Lopi Leyden

[richkorn]

pkryan,

I had the smoke detector in 1st floor hallway going off a few times. I believe this is the vapor/gases from the new paint burning off--mine only did it while running on high though. I still get that burning-in smell if I crank it up to high. So, keep running it and the smell and setting off smoke detectors will go away (unless you have another problem).

If we're going to be gone all day we're going to turn it off and, if it's cold out, turn the oil heat on to about 50-55 while we're gone. We're not running it all night yet because we're limited on pellets right now, but when it gets real cold and I have a full pellet supply (again) it will be running on low to medium all night.

Pellet stoves are way more safe than running a fire in an open fireplace.

Enjoy that Leyden, it's nice unit!

 

[Uconn411]

I had a Lopi Leyden installed this summer, and have run about a dozen bags of pellets through it so far this Oct. Been very reliable, I leave it on all day, on the low setting. I have one tower fan pushing cold air towards it from one room, and then another fan I hung with a hook from a doorway that sends the warm air from the ceiling out to the other rooms. I also have the ceiling fan running backwards. Heats the downstairs very well, but not much heat travels upstairs (where the doorway fan is pointed to). Possibly would do better if I turned up the heat setting, but this way I only go through one bag of pellets every 24hrs. My house is 2100 sq.ft.

I'm still trying to figure out how to best adjust the flame to get just the right amount of "angry flame" look w/o putting out the fire. I think I have too lazy of a flame now b/c I tend to get the glass and inside the stove sooted up with black soot.

 

[richkorn]

I think I have too lazy of a flame now b/c I tend to get the glass and inside the stove sooted up with black soot.

Yes, the low heat setting ashes up the glass pretty good. Ours is on low right now, been on since this AM.

 

[Gargravarr]

So Ok... I had another Pellet jam in the chute today... I'm not finding the operation of this unit very reliable at all... Do I have unreal expectations here? Or should I call the company who installed it and raise heck? Any one think my salesman's line that its being cause by irregular pellet length holds water???

The stove has kept my house comfortable so far (admittedly we have not had a real cold spell yet) so I'm hopeful that I can have the kinks worked out and rely on this thing for more than just supplemental heating...

Thanks

 

[pkryan]

They are frustrating, I let ours run last night, I heard a bit of rumble in it last night about mid-night, and got nervous, shut it down, I think its the pellets that we are using, opended up a new bag of "Instant heat", purchased from Agway, and noticed that these are a bit longer than the bag of New England pellets that the dealer left after the install. So Im thinking our is the pellets being a bit longer that are getting stuck. ANd your right, not too cold here and hoping to get all our kinks worked out before its gets real cold in NY.

 

[richkorn]

Gargravarr,

If you're using LG Granules the auger shouldn't be getting clogged at all. Long pellets, yes, I assume that can do it, but I thought the LGs were more on the short side and very highly rated.

Mine was jamming from bad pellets containing too much dust, grit, small stuff and other blackish stuff I can't even characterize. It was creating a "cake" at the top of the auger and just bogging it right down to a stop.

Been running some 1/2 way decent stuff after that (HEAT LLC) and no problems. Besides 5 bags of HEAT I don't have anything else yet except for the 3 tons of junk in basement that I'm returning Sat.

-rk

 

[brendan Essex JCT VT]

Just had my Leyden installed 1 week ago...It was running great until yesterday when the auger jammed. I emptied the hopper and cleaned out out (vacuumed) and had to use a screw driver to free the jammed pellets up in the delivery chute. It ran fine again until today when it went out again when I wasn't home so not sure what the issue was this time. I spoke to my dealer, Chimney Sweep in Shelburne VT, who said 2 other customers have had auger jamming problems and said it was the dust build up in the hopper that gets in the auger and to be diligent about not pouring that into the hopper when loading...Not sure if that is the issue or not..I'll post updates.

 

[richkorn]

Just had my Leyden installed 1 week ago...It was running great until yesterday when the auger jammed. I emptied the hopper and cleaned out out (vacuumed) and had to use a screw driver to free the jammed pellets up in the delivery chute. It ran fine again until today when it went out again when I wasn't home so not sure what the issue was this time. I spoke to my dealer, Chimney Sweep in Shelburne VT, who said 2 other customers have had auger jamming problems and said it was the dust build up in the hopper that gets in the auger and to be diligent about not pouring that into the hopper when loading...Not sure if that is the issue or not..I'll post updates.

What kind of pellets are you using?

 

[brendan Essex JCT VT]

Boreal from VT Pellet Stoves in Colchester VT

 

[kenzmadie]

I had a Lopi Leyden installed in August. I have the wall thermostat and have run it pretty much steady for the last month or so (I'm always cold).
It turns on and off while I'm at work and at night while I'm sleeping. I was rather anxious about it at first but so far so good. I'm thinking if it
runs too long the pellets will eventually run out anyway. My thermostat is a little "off" compared to my furnace thermometer but it seems to be a
steady difference rather than a fluctuating one. So far I'm really happy with it.

 

[richkorn]

I had a Lopi Leyden installed in August. I have the wall thermostat and have run it pretty much steady for the last month or so (I'm always cold).
It turns on and off while I'm at work and at night while I'm sleeping. I was rather anxious about it at first but so far so good. I'm thinking if it
runs too long the pellets will eventually run out anyway. My thermostat is a little "off" compared to my furnace thermometer but it seems to be a
steady difference rather than a fluctuating one. So far I'm really happy with it.

What kind of tstat are you using? The one that came with it or a wireless type?

I was thinking of putting on the stock unit just to see how it works and If I like it get a wireless wall mount so i don't have to drill & snake wires through walls.

 

[kenzmadie]

I have the travis industries one that came with it with the wire. The only problem is that they don't give you a really long piece of wire (I think they said 20 ft when they were installing it but it doesn't look like 20 feet). It's not that far from the stove and I would have preferred it another 8-10 feet away but maybe next year.

 

[richkorn]

I have the travis industries one that came with it with the wire. The only problem is that they don't give you a really long piece of wire (I think they said 20 ft when they were installing it but it doesn't look like 20 feet). It's not that far from the stove and I would have preferred it another 8-10 feet away but maybe next year.

Hey! :coolgrin: You stole my avatar (picture). That's my Leyden sitting in my Living room

 

[tinkabranc]

I have the travis industries one that came with it with the wire. The only problem is that they don't give you a really long piece of wire (I think they said 20 ft when they were installing it but it doesn't look like 20 feet). It's not that far from the stove and I would have preferred it another 8-10 feet away but maybe next year.

Hey! :coolgrin: You stole my avatar (picture). That's my Leyden sitting in my Living room

LMAO- for a minute there I thought you were talking to yourself through
the whole thread :lol:

 

[Gargravarr]

Just had my Leyden installed 1 week ago...It was running great until yesterday when the auger jammed. I emptied the hopper and cleaned out out (vacuumed) and had to use a screw driver to free the jammed pellets up in the delivery chute. It ran fine again until today when it went out again when I wasn't home so not sure what the issue was this time. I spoke to my dealer, Chimney Sweep in Shelburne VT, who said 2 other customers have had auger jamming problems and said it was the dust build up in the hopper that gets in the auger and to be diligent about not pouring that into the hopper when loading...Not sure if that is the issue or not..I'll post updates.

I got an email from Travis industries instructing me to remove the little metal flap in the drop tube - this has seemed to clear up the pellet jam problems. Apparently this past run of stoves, this flap was new, and they are removing it from future revisions. Looking at this thing when I removed it, and the design seemed ill conceived... My dealer had suggested I try to remove this thingy, but I was leery of removing what looked liked a safety feature, so I wanted to hear it direct from the manufacturer...

Any way, I'm still a newbie with pellet stoves, but from my limited experience, how the heck would you limit the amount of dust that makes it into the hopper? What are going to do, load each pellet individually? Seems like a cop-out suggestion...

 

[Mury]

We just got our Leyden, not hooked up yet. That's what our dealer said too. Remove that flap and the pellets feed fine. We'll see come Saturday I guess.

 

[sydney1963]

Mury,

Let us know how it goes, send pics. We all like pics.

 

[kenzmadie]

Hey! You stole my avatar (picture). That’s my Leyden sitting in my Living room

True enough...I am a reformed Avatar thief. The one I have now is truly my own now that I read "Posting Pictures on the internet for Dummies". Here is a better pic of my set up. And I hope this works or I'll have to read the book again!

 

[tumbles]

Looks great! How's the heat out put. I'm getting mine in 13 days (but who's counting).

 

[kenzmadie]

Great heat output. I love it so far. Warm but not a stifling heat.

 

[tumbles]

What feed rate are you running it at? Have you tried running both ways (Off the themostat or manual). Did you see the post about cleaning the glass?

 

[kenzmadie]

I never changed the auger setting...I suppose that's on whatever the factory setting was. The heat setting is at medium. In the early fall, I ran it on manual a couple of times just to get the chill out of the house. Now I am running it almost contstantly on the thermostat. I leave it on about 68 at night (I need it that high to get the heat down the hallway) and turn it up to 75 in the evening and back down again at night. I have my furnace set for 58 degrees in here just in case the stove should go out. I have cathedral ceilings over my living room and kitchen so run a ceiling fan to move the heat back down and around. It's a great stove, and I love being warm and toasty while watching the Giants on Sundays

Oh, and I did just read the post about the glass. I've been using a razor blade and then using windex or other comparable glass cleaner. It's worked well for me so far.

 

[Utilitrack]

Had my Leyden installed on October 10th, after a few issues with jams-now resolved since removing the gate on the chute, we are finding the sweet spot. Just a few questions for you fellow Leyden owners though...
1) I have not yet had to scrape my burn pot, seems to be a daily occurence for other posters with other kinds of stoves, have you had to?
2) I am burning Energex pellets- I seem to get a ton of ash compared to others on this site. I've seen posts talking about a cup or two. I think that i have double that just from Tuesday to today. The ash accumulates on the front of the burn pot between the pot and the glass. Are you all seeing this as well?
3) There is a shield that keeps that ash from the glass, but there is a gap underneath it where I can see pellets are accumulating, but they are too big to fall through the holes in grate to get to the ash pan. Any suggestions/tricks to get those out? Vacuum attachments do not work, too big.
4) Any of you pellet sifters? I have not nor do I have the time. Thoughts?

Overall we are very happy, so far no issues heating our 1,800' cape.

Have not yet tried the Magic Eraser, but have high hopes as cleaning the glass is a pain in the a$$. Fly ash and water, Windex have not touched the brown burnt on build up.

One observation though, never, I mean never hit the manual start button and then decide to shutdown after 5 minutes during the initial start up. Evidently the exhaust fan shuts down immediately and whatever combustion that has begun fills the house with smoke. Sorry honey..my bad...

Marc

 

[kenzmadie]

1) I have not yet had to scrape my burn pot, seems to be a daily occurence for other posters with other kinds of stoves, have you had to?
2) I am burning Energex pellets- I seem to get a ton of ash compared to others on this site. I’ve seen posts talking about a cup or two. I think that i have double that just from Tuesday to today. The ash accumulates on the front of the burn pot between the pot and the glass. Are you all seeing this as well?
3) There is a shield that keeps that ash from the glass, but there is a gap underneath it where I can see pellets are accumulating, but they are too big to fall through the holes in grate to get to the ash pan. Any suggestions/tricks to get those out? Vacuum attachments do not work, too big.
4) Any of you pellet sifters? I have not nor do I have the time. Thoughts?

I haven't had to scrape mine yet either....everything seems to burn well in it. I'm not getting much ash but I am using Lignetics. I think I know the gap you're talking about...you only see it when the doors are open? I have an attachment to my vaccuum....a small, soft plastic tube that if you squeeze it, it'll fit in there and suck that stuff out of there. I don't use a pellet sifter but I do put the pellets in a bucket before putting them into the stove. This not only prevents the bag from catching fire while I'm filling it (the plastic kinda got real hot one time) but it seems to cut down on the dust which accumulates in the bottom of the bucket and gets dumped outside. I have also waited until all the pellets burned out of the hopper and vacuumed the dust out of the hopper. I have not had my auger stop working yet because of dust but have read in here it can happen.

 

[Utilitrack]

Thanks for the Feedback Kenzmadie.
The Magic Eraser is truly MAGICAL.... Trimmed 5 minutes off my glass cleaning time along with half a roll of paper towels