Quad. Pellet stove user questions.

[dbchris]

Hi folks!

I got my Quad Castille Insert installed this year. I just want to make sure I'm using this stove correctly.

1. I've attached a pic. of the inside of the stove. It was all black originally, and now the back brick and the burn pot are white. Is the white normal? This is not ash. On the burn pot, I can scrape some of the white off if I really chip it off.

2. I noticed when it is very cold outside, the stove runs non-stop. The room does not heat up enough to reach the thermostat. The open floor plan allows the heat to go into other areas, and therefore the stove never shuts off unless I manually adjust the thermostat down. The stove does put out a lot of heat! Is it bad for the stove to run 8-12 hours straight? Or should I be letting it cool down every few hours. By the way, the stove works great when the outside temps are in the forties. Just when it gets colder do I have this problem.

Two story house. The stove is located in a sunken family room (one foot) that is open to the kitchen and to the dinning room. Family room does not have a second story over half of it. Fairly well insulated. The thermostat is in a good location (I think), however I beleive the heat is blown up to the ceiling and into the other rooms. In fact, the stove heat reaches the oil furnace thermostat located in the furthest away room - dining room.

Please be advised I did not buy the stove to heat the house, My chimney was constructed with no smoke shelf, so we thought a pellet stove with a liner would be a nice supplement.

Sorry for my rambling, I just wanted to check on a couple of these issues with more experienced users.

Thanks!
Beth

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

sounds normal for the paint. it will oxidize under heat and turn a ashen white.
its ok if that stove runs 24/7 its designed to run non stop.

 

[Czech]

Yep Beth, agree with MSG. White is good, run the heck out of it.

 

[dbchris]

Thanks folks! I am a newbie trying to figure this thing out! Hopefully in the future, I can help others with these little tips! I'm a little afraid of the stove, so I want to be safe.

My family and I are enjoying it soooo much. We could not use our fireplace before, so this is nice for us. I don't think we used our family room much last year in the winter. This year we are in it every night thanks to the insert. I'm also trying to keep the oil man away as much as possible. It's kinda fun to try and get the house equalized between the stove and the furnace.

Thanks again!!
Beth

 

[Czech]

Keep it clean, Beth. We've been burning the stove exclusively since last Jan, no NG furnance since. Learning curve at best, but better than the gas man for sure. Hang in there, check here if problems, great source of info as I know! Stay warm, B

 

[dbchris]

Thanks Gotz! I do clean the stove daily. I dump the pot ( never much in there though) I'm burning Hardwood Pellets. Not much on the klinker side either - no corn yet. Just this week, I had some pellets sound like popping popcorn. I thought of corn, and wondered if there was some corn in the mix. weekly I take the back bricks out to vacuum, also I take that baffle cover off at this time for a cleaning. I just let the stove runout of pellets to vacuum the hopper. Am I on the correct path here as far as cleaning? The glass is done every 2 days or so. Does this sound normal? I appreciate your thoughts as I am new at this!

BTW I am jealous that you can heat your entire home with yours. unless I add another stove of some sort, I cannot get off of the oil man.

Thanks again,
Beth

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Beth, im jelous, i want all my customers to be like you. Thank you for cleaning that baby weekly.

 

[hearthtools]

I know this is a dumb question
but are you running it on High?

I ask because I get a lot of calls from people that say there stove will not heat their house when it is COLD out.
I go out to the house to see what is up and they are running it on Low or Med.

 

[dbchris]

Hi Hearth, Yup the stove is running on high. I'm convinced that the open floor plan allows the heat to go past the thermostat. The stove does put out a lot of heat. I was concerned because I did not know if it was safe to run it so many hours straight. Thanks for the suggestion. I double checked the fan speed.

 

[PutnamJct]

Hi Beth,

I have a 1200I that runs virtually non stop for days when it is cold. I will bump the thermostat down to shut it off and scrape the pot and clean up. The inside of mine has turned a white ash color too. You can brush a lot of it off, but I don't think it has any ill effect on the stove. My thermostat is mounted on the wall about 3 feet away from the stove.
I'm curious how long your glass stays clean for? Mine is dirty within a day.

John

 

[dbchris]

Hi PutnamJct,

Good to know the stove can run non stop. My glass also gets dirty daily. I've not experimented with different pellets yet. I'm burining premium hardwood. However, I clean the glass every two to three days or so when the build up is thicker. The ash is sort of granular. I'm afraid of rubbing off the gasket if I clean the glass daily. I can see that I will have to replace the gasket in the future. It's just in a bad place for cleaning the glass. The ash collects on it and you have to kind of get under it to clean. Is the 1200i set up similar with the gasket thingy on the glass?

Thanks!
Beth