Pellet heads!! What's up today?

My better half is in Kittery, right by the area it originated. She works from home most days and thought her boiler blew up or something.

I was there years ago when a "rolling" type of quake came through but she said this one was very different and much more intense, shaking. 2 loud booms and a few things fell of the walls but no damage other than a broken nick knack.

Here, I thought a big truck had pulled up the driveway or a large plane flew by low, but nothing was there

 

The Quad 1000 lives again.....
Fresh fire pot and small draft fan.

Did a check run.....
The hopper had been empty for many months as we use pellets dipped out of the Quad to start the other stoves.

I added some pellets and cranked up the stove.....Pellets fed in slowly and it took a long time to get enough fire to get the auger turned back on.....(Not enough fire)

Finally started to feed pellets and by this time the long over run timer timed out and the fire started to die out.

Did a second run and adjusted the small blower to give more air to the fire pot.....
Much better......turned the stat down and let the stove cool for a couple hours.....

Third run and just turned up the stat and sat back and watched......Full cycle and no issues.....

The aftermarket fire pot needs a bit more air from the small fan to get the fire up and hot enough to set the fire sensor and get the green light on the control ON
Within a short time the red light (1000 F ) comes on and its off to the rodeo......

I think we are in good shape.

 

Me right here

 

Yeah heard an extremely loud banging/rumbling that lasted about 20-30 sec. Thought a bunch of trucks or something was coming up the street at first. Then felt a little shaking and realized it was an earthquake.

Just read there was another one in about the same spot at 3:15 am today. 2.0 magnitude. I did stir up briefly from sleeping around then but don't think I noticed anything.

sam

 

Got a couple inches of snow overnight. Normally I'd just leave it as it's supposed to get close to 40 today but it's supposed to get real cold again for a couple days and it'd freeze up so I'm heading out to do some cleanup. Lori & I both have a couple appointments tomorrow and Fri so need to be sure we can get out.

Hanging in there until my appointment tomorrow and hope they can figure out what's going on with my back. Just loading a bag of pellets into the P43 sends shooting pains down my back, left hip and leg plus makes it feel weak. Hit it with the heating pad for 30 min after and I can move a little better. To do anything that puts the slightest stress on the back has me putting on the back brace, sciatic brace and a knee brace. Very similar to what I went thru 21 years ago with my right side then they found the ruptured 5th lumbar on an MRI.

Odd side note on if I need an MRI. My pacemaker is rated safe for an MRI but my cardiologist at Exeter Hospital told me that the head of the hospital's imaging dept. still won't allow MRIs to be done there on people with pacemakers. So they get sent to outside imaging clinics. Hopefully I can get one quickly if I need one.

sam

 

Today was clean stove day.
The other half had a Drs appt today.
After we got home it was stove cleaning time .
Since the Quad is back to being available we shut off the two nut burners and turned up the Quad.
Did complete cleaning on both Whitfields and got them back up and running....

Best part was having the Quad available the house did not cool off.......

Quad is running great with the new blower and fire pot.....


Life is good...

 

12:05 am this morning...
Woke up and had to make a pit stop.
I walked to the B room and glance at the Big Whit as I crossed the Family room....Doing fine.

Get back to bed and almost back to sleep and the smell of smoke gets me awake....And quick..
Not enough smoke to trip the alarms but I could smell it..
I turn the nigh radio down and the stove is off.....~!@#$% I get up and go into the family room....Stove is off.
Stove is still hot......Fire pot full of shells..........
Arrrrrrrrrgh
I pressed start and the stove turns on....I grab a flash light and look in the back through the grille ....Draft fan is not spinning.
another !@#$%^& "Expletive" Actually several...

Get the tools, remove the side panel from the stove......Draft fan is EXTREMELY HOT and STINKS

I figured the speed control had died and fried the motor......Yup.
I swap the speed control (Recently got 2 new ones) Motor will not spool up.....

Rip the draft fan off the stove.....Grab a spare from the cabinet and get it installed......

Check things to be sure nothing else was amiss.....Plug the stove back in ....Punch the reset button, turn on the main switch, punch the start button.....SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.....Draft fan spools right up,,,,,,

Cleared the mess in the fire pot, add pellets and light the fire......Within 10 minutes the low limit light is on showing we are on the main power feed instead of the start up timer.....Perfect.
Total time off line.....Just under an hour...

*****WE USE PELLETS TO LITE THE FIRE*****
Using shells will work...but if ya get a poof oh smoke while turning the torch in the fire pot it smells like somebody had a train wreck in the kitchen.....

Now I need to order a new spare draft fan for the shelf......

Stove up and in good shape....
Wall clock is now showing a tad after 2 am
House still stinks....ARRRRRGH but is clearing out.....
I do not have OAK'S onb the stoves
Our air handler has an outside air inlet pipe that allows a small fresh air feed..
Both bathrooms have vents open to the roof...
Plenty of air comes in and it keeps the house from smelling like a really bad fast food kitchen....Not to mention the cat box.

Now....Back a few years when I was putting the new controller together I mentioned that in the event of a component failure in the stove or the controller.....Things could be diagnosed and repaired very quick....

Actually I made that statement from the theory that having the controls modular and parts on the shelf that's how it SHOULD work.

Well.....we put the theory to the test early this morning......
Yessss...the idea was in line with the theory.......

Sitting here in my 2nd cup of coffee......
Cost be couple hours if sleep.....But at least things are back in good shape....

If things had been delayed....the Quadrafire 1000 is working great.

We don't have a lot of pellets stocked up....maybe 2 bags.....That is going to change today....Going to head to the Wilco Farm store and get several bags......Winter is not over yet and i do not wish to get caught with my pants down.......

I am so happy to have the modular controller.....Any component can be changed in a few minutes time.....
The factory control would have required a complete control board to get things back up......

And a good time was had by all......Subjective idea.....

Keep your parts cabinet well stocked.....

 

What is s Coenwalh? anyway one of my 40th great grandpas was one.

 

A big question.

Does anyone have any experience with the Wiseway non electric pellet stove ???
I want to get set up so when we get a power outage that we can just build a fire and not need to mess around.

Outages here are usually not of extended duration.....Maybe 24 hrs or so.
I have looked into inverters and batteries and solar chargers.....
When we usually see outages it is the dark of winter......Solar is a non starter......

The Genny is OK....Just a hassle at night to try and get things rolled out and hooked up....

Getting too old for this crap.......

Any input on the Wiseway would be appreciated...

THNX

 

We went after the family room with gusto....Vacuuming and getting things ready to start back up on the floor protector for the Wiseway stove.....
Had to round the corners on the two front tiles
The pipe location up near the ceiling .....Actual location will be determined from the outside as I need to clear a couple things....
Plenty of room....Just have to get it right ...Spot on before cutting holes....

RUNNING OUT OF CORNERS FOR A STOVE......

 

I've heard that you have to use the absolute premium SW pellets for the Wiseway. But that is the extent of my "knowledge", and that was from before it was bought out by US Stove.

Not sure why you wouldn't go with a straight wood stove instead. I would think firewood would be cheaper and easier to obtain.

 

I have tons of wood here at the ranch.
I am just totally against chopping a hole in the new roof.....
I can run pellet vent up on an angle to the wall thimble, then out and on up another 6 feet to get a good draft.

No worries about roof leaks.
The warranty on the roof is void if there are holes for chimneys added after the original work was done....

All of our current pellet stoves are direct vent out the wall

The choices are just not abundant.

I had thought about inverters and batteries to run the Big Whitfield.
The one worry is that we can go for some time without an outage.....During such a time batteries tend to degrade.

I figured the easiest option is a stove that has zero parts that need tending to even if left alone for long periods of time and will not degrade or fail to operate......

The entire basket of options are limited at best........

I looked at Inverters and batteries with Solar chargers....During the winter we can go days with a dark dull sky that provides very minimal solar power if any.
Wind was an option, albeit an expensive one.....And again we are going to be dependent on electronics and batteries that will sit idle for long periods

We ran the Quadrafire a few times on the generator....It works fine but the genny needs to be left running so the stoves can start and run....The genny sucks a fair amount of gas as well......

I just keep going over all the options....The result still comes back to the non electric pellet stove.....

Is it perfect....No....Not even.....But it seems to be the best option with the least caveats........

This winter so far we have had three stove issues....The Quad in the apartment went down, so we robbed the needed parts off ours upstairs .....Got that mess fixed....Then the big Whitfield lost the draft fan.
Got that handled and a fresh supply of spare parts ordered..

This is the most stove failures we have ever had .....

A stove with zero moving parts or electrical stuff just seems to be the best option......

Thanks for the input.....I am still looking at options, and still keep coming full circle right back to the same conclusion...
Ah well.....

 

Not sure this helps as it's not related to the wiseway...but for fairly cheap money you can get a lifepo4 battery and inverter that will run the stove through the night at least and recharge again with the genny. That's where I landed with my "emergency plan" the batteries will last 10 plus years

 

You could just build your own lithium battery and inverter setup. Just use a rv converter/charger to keep the batteries full or recharge. I just built one a few months ago. Decent deals on everything during the Xmas sales. Lithium batteries only lose about 1% of charge per month.

 

How long can you run a stove on that system ?????

My Whitfield pulls about 3 amps max....Manual light.....