Heatilator PS-35 needs more air

This stove has always had an ash build up problem since the day it was new. From clean, spotless stove to almost unusable in less than a week no matter what pellet we try. I will post picture of the set up so you can see how the exhaust is run.

I know your going to ask questions so I will ask and answer them for you to save some time.

1. Is the fresh air intake tube clear and adjustment slide wide open?....YES
2. Is the pot clean and all holes free of build up?....YES
3. Have you check for external air leaks and properly sealed exhaust fan?.....Yes
4. Is the exhaust path clean?....YES
5. Are the exhaust fan fins clean?....YES
6. Is the exhaust pipe clean?....YES
7. Have you removed the 3 rear baffles and cleaned behind them?....YES
8. Is the feed gate properly adjusted?....YES
9. What Pellets have you tried?....Cubex hard wood, Cubex Soft wood, Green supreams (best of all we tried), Curran hard wood, Curran hard/soft blend (this is our primary pellet), Green team.

During the height of the heating season if I don't clean the stove with that list above at least every 3 or 4 days, I will not run for a week. I have to clean the stove pipe out every 4 days. The ash will build up in the 3 foot long horizontal pipe about 1.5" deep.

Once clean the flame is perfect on all settings but after only 2 days on high the flame will be lazy and almost touch the top of the fire box. I have to dump the pot at least once a day just to keep it running if it's on high. Dumping the pot and cleaning the holes does not change the flame when it burns. Only a full cleaning will bring it back to normal. It's like the stove doesn't move enough air to keep the ash from building up in the exhaust pipe and behind the baffles. If you want any other pictures, just ask.











This is typical after about 2 days of burning on high.




This is a clean happy stove. Those 3 baffle plates in the back get removed every time I clean the stove.

 

Do you always burn on high?

 

Not unless it's -20 outside. Most of the time we don't use the t-stat to control the temp in the house. What I mean is, we leave it set at 72 but when we go to work we turn the stove down to medium. Depending on the outside temp it may or may not shut off and if it's cold enough the house might only be 64 degrees when we come home. We do the same thing at night when we go to bed. Medium is used most of the time to heat the house unless it gets really cold. This little stove heats our entire house.

 

Happy, perfectly clean stove burning on medium. Picture taken 2 minuets ago. Now it won't stay running. Runs for 10 minutes perfectly and just stops feeding pellets. I love this thing.

 

Starts like normal, blower comes on, continues to run normal for 10 minutes and then acts like it reached desired room temp and shuts down. It is running fine now but this run for 10 minuets and shut off thing that it does is nothing new.

Control is set at the factory specs. The 10% has been talked about but no one has ever told me how it needs to be changed. Is it for 10% more air? Let me know how to order the impeller.

 

As far as the 10 min. shutdown is concerned, I'd give Eric at Kinsman Stoves a call and ask him about it.

 

Unless I am missing something (and maybe I am! ), I don't like the connection to the stove......looks like there is soot weep there (at the top of the stove nipple)......

Have we got any draft readings at all here? Clean stove vs. stove that's been running a couple days?

I see a joint of flexi aluminum pipe on the floor....is it connected?

Here's something to try....burn it a full day or so, and when you stumble downstairs in the morning, throw open a nearby door or window to the outside and see if the fire brightens.....maybe a tight home issue?

ICC pipe- good....and 4" to boot....props for that

 

No draft readings. No soot leek that I'm aware of. Cold air aluminum pipe is hooked up and clear. Tight house is most certainly not an issue, lol.

 

okok, but WHERE does that intake pipe go, and how does it terminate? The picture shows it snaking away, but I cannot see where it goes, or how it ends......is it possible you're restricting the intake air with an end vent? If the intake doesn't go to the outside, remove the pipe....heck, remove the pipe anyways and see if it works differently......

 

Pipe goes outside through the wall with the supplied termination. No restriction. It runs the same with or with out it connected. And I do appreciate every bit of input I can get about this. It makes me double check things I have already triple checked.

 

It has no cold start issues. It will start every time you ask it to. Then it adds pellets like normal to keep running. Then the blower fan kicks on and it keeps running. Then it just stops adding pellets like the t-stat told it to shut off. Yes, we have replaced the t-stat thinking that was the issue.

 

boy, just a suggestion, draft readings would be very helpful here

 

No. White rogers I think. We replaced the chincy factory one with a digital one from the dealer.