My first week using an amazeing heat 100 K unit furnace. After a shaky start, I am very impressed with the ease of use and comfort level in a big old farm house.

However, I am finding alot of wood pellets that are not completely burned up in the ash pan. They are still hard and do not turn to ash when touched. This make me think that it is feeding too much too often. Granted it has been warm this week and the unit has been on low burn a lot of the time but I hate the idea of not getting all the heat out the pellets that I can.

My other question is whether or not i have to be concerned about creosote or something building up in the chimney, our chimney is clay lined, brick. Especially when it's not burning hot and staying on low fire alot.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Open up the combustion air (gate on the hair dryer) and see if that helps. any adjustment you make give it at least 12hrs before making another adjustment. It's an exercise in patients but it will pay off...

Minights, what do you have your idle time set at, red and green? What is the gate on the combustion air set? Looks like it is over feeding the pellets and pushing them over the top before they are burned up. Mine sits about an inch or so below the top. I have my idle timer set 2 on and 10 off. I think with pellets and the correct draft, it could be streached out further. Did you get a manometer yet? If so, what is your draft sitting at on low fire? Before I saw your pictures, I was thinking you had too much combustion air, blowing the pellets out before they got burned.

As far as creasote goes, wood pellets don't create creasote like a standard wood fire burning low. Get us some more info on your settings and lets see if we can get your burninng a little more effecient.

I have it at 10 & 2 also. plus I opened up the fan gate a litle more. it is definately better than it was, but I will have to keep working to dial it in. I am ordering a nanometer and the official air kit form Mike in WI this week. I currently have a Tee and vacuum cleaner hose feeding the air around to the auger side. It works but I was told it is not the best way of doing it. i think the draft is fairly close, just from running many oil fired heaters in greenhouses for many years, but I will invest in making it as good as I can. I am going through about 4 bags a day of pellets and its not even cold yet, 28 right now. so I don't think its running very efficeintly yet.

When I first started I had my timer set backwards, 6-on and 2-off. Just something to check.

Yes, I did too. when I first started, I wasn't going to mention it but since you did first, I feel a lttle better about it.
It is a confusing setup that requires reverse logic.

Now that we have some colder weather again, I had taken a couple of pictures for you. High fire, where the door temp reading was 550 degrees, and idle low fire after it's been at rest for about 5 minutes.

Something else to think about: When I was burning corn in my old LDJ furnace, I had to replace the fuse relay for the thermostat (thing plugged into a socket like the idle timer) with a timer. This would allow the burn pot to rest in between high fire for a set time. In my case, this was more for the corn clinker to cool and separate from the sides of the burn pot. I had it set to rest for 2 minutes after it burned for 10. That is one thing that is nice about the variable btu, you can always set the off time up a little to allow what is in the burn pot to be completely consumed. The second timer will turn off the fan, where the variable btu will keep the fan going, just pause on the feeding.

Mine does not look like that. You are using 100% pellets right ?

I opened up the fan gate a little more today. Hopefully that's the issue.

Is it possible my auger is feeding fast? The guy I bought it from used pellets and some corn, but mostly pellets.

16 degrees with a brisk wind today so its running non stop to heat this old house.

I would love to see pics of your auger ste up and blower fan etc.

thanks for you help.
David

You need to give your fire pot a little break on running all out. Only easy way to do that is to get another time like I was saying and replace the thermostat relay with a timer. This will stop feeding and turn the fan off for a small rest, in between high fire. I had mine set to rest for 2 minutes every 10 minutes it was burning on high fire. You can call LDJ and explain what is happening and they may offer some suggestions. They are very knowledgeable. Just call 866-535-7667.