Pellet Stove - Dirty Glass
I just bought a Traditions (Whitfiled) Pellet Stove that is burning Golden Fire Premium West Coast Pellets. 22 bags into unit so it is broken in. After 12-24 hours of continious running..... Glass gets really dirty brown ash specs, mostly on LEft side, on low and even medium pellet feed settings. It gets Cloudy on HIGH feed with a little brown ash. I am running Damper of 7, reduced the calibration of the pellet feed and increased calibration of the exhaust combustion blower... anything lower gets screen browner (a lot browner) with ASH. Can't even see throught the top of glass after 24 hours running on LOW heat/blower.!!! Thought this was a clean burning operation, pellets I mean, but not so! Dealer says this is normal. DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS UNIT TO ANY NEW BUYERS OF PELLET STOVES. Unless, if anyone else has a TRADITIONS from Whitfield, please respond if yours is NOT doing this! I will listen to how you have yours set or any factory corrections you may have had done? I am not happy with this unit and now have talked to folks who have quadrafire's and they clean their glass about every 20-30 DAYS of running. I would be happy with once a week ! I found that the lower hinge on the glass door was somewhat loose and out of alignment. I kept hearing a metal clunk sound when I closed the door and had to raise it to close. After Adjusting, now I have 2 streaks of clear window, but the middle, right and left sides of the window are still couldy / ashy. I suspect this is due to the fact that hte 3 window hinges at the TOP of the window are in the way of the air coing thru the window wash area. Poor design! Your dealer is correct. What you have to consider is pellets are not some miracle fuel, they are mainly compressed sawdust, which makes them...wood. When wood burns it creates 2 main things, ash and products of combustion (smoke and soot) The amount of soot created depends on how you run your stove, the make/model of the stove makes no difference, and the hinges are not affecting airflow. When the stove is slow or medium burning it is less efficient and produces more soot, thus covering the glass quicker. I have a Harman that will start to blacken the glass the first run after I clean it. Starting and shuting down the stove also causes incomplete combustion and more soot that covers the glass. Mine also seems to get covered most on the left. Pellet stoves aren't what I'd call clean burning, but they are easier to maintain than woodstoves. I vacuum the fly ash and clean the glass about every two weeks, the ash bucket I can usually leave alone till about a ton of pellets is burned. How often do you start/stop your stove? How often is it slow/low burning? The more you slow/low burn, the quicker the glass will get sotted up. Mostly on Med to High both blower and pellet feed. NO thermostat in use, so no cutting in and out. I made it 39 hours running (about 8 hrs of that on LOW overnight) and had to clean windows. You are correct, when on LOW I get more brown ash on window, when on Med / High I get more Soot (white cloudy look). But in either case I can not seem to make it past 2 elapsed days of constant running. I am using Golden Fire west Coast pellets which are great, because when I tried 3 bags og Lignetics. man, I had 3 times the ash everywhere ! After adjusting hinges though, I do get (2) distinct clear window looking streaks, instead of just (1) before adjustment. This is because the airwash system comes down from the top of the glass and there are three window supports on the top of the glass (left, right and center)... it is in between these supports where the air flow is that the glass stays fairly clear. Poor Design, they should have put window support on sides where gaskets already seal the window to the frame, i.e there is no airflow there on the sides. A fellow at work has a Quadra Fire insert (about 40K BTU) and he cleans glass once every 200 hours of running on Medium, with thermostat in use. I think I've got it the best it will do for me, sgort of removing the middle top glass support to allow air to flow down the center, but that is probably not a good idea because I guess they put 3 supports there because there needed (maybe- haha), so I won't. Thanks for providing me your input! Mine dirties up quicker than I thought it would as well, but when I think of the price I'm paying for heating oil, the dirty glass bothers me less A friend of mine has a Whitfield and his glass doesn't stay clean very long either, he also has a Harmon fireplace insert, same results. Thanks ! My next one will be to check out these Quadra Fires...., but that will probbaly be a while.... Finally got the vendor at Lennox to call me. He answered a lot of my questions. He said for the room I am trying to heat, all windows (28X22), vaulted ceiling, 2 storm doors, the traditions was the wrong choice. And, he apologized that the dealer did not clearly explain how dirty this unit burns. We cranked up the calibrations settings for pellet feed and combustion air to get the higher BTU rating. Beyond the calibration setings, the unit has (3) speed settings for pellet feed and blower speed (low, med, high). Do not run this unit on LOW as the glass gets brown very quickly. Much better on medium and mostly white cloudy look when on HIGH. We agreed, per my suggestion, no affect on warranty, to remove the center window retainer at the top of the window. Did that, and after 10 hours now only the left and right side of window getting cloudy, center area staying relatively clear. The placement of these (3) retainers in my mind is a poor design. They should have been put on the sides of the window where there is no air needed to come in at. I'll bet that would clear up most of the glass being dirty issue! As the air wash comes in from the TOP of the window, all across the unit, but that's where they put the retainers!@#$@@@### The left side of my glass is the worst as well, but I do allot of slow burning. My pellet feed and hot air blower settings ar infinetly variable, the combustion blower is entirely automatic, or I can set it manually, I keep it on auto. I read allot of reviews before I bought mine and did allot of research, but there's always surprises. I have had a Whitfield Advantage for the past 8 or 9 years.. my first one would blacken the window if I used cheap pellets, stayed clean for a week if I used really good pellets.. it finally died this past winter, so I bought the newer model of the Advantage, it has been running for 2 months and I've cleaned the window once.. emptied the ash can once, I run it on 3 with a thermostat attached.. it puts out more heat than the older model, runs cleaner, holds twice the pellets (2 bags).. can't complain about anything on it so far.. I'm jealous ! Man, 2 months and no glass cleaning !!! With my TRADITIONS only 1 year old, I am buying a HARMAN XXV, fully automatic. Sales are so backed up in Baltimore won't get installed until early November. Probably because home heating oil is going up folks are moving to pellets. So, in November I will have a 1 year old green enamel finish TRADITIONS. Works as well as a TRADITIONS can. ASKING Price $1250, paid over 2600.
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