TSC stove...King I believe...need help

I can't believe nobody has mention cleaning the discombobulator valve yet...

 

Gee, where do I begin...

First thing you need to do is READ the manual. That unit, like mine uses a 4 button control board that is actually fully programmable (you have to know how to do it however). I would suggest running it in auto mode as it's initially set for pellets anyway. Is the jumper removed from the control board or is it in place? There is a jumper installed at the factory that allows the unit to run in 'auto' mode. If it's removed, the unit is in manual mode and has to be controlled with an external thermostat of the millivolt variety, IOW. a cheap thermostat that is fully manual in operation.

The MANUAL will explain all that but you have to read it....lol

So, it's a used unit right? Used 2 years but was it taken care of and cleaned properly? Do you know for sure? No point in guessing anyway, you see, I buy old biomass stoves that were run hard and put away wet and refurbish them and sell them on the side and I usually make a pretty good buck doing it too. I can take a sows ear and make it into a silk purse, nothing much to fail in one except improper care and cleaning...

Here goes.. First things first. Unplug it and remove the side panels and carefully unplug the circuit board and set aside. I presume it's working okay as a new board is around 400 bucks, so handle with care...Not real impressed with the venting setup at all. There needs to be a cleanout Tee and the bottom of the vertical, you have to be able to access the pipe and remove fly ash regularly. I have mine on the outside of the house because fly ash is dirty... Hopefully, there aren't more elbows involved on the outside of the house because with 3" venting, the maximum limit on elbow's are 2 unless you increase the vent diameter to 4", which is what mine is because my outside venting extends vertically 18 feet to clear the roof line of my home...

I ran a straight shot out the back of my unit, through a wall thimble to a 3-4" clean out Tee on the outside of the wall and 4" all the way up to the termination cap and I never 'glued' the sections together as I take mine apart every spring and pressure wash it inside to remove all the stuck on fly ash. Just my preference and I use the longest lengths of Simpson Duravent I can buy which is 6 foot sections. I get all my vent from www.ventingpipe.com. Box store stuff is way over priced and way too short too.

That is the venting.

Now the stove...

You need to remove the side panels, open the feed door and remove all the removable plates and the faux brick (if it has a faux brick panel and clean the sucker really good with a powerful shop vacuum and various bottle brushes and coutermints to get all the fly ash out of it. I mean ALL of it..

Then, you need to remove the hex nuts holding in the convection blower and remove that from the housing and clean in there as well and take a wire brush and clean the fan wheel. Even one season will crud up the fan wheel and cause impaired draft and poor burn conditions, mine comes apart every spring and wile I have it off, the motor gets the pressure airhose treatment and the bearings get oiled too. Every spring on mine without fail.

Forget about the fuzzy gasket if it has one, remove it and clean it from the housing as well as the plate side of the fan wheel housing and apply a thin bead of red RTV silicone and let it harden up and reassemble it. You won't ever have to replace that worthless gasket (they cost 7 bucks) again. Don't forget to plug the leads back in to the motor. Polarity don't matter, it's all AC anyway.

The go to the other side and unbolt the room are fan and blow it out with compressed air as well and order yourself a red silicone gasket from Pellethead and scrape that worthless glass wool gasket off and forget about it. The silicone gasket will make the stove run quieter and they last forever. Don't forget to oil the motor bearings on the room air fan as well. Even if any of the bearings appear to be sealed, put some oil on them. Those are just dust seals, the oil will penetrate into the races no matter what. Move to the back of the unit and remove the outer bearing retainer on the feed auger motor and oil it too. Pellet stoves love oil and grease.

I also drill a small hole in the top front of the reduction gearboxes (auger and stirrer (if you have one) and use a needle greaser to fill the gearboxes with grease. Don't worry about putting in too much. When you see grease oozing out from around the input shaft where the motor armature goes into the gearbox, it's full. I give mine a shot every spring as well.

Get yourself a good surge suppressor and use it. I recommend a Tripp-Lite Isobar single outlet surge supressor (Amazon 35 bucks). It will save you a ton of money if you have a surge and it fries the board (which it will, trust me on that). The Tripp-Lite attaches to the center screw on the wall outlet and stays there. Hopefully the outlet is grounded if it ain't, the suppressor will tell you with a red LED.

If you had bothered to read the manual before hand instead of winging it. You'd have seen what a proper vent install looks kike (it's in there) and the neceasary and required clean out Tee. You vent arrangement is all wrong for starters.

Once you have absorbed the above and did it, we can get into custom programming the board (if necesaary) because I don't believe you need to change the algorithms. As they come from the factory, they are set up for pellets. Myself, I burn corn in mine (a mixture of corn and pellets, so I've adjusted mine to efficiently burn an alternate fuel.

Finally, I suggest hooking up an outside combustion air kit (FAK) Fresh air kit. to the unit. Why use heated interior air to provide combustion air. I run outside air on mine, always have.

Been doing this stuff for over 25 years and a couple stoves now. I actually wore one out about 15 years ago.

My USSC is chugging away in the greatroom right now and it heats the entire house. We keep the interior temp at 72 degrees no matter how cold it gets outside.

 

I just did...............lol

 

Those only come on late model EPA approved chunk wood stoves, also called a catalyst.......lol

 

Didn't even look actually. Being retired, time stands still for me most of the time except when my wife says it's dinner time...

Hope I didn't come across as too crass in my detailed post. There is a definite right and wrong way to hook up and properly vent a biomass stove...

 

At 71 years old and 2 finger typing, I sometimes mis spell words but the message comes across I think.

 

As most if not all of us here are older, where else will anyone listen to us?

 

That's interesting!

 

And factual. OP said 3 elbows, one too many for 3" vent. Only see 2 on the inside so there must be another outside. Every elbow disrupts the flow rate by about 25% (based on a clean pipe). As the fly ash builds inside, the EVL drops. Like I said in my lengthy comment, there is no cleanout Tee and it requires a cleanout Tee in the venting. In reality you need an appliance adapter to the outlet of the stove with a cleanout Tee attached and then the vertical run to the second elbow and out through the wall thimble. You have to have a means for the ash to be removed or all it does is lay in the bottom of the venting, in the elbow and further restrict the exhaust flow and lower the EVL even more.

 

That must have taken most of 12/31/'21 to peck out!

 

People wonder why I fixate on venting.

 

Ok...thanks to everyone.

First let me clarify this stove is two years old and only run 3 short times. So this stove is as near new as can be.

The poster who gave the USSG link thank you. Also to the poster (71 year old) that rebuilds all of these things. My uncle said you provided very detailed cleaning, refurbishing tips as well as the tip to drill the hole for grease.

We got the start-up auger feed setting set to c-15 on level 1.

So, we are now up and running. Burn pot did not over flow. Great!

Thermostat is now installed and black jumper has been removed and now we need the thermostat that came with the stove to actually communicate with the stove. Apparently, as my uncle is telling me, this stove should turn on and off automatically according to where the thermostat is set.

Right now we have set to shut off at 65 and it is now 69F in here. Apparently, it is not working. This is the factory thermostat.

(I have not read the manual...it is NOT in my possession. Apparently he can’t find any information in the manual on why it isn’t working properly. IF he can find the manual I will try and read it for myself. Until then, all I can do is ask here. )

EDIT: His wife found the manual and he is now looking for trouble shooting info.


If we can get the thermostat to communicate with the stove and turn on and off as set, then we should be good to go.

As I’m typing this edit he’s saying thermostat trouble shooting info is next to nothing.

 

Thermostats read only at one spot the temp maybe several degrees different just inches from the stat sensor.

 

In simple terms, if the stove runs normally with the jumper wire installed, but not when it's removed & stat is installed, I suspect the stat is bad. That said, make sure the leads from the stove are going to the "w" and "rh" terminals on the stat.

 

The thermostat for that stove is a simple millivolt one,and on off switch. It may have had one shipped with the stove, it may have not.they packaged these different ways. BUT,I believe a thermostat does not turn it on and off, it just goes from high heat to low mode. Make sure the manual is proper for your version/serial number. If it came with the stove, new,it should be right. It will tell you how the thermostat controls the stove. Some of these units also came with a wireless remote, that would start and stop the stove,and change the heat range, by pressing the buttons.I do not think yours has this option.

 

Earlier...my post above...I said the thermostat was installed...I meant it was installed when my uncle acquired the stove from his other nephew.

We surmised that the thermostat leads could be hooked up in reverse. I have no idea if these were factory installed or if his nephew installed them.

I just left my uncles house and the room where the stove was at was 73F. We went ahead and set the thermostat to 75F. He and I both anticipate that the stove will not shut off as before. It will be interesting to see if it completely shuts off or if the flame dies down any when the room gets to the thermostat setting of 75F.

Earlier in the evening it did not shut off, and I couldn’t discern if the fire died down or not. Of course, he set the auger to feed at .99lbs/he...he already had that setting completed before his surgery. Earlier this evening we had the stove set to shut off at 60F and at the time the room was 65F. Perhaps it doesn’t work at that low of a setting?

Anyway, we decided to let the stove run and we reset the stove to shut off at 75F. Here in another hour or so that room should reach 75F and either the fire should die down, or it should completely extinguish.

I believe corncob mentioned a calrod.
I could not see a calrod in the burn pot, but there was a hole at the bottom rear of the burn pot and I could see an orange glow through that hole at start-up.