Pleasant Hearth not making heat?

[imacman]

Yes it burns better manually. Found out something this weekend. took the side off and was playing around with the trim. I found that if i take my hand and cover the air intake I can get a great flame. Its a bit lazy but still a great flame. I can plug the pipe up for a few minutes and get great heat not to mention it started to burn off the chemicals on the outside. This is what i would image the flame is supposed to look like more so than the small flame i am getting. Would this suggest that i most certainly need to upgrade to a 4" pipe?

You do NOT want a tall, lazy flame! The flame should be just at the top of the burn pot, or a little above, on most stoves. Covering the air intake that results in a tall, lazy, looping type of flame is NOT a "great flame".

If the stove continues to burn after you hold your hand over the air intake, there would seem to be an air leak somewhere. IMO, it should start to die while doing that.

As for upgrading to the 4" pipe, it certainly wouldn't hurt....you right on the borderline of having to put it in due to the altitude.....normally above 2500' requires 4".

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Is there a damper on that stove or just the trim?

A bit lazy is lazy and not a good flame at all, you are looking for a bright yellow/white flame with blue at the base, small pellets pieces wiggling around, larger pellets pieces glowing orange, and sparks exiting the burn pot when new pellets get delivered.

Now how large is that chimney flue the stove vents into? If it is larger than 36 square inches the weight of the air in the flue will cause burn problems but that would normally manifest itself in other ways than you are reporting.

If there are installation instructions dealing with setting a damper or the trim follow them, usually this is done with the stove in maximum burn if the stove automatically adjusts it self to the various firing rates. Frequently there is a draft (Dywer, Mag) meter range that the setting should be set at.

Your stove will likely have to be in manual mode to set it up, if you want that stove to hit paint curing temperatures you should run it in manual mode or fake out the room probe by placing it on some nice cold flooring.

 

[MYON]

update: i installed a 4" exhaust pipe, so now its and adapter, two elbows, 36" pipe and a 4-8" adapter. Still no change, it has just a trim setting no damper. I called the manufacturer and they told me i need the fresh air
vent outside, so tonight i am going to temp route it out of my window before i cut a hole in my house and see if that makes a difference. Does the trim control how much air the intake is allowing in, i can adjust either way but no real change, usually about +2 out of 4 is the best setting without a rag over the intake. i put a thermostat in my basement, with a rag on mid range temp i can get my basement around 85F no prob with outside temps in the 20s. with the rag off and 3/4 temp it can barely reach 73F and it was in the 60s here yesterday when i put the new pipe on.

 

[MYON]

spoke to ghp yesterday and they suggested installing the fresh air vent. Instead of drilling a hole in my wall i dropped the intake out of a nearby window. no change. I am currently waiting for a real
technician to call me back today so i can get this figured out. im starting to suspect an issue with the trim.

 

[MYON]

GOT IT FIXED.... After messing with this thing for hours the tech called me back. He told me that he didn't think the trim was working so they shipped me a new board. Got it last night and installed it.....still no change. Started playing around with the stove and after about an hour of "reverse engineering" this thing we stated thinking that the vacuum switch wasn't working right. Pulled the tube off and blew it out and then sucked/blew on the switch itself and presto, now it burns like a champ. I guess for some reason the switch was just hanging and not letting the stove feed properly. Just wish I knew that two weeks ago. Thanks for your help