Whitfield Quest - Pellets piling up in burn pot - Upgraded Fix.

Hello

This is a 1994 Quest Plus. The exhaust and fire box and exhaust blower was clean but pellets kept building up in burn pot until fire went out. It would not work on heat level 2 or 3 anymore. On heat level 1 with the damper open all the way it worked but the glass and walls in firebox got black with soot real quick! Just not enough air to burn properly.

So I went in and drilled 2 cleanout holes in the right side of the stove. The holes went into the ash chamber behind the fire wall that is otherwise incassable. Then a Stainless Steel self tapping screw is used to seal it up.
The area up top on each side of the heat tubes is the only opening where the hot air goes into the back chamber and these opening were constricted from build up of ash and white calcium deposits.
Has anyone seen this problem?

A 150 PSI compressor blasted the back chamber clean and blasted the heat tubes clean in the fire box.

Then a high current 1.75 amp exhaust blower was installed on the 7" mounting plate with a 5 inch double paddle fan bladed. The blades and hub were sprayed with "Dry Moly" to give a nice protective coating.

See pics

Pic 1 - High current 1.75 amp open frame quiet blower
Pic 2 - 5" Double paddle blade to keep ash from forming a mound under the blades and keep air flowing better.
Pic 3 - Drill out cleaning holes - 1 close to the top and one close to the bottom in back of the fire wall
Pic 4 - blasting out with a compressor
Pic 5 - Control Panel set at 3 heat level and 3 room blower speed
Pic 6 - startup flame
Pic 7 - run flame
Pic 8 - stove with fire

 

More pics

End Result:

No more pellet pile up!

 

Is this stove for resale?

 

No, not mine to sell.

 

Don't it make you nervous poking holes in customer's stoves? Particularly the exhaust path...

 

Having 2 more bolts in the exhaust path when there are so many? If you want to be nervous, I use super strong Stainless Steel bolts, what about all the others that are not SS that hold the exhaust blower in and what not? They rust up and break alot easier!

The ash trap bolts in the exhaust path in the 25-EP are not stainless but I like to change them for ease of removal.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Did a lot of stuff come flying out? What is this 'calcium'?

 

Yes, alot of chunks came flying out ! ! !

White deposits in the fire box and ash chambers is made of Calcium Carbonate that is contained in wood ash.

See >> http://perrysperennials.info/articles/woodash.html

Quote from above.
"Generally, wood ash is from 25 to 45 percent calcium carbonate, a common liming agent, so you can use twice as many ashes as you would this lime."

 

You bet Dexter! The damper was set back to the normal instead of being wide open!