Introduction: New Breckwell SPC50, many questions for install

[adayrider]

Oh... My...

I'm not trying to scare you. I'm sure your stove is some what better than the old snowflame I had. I just think you should understand how it works. It takes a fan and forces air into a box into the burn pot first, when you do that it has to come out somewhere and it will be hot air. The easiest way is usually the exhaust pipe hopefully. But if it's not then next easiest is up through the auger into the hopper. Fire hot air against wood pellets can cause the pellets to burn up through the auger into the hopper. The one I had would actually push the flame up the auger.
But I know nothing about your stove. What I do know is, I could not sleep with a blow through burning in my house. Now with my draw through I burn 24-7 and sleep well. On a draw through it sucks all air hot or cold out of the stove into and out the pipe. Much more safe.

 

[jedirye]

But I called yesterday and they said there is no blower. It relies heavily on the natural drafting of the air currents, hence the importance of the flue.

 

[adayrider]

Ok then, I Know nothing about this stove as I said. So it runs on no fans?

 

[jedirye]

Ok then, I Know nothing about this stove as I said. So it runs on no fans?

From what he said on the phone, no, which is why the flue is so important. Perhaps I should clarify this, however. Does not having a blower make it safer and avoid having the auger heat up and thus the hopper heat up??

 

[adayrider]

Well I did not know there was a stove made to burn pellet without fans. But answer your question, blowing or forcing air into stove not so safe. Sucking air out of stove is safer. No once again I'm not familiar with your stove at all.

 

[jedirye]

This had me wondering, so after further inquiry I asked: Does this Breckwell have a blower motor in it or is it relying heavily / solely on the draft?

The answer:
This is a natural draft stove, there’s not an exhaust blower. There is a 4 inch fan that will keep the components on the inside from overheating.

 

[articcatbill]

This had me wondering, so after further inquiry I asked: Does this Breckwell have a blower motor in it or is it relying heavily / solely on the draft?

The answer:
This is a natural draft stove, there’s not an exhaust blower. There is a 4 inch fan that will keep the components on the inside from overheating.

I am not a Pellet stove expert like many on this forum, and I expect you already know this, but please make sure that you have a carbon monoxide detector as well as a smoke alarm on each level of your home. Please make sure you do this before you start using your stove.

I like to have one on the level of my stove that also has an LED display and tracks the peak level of CO, I check the peak level regularly. Many people don't know but the detectors only go off after exposure at a certain level for a period of time. If you have a detector that tracks the peak level you can know if any CO is present even if it doesn't set off your alarm. Can help you detect issues before it is dangerous.

I always burned wood, I was surprised how quickly the monitor would pick up CO, I could check the peak level and it was 0 open the door to put in some wood get a back draft, if I checked the monitor I would see a level registered. I now have a pellet stove, I enjoy seeing my peak level always at 0 thus far.

CO detectors save lives for sure.

 

[Mt Bob]

This had me wondering, so after further inquiry I asked: Does this Breckwell have a blower motor in it or is it relying heavily / solely on the draft?

The answer:
This is a natural draft stove, there’s not an exhaust blower. There is a 4 inch fan that will keep the components on the inside from overheating.

Yes your stove has an exhaust blower.Period.But it is a safe system.You will be fine.

 

[jedirye]

Anyone see a problem with this flue setup / purchase?

Step 1: Adapter. This will attach from my stove (4" opening) to 6" flue


Step 2: 6" wide 4' long vertical single wall pipe going directly towards ceiling.


Step 3: Right angle to go towards exterior wall


Step 4: Small 2' section to go from elbow towards wall and thimble kit. Was wondering if this would be double wall?


Step 4: The wall thimble kit



Step 5: Lastly, the double wall pipe to attach to the outside of my house. THe wall thimble kit has the top part.


I also ordered furnace cement, since Breckwall manual said that's required to attach all the pipe together. But, that is for pelletvent, which I am not using. However, in my BRIEF conversation with Duravent (they have yet to respond to my other questions), they said it's not necessary? I still need to get High temp RTV to attach pipe to stove as gasket.

Let me know your thoughts please.

Thanks!

 

[jedirye]

Duravent finally got in touch in with. My whole order is messed up. Duravent is confused on why I'm using wood stove pipe for a pellet vent. They are insisting using 4" pellet vent until I get to the outside/exterior. Breckwell in insistent on anything >12ft that you use 6".

I'm going to call Breckwell again to see how much of a big deal it is. Duravent has been advising people on their products, they know their products and installation, etc. and really think it should be pelletvent.

This is so frustrating.

 

[jedirye]

10/2017 Update
Well.... A year later, and > $1000 for professional install, this guy is up and running!

Did my first burn here in FL since it actually felt like winter (40's this AM!), and it seems to be doing alright. Looks great and feels great! Found a Tractor Supply here close by in FL that stocks hardwood pellets year round. Apparently, they have a customer that uses them for kitty litter. I'm stoked! Bring on the low tempts!

Cheers

 

[jedirye]

10/2017 Update
Well.... A year later, and > $1000 for professional install, this guy is up and running!

Did my first burn here in FL since it actually felt like winter (40's this AM!), and it seems to be doing alright. Looks great and feels great! Found a Tractor Supply here close by in FL that stocks hardwood pellets year round. Apparently, they have a customer that uses them for kitty litter. I'm stoked! Bring on the low tempts!

Cheers

 

[vinny11950]

10/2017 Update
Well.... A year later, and > $1000 for professional install, this guy is up and running!

Did my first burn here in FL since it actually felt like winter (40's this AM!), and it seems to be doing alright. Looks great and feels great! Found a Tractor Supply here close by in FL that stocks hardwood pellets year round. Apparently, they have a customer that uses them for kitty litter. I'm stoked! Bring on the low tempts!

Cheers

Nice install. Glad you got it working, enjoy the heat.

Ps. Thanks for the update and pics. I love pictures.

 

[jedirye]

It's about 0200. Shut the stove down at 2200. We heard noise at about 0130, stove going off. It was an alarm. The auger temp sense was high, a back burn of pellets in auger. That took a while to mitigate. Not sure what the problem was or how to fix it. A lot of hot embers in burn pot, a lot of smoke. We emptied hopper (30 or 35#s left), spooned hot embers out of burn pot to side, got motor going to feed more pellets to clear. It's been a heck of a night. I'm very nervous about fire in general, let alone a fire appliance in my house. I'll call Breckwell to see. I had called them Tuesday and left message with no response about another inquiry.

I'm not above this being "user error" but would really like to pinpoint so this DOESN'T happen again...

Well I gotta be up at 5 for work so going to try and catch some shut-eye.

 

[vinny11950]

It's about 0200. Shut the stove down at 2200. We heard noise at about 0130, stove going off. It was an alarm. The auger temp sense was high, a back burn of pellets in auger. That took a while to mitigate. Not sure what the problem was or how to fix it. A lot of hot embers in burn pot, a lot of smoke. We emptied hopper (30 or 35#s left), spooned hot embers out of burn pot to side, got motor going to feed more pellets to clear. It's been a heck of a night. I'm very nervous about fire in general, let alone a fire appliance in my house. I'll call Breckwell to see. I had called them Tuesday and left message with no response about another inquiry.

I'm not above this being "user error" but would really like to pinpoint so this DOESN'T happen again...

Well I gotta be up at 5 for work so going to try and catch some shut-eye.

Well that sucks. Sorry to hear it happened. From the pictures, it looks like you have 10 feet of vertical stove pipe which may not be enough to create the draft the stove needs. But then again in your part of the country you may experience more draft issues just because it doesn't get cold enough to create proper draft.

I say do a few test burns while you are home and awake, keeping an eye on the fire. Take note of the outside temps too as it may be a certain temp that messes with your draft.

Good luck.

 

[alternativeheat]

You need someone with Breckwell experience to come along and walk you through the possibilities.

 

[jedirye]

I called and left VM on Tuesday regarding something unrelated. I have not heard back. I'm going to try calling them again...

Could someone perhaps explain the proper shut down procedure with an active fire initially going? It doesn't really clarify in manual. Maybe that is what went wrong?

 

[jedirye]

It took a week for Breckwell to get back to me after several phone calls and voicemails left.

Long story short, the hopper must run out of fuel to properly shut down and prevent any burn back. This seems odd, as it does mention in manual to never let your stove run out if fuel.


I guess I'll tweak the process more and see what I can do. Ideally, I'd like to try after the flane goes out to have auger feed more and more pellets until the hot embers are out if burn pot. We'll see...

 

[vinny11950]

the hopper must run out of fuel to properly shut down and prevent any burn back

Hmmm

 

[alternativeheat]

The stove should be able to shut down normally, their answer is rather stupid sounding IMO..

 

[bigruckus]

I have the same stove..mine is labeled UPLAND 207..Breckwell bought them out several years ago...I've been reading about you issue with the stove..any new news about it..I've had mine for 4 years..run it at mid point 24-7...no issues ever...I use a 4" pipe right into my brick chimney in the center of the house..

 

[Cantbe03]

I've had this stove for 2 years now, I live in CA. The stove works great, you just need to plan for it. Because it doesn't drop pellets but pushes them up with the auger, there is a possibility for a burn back if you don't burn all of the pellets. Don't shut the stove off, just let it burn. If it's going to be too warm the next day, don't add more pellets.
If the auger motor gets noisy, run some pellets through it with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, it helps to quiet it and run smoother.
This is a beautiful stove, not like the many tin can looking stoves available. But my God people on here want to make it sound like your death with this stove is imminent. Once you get a handle on how fast pellets burn at your desired heat setting, you'll be able to dial things in. This year we had about 3 weeks of cold, then it warned up and we let the stove run out of pellets. Then it got cold again for 2 weeks, and it's been running non stop since. I usually run in medium and set to the lowest temp when I go to bed. Then turn back up in the morning. I hope that helps.

 

[jedirye]

Frankly, I'm surprised at how many times in Florida we've had this guy up and running since install of October last year (2017). To Cantbe03, you're right about having to plan for it. We've actually tweaked a way of "shutting it down" which doesn't involve it running out of pellets completely. It's kind of a pain and takes about 25 minutes (to be 100% sure / safe), but it's nice to have the option.
We've since pulled it away from the wall a bit more. Prior, we made the 1" clearance to combustibles but it was a pain to access the control panel. We added two 45 degree elbows and a small 6" section which allows it to sit just right.

We also started "trusting" it to run while we're sleeping. It took a lot of time to get to that point. However, hypothetically speaking, what if the power goes out with the stove running? That had me concerned. The internal alarm sensors wouldn't activate and let us know something was wrong. Do others have this concern? It was just a though. We had it running last night and we'll probably run it again tonight too (will be in the 30's, but that's cold for us!).

Cheers

 

[jedirye]

Frankly, I'm surprised at how many times in Florida we've had this guy up and running since install of October last year (2017). To Cantbe03, you're right about having to plan for it. We've actually tweaked a way of "shutting it down" which doesn't involve it running out of pellets completely. It's kind of a pain and takes about 25 minutes (to be 100% sure / safe), but it's nice to have the option.
We've since pulled it away from the wall a bit more. Prior, we made the 1" clearance to combustibles but it was a pain to access the control panel. We added two 45 degree elbows and a small 6" section which allows it to sit just right.

We also started "trusting" it to run while we're sleeping. It took a lot of time to get to that point. However, hypothetically speaking, what if the power goes out with the stove running? That had me concerned. The internal alarm sensors wouldn't activate and let us know something was wrong. Do others have this concern? It was just a though. We had it running last night and we'll probably run it again tonight too (will be in the 30's, but that's cold for us!).

Cheers

 

[Cantbe03]

Frankly, I'm surprised at how many times in Florida we've had this guy up and running since install of October last year (2017). To Cantbe03, you're right about having to plan for it. We've actually tweaked a way of "shutting it down" which doesn't involve it running out of pellets completely. It's kind of a pain and takes about 25 minutes (to be 100% sure / safe), but it's nice to have the option.
We've since pulled it away from the wall a bit more. Prior, we made the 1" clearance to combustibles but it was a pain to access the control panel. We added two 45 degree elbows and a small 6" section which allows it to sit just right.

We also started "trusting" it to run while we're sleeping. It took a lot of time to get to that point. However, hypothetically speaking, what if the power goes out with the stove running? That had me concerned. The internal alarm sensors wouldn't activate and let us know something was wrong. Do others have this concern? It was just a though. We had it running last night and we'll probably run it again tonight too (will be in the 30's, but that's cold for us!).

Cheers

I read the manual and will paste the few sections regarding power outtages. They designed the stovesto not let smoke enter the room, but to be safe they say it's not a bad idea to check. The exact wording is:

"The heater will not operate during a power outage. If a power outage does occur, check the heater for smoke spillage and open a window if any smoke spills into the room.
The trap door lever is on the back left side of the stove. It is used to open the trap door when starting the stove. In the event of a power failure the trap door will close preventing smoke from coming out of the unit."

So I wouldn't be too concerned. I have monitored smoke detectors in my house, I have notifications from my security alarm if my power goes out, and if I'm sleeping I always have a fan on in my bedroom and will wake up if the fan shuts off. If I'm home I will check the stove just to be safe, but it appears it was designed so you shouldn't be concerned with a power outage.