Pellets Over Flowing all of a sudden

[tpatten]

Hello All,
I'm new to Hearth and Pellet Stoves but was hoping you may have some insight.

I recently purchased a used Englander 55-SHPEP Pellet Stove and have it heating a new bonus room above the garage that is not fully insulated yet. It's an 800 sq ft room with high ceilings that seems to heat like a 1,500 sq ft room.

When I first got the pellet stove it worked great, no issues at all! I loved the thing, kept the a garage at 65º while it was 30º outside without issue. Now we are having a bit of a cold spell... -20º outside and it's not keeping up well (as to be expected). The issue I'm having is I will leave it overnight and come back to check in the morning and the pellets will be overflowing with unburned pellets. To solve this I've been turning the feed rate down but now it's all the way down to 4-5 out of 9 and it's struggling to keep the room above 40º.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this might happen? I know one factor is I do not have an OAK on it and don't currently have the money to purchase one though I have yet to actually find the advantage of an OAK, especially in my very draft garage that has no issue getting fresh air to the stove.

Greatly appreciate any help, thank you all in advance!

 

[Ssyko]

It may need a good thorough cleaning, pot, pasages behind impingement plate, combustion blower and impeller, stove pipe top to bottom. After thats done let us know how its burning. I wouldn’t worry about an OAK just yet.

 

[tpatten]

It may need a good thorough cleaning, pot, pasages behind impingement plate, combustion blower and impeller, stove pipe top to bottom. After thats done let us know how its burning.

Thanks for the tip! I actually gave it a deep clean when I got home today and it seems to be going a lot better. I'll let it run overnight and get back to you if the issue continues.

 

[Ssyko]

Good, glad to hear that

 

[doghouse]

though I have yet to actually find the advantage of an OAK, especially in my very draft garage that has no issue getting fresh air to the stove.
Greatly appreciate any help, thank you all in advance!

Pellet stoves need air to breath. Your combustion blower does this by drawing air into the burn chamber then out the venting. By the heat settings you stated, i'd quesstimate that it draws about 60 to 60 CFMs. The stove is pulling the air directly from the room. This air has to be replaced and guess where the air comes from; all of the leaks and drafts in the room. An OAK would eliminate this. But wait, there's more. Your convection (room) blower is moving around 150 CFM's through the heat exchanger. To a lesser effect, it does the same as the combustion blower, pulling air from the leaks and drafts and moving it around the room.

Even though the stove is pulling air from the leaks and drafts, this may still not be enough air to properly feed the stove. This may be causing the poor burn you're experiencing.

 

[tpatten]

Thanks for the suggestions. Even after cleaning it I went and checked the stove this morning to find several pounds of unburned pellets in the burn pot causing it not to produce much heat for the room.

I may need to bite the bullet and get the OAK by the sounds of things.

 

[jerrieric]

I had the same issue with my 55shp. Worked with mfgr and could never resolve. Ended up giving it away.

 

[tpatten]

Damn.... I'm really hoping not to have to do that! I'd love to switch to a mini split but unfortunately that's not in the cards right now. Eventually I'll do that and keep the pellet stove as a secondary.

 

[jerrieric]

my 55shp ran great for years but then the pellet overflow happened. had vented into dedicated masonry chimney and had fresh air to outside hooked up. i replaced both blowers and still had the problem. i was going to replace the board but mfgr said that was not the problem. loved the stove before this happened. i asked the person who i gave it to, to let me know if he figured it out. he never got back to me.

 

[tpatten]

Glad to hear it lasted a while at least. I believe the one I have is 5 or so years old. Wondering if gaskets would cause the issue or what. Issues only really seemed to happen after many hours and temps below 0º. It ran for probably 5-7 hours on the highest setting last night without anny issues but overnight it backed up a couple hours worth of pellets if I had to guess.

 

[jerrieric]

I also replaced all the gaskets with no results. Let us know if you figure it out.

 

[Ssyko]

Your convection (room) blower is moving around 150 CFM's through the heat exchanger. To a lesser effect, it does the same as the combustion blower, pulling air from the leaks and drafts and moving it around the room.

Convection blower does not remove any air from the dwelling, it recycles air around the stove and room. But the rest of the info is 100% correct

 

[doghouse]

Convection blower does not remove any air from the dwelling, it recycles air around the stove and room. But the rest of the info is 100% correct

Correct, the convection blower doesn't "remove" any air from the room. My original statement was, "To a lesser effect, it does the same as the combustion blower, pulling air from the leaks and drafts and moving it around the room." It does this because the room is under negative pressure via the combustion blower, just not as much air is pulled through the drafts and leaks by the convection blower. My college physics is showing.

To the OP, I wouldn't worry about insulating the room just yet, I would get about 745 tubs of caulking and fill the gaps as best as I could.

 

[tpatten]

So it took a little while but I finally got an OAK. Installed it yesterday and did I thorough cleaning before testing to see if it helped.

Last night the temps dropped down to about 10° so the stove ran almost all night, kept it at about 55° inside. I come out to check it this morning and........ huge pile of pellets still, didn’t seem to make a difference!

Any other ideas?

 

[Ssyko]

Well now that your not creating a vacuum in your home. We can try and figure out why we cant create a vacuum in your fire chamber. What is your exhaust vent configuration and length?

 

[tpatten]

Thanks for the reply!

My exhaust is very basic, it’s a 45° from the back of the stove, goes straight out 3’ through the wall with a vent cap on the end.

 

[Ssyko]

Have you had the convection blower out and check the impeller fan? Ck the housing for hidden ash?

 

[Ssyko]

You really should have at least a 3 foot vertical for the draft that is a requirement from the manufacturer. Have you done any of the burn pot mod’s? Blocking the holes under the burn plate help the burn big time