My Maxx-MAdventure

[batchman]

Found with the stove running fine I could not get a piece of paper to stay over the end of my OAK pipe. I put a bag over it and saw no difference in the fire or the draft.

So I pulled my stove side OAK pipe off to get a look at what's happening during burn with the air intake nozzle. It has a "flapper" hinged at the top that I presumed was to stop outside air working moisture magic inside the stove when not running. It hinges easily from two small tabs at the top and I did have that hang up once when I put the nozzle back on, but freed it up and confirmed it swings OK with a pencil (but not when stove is running!).

Here's a shot looking in from the back with the stove warmed up and running on "4".



I can watch the flapper wiggle but clearly I need to pull this out next time the stove is cold, and see if that makes a difference to the OAK draft. There is nothing in any of the three manuals about this, or another air path. Funny thing though, I can't see where the other air intake comes from.

80CFM my eye.

Best,
- Jeff the Mad Scientist

 

[hyfire]

What happens if your OAK gets plugged? The stove has to get air somehow? You might have to dig deeper....

 

[batchman]

IT LIVES

So here's what I had to do with my OAK to clear the auger fan - a small arbor press and a Craftsman breaker bar (LOL), I used the cut-off PVC with the hose clamps to try and keep the pipe from turning oval, which would keep it from passing through the back cover and give me trouble if I had to remove the coupler:



After that, and pulling the flapper valve above, I was able to run the stove without a "chain-sawing tin cans" sound effect and actually hold a piece of paper in place over the end of the pipe. So off to finalize the OAK, which took some work. First, clearing up old business above, here's why I worry about draft:



Notice the shed under the deck, and how close the shed wall is to the chimney. That's where I want to pull my air from - the furnace draws from the shed too - nice and protected from the hilltop winds. If I came through the short wall facing us, it'd have to be between the post and the shed to keep from putting a wart on the front of the house, which is actually opposite the street but facing a valley. Plus it'd have to be chest high or so to stay clear of a glacier that forms and above driven snow and leaves. I don't want it that high inside the house, and I don't want any condensation running into the stove. So of course to run so close to the chimney I've got to cut the hole right through some framing. Easy way be damned!



Of course even I wouldn't just leave it at that, even though the posts carry the big loads and the PVC would stand up to significant carrying too:



Took the opportunity to improve the insulation aside the masonry, which sure let some air in. Now I'm getting close, still have to paint the vent pipe which I'll do at a 1-ton cleaning. Might even replace the 90 since it got a little beat up when I resorted to violence getting it to mate to the flex adapter. Sure looks better to me than the piece of flex randomly leaving in the upper right of the picture. This will hide behind the futon that lives there nicely.



And the other side, from in the shed, not sure if you can see the window screening I've got siliconed in place.



With the OAK done I finally got the building inspector over and I'm off and running. I predict a swift end to cold weather, for a couple of years at least. Not a new phenomenon for me - when I moved out the boonies in 1983 I had to immediately buy a Bronco and then we had 5 years of mild winters.

Cheers,
- Jeff

 

[batchman]

And just for laughs, this is what it looks like when I try to accomplish something non-trivial. The poor pool table (came with the house) is the only flat surface I've got!



Best,
- Jeff

 

[hyfire]

Ok so now the oak is 100% sealed internally in the stove? What is going to happen now is all that fresh air is going to be used for combustion, and none will enter the room. I prefer a bit of fresh air into the convection blower that is why I left my stove a hybrid OAK as the factory left it..

 

[batchman]

Ok so now the oak is 100% sealed internally in the stove?

There is still some internal air path that I can't locate. Pretty annoying to go through all that work to draw maybe 20% outside air. Seriously, holding a cigarette a foot away from the OAK intake only barely deflects the smoke, maybe. I may try to add something like a diesel engine air filter monitor to the OAK pipe just to see what it's really doing.

I have not found another opening drawing air, one tech thought the air wash would be drawing room air from the bottom but I find no port. Guessing a lot more of the combustion air comes from the aquarium pump than I thought - maybe it's the lion's share rather than just a little boost.

So far I'm winding up with a modest list of annoyances but now at least I'm loving the heat.

Thanks for the response!
- Jeff

 

[Happy Hour]

Subscribed........Want to hear/know how the Distribution Kit works for you on the Maxx-M.

 

[batchman]

Subscribed........Want to hear/know how the Distribution Kit works for you on the Maxx-M.

You and me both! My dealer and I were both surprised to find the distribution kit not listed for Maxx-M as they are purportedly the same. I am betting this is a certification issue, as in the manufacturer has not UL tested both configurations. I look forward to getting the "hat" in place and duct work in process and will try to document here what I encounter, and what I do about it.

I worked so hard on that OAK, I will admit I'm behind on other projects and may not get the ducting settled this season...

Best,
- Jeff

 

[batchman]

Well I may have gotten my first vote of confidence. The oil man came yesterday, and the boss said, "Hey how about we try to keep that oil a while and let the stove handle things?". Great idea, I still have a good supply of pellets, but sure wish I had my distribution worked out. For the days while we're working and the nights when we're upstairs asleep I run the box fan pointing down the basement stairs on "high". When we're in the kitchen or living room I turn it down to "medium" to reduce the noise.

Looks like running on three I keep the basement room about 85degF and burn 10 hours per bag of Okie Platinums. Upstairs should be livable, but I'll bet we nudge up the thermostat in the 2nd floor bedroom on a cold night.

Cheers,
- Jeff

 

[batchman]

Finally finished my first ton. Did a quick cleaning, needed heat so I didn't pull the baffles. Here's my ash bin after 1 ton of Okanagan Platinums:



Looks like it's the right size. I also think the Platinums have spoiled me but good.

I have another ton but am thinking I'll leave it sealed up and try some other pellets while I still need the heat, before I do a full tear down cleaning. Found 6 beat up bags of FSUs at my local HD and figured I'll give them a try. 1 bag in and I find they are hot, and maybe fill the burn pot a little more. The pellets are longer, and are hardwood, so I think they stay in the pot longer. I'm going to run these through and see how my burn times and ash compare. I did notice they don't clear as much at the bottom of the hopper - I could run the OKies to "empty" and it'd be one-two pellets deep on the 4x4" floor of the hopper, the FSUs left probably a gallon that wouldn't tumble home.

Things I've learned:

- Sifting pellets stinks. I had 4 bags of OKs develop "tumors" from moisture, and I just had to get every morsel out of 'em but couldn't bear to pour straight sawdust into my stove. So I cut up a gallon milk jug and used a 12x12x3 box top and a can strainer. Work.
- Damp pellets make sticky ash. My inclination to use all I could led me to burn some swollen pellets that did feel a little damp, and I made sticky deposits that I thought may become clinkers. Running a couple dry bags through cleared the deposits. Mostly.
- A quick clean-out is short work on this stove. My opinion may change when it comes time to pull the burn pot, baffle and blowers but for now the once-over is No.Where.Near the job I was thinking.
- This site has saved me a lot of guessing and a lot of havoc. And come to think of it, mess too as I knew to put the stove on start before opening the door, to get the stoves' draft working for me instead of clouding ash all over that tile floor!

Burn rates (haven't messed with feed rates, yet)

Pellet brand Stove Setting hours-per-bag

Okie Platinum 3 10
Okie Platinum 2 15.7

Kinda funny still working out this stove thing, first event of my racing season is tomorrow. I have a lot to remember.

<to be continued>

Cheers,
- Jeff

 

[hyfire]

You becareful breathing any ash , as it does contain very small traces of heavy metals. Here is an study I found..

 

[batchman]

Interesting paper! And yes, thanks to (I think) your prior posts on the topic I was pretty careful about "the cloud". Turning the stove on and opening the door(s) did a great job of not letting any ash escape, seems like the OKie buildup such as on the door was the perfect level of "stickiness" to stay in place until the vac passed over. I was very careful as I dumped the bin into my ash bucket as well.

But that paper has me thinking of a different kind of use for the ash. In racing sometimes a lead-acid battery leak happens - and a very prepared racer I know keeps a box of baking soda around for such times. Looks like a box of softwood pellet ash may be even better!

Thanks,
- Jeff

 

[batchman]

Wow I just realized it's been a long time since I updated this thread.

The Good news -

- My exhaust into a 35' masonry chimney with just a flex reaching in and pointing up worked fine, according to my chimney sweep - and he was a skeptic. I believe part of my success is I don't run the stove on low, and so far I've only burned hot pellets. After my ~1.3t "season" I did have significant ash in my 2' long horizontal "reach" into the masonry chimney, I think I will change my 90deg elbow to a cleanout "T" although I do worry about hurting airflow with that - I may rig a baffle on the inside of the cap.
- FSUs compared favorably to Okie Platinums (12 bags run), maybe even hotter/longer as they're hardwood, very similar ash

The Bad news -

- Valfei Ambiance hardwoods *don't* compare well to the above (6 bags run)
- I was not fast enough on putting a can of Damp-Rid in place and have surface rust on the heat exchanger. I sprayed it down and will hope a hot burn helps, and I'll probably paint the baffle. I also never managed to find a good way to block my OAK.

Things yet to be determined:

- Relay arrangement to manage shutdown/startup through power failures
- wiring harness to accommodate lugging in car batteries to run my UPS
- Thermostat arrangement with possible management of A/C blower (which needs replacement)
- Install of duct kit (yeah, I know)
- If my leftover ton of Okies survived the summer (all sealed up and covered but outside)
- If there will be any decent pellets at reasonable cost when the ground freezes and I can take a delivery
- If comparisons of pellets year/year are worth anything at all...

Cheers/later,
- Jeff

 

[batchman]

Aaaannd, here's a long lost pic of how I get from the thimble to the 6" masonry flue. After seeing the amount of ash that collects in this horizontal bit I'm thinking a cleanout T would be better than the elbow, since it's not easy to de-install and clean, but I worry about airflow. Considering adding a baffle bolted to the inside of the cleanout panel. Thoughts?






(on edit) Went and compared my elbow to a "T" and saw that my vent pipe would be about 1.5" too short. Silly me figured these things would be modular and therefore consistent dimension but no such luck. Since I can't easily make up that short distance (my slip pipe is not set up to go longer) I'm sticking with the elbow. For now.


Thanks,
- Jeff

 

[batchman]

Just realized I never did get back to update this thread last year... Whoops!

Anyway, I did swap the elbow above for a cleanout T, actually put a newer/easier thumb-screw style at the stove exit and put the older style up top and since it has a "[" handle I bolted some brass trim to that - bling!

For my 2014/2015 season I burned 3 tons of my Okie Plats, one from the prior year, plus some random 6-packs for testing. The old ton survived outside storage OK, but the new ones were considerably ashier. I'll try to get back and post my 6-bag test results for several different pellets. Hard to say for certain but it looks like those 3 tons (plus a cord and 3/4ton giant pellets) saved me at least 400 gallons of oil. Plus, for the first time in my 57 Massachusetts winters, I had a warm house...

I found that with the T replacing the elbow I had a lot less buildup in my horizontal pipe but more in my down pipe. Pretty much as I'd expect, and still not enough to worry about. A 1 hr clean every ton or so with a full breakdown end-of-season and it's good to go.

I did rig up a cap for my OAK and used a large red rubberband on the door to indicate it was in place. With that and a can of damp-rid I saw no new rust, although the paint is now pretty well blasted off my baffle and the heat exchanger does show a skim of surface rust. I suspect that's inevitable.

I have gotten exactly "nowhere" on either the back panel that doesn't fit a 4" double wall outlet pipe or on the vent kit. The change to the cleanout T pushed the exhaust pipe and therefore the stove a good 2" further from the wall, I want to make sure the vent kit fits before I try to push it back. Unfortunately the vent kit did not come with a block-off plate so I have to make something before I can put it all together, otherwise the heat will still come out in the basement room rather than go out the vent pipes.

So far for 2015/2016 I ran a few more 6-bag tests and have burned my leftover ton from last year. Since I started that ton then "took a break" trying other pellets before choosing this season's recipe, an enterprising rodent "moved in" despite my covers. I'm presuming chipmunks. Made a stinky icky mess of the bags but the pellets themselves were OK, albeit a touch odiferous. I deployed Irish Spring in vented covered "dishes" underneath the tons, hope that works this time. Last year I tried that I just left it in open containers and it got nibbled and shat upon etc.

I tried out a few pellets from a pellets direct cash-n-carry sale (plus a ton of giant pellets for the insert) and wound up needing a tow home - my truck failed its' stress test (3200lbs) and needs a new injector pump. That is actually good news since this was much better than finding this out with a camper and car trailer on the way to Nebraska. Nabbed my season supply from Hamshaw again but this year they're onto me, delivery jumped up to $50. Oh well. Not bad really at about $1/mile, but I got spoiled the last two years.

I've just done my first "1 ton clean" and found I'd packed some ash into the exhaust "manifold" although the fan itself looks fine. I think from the way it's running I've got some buildup in the vacuum port - I catch it "paused" every so often then resumes feeding with a faint click (quieter than a snap disk). Can't find it from the burnpot side, I guess I'll try blowing it out - from the switch end of the tube, of course.

I haven't yet started my cordwood insert, probably will this week. In the one really cold night so far I did kick the Maxx up to "4" and was surprised it was not a lot louder than at 3. Door temp went up a good 100 degF, I'm going to look forward to that setting once I've got the ducting worked out. Well, except for the increased consumption - this thing can eat some fuel!

I took a stab at adding some baffle to the burn pot to help reduce pellets going directly to the ash bin and getting burned there. Had a dead sawzall blade and broke it off symmetrically then JB-Welded it to the "flap", this worked reasonably until the stove cooled and the JB "no longer welded". I drilled and tapped a couple holes to capture it with screws. Here are some snapshots (added looong after this post, always meant to get better shots but these are better than nothing ):

Before (stock):

After:

In action:

.

This has significantly reduced, but not eliminated, raw pellets landing in the ash bin. I debated a bigger piece but didn't want to disrupt the airflow that much, not knowing what the "tolerance" would be to mucking with that...

Cheers/later,
- Jeff