too much so I let it run for a while and now I have the register open about a 3/4" and its keeping up nicely without having a torch in the stove

I have everything hooked up the same as before but now I have heat.

I cant explain why I wasnt getting any heat out but I ran it for 2 days highest heat setting and couldnt heat the room it was in more than 70 and that was on a 60 degree day.

sorry to hear about the trouble
take it back and get another

 

[lexybird]

I had a similiar problem with a multi fuel us stove co. pellet stove i recently purchased this fall at my local tractor supply compnay ,I did everything right and the stove is brand new right out of the crate with premium pellets , proper stainless venting and intake requirments were followed etc.., long story short ,It simply didnt produce the hot radiant heat and BTU that i anticipated/needed ,(well insulated 30yr old split level)in fact it could barley get my house in the upper 60's on a 45 degree night.Also it seemed like the higher settings only increased the blower speed and pellet consumption as the heat it put out didnt seem to increase at the same rate as the fuel usage . BIG mistake and I was very disapointed ended up selling it after only a month of ownership and getting a new large woodstove addon Englander instead .seems pellets are getting scarce around here and the ones left are over 300$ a ton now ,so losing money on selling my new pellet stove doesnt seem so bad the more i think about it .

 

[mdelmonte]

Were you getting a lot of ash and soot when you had the stove?