Please Help!

[Kboyle]

So I’ve recently purchased a used Alderlea T5 wood insert on Facebook marketplace and installed it earlier this winter. To make a long story short I’ve been trying to rely on the stove to heat my nearly 1800 square-foot 1960 masonry rancher but am having issues getting the stove really hot. I know all stoves have a learning curve, but I specifically went with Pacific energy because we have one of their freestanding stoves at our family cabin and it is super easy to use and requires almost no effort to keep hot.

It seems like I’m not getting any secondary burn and the fire is dancing quite a bit(see video). I have already cleaned the boost manifold and made sure the baffle is clear.

I have an outside air intake. My chimney liner is about 18 foot tall. I’ve already checked the cap outside from the ground and it is not blocked. Burning mostly red oak under 18%.

The only other thing I could think of is to replace the door seal, but it did pass the paper test so I’m not sure that that is the issue. These stoves have two seals so not sure if I would have to replace both? Any recommendations would be appreciated as I can hardly get the room that it’s in (14x10) above 78° and can only maintain a temp of about 64° in the house.

 

[Kboyle]

I should also add that when the stove is efficiently heating and the secondary burn is occurring I can get top plate temps of around 200. If I am not on top of it the whole time and constantly adjusting the damper to get it hotter, I can only maintain top plate temps of around 140-150

 

[MongoMongoson]

How are you checking your moisture content of the wood? The way to do it is to freshly split a room temperature piece of wood and check it with a moisture meter. The pins should be pushed in oriented with the grain, not against.

You do have fire bricks in that stove, right? The video makes it look like I can see firebrick retaining brackets but no bricks.

Can you take some pictures of the inside of the stove with no fire burning? It would be good to see the baffle and interior clearly.

Have you had your baffle out yet? Before you do, you may want to have a replacement baffle gasket in hand.

All your secondary air travels up the back of the firebox in a vertical tube you can see in the middle of the back of the firebox. That air enters the baffle and feeds the fire on top of the wood.

If the former owner dumped a bunch of junk (ash, creosote) down that vertical tube during stove cleaning, it could be blocked. It can be difficult to see down the tube, but your phone might be able to get a video with the flash on.

Check and/or replace the baffle gasket. Check the baffle. Clean out all the little air holes if they are blocked. I blow mine out with compressed air.

Make sure the former owner did not block off the air intakes. People sometimes make adjustments to account for high draft. Your chimney isn't all that tall so if he or she made adjustments (blocking the boost air, partially blocking the secondary air intake), they could be causing you problems now. I have a Summit LE so it is different than your stove. I can't tell you exactly what to remove to find your air intakes but on mine, they are in the front under the stove. Your primary air adjuster lever goes under the stove, if you can get to where that is adjusting the primary intake, the boost intake will be in the vicinity.

When you pull out your boost manifold (stainless piece of angle in the front of the firebox), you should see a hole leading down under it. You can shine light down that hole to make sure it is clear. That's where the boost air comes into the boost manifold.