Newbie with a pioneer iii

[jph7231984]

Hello. I had a pioneer iii installed in my addition . My home is currently 2500 sq Ft colonial. The stove is in a 22.5’ x 19’ room with a 14’ opening into other Rooms. They kinda talked me into the larger one but I can with ease get the room to 85 degrees and keep the rest of my house at 68-70. With out reloading the stove some bedrooms get down to 64 ish and the coldest about 60. I do love this thing although I could probably burn more efficiently with a pioneer ii. The house stays warm well after the fire is out. My question is that I’ve burned about 3/4 of a rikk in about 8 days . I’ve been packing it at night choking it down and I know that’s not good to do in regards to creasote deposits and I’m getting deposits on the glass . Last night I didn’t choke it and woke up to nicely burning coals and clean glass. I also haven’t been able to fully use it to its capacity because first fire the circuit breaker was fried. The tech called quadrafire and supposedly this was the first of this ever happening to this model. 2 weeks later they installed a new circuit board and instantly popped the breaker and fried that one… 3rd is in order. My SBT button works, manually adjusts the flu in stages , fan works , but the light on the button is non existent and there is no communication with the thermostat. I’m frustrated to say the least. Oh I also have 1 heat zone kit installed in our master that’s above the room the fire place is in so it really doesn’t need to be turned on. Just looking for tips . Running humidifiers all over my house to to try to keep it around 38-40% . I really love burning wood . But this is much different than my ol manual pot belly stove in my msn cage. If any has and words of wisdom I would greatly appreciate it . John from Ohio

 

[Mwr2256]

I am also just installed a pioneer 3 in our new house, I run the furnace fan on all the time and it seems to help distribute the heat. I draw air out of the basement for the fan. Mine does seem to go through plenty of wood but it is also split very small. Burning oak. It does seem odd how yours keeps blowing the circuit board. Have you turned the breaker on without it hooked up and made sure something isn’t funny with the wiring? I ran mine manually one night because I didn’t feel like it was burning long enough and like you I woke up with smoked glass. The thermostat doesn’t seem to do much because I always have it set low so it chokes it down to make the wood last as long as I can but still doesn’t last more than 6 hours, we’ll see tonight I loaded it up good. Not sure where they get their 18 hour burn time!I was wondering about burning hedge (Osage orange) in it but I know that stuff can burn really hot and don’t want ruin something. It sure does make a pretty fire and has a nice viewing glass.

 

[jph7231984]

Hey thanks for the reply . I’m pretty sure the wiring is good because we just put this addition on and it’s jumped to an electrical outlet right next to the fire place . The button still works and just dampens the flu on a timer basically . No lights come on when you activate the switch . It’s almost two weeks since they came to service it and had to order a second circuit board. So when you set the temp down on the thermostat it just chokes the damper way down ? Basically now burning dirty creating more creasote? I’ve noticed it also depends on how you stack the wood as well. What they manual calls for certain size logs stacked 3 high . If I have any coals it’s difficult to get three splits in there two deep.

 

[Mwr2256]

So the thermostat doesn’t really seem to change the operation much, it doesn’t seem to dampen it down near enough soon enough, but I think it is not doing that to get a clean burn. I don’t know if it goes off of the temp sensors in the fire box or how it exactly controls it, I’d like to call Quadra fire and find out. Basically it never seems to close the air all the way down until it’s coals, it just slowly shuts it a little at a time even when it’s not calling for heat. I really think my wood size is affecting my burn time I hope, had to buy some from a neighbor because mine wasn’t dry, most the pieces are 4x4x16. How long of burn time are you getting and what kind of wood?

 

[Fredjmillard]

So the thermostat doesn’t really seem to change the operation much, it doesn’t seem to dampen it down near enough soon enough, but I think it is not doing that to get a clean burn. I don’t know if it goes off of the temp sensors in the fire box or how it exactly controls it, I’d like to call Quadra fire and find out. Basically it never seems to close the air all the way down until it’s coals, it just slowly shuts it a little at a time even when it’s not calling for heat. I really think my wood size is affecting my burn time I hope, had to buy some from a neighbor because mine wasn’t dry, most the pieces are 4x4x16. How long of burn time are you getting and what kind of wood?

@Mwr2256 have you got the circuit board issue resolved? Any additional updates on how you and the pioneer iii are getting along? I am strongly considering this fireplace but have concerns with how smart it is. I would like to run a heat dump down into my basement and not entirely sure how to configure with the thermostat and sbt tech.

 

[Mwr2256]

@Mwr2256 have you got the circuit board issue resolved? Any additional updates on how you and the pioneer iii are getting along? I am strongly considering this fireplace but have concerns with how smart it is. I would like to run a heat dump down into my basement and not entirely sure how to configure with the thermostat and sbt tech.

I really like the SBT, it does a really good job of keeping the glass clean and has been much easier to operate than first anticipated. It heats our 2000 square foot home very nice but I do wish I had put on the extra duct to blow hot air in the basement. I do have it sucking the air from the basement for the fan which definitely helps. I wouldn’t be concerned with how smart it is but this is also my first unit.

 

[Doubleg2420]

Hello. I had a pioneer iii installed in my addition . My home is currently 2500 sq Ft colonial. The stove is in a 22.5’ x 19’ room with a 14’ opening into other Rooms. They kinda talked me into the larger one but I can with ease get the room to 85 degrees and keep the rest of my house at 68-70. With out reloading the stove some bedrooms get down to 64 ish and the coldest about 60. I do love this thing although I could probably burn more efficiently with a pioneer ii. The house stays warm well after the fire is out. My question is that I’ve burned about 3/4 of a rikk in about 8 days . I’ve been packing it at night choking it down and I know that’s not good to do in regards to creasote deposits and I’m getting deposits on the glass . Last night I didn’t choke it and woke up to nicely burning coals and clean glass. I also haven’t been able to fully use it to its capacity because first fire the circuit breaker was fried. The tech called quadrafire and supposedly this was the first of this ever happening to this model. 2 weeks later they installed a new circuit board and instantly popped the breaker and fried that one… 3rd is in order. My SBT button works, manually adjusts the flu in stages , fan works , but the light on the button is non existent and there is no communication with the thermostat. I’m frustrated to say the least. Oh I also have 1 heat zone kit installed in our master that’s above the room the fire place is in so it really doesn’t need to be turned on. Just looking for tips . Running humidifiers all over my house to to try to keep it around 38-40% . I really love burning wood . But this is much different than my ol manual pot belly stove in my msn cage. If any has and words of wisdom I would greatly appreciate it . John from Ohio

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I’m a little late, but I had a pioneer iii installed in September of 22, I’m now on my 3 “mother board” and my current one has been working for 2 weeks now. When the stove works , it works great. I keep the thermostat that connects to the stove cooler than the room so I guess the stove stays on low fire. I can’t say I’m impressed with due to the fact that it never works. The local company I bought it from has stopped selling them due to the fact that everyone that they have sold has had the same issues as mine with no good resolution besides replacing the main circuit board.

 

[os armeyer28]

I started using mine in March last year and had no circuit board issues. I too draw air feom my basement for the fan. I did install a heat distribution kit in mine and wasn't all that impressed. It goes into my basement but it doesn't seem to pull alot of heat down. I have 3 elbows but its only a 12' run . I do run my fan in low which I need to call and make sure this won't damage anything. If i ran it on high i think it would push a little more heat into that duct that goes downstairs. I only made a few big fires last spring. I belive it has an auto fan speed increase no matter what you have it set at if it's getting to hot to protect itself (I could be wrong on this). I would love to have an option to put an inline duct fan on my supply air in my basement to get rid of the fan noise in the unit. When having a conversation at night or watching TV when the kids are in bed I find myself turning it up to overcome the fan noise. It's not super load but it is noticeable when a talking scene is on then an auction scene gets loud its a little annoying. I like the SBT button but like you guys have said it seems like it won't choke the fire down much. I belive it is going off of the 2 thermocouples inside the fire box. So if the temp is to low which would cause creosote or blacken the glass it will keep the damper open. My house is spray foamed for air sealing and wet cellulose. So it's pretty air tight this thing heats my living room and upstairs hallway to 85 degrees. Honestly I'm not sure why these fireplace companies don't come up with a way to duct some of this heat to you furnace blower. A tempature sensor with a damper or something so your furnace blower doesn't over heat. I run my furnace on circulation mode which does help but my living room being 85 and the kitchen being 70 laundry area is 68 and the far bedroom being 67 and the close bedroom being 76 is a little frustrating. I do overall enjoy this pioneer iii.

 

[Lgbeer84]

Hi, I had one installed on my new house last year. Worked great for the most part. Longest burn I could get was 8hrs. That was by tightly stacking it, but same issue, glass was smoked over. Never lost a circuit board yet. Knock on wood. However, the SBT button, randomly turns on when not in use. The biggest issue that I had to navigate was the slide mechanism for the auto damper getting stuck on not traveling smoothly. This led to the actuator making God awful noises and bangs when trying to open it. Needless to the actuator ended up failing and had to be replaced. To stop this from happening again, I took apart the slide mechanism and greased the metal contact points with high temp anti seaze grease (1600f). Hasn't happened since.

 

[danvan135]

Lgbeer84, I am having a similar issue with my Pioneer 3 where the actuator could not move the slide mechanism for the auto damper. If I disconnect the cotter pin and manually move the slide it works fairly well, but I believe the mechanism needs to be greased. How did you take apart the slide mechanism to apply the high temp grease. I see 4 screws in the front and also there appear to be two screws underneath. Is that all that is involved to remove the cover to get to the metal contact points on the slide mechanism?

 

[camaro350man]

I've been using this stove to heat my new house for the past 3 years. I absolutely love it. It'll heat the whole house, 3000 sqft ranch. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you do I think you'll enjoy the stove. In regards to the damper, I too had the same problem. I took the screws out as mentioned and I sprayed some high temp graphite liquid lubricant in the slide area. I then worked it in good. The lubricant dries and leaves just the graphite behind. The benefit is that it will not attract dust! This has been working well for two years. Before that, that slide got stuck all the time.

In terms of operation, I press that button everytime as it says and I load a few logs in. I never load the stove totally full. Generally it will burn for a while and then the light shuts off and the damper closes some. When the temperature is met, the damper slowly closes. Maybe in 20 minutes, definitely not fast but i notice the change from when the stove is calling for heat. Sometimes I make a small fire and the green light stays on the entire time. As long as it's burning clean I don't mind. I generally do this when it's in the 30s outside.