You could try to open your slide damper a little bit so it gets more air. Do you have the fresh air kit installed? I have noticed that with different brands of pellets you do have to make minor changes to the draft. I now buy enough of one brand to last the season so I can set my slide in the same spot each time. I have the fresh air kit installed with the three holes drilled in the cap under the burn pot. I still have to adjust the slide damper depending on what brand of pellets I use. I leave my board setting on default all the time. Also is your stove clean, I clean every 7 days if I go longer the pellets do start to build up in the pot. Are you using the stirrer and did you change anything other than the aux setting?

I do have the FAK installed with the cap removed and have the draft slide closed. I did notice last year that I would get a lazy flame on Pr-3/Pr-4 without the draft slide open, but never on Pr-2, I could try that.

I clean the entire stove every Saturday and vaccuum everything my 1 gallon shopvac attachments can reach.

All my control board settings are on default.

I have always used the pot stirrer.

I did not adjust the anything other than the aux, though it retrospect increasing the draft fan may help.

It is fine for me to tinker and find what works, but when I go to work early or stay and while we sleep, I would like it to be somewhat worry free. My wife is learning about the stove but is far from making all the adjustments needed on the fly.

thank you.

Keep NOTES. I've gotten my stove to run just about perfect, but I still keep my old notes just in case. I've tweaked the draft fan so that the only time I open the damper is when starting up and shutting down, while shutting down I do it to speed up burning the corn/pellets so the stove shuts off quicker.
If your stove is burning good on the lowest settings leave the lowest DF setting alone and tinker with the high end setting until you don't have to play with the damper and can leave it closed at all feed settings.
Make the adjustments slowly and give the stove time to adjust, it takes time but is better than having to play with the manual damper.

This is from the old corn forum I tap on my sides with a wooden mallet.





I have another question (unrelated question for you). How do you control your draft? You said you have the FAX cap off. Do you have a Ball Valve on the FAK? I only ask because if you have no cap and no way to adjust the amount of draft you are sending alot of heat out the vent. You did state that you are running settings on default, are you using alot of pellets for the amount of heat you are getting. I live in upstate NY also usually a bag a day until it gets real cold. Most 6041 and 6039 burners either have a ball valve on the Fak or have three 3/8 holes drilled in the cap under the burnpot. You use the ball valve to adjust the amount of air draft. I have the 3 holes drilled in the cap and use the slide draft to fine tune the burn. (no ball valve) As I stated each kind of pellet I have burned the draft had to be fined tuned before it would burn correctly. Each time I see a new pellet I have bought 3 or 4 bags just to try them out and each one burned a Little different. Somerset's are one of the good ones. This is probably not the answer to the problem you are having just a observation.

I have the FAK set up with out a ball valve, just wide open. I am burning at a rate of about one bag a day. During a cold snap, I was up to 2 a day last February. I have looked into the ball valves, a 2" valve can be $50-$60 I have a hard time justifying it, when the stove appears to be running so efficiently a majority of the time. I have heard that PVC Ball Valves can 'emit' toxins when exposed to higher temperatures. Not sure of the truth of this statement but with a Toddler I haven't taken any chances.

With the contrast from $600-$800/month in Kerosene to a $250 ton of pellets a month for more heat, I am just beginning my attempt to tweak it towards higher efficiency.

Also, I clean the sides with a rubber mallet or butt of a putty knife when the stove is cool during my weekly cleaning.

In a related note, The more I mess with the draft the better the Somersets burn. I haven't taken them back yet, because they burn well at Pr-1 and now more efficiently with a stronger draft on Pr-2 all weekend.

Thanks again.

jlw6249 wrote:


According to Code we aren't supposed to use PVC to connect the stove in any manner...BUT, I have my FAK hooked up using PVC and PVC ball valve. There is no heat in the FAK unless something else would go bad haywire with the stove.
I think there is some misunderstanding with the ball valve set up.
Unless you are running your draft fan at full tilt all the time the ball valve has little value to regulate the air flow through the stove, that's what the draft fan is for. If the draft fan is running at the highest speed then the only effect would be to close the ball valve some to cut back the amount of air the fan can move through the stove. But why do that when you can get the air flow set automatically with an increase or decrease of heat range settings? The fan will not pull more air than what the speed is set at. In other words if the draft fan is set at DF5 automatically to change with your heat range that fan is pulling x amount of air no matter the ball valve position. Yes, it might pull more by opening it up some but at any draft fan setting less than maximum opening the ball valve may have no effect, say, after half open.
I use my valve only to cut off all outside air when shutdown, fully closed, fully open while running, then adjust the DF so that the lowest setting burns nice, then while ramping up one setting at a time adjusted the highest DF setting until the stove ran nice from 1-9 heat settings.
There may be a maximum to open the ball valve and then no more air would be pulled through, all I know is that if it's wide open you are not going to get more air through the stove than what the DF is pulling, it just doesn't work that way.

Think of it as a water pump. The pump is rated to move 5 gallons of water per minute. You have a pipe that is say 2" and the maximum water that will flow through the pipe is 5 gallons per minute. Now you get a 4" pipe that will allow 10 gallons per minute, put a ball valve on it, open it half way, you are probably getting around 5 gallons per minute, the max for the pump. Now open it all the way, what will you get? 5 gallons per minute because that's all the pump can pull. Opening the valve all the way does nothing only x amount will flow through the pipe, #1 the size of the pipe restricts flow, #2 because the pump can only pull so much. You could reverse this with a pump that can pull 10 gallons per minute but the pipe only allows 5 gallons per minute, you will still only get 5 gallons per minute.

Take notes and let the stove do the work and thinking, it takes a little to get it right but in the long run it's practically trouble free that way.

I too tried the ball valve and it did nothing for me. I was only asking so we would have a better understanding of the set up. I do however have the cap with Three 3/8 inch holes drilled in it. I found I could not fine tune the stove without the cap on it. Adjusting the Draft Fan speed would let the stove burn better but for me I could never get it to the optimum setting. When I first started burning I would buy a ton of pellets at a time and it seemed each ton burned different. The cap does restrict the air flow from the the outside but I then use the slide dapper to fine tune the burn.

Did you check your FAK to make sure there is nothing plugging it. If you did not seal it off for the summer Spiders, Bees and other varmints like to build stuff inside the pipe.

AC, I agree, I didn't mean it won't work for some and everyone's stove is set up different with lengths of exhaust and FAK. I just have seen people trying to adjust with only the ball valve, that's a lot of monkeying around IMO.

Good point on the critters crawling in the FAK over summer. A few years ago when the kids were little one of the stuck a tennis ball in the intake for the gas furnace, drove me nuts for a full day before I figured it out and that was before we had the corn burner for back up, one chilly fall day.
To me pellets are a pain, I use them with the corn prices high but it seems every batch even from the same company is just different enough to have to tweak the stove. With corn from the same farmer it seems to only change from season to season, that and I seem to get a lot more heat from corn, those are the things that keep me burning corn even if I have to mix it because of price. That and burning clinker style, I'll never put that messy, noisy stirrer back in.
There again some people get their stoves to run good with the stirrer, I never liked it, especially once I got the stove running good with the clinker pot.

That was always my thinking on the Ball Valve, the Draft Fan does the work regardless of what is allowed. After all without the FAK a 1-2" opening of the draft slide was all I found for what is suggested at all heat levels.

I would like to switch to a clinker pot and burn corn, or atleast a 50/50 mix. Friends I know that burn corn note how much heat is produced and how efficient it is. But until I can get corn at a reasonable price, I will have to burn pellets.

Playing with the Draft Fan I have been able to burn somersets for almost a week straight now at various levels with little issue. I am still experiencing ash build up, but by opening the slide, turning the DF and Aux to max for about ten minutes it clears almost all the ash out of the pot. That with the other daily maintenance and with the mid 20's at night and 40's all day my house has been held at 70-75 where my wife likes it.

The ash mess is a big reason I run clinker style a lot less mess. Pellets can be run clinker style by themselves but then you have to change some settings and the clinker is a lot softer so it doesn't always come out in one piece like corn does, making it harder to pull while burning.
Just keep messing with the stove and keep notes, even wind direction might change how it's running. You'll get it.
I know without the old forum I would have put my stove to the curb in a couple of months. The manual isn't real good but the advise I got here can't be beat.