How Gravity Fed Pellet Stoves Work (Designing a DIY/wiseway) (Easy Woodstove to pellet conversion)

[@daugh-treelandscapingandco7695]

You deserve way more views than this!!!

[@ecophage]

Thanks! Consider sharing it around!

[@ElBrodito]

@@ecophage I have a project using a gravity pellet feeder and would like to ask your opinion. How can I contact you directly?

[@ecophage]

@@ElBrodito youre doing it right now to be honest. plus everyone can learn from the discussion. How can i help?

[@ElBrodito]

@@ecophage How can you adapt a gravity pellet feeder to a smokeless fire pit. The problem I face is that you have to be putting pellets every 5 minutes to keep it going. Si I thought a feeder would help you enjoy the firepit time instead trying to maintain the fire going.

[@ecophage]

@@ElBrodito Im going to respond under your other question so daugh tree doesnt keep getting notifications

[@rickeybowman5719]

I've built 3 rocket pellet stoves my first one was a couple years ago and 2 pretty recently. I literally just this week thought adapting my burner design to the door of my woodstove. Then I see this today. Now I know my next project

[@ecophage]

They’re listening!! Lol

[@felixcat9318]

Thank you for this clear explanation, I have been puzzled as to how gravity fed wood pellet hoppers actually worked, and having no experience of them found it odd that the full hopper didn't combust.

[@ecophage]

Glad it helped!

[@LinhNguyen-ce2cx]

Keep in mind that I've only used it for a couple weeks, that being said, so far so good kzbin.infoUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM . Using it at 8 ft. by 8ft. deer blind that is insulated. I have to keep the door cracked for it to get enough air to burn, but that is very likely the wood I've used. Much better quality than I expected for the price. Now if I can just take it easy in the beginning it won't be 90 degrees in my blind. All in all it seems like a keeper.

[@ecophage]

Thanks!

[@PainterD54]

The main part of this kind of gravity fed system is to fabricate a burn backet that doesn't plug over time or burn thru from the intense heat. I guess it took me about of year of research and trial and error to get one that worked for a 24 hour period without plugging and burning steady or having to shake it every hour. I found a burner made for the Riley camping stove. It's a completely different design and and doesn't use rods or screen type grate to burn the pellets so it doesn't plug up or fall apart. Another nice thing about this idea is there is not build up of creosote in the chimney because the pellets burn so clean. Once the stove gets up to operating temp, there is no smoke.

[@ecophage]

Ill look into that, Im thinking of making a wiseway coy for my garage, maybe ill try that on it

[@PainterD54]

@@ecophage A Wizeway would be easy to copy and I probably would have tried it if I didn't already have mine built. According to alot of Wizeway owners, they sometimes have trouble with plugging up and back burning into the hopper so their burner pattern is not without its problems. I think a person would improve on it with some experimenting.

[@johncarnettie6804]

Very informational. You definitely deserve more thumbs up.!

[@ecophage]

Thank you sir! Interaction like this certainly helps! Stove is running right now! Still in mid April yikes!

[@vetinger]

GREAT DESIGN!!!

[@ecophage]

Thank you, still running half a decade later!

[@tonycavez]

i built my own with an old hot water heater , burn pot similar to wiseway , i can have can get it to burn so hot the whole heater turns red , also added a exhaust variable fan because the are prone to smoke back up and helps to light it faster , once it's lit and burning good i can shut the fan off but when pellets end some times smoke will back up , next i will build one in an old oil hot air furnace so i can force the heat up the ducts

[@ecophage]

Nice! Did you see the forced hot air in my update video?

[@tonycavez]

@@ecophage no but i will look

[@tonycavez]

@@ecophage I forgot to mention that it burns woodchips also but since they are less concentrated i mix 50% pellets for the same heat as just pellets , just make sure the chips are small , i pass them through a wire screen

[@ecophage]

@@tonycavez that’s impressive, and you’re building a Vw truck!

[@tonycavez]

@@ecophage yes I'm an autobody/painter/mechanic by trade

[@lvnmykdz]

Excellent video..!

[@ecophage]

Thank you

[@lvnmykdz]

I was able to fix my problem because of your video. 😃

[@011CJ]

The wise way stoves build up in the last tube going tords the exhaust and people don't set up thair pipe to acomidate um hooking it to clean out the upper half or Thay have problem getting them to draft . I'm hoping to find one used for cheap .thanks for the vid

[@niklar55]

😊👍 Useful info, thanks. .

[@ecophage]

NP Thanks for watching and especially commenting!

[@JesusJimmy-eo9bg]

Can you do this to a conventional pellet stove? I hate my electric stove. Constantly messing with it. The auger with the intake with the combustion fan with the room fan with the weather outside have to all be in sync. P.I.T.A. But... The exhaust would have to be WAY differant wouldnt it?

[@ecophage]

you might be right. how good of a draft does the chimney have

[@jeffdailey1006]

Really nicely done!

[@ecophage]

Thank you sir! Heating my house right now!

[@MPBrewster]

The explanation is well appreciated. I have to wonder why other manufacturers have not adopted this simple method of delivering the fuel without relying on electricity. Perhaps Gary Wisener, the inventer, has a patent. US Stove in Tennessee seems to have taken over the production of this unique pellet burner (Wiseway GW 1949). The Wiseway is not only widely available, it is also a very clean and efficient stove that shows up on the EPA woodstove database and is EPA certified. However, it does not seem to qualify for the most recent 30% tax rebate that the "new green deal" put into law through 2032. Have you experimented with secondary air combustion in your process? That's why the Wiseway is achieving 70% efficiency. Good video but please leave out the musak next time.

[@ElBrodito]

Thanks so much for sharing the video. I had been searching for this information for quite some time. I really appreciate you sharing it.

[@ecophage]

No problem share it around

[@ecophage]

"How can you adapt a gravity pellet feeder to a smokeless fire pit. The problem I face is that you have to be putting pellets every 5 minutes to keep it going. Si I thought a feeder would help you enjoy the firepit time instead trying to maintain the fire going." Well thats the whole purpose of the gravity feed. It automatically does it as needed. If the pellets were burning at a rate of refresh every minute the shoot will keep up. You just need the angled chute and the air needs to draw through the area, this forces the fire to burn the pellets down to ash which cant hold up a flow of pellets so the ash gets pushed through the mesh and the more solid pellets stop at the mesh and continue to burn. Once you get it set up its a self sustaining set up

[@ElBrodito]

@@ecophage Usually it burns for 30 minutos and then starts to die. If you do not put the pellets when you have flames, it will smoke like a train. I'm using a Vermont Castings Low Smoke firepit for your reference. I'm sure if you find a solution, you will be the hero for thousands of users.

[@ecophage]

@@ElBrodito sounds like the problem is the air isnt being forced through the pellets. Doing this means any smolder, ie smoking and not flaming (which does happen to me occasionally) has to proliferate into a steady burn. So yes every half hour or so my stove may kick out and start smoking or creating wood gas and it takes a second and the fire relights and actually pops a bit

[@mtbmaniac25]

Just came across this today, very cool idea. Thinking of doing this with my wood stove. Although one thing does concern me. When burning wood, my stove does heat up to 300 celsius (600F) on the outside, so I'm worried that the pellets would ignite outside the stove, in the feed tube or hopper. @ecophage Does your stove heat up as much? Does the feed tube heat up at all? Or isn't it an issue?

[@ecophage]

@@mtbmaniac25 it does not run hot enough to ignite the pellets in the hopper. Plus the hopper is isolated in the air away from hot surfaces also there’s not substantial airflow in the hopper the air is constantly being pulled away so it would be hard for them to ignite the only issue I have is if there’s a clog it will smolder up the drop shoot to the hopper

[@lorifoss]

Love this idea... Chris how do I contact you> I have some questions

[@ecophage]

Thanks Through my website ecophagefabrication.com

[@sspence65]

Home depot carries the wiseway stove.

[@ecophage]

@@sspence65 that’s surprising it seemed to be being phased out

[@sspence65]

@@ecophage $999

[@ecophage]

@@sspence65 oh wow they were 1599 at tractor supply years ago! They really came down!

[@bonitawauneka1451]

Thanks for the information.

[@ecophage]

NP happy to help. I love this stove!

[@marlorush3853]

Question regarding your flue and a pellet stove heat to Woodstove heat? U used a woodstove flue. Obviously this is sufficient because you have been using it for sometime but I heard that pellets run hotter and they need a more solid flue or a flue that can. Handle a higher temp? Is this true?

[@ecophage]

None of that sounds right, my flue never got too hot for 1. I suppose theres some evidence that pellets burn hotter but I think that has to do with the pellet stove designs. Perhaps when you adapt that into a traditional woodstove the extra void space in the chamber buffers it. My flue temps are the same as my woodstove was if not 20-40 degrees cooler, Maybe also since I built small first and then enlarged my burner I didn't reach the same BTU and pellet consumption. Ive noticed my set up is more efficient on fuel so that would stand to reason (less consumption = less BTU = Less flue heat = Same flue temps as woodstove

[@marlorush3853]

@@ecophage thanks for your reply

[@craiglangley1478]

Could a person put the hopper and pellet door on the side of stove thus keeping the door more easily open so you could have a wood stove with logs and pellets or both?

[@ecophage]

Yeah, the only reason I did it in the door is so I can just unhinge the door put original glass door on in 3 seconds and now I’m back to wood burning stove. Check out the build video. My other concern was the stove is double walled so it was easier to co through a single wall on the door than trying to cut through then seal up TWO wall holes. I would however like to have the big glass door back again maybe I’ll modify it this summer again

[@user-dm1tv6nl2e]

@@ecophage that's an interesting idea, I hadn't thought about buying a second door. Thanks!

[@user-wk2zf2rn7x]

У меня тоже пеллетная горелка профилная труба 80×80 , сделал корзинку для горелки из шамотной плитки работает 👍

[@pihva_rusni]

rusnya go w̵e̵s̵t̵ nahuy!

[@ecophage]

хорошая работа

[@kettch42]

What happens with the pellets in the tube close to the burner plate that get hot but don't have airflow? Do they release wood gas, and does it accumulate in the hopper? What would happen if you ran it for a while and then put a lighter by the lid when you open the hopper?

[@ecophage]

Because of the draft anything near the burn has a gently pull. The only time smoke or any vapor can come out the tube upwards is if you have a feed clog, then it smolders half way up the tube, then you sort of smell hot pellets but in the 4+ years I’ve run this setup it’s happened maybe a handful of times. Generally when functioning normally the gentle down flow from any air leaks in the hopper and the draft drawing that in, the heat from the burn basket never even gets around the bend to the straight section of pellets. Then continuous burn and cycling of pellets also means the pellets don’t spend longer than a few minutes in any one location along the feed route so there’s not really enough of an opportunity to gas out pending pellets. They’re just pre warmed before getting fed in themselves, providing there’s no clogging ash ridge or something. (My other videos on the unit go into these issues more in depth.)

[@harrymills2770]

I don't see why you couldn't run an auger off the heat of the stove, with thermo-electric. Maybe hand-crank or wind up a spring to kick-start it, and then let the auger work off the TEGs. You could also use a battery to get it started, and then run off TEGs and re-charge the battery.

[@ecophage]

@@harrymills2770 possibly. I did try that but the amperage from the tegs only operates the weakest motors. I suppose you could attach a half dozen together and you might get a normal motor to work but it never worked whenever I tried it

[@harrymills2770]

@@ecophage I didn't think that the augers in pellet stoves required that much power. Peltier converts only a small fraction of the heat energy. It just seems like all that energy coming off the stove should be MORE than enough to run a little auger. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the specifics.

[@Watchout5035.]

I wish I had the knowledge to build one of those.

[@ecophage]

I’ve got all the info in my other videos. I’ve also considered making a DIY kit too

[@Watchout5035.]

@@ecophage A kit would be awesome. So your in Woolwich? I’m not far away. Tenants Harbor

[@shanegrisham179]

@@ecophage you make a kit I'll buy 2of them

[@howardrichburg2398]

@@ecophage A drawing with the measurements would work for me. However, my wood stove drafts from outside so I would need to do a little modification to the plan.

[@stevekizewski6956]

Hey I got a question I hope you answer does the chimney have to be above the house I see a lot of videos where it just comes out of the house and points towards the ground that can’t be right correct

[@ecophage]

I couldn’t imagine that working, I think the electric pellet stoves have a fan literally blowing the smoke out. So they can use a wall vent like a propane heater. But I don’t trust those for several reasons, no power no natural draft smoke could back up into the house and become deadly. Second it’s being vented low, bad for breathing around it in the yard etc and risk of fire from sparks reaching the ground. Spark wouldn’t stay lit from chimney all the way down to a pile of leaves 40 ft away. Having a tall chimney also creates a super powerful draft that is really required to keep all the smoke from wafting in. Like a open face fireplace. Needs good draft. Actually works just like the pellet blowers but doesn’t require power or make humming noise. Basically was the concept I worked with. How do I use the blowing power of a chimney draft to stoke a pellet stove consistently

[@kettch42]

You might be thinking of a rocket mass heater. Those sometimes have a low level flue exhaust (stretching the definition of chimney). I've seen them work on YT videos (the ones with low exhaust), and I think they were legitimately working, but I don't know how practical they are IRL and how well they work. You can find lots of info on forums to try it yourself, but I wouldn't build my first prototype (or even first 3 prototypes) inside my house.

[@craiglangley1478]

How often do you have to fill ghost stove with pellets, ie how long does the burn last?

[@ecophage]

With the big hopper (update video) it will run 6-8 hours dampered down though it occasionally gets jammed and goes out

[@craiglangley1478]

@@ecophage Could a drop plate be put on kind of like a timed one using a dc motor. Always been curious if someone has done this.

[@ecophage]

@@craiglangley1478 I’m sure, I am kind of toying with the idea of a automated hopper juggler/feeder but my main hold back is I love the no electricity situation. I did get an arduino and everything to play with options like that or maybe even adjusting the damper via iPhone. Interesting ideas certainly

[@robertthompson9409]

How long does a bag last on the average keeping your house around 70 degrees

[@ecophage]

Probably a day and a half

[@JesusJimmy-eo9bg]

Same as conventional pellet stove only OFF GRID

[@colincarver893]

👌

[@memerios7855]

If you have goats or sheep, you can use their pellets as well. Those are free and more eco friendly.

[@pobraposric4927]

You look like Novak djokovic

[@ecophage]

I've heard worse lol

[@ketolifestyle68]

what a great idea too bad you couldnt patten it, that way many people can just change to pellet.. its technically cleaner

[@ecophage]

Thats why i came up with the idea of spreading the info for free here, for those that can fabricate. I've also considered putting together some key parts to sell to DIYers to assist in them making their own stoves

[@joakimback7028]

Whats the benefit from adding annoying music?

[@ecophage]

Well because if it triggers someone and theyre rude enough to criticize someone providing free information online, then it genuinely helps with engagement. Even thumbs down trigggering engagement counts as engagement to the YT algorithm. Plus the silences are awkward when trying to keep people engaged. Plus .01% of people who are bothered by a few fiddle notes during silences according to my analytics. Look around you TV, movies background audio everywhere. You have misophonia or something, don't project that onto others . . .

[@cadeh1748]

What’s the benefit of adding that annoying comment?

[@tonywillingham8109]

Is that obnoxious background noise (music?) intentional?

[@ecophage]

It’s my most popular video, couple hundred views a day. Only 1 jaggoff every few months wants completely silent backgrounds and is narcissistic enough to complain about the audio in a free educational video he’s watching. Would you change how you did successful things because of one person in 10,000?

[@ecophage]

@@tonywillingham8109 you literally got triggered by music and decided to let someone know your opinion. But I’m angry because I point out you’re an extreme minority? Was that intentional? Ok boomer keep yelling at your tv about background music.

[@tonywillingham8109]

@@ecophage I thought maybe it was your rude neighbor or annoying roommate in the next room playing freaky noises over your video. I was going to offer a suggestion on how to filter it out. But.... oops

[@ecophage]

@@tonywillingham8109 hahahahaha

[@wingnut2893]

The background music is a nuisance.

[@ecophage]

Do you think thats why its my most popular video? Sorry I didn't make me free educational video the way you like. K I'll note this, 70,000 viewers 3 people bothered by the subtle muzak. Got it, wrote it down,

[@fth5263]

Get rid of that damn background music

[@MPBrewster]

What is the mentality that youtubers have to make them think that annoying background musak enhances the presentation?

[@ecophage]

Not liking silence, Silence is awkward. Most videos have background musak. I have 750,000+ views and 2-3 people complain about the music. So not only are you a minority but apparently you just have something against musi cwhich says more about you than the guy filming and editing an educational video. Thanks for watching

[@mayamachine]

ditch the music it's annoying

[@ecophage]

It’s literally my most popular video with hundreds of views a day. Think I’ll keep doing the same thing. Ditch the Karen comments and appreciate the free information

[@elm11958]

It's too bad I really wanted to watch this but how are we supposed to concentrate on what you're saying what's annoying music in the background but I guess you got what you want every time someone clicks on it you get credit for it or do we watch it or not

[@ecophage]

@@elm11958 my bad here I’ll fully refund you. There I’ve deposited zero dollars in your account Your welcome

[@JediStockTrader]

Why dont you thank him first instead of being an ungrateful pr.ck in life! Are you an arse like this in public or with your family if you have a suggestion and not a insult!