Some help, new here (a little long)

[Phatty]

pull the impingement plate brush and vac the whole inside
off to the left in the back is an opening that is where the exhaust
goes. i took the end off my vac hose and jammed it in that hole
and turned it to the right and bang on the stove alittle. i did this with
and emty vac and got a coffee cup full of ash. if u stick your hand
over the top above the hole its half open on top
also in the burnpot on the bottm you can see a nikle size holes
in the lower rear corners put it over those holes and scrape the
sides of the burn pot ash does get down those holes and can restrict
the opening. while in the burn pot i put the vac over the the oak pipe
for a sec just to make sure its flowing air. hope this helps

 

[esuitt]

yeah the whole 5 minutes it took me to go get the vac from the basement and the flame was already out, not even smoldering.
Give it another half an hour or so to cool down and then clean it all out.

 

[Phatty]

yeah the whole 5 minutes it took me to go get the vac from the basement and the flame was already out, not even smoldering.
Give it another half an hour or so to cool down and then clean it all out.

run your hands thru all the ash to make sure there are no hot ambers

p.s. sent u a p.m

 

[esuitt]

Thanks everyone!
Learning a little bit every time I read a new reply.
Did not know what a impingement plate was till I opened the owner manual up. Now just how to get it all apart and back together again.

 

[esuitt]

yeah the whole 5 minutes it took me to go get the vac from the basement and the flame was already out, not even smoldering.
Give it another half an hour or so to cool down and then clean it all out.

run your hands thru all the ash to make sure there are no hot ambers

p.s. sent u a p.m

Oh, I am going to go make a turkey sandwich and let this stove do its thing, cool off and shut down.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Thanks everyone!
Learning a little bit every time I read a new reply.
Did not know what a impingement plate was till I opened the owner manual up. Now just how to get it all apart and back together again.

Speaking of those manuals you are supposed to read them prior to installing and operating your stove.

Who knows maybe there's pictures and diagrams that might help you understand the stove and exactly how simple the stove actually is when you strip out the wires and such.

These things are basically two lengths of pipe one with the fire in the middle of it (combustion air path) and the other one being passed through it (the convection air path) over the fire in the first one.

 

[esuitt]

Yeah, I read it well enough to figure out how to plumb the exhaust and how to start it up along with some other odds and ends. But I was not going to memorize every picture or phrase in the book.
Any way, after letting it cool off, taking it apart from the inside and giving it a good vacuuming, it is still no better heat wise.
I think we can rule out stove malfunction since this all started with the Walmart pellets.
I am hoping the wife gets off work early enough that we can run over to the amish store and pick up more Lignetic pellets! Then at least I will no for sure what is going on.

 

[captkirk5858]

Yeah, I read it well enough to figure out how to plumb the exhaust and how to start it up along with some other odds and ends. But I was not going to memorize every picture or phrase in the book.
Any way, after letting it cool off, taking it apart from the inside and giving it a good vacuuming, it is still no better heat wise.
I think we can rule out stove malfunction since this all started with the Walmart pellets.
I am hoping the wife gets off work early enough that we can run over to the amish store and pick up more Lignetic pellets! Then at least I will no for sure what is going on.

Ten year old stove used stove. Poor quality Pellets. I would also check the combustion blower for obstruction.. (needs taking apart for cleaning)

 

[jtakeman]

Even after reading the reviews, Lignetics had more good then bad. But you know how that goes too! All in a persons opinion.

I try to do a controlled test and my opinions are limited to the results found. Not just blah-blah!

I think we can rule out stove malfunction since this all started with the Walmart pellets.

I quess my opinion was pretty close to whats reality now isn't it! >:-(

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

No, with the exhaust pipe we actually ran it down about 1* or so for rain and condensation run off. Our house on the side of a hill, so the exhaust is approximately 4' from ground level.

That is a mistake.

Horizontal vent runs are supposed to have an upward pitch to them (they ain't truly horizontal) and you never ever have a downward slope.

You'll wind up with a lot of ash accumulation in that run because of a downward slope, it increases the resistance to air flow (it reduces the effective cross section area for the exhaust gases all of which are trying to rise). At four feet you are also likely at the maximum run length (depends upon the stove).

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Yeah, now that I am sitting here watching the burn pot. I am beginning to think it is in the pellets! These Remmingtons have a real low flame, like a smolder as the Lignetics had a tall bursting flame.
Thank you all for the help.
Even after reading the reviews, Lignetics had more good then bad. But you know how that goes too! All in a persons opinion.

Jay didn't do any actual reviews he just burned the pellets and provided the data to let you decide which pellets are best.

What Jay did is not opinion just information. He burned two bags of many different pellets and recorded the results of his burns.

Jay does a lot of information gathering as part of his regular work and doesn't like to render any opinions.

If he says he got x ounces of ash by weight out of burning 79.5 pounds of y pellets thems the figures, if another brand produces 3x ounces of ash by weight out of burning 79.75 pounds of z pellets which pellet would you use understanding that pellet stove cleaning is driven by ash amounts and that ash acts as an insulator.

In this years burns you have density information as well, high density pellets cause more actual fuel to be put in the burn pot per hour. A bit of information while pellets are sold by weight and stove makers say at setting number a there are b pounds of pellet delivered per hour to the burn pot. It ain't so the stove provides a fixed volume of pellets per setting per hour. Since pellets vary in density you'll get a different weight of fuel delivered per hour. Some stoves have restrictor plates to allow a somewhat leveling of the feeds depending upon the pellets being burned.

It is even possible to get the same pellet from two different places and have totally different results even if the pellets were produced at the same plant in the same run one directly behind the other. Simply having pellets go through multiple damp/dry, freeze/thaw cycles can ruin otherwise good pellets, if they get wet they are toast.

I'm sure that others here can add to the pellet triva hopper.

 

[esuitt]

Ten year old stove used stove. Poor quality Pellets. I would also check the combustion blower for obstruction.. (needs taking apart for cleaning)

Thanks Samm. This was supposed to have 2 brand new blowers in it (at least that is what I got in the packet of other paper work from previous owner).
Early this morning when I took the cover off the back of the stove all I could verify were that the blowers were spinning around.

 

[esuitt]

I quess my opinion was pretty close to whats reality now isn't it! >:-(

J - no reason to get upset. This was not based on what you wrote. I was talking about a web site I found when I was searching for Lignetics.
I did not take the time to read all of yours, I scanned through it and you did a lot work putting all that information together. That was really well done for jar testing. That is how we used to do jar testing to figure out different chemical feed formulas.

 

[esuitt]

That is a mistake.

Horizontal vent runs are supposed to have an upward pitch to them (they ain't truly horizontal) and you never ever have a downward slope.

You'll wind up with a lot of ash accumulation in that run because of a downward slope, it increases the resistance to air flow (it reduces the effective cross section area for the exhaust gases all of which are trying to rise). At four feet you are also likely at the maximum run length (depends upon the stove).

OK, that makes sense and should be an easy fix. Some silicon and re attaching the wall thimble so it has an upward slant to it. And yes I am at my max for horizontal run. I was not sure if the walls in this old house were 4/6/8 inches thick and did not want to get stuck running back the hardware store, so I bought the 4' instead of the 3' piece.

 

[esuitt]

Jay didn't do any actual reviews he just burned the pellets and provided the data to let you decide which pellets are best.

What Jay did is not opinion just information. He burned two bags of many different pellets and recorded the results of his burns.

Jay does a lot of information gathering as part of his regular work and doesn't like to render any opinions.

If he says he got x ounces of ash by weight out of burning 79.5 pounds of y pellets thems the figures, if another brand produces 3x ounces of ash by weight out of burning 79.75 pounds of z pellets which pellet would you use understanding that pellet stove cleaning is driven by ash amounts and that ash acts as an insulator.

In this years burns you have density information as well, high density pellets cause more actual fuel to be put in the burn pot per hour. A bit of information while pellets are sold by weight and stove makers say at setting number a there are b pounds of pellet delivered per hour to the burn pot. It ain't so the stove provides a fixed volume of pellets per setting per hour. Since pellets vary in density you'll get a different weight of fuel delivered per hour. Some stoves have restrictor plates to allow a somewhat leveling of the feeds depending upon the pellets being burned.

It is even possible to get the same pellet from two different places and have totally different results even if the pellets were produced at the same plant in the same run one directly behind the other. Simply having pellets go through multiple damp/dry, freeze/thaw cycles can ruin otherwise good pellets, if they get wet they are toast.

I'm sure that others here can add to the pellet triva hopper.

And as I quoted above. He has put a lot of time into his findings. They are put together really really well.
Trust me when I used to do that type of work having to look for specific weights for chemical additions. Jar testing is one of best methods you can use!

 

[captkirk5858]

Ten year old stove used stove. Poor quality Pellets. I would also check the combustion blower for obstruction.. (needs taking apart for cleaning)

Thanks Samm. This was supposed to have 2 brand new blowers in it (at least that is what I got in the packet of other paper work from previous owner).
Early this morning when I took the cover off the back of the stove all I could verify were that the blowers were spinning around.

Did you happen to pull the blower out? a spinning motor could still have restricted air flow in and around the case that it sits in.

these stoves are just air movers. if their is any restriction then the stoves ability to move the air drops dramatically. and in our case less heat..

Just my opinion.. Have a great day

Samm

 

[esuitt]

No, I did not. It was like 2am and I got up and noticed I hardly had any flame in the burn pot.
Sitting here watching it now it keeps going up and down. A few minutes ago I open the door and it was feeding and still only had embers.

 

[krooser]

Welcome aboard Ed... hope you stay toasty warm this winter.

 

[esuitt]

It was working fine up till Thanksgiving and the only thing that changed was the pellets. I cleaned the ash pans and burn pot out real well a little bit ago with the vacuum. I now shut it down so I can let it cool off while I go to another store to get another brand of pellets to use. This way when I get home I can take the back off the stove and check the blowers for any restrictions.
Just want to say thanks for the help and the welcomes. New to this, so I am sure there will be lots of questions over the winter!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

No, I did not. It was like 2am and I got up and noticed I hardly had any flame in the burn pot.
Sitting here watching it now it keeps going up and down. A few minutes ago I open the door and it was feeding and still only had embers.

Don't pull the combustion blower out without having a replacement gasket as they quite frequently get trashed while removing the motor and impeller assembly from its mount.

 

[captkirk5858]

No, I did not. It was like 2am and I got up and noticed I hardly had any flame in the burn pot.
Sitting here watching it now it keeps going up and down. A few minutes ago I open the door and it was feeding and still only had embers.

Don't pull the combustion blower out without having a replacement gasket as they quite frequently get trashed while removing the motor and impeller assembly from its mount.

Great Tip Bear....

Who Knows how his walmart was storing the pellets he bought. Hopefully it's just a bad batch.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

It was working fine up till Thanksgiving and the only thing that changed was the pellets. I cleaned the ash pans and burn pot out real well a little bit ago with the vacuum. I now shut it down so I can let it cool off while I go to another store to get another brand of pellets to use. This way when I get home I can take the back off the stove and check the blowers for any restrictions.
Just want to say thanks for the help and the welcomes. New to this, so I am sure there will be lots of questions over the winter!

Now if any of the dunderheads at a big box tell you all pellets are the same, what will you say in return?

 

[esuitt]

Errrrrrrrrr. Took the room air blower apart (not the combustion one) and it was full of all kinds of nice trash (yeah it was really nasty)! I had to scrape most of out with a screw driver before I could even hit it with the vac.
Now in all the mess my upper auger is not working at all. There for the stove will not stay lit.
It just keeps getting better. I did have to take one of the auger wires off to get the blower out. I am hoping that either I did not put the wire back on all the way or it came loose when I installed the rear stove cover.

 

[captkirk5858]

Errrrrrrrrr. Took the room air blower apart (not the combustion one) and it was full of all kinds of nice trash (yeah it was really nasty)! I had to scrape most of out with a screw driver before I could even hit it with the vac.
Now in all the mess my upper auger is not working at all. There for the stove will not stay lit.
It just keeps getting better. I did have to take one of the auger wires off to get the blower out. I am hoping that either I did not put the wire back on all the way or it came loose when I installed the rear stove cover.

One way or another.... You are going to learn all about your stove. Once you get it all worked out, you will be a happy camper with all your tricks in the bag......... :coolsmile:

 

[esuitt]

Well unhooked everything (again) and checked the connections. Everything seemed to be good, so plugged it in and started it up and the auger started spinning. Not sure what was going on before, but going for a re lite now!