Pellet Stove creating excessive soot in house
minski
16 years ago
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oruboris
16 years agoilmbg
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Pellet Stoves
Comments (52)One thing I recommend when buying a pellet stove is checking how the pellets arrive at the burn pot. A drop feed auger is better than one that just pushes the pellets to the pot. I have the latter, my parents have the former. BIG difference in maintenance!! The drop feeder needs cleaned maybe once a week. The push feed needs cleaned daily. If I would have known that earlier, I would not have bought this stove. I purchased it at Lowes. It was around $1200 after I purchased all the other kits ( chimney, fresh air intake kit, etc.), I also installed it myself. Unless you are installing this into an existing chimney, I recommend having it installed. You really need to have experience in room remodeling because it is a lot of work making the hole(s) in the wall. Home Depot and Lowes purchase low end stoves, so I do not recommend them. I have had issues with mine every year since I purchased it. It is and Englander Stove model 25-PDVC. I have replaced several parts on it already due to frequent shut down errors. So far I have replaced three vaccuum/ shut down switches, an auger, an auger motor and several heat gaskets. I'm not impressed. If you are not mechanically inclined, the task of repair could seem overwhelming. On a positive note, their customer service is very good. They can walk you through the steps to fix things, but it is very time consuming and the parts are not cheap. My advice is find a local dealer that installs and services their stoves. That way you know you have backup. Plus most of these stores will buy quality products because they can't afford to be making a lot of house calls for stove repair! :) Plan on spending close to $2000 minimum. That is the price of a small mid range stove. I have seen them go as high as $5000. With the price of oil and nat. gas on the increase, I think you will get a good return on your investment quickly. If you have some storage space, purchase pellets in the spring. You can sometimes get them for 1/2 price because they need to get rid of them. I saved $100 on a ton last spring at Home Depot. That sent the price per bag down to $2.72! Hard to beat that! Keep them dry and you're in business!...See MoreQuada Fire Santa Fe Pellet Stove
Comments (1)are pellet stoves easier to use than the traditional one? Here is a link that might be useful: mens boots...See MorePellet stoves vs Wood stoves
Comments (8)We built a garage last summer that required the elimination of several rather large hardwoods (big maple and several smaller red oaks). We had it cut into to 16" rounds and picked away at the pile last fall/winter. We did OK, but we weren't really serious about dealing with the bounty as we were otherwise occupied with DIY finish work inside the garage. We were on vacation last week and we spent 5-6 mornings in the company of our splitter to get the rounds split and stacked before it rotted on the ground. It wasn't unpleasant work at all. We managed to get nearly 4 cord put up for the '09/'10 heating season and beyond (we have seasoned wood put up for the coming season). We have a few more small piles of rounds to address in the coming weeks, but it's pretty much under control. And we had a good time doing it, laughing and joking as we stacked and finding an easy rhythm for the teamwork of splitting. OK, I'll get to the point. We have just under 3 acres that were wooded when we built our home in '91. Our "first major appliance" was our Woodstock Soapstone stove. In the years hence we've never purchased wood. We've simply used what was taken down for the house, garage, or landscaping projects. And we've had plenty for our needs. We set the thermostats at the lowest setting and use wood to keep the house as cozy as we want or to simply "take the chill off" when it's raw outside. We have a splitter and honestly, the hardest part of the operation is just DECIDING that we're going to deal with wood. Once we make the decision the work is pretty easy and the feeling of accomplishment is terrific. I live in New England, too. And there have been a number of stories of pellet manufacturers being stretched beyond capacity by the volume of orders. I'm all for eliminating the middleman whenever possible....See MoreSmoking pellet stove
Comments (28)I have a Whitfield free standing pellet stove. The markings on the inside of the lid to the pellet storage bin read "WH-Q", which I believe means I have a Quest model stove. I bought my house 14 years ago. It came with the house. Much like other posters above, I've started smelling smoke in the room where the stove is. Not enough to see where it's coming from, but certainly enough to smell. The longer the stove runs, the more the room smells of smoke. I've changed the rope gasket around the door twice. I've done the 'paper in the door' test numerous times. The paper does not move, even a little bit; with the door closed. Same for around the ash bin. That gasket has not been replaced (I can't find one); but the 'paper test' passes, so for now I'm going with the theory that the problem is not in this location. I've used high-temp silicone and sealed around all the joints in the vent pipe. I've disconnected the vent pipe from the elbow joint, used a 4" brush on a rod to clean the inside of the vent pipe. I've used the high-temp silicone to seal the joint where the elbow connects to the blower. In the dark, I've built an adapter for the end of a very high power LED flashlight and connected it to the end of each of the heat exchanger tubes, and in a very dark room; checked to see if I could see light escaping around any of the heat exchanger tubes. Prior to starting this test, I cleaned the tubes very thoroughly, so there was very little chance that ash deposits would mask a hole. Nothing. I've applied a little high-temp silicone to areas around the channel that the rope gasket sits in; where it looked like there might...possibly...maybe...be a spot where smoke could get out. I have a CO sensor in the room, only 2 feet from the stove; which has never triggered. I have tested the CO sensor with a can of CO, so I know the sensor is functional. I've used a laser, in the darkened room, looking for signs of smoke in the laser beam. Nothing. The stove does not have the auto-ignition feature. If I take the burn box (the heavy metal box with the bars across the bottom, that the pellets fall into and burn) out of the stove, and look under it; there is a square hole that's about an inch, in the back wall of the area just under the burn box. To the left of this hole, is a round object with a slit in the bottom on it. This round object appears to be where the combustion air is injected, controlled by the knob on the side of the stove at the top of the control panel. My theory is that this square hole is where the smoke is escaping. If I take the back cover off the stove, I can look along the bottom of the compartment where the blowers and auger motor are; and see through this square hole into the area directly below the burn box. This hole appears to have been made at the factory, so I have to assume it's there for a reason. Any theories as to what would cause smoke to come through this hole? Am I way off base? From what I can tell, Whitfield was bought out by Lennox Corporation. I can't find a tech support phone number to talk to anyone. I live in the metro Atlanta, GA area. I do not know where the stove was originally purchased. I only occasionally can find pellets at one (and only one) Lowe's store; but they know nothing about the stoves themselves. I'm not afraid to try repairs on it myself, I'm a pretty competent DIY person; but I'm out of ideas on what else to try. I would really like to be able to use the stove again. Any suggestions on what/where to look next, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Monte...See Moregarywphillips_juno_com
16 years agoschawkie
13 years agobikesr2tired
13 years agoblneuhaeusler
6 years agoHU-994945682
2 years agoHU-556131197
2 years agobikesr2tired
2 years ago
Robert Norton
last yearHello everyone,
thanks for sharing all the knowledge. i cam home to our newly purchased summer cabin to find the entire house covered in a black dust. its in every single room and even inside somme cabinets!
its summer here in the Catskills so we are not using the pellet stove and its not even plugged in! We are convinced this must be an extraterrestial event at this point.
its so hard to clean off and conviced its just being smushed into any surface thats not real wood.Please help!
bikesr2tired
last yearRobert Norton
last yearRobert Norton
last yearbikesr2tired
last year
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