totally stumped - temp settings and such

[Bob Lentz]

UPdate:
Just raked  the coals and got the firebox roring.
Watched reaction chamber temp get up to 950.  Water teamp made it to 175 and thats it. Then reaction chamber temp fluctuated between 850 and 950 for about 5 minutes.  Water temp never got higher than 175.  Then, the reaction chamber temp started dropping  and  went below 700.  water temp never  got higher than 175
I would have thought that it would high burn until waterr got to 190 which is my set point.

What am i missing?


i just don't  get how the controls  work.
I have a great bed of coals,  good fire, but  the control unit goes into high burn and then backs off to low burn.  Water temp  is 15 degrees under where it should  be.

Should this thing stay in high burn until water temp  gets to  set point?


Something has to be balled up.

[Roger2561]

UPdate:
Just raked  the coals and got the firebox roring.
Watched reaction chamber temp get up to 950.  Water teamp made it to 175 and thats it. Then reaction chamber temp fluctuated between 850 and 950 for about 5 minutes.  Water temp never got higher than 175.  Then, the reaction chamber temp started dropping  and  went below 700.  water temp never  got higher than 175
I would have thought that it would high burn until waterr got to 190 which is my set point.

What am i missing?


i just don't  get how the controls  work.
I have a great bed of coals,  good fire, but  the control unit goes into high burn and then backs off to low burn.  Water temp  is 15 degrees under where it should  be.

Should this thing stay in high burn until water temp  gets to  set point?


Something has to be balled up.

Bob - I'm a newbie in here but I frequent other sites looking for advise and such.  I have the e-classic 1400 but the operation is basically the same.  It's been running since I installed it in Oct. of 2011.  It sounds to me (I'm no expert) that it may be starving for air. Do you know if you're getting good air flow?  It's important to keep the air holes along the sides and back clear of ash, coals and creosote inside the firebox.  I spent 3 hours in Dec. cleaning them due to the lack maintenance on my part.  Every 7 days I remove everything from the firebox so I can poke them clean.  I had to sacrifice a screwdriver to make the 90 degree turn to clear them and the channel.  Also, let me add that following the directions in the operators manual is an important tool.  It's a great resource for information and will offer you hints where to look for the common causes of problems.  Keep us posted.  Roger     

[Bob Lentz]

Roger,

Thanks for the reply.

The unit has only been running for about 14 days. Can't imagine that the air holes are plugged up at this point. Maybe? If so, then that means a weekly deep cleaning which seems abnormal to me. These things are not set and forget, but having to empty out the firebox and clean the air holes weekly seems out of line w/ expectations of maintenance.

Of course, i will chech the holes as you suggested.

[doctorb]

Are the solenoids opening correctly?

[boilerman101]

Hey Bob..Chill out! You are going to drive yourself nuts if are going to sit and watch every water and reaction chamber temperature tick all day!
Don't over analyze things. If your water is maintaining in a 170-190 degree range everything is good! It sounded like you just raked your coals, so I'm assuming you probalby just loaded the furnace too. I have seen mine do the same thing on a fresh load of wood, with reaction chamber temps rising and dropping and going from hi to lo burn. Probably just warming the new load of wood and pulling the moisture out of it and spending some BTU's to do so. Don't make this so hard, we are just burning chunks of wood in an outdoor stove here. This is not a NASA spacecraft. Maintenence is important but you don't have to go crazy with it as you are suggesting above. I scrape my sidewalls and over the air holes in the firebox a couple times a week. I shovel some ash out of my firebox maybe once every 6-8 weeks, if I feel it is getting to deep and close to the perimeter air holes. There is no need to shovel out coals! Only the powdery ash when needed, just make sure you push that cleaning rod through the coals and up and down both sides of the air tube. If you see still see some creosote in the air holes, then poke it out, does not happen to my 2400 very often.  Sit back, enjoy the heat and your heating bill savings like I do...Just feed it as needed and  let your 2400 do its job, however it does it.

[Dean186]

UPdate:

Just raked  the coals and got the firebox roaring.

Watched reaction chamber temp get up to 950.  Water temp made it to 175 and that's it. Then reaction chamber temp fluctuated between 850 and 950 for about 5 minutes.  Water temp never got higher than 175.  Then, the reaction chamber temp started dropping  and  went below 700.  water temp never  got higher than 175

I would have thought that it would high burn until water got to 190 which is my set point.

What am i missing?

i just don't  get how the controls  work.
I have a great bed of coals,  good fire, but  the control unit goes into high burn and then backs off to low burn.  Water temp  is 15 degrees under where it should  be.

Should this thing stay in high burn until water temp  gets to  set point?

Something has to be balled up.

Hi Bob,

Once the unit starts a cycle, which occurs when the water temperature falls below the low set point (determined by the high set point minus the differential), the furnace should run until it hits the high set point.  During that time the stove will continue running, attempting to reach high burn mode, but not necessarily getting into high burn mode.  The reaction chamber temperature is a combination of things, like coal bed depth, air flow, moisture content of wood and weather you have just loaded the stove with cold wood etc...

You stated that your unit hit high burn mode, which tells me you have good air flow and a good coal bed.  If it drops from high to low burn mode, it is most likely because the coal bed has been reduced and new wood has dropped down.  This, IMO, is not big deal and it is how it is.  The stove will still produce heat running in low burn mode.

I am unclear from your post if the unit stop it's cycle before reaching the set point, or if it is just taking a while to get to the set point once the cycle starts.  If it is taking a long time to hit the set point and the unit is at least in low burn mode, then your heat load may be excessive for the amount of BTUs the stove can produce.  If the cycle stops before it reaches the set point, then there is a problem.  The problem could be a program parameter input error or a problem with the control board.

Dean