M55 Pellet Consumption - And Turbo Blower Questions

[Freddyp]

It has been several weeks since I last posted concerning the appetite that my 1 year old M55 Insert seems to have for pellets.
In my original post I explained that I seemed to be burning a lot more than the 3.1 lbs per hour of pellets that Enviro lists as normal. After doing all of the normal things like scrubbing the stove, checking the draft to 1.6 and using multiple brands of premium pellets, (Ligs, Oakies) I still was burning 40lbs in less than 8.5 hours with Heat set to 3, feed to 2, and combustion to 2.

Well after going round and round with the dealer/installer who recommended that I adjust the Auger Restricter Plate, I finally got tired of waiting around for him and pulled the stove and did it myself.

At first I set the Auger Restricter all the way down which only left 1" of opening for pellets. Filled and started the stove and unfortunately it failed. No pellets were feed into the burner pot. I vacuumed the entire 40lbs out and reset the restricter plate to 1 1/2 inches from the bottom. (I have pics if need be) refilled the stove and started it up.
This time the stove ran fine, but I didn't see any major improvement on the consumption of pellets. I got about another hour or so but after doing all the math I am still not getting the specs that Enviro says I should be getting which means I am still waking up in the morning to an empty stove and cold house.
I have since made another improvement to the stove and added a high end Skytech wireless thermostat to the unit. This gave me some relief since the thermostat does a better job of managing the settings while I am sleeping or away from the house.

I am now at the point, that the dealer wants to replace the blower motor with the new Turbo Blower that many of you have mentioned as an upgrade to this years stove.
My question to this board is - "is it worth it"?? Will it improve performance? Will it reduce consumption? Is it very loud? A big concern of mine since it is in my primary living area with TV & Kitchen and noise is an issue.. Although he won't warranty it for me, he is not going to charge me either since I have been complaining about this since day one.
What are your thoughts?? Should I upgrade or not??
Thanks

 

[Millsk]

I have a M55 FS with the new blower model, and a thermostat. I do not find the blower to be loud at all, but I never had the old style blower to compare it to. With this set up I run the stove on high/low for about 13-14 hours on a 40# bag. That's with an outside temp in the mid 30s. Do take into consideration we live in a newer house that us fairly tight.

Edit- I should add that it's a 2000 ft colonial, down stairs is 75 and upstairs is 70.

 

[Wachusett]

I am also running the M55 FS Steel. If I left the stove on a manual burn on heat level 3, it would easily eat 40lbs.
in 12 hours or less. The house would also be pretty toasty.

Fred, how hot are you keeping the heating space? How much space are you heating?
Also I have noticed shorter pellets feed alot quicker thru the stove. I can actually turn the feed rate up to 4 with longer pellets,
and burn for longer than with short pellets on level 3, if that makes sense.

FWIW, I am heating 2400 s.f., 9 year old house. first floor upper 60's sometimes 70, second floor low 60's.
put bag number 60 in the hopper tonight, started burning mid october.

 

[flynfrfun]

I think the new blower will help your situation some. I noticed more heat being put into the room with the new blower. However you'd better expect a lot more noise than you are used to as the old blower is almost silent in comparison. Maybe you can get someone back East that that burns Okies to do a #3 manual burn for 9-10hrs and compute their lbs/hr burn rate. I did it for you and mine burns 3.5lbs/hr or about 11hrs for 40lbs. However, as the other poster stated, smaller pellet size will allow the stove to feed more lbs/hr than larger or longer pellets. So, it's possible your burn rate is normal for Okies. I don't have access to Okies or I would do the test for you. I suspect my Blazer pellets are on the average to big size which will make the lbs/hr rate go down.

The only other thing I can think of is that they put the wrong auger motor on and instead of it being a 1rpm, it is a 2rpm. Ya never know. However, if that happened you would be tripping the overtemp switch all the time as with the old blower your stove would be getting really hot. So that's a long shot.

 

[Freddyp]

Hey Guys thanks for the quick responses.
A bit about my house....I live in a two level custom style home that is around 25 years old. It has 4 heating zones, however I have resolved that I am only concerned with heating one of those four zones. The house is very well insulated and also has all the interior walls and ceilings insulated which you think would be a good thing but it actually doesn't allow the heat to permeate through the walls. The area that I am trying to heat is an open floor plan that includes eat-in kitchen, kitchen area and family room around 1000 sq ft. I generally keep that heated at 70 degrees but since I am only home for the evening hours, I tend to only run the stove when I get home around 3:00 pm until 5:00 AM when I leave again. I leave the oil heat set at 59 degrees which may or may not kick in during the day time hours when I am not home. The insert is located in the middle of the house, in a large fire place which is a dual fire place meaning that it feeds the family room in front and the living room in back, (you can see through it) as a result I can go into the living room and look at the back of the stove while it is running. I have full access to the back of the stove which is pretty convenient.
As for pellets I have noticed that smaller size pellets do drop much quicker than the longer Lignetics,,, which is my pellet of choice. Since I have easy access to many types of pellets, I have a couple of tons of each, Oakies, Lignetics, Green team and Maine Choice - all super premiums.
I have only seen the stove over heat twice since I have owned it and have had to reset the high level breaker to get it to start up again.
I have tons of pictures and even videos of the auger motor running but do not know how to post them here.
I think the stove is a pretty good stove and over all am happy with it, but I think since I have an early generation model, Jan of 2011 install but may be a 2010 or 2011 model (I am not sure) I think there have been some improvements made by Enviro to known problems.
My installer is a pretty good guy but admittedly realizes that I have more experience and knowledge on this stove than he does, so he calls me with more questions than answers.
He is willing to get me the new Turbo Blower Fan which is now back ordered from Enviro until Jan 9th and is willing to install it free of charge but is telling me that the stove will be noticeably louder than what it is now which is virtually silent but can not guarantee that it will resolve the consumption issue.
I am inclined to let him install it, but I may try to keep the old blower just in case I need to swap it out if it doesn't resolve my issue.
BTW adding the wireless thermostat was without a doubt the best improvement that I have made. The piece of crap manual thermo that came with the stove never worked right from day one and was later determined to be defective.
And Flynfrfun, I don't think I thanked you for running the test for me before - THANK YOU very much!!
I will keep you all posted on the out come.
Gutta go to work now.