pellets not going down hopper

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alpinestars96

New Member
Jan 23, 2012
25
Western New York
Some of the pellets stay on the sides if the hopper and do not go down the tube when getting closer to empty. Is there a way to fix this? There was a good amount left on the sides of the hopper.
 
When I asked this I was told ro us dry graphit, I did and have had no issues since.

Good luck.
 
I have also heard cleaning the hopper, sanding it down smooth and applying a wax finish helps.

Some say use pledge furniture spray.

Personally I don't worry about the cliffhangers. I just add another bag. :)

---Nailer---
 
It would be nice if the stove did not shut down before I have a chance to throw another bag in the hopper.
Mine died due to this exact problem once.
I sanded it down and vacuumed it out to see of that helps, but I have not let it go that low again to see.

Bill
 
Feeding it a continuous supply of pellets also does a good job of buffing out all of the imperfections.

You just have to agitate the pellets until it is no longer needed.
 
You can also clean it with some mild soap and water(not letting it drip down into the stove). Dry it good and take some wax paper and rub it down several times.
 
Since my Mt. Vernon has a plastic hopper, I am looking at giving it a coat of wax. I'll report back how it works.
 
alpinestars96 said:
Some of the pellets stay on the sides if the hopper and do not go down the tube when getting closer to empty. Is there a way to fix this? There was a good amount left on the sides of the hopper.

Another bag of pellets.
 
I've used the aluminum stove pipe tape and covered all of the surfaces of the hopper. It immediately rectified the situation where I previously had 15-20 lbs of pellets still in the hopper. I've had it for 3 years since with no issues.
 
Last fall, I sprayed silicone lubricant in mine and my daughter's englander and it's still trouble free.
I lightly sanded and cleaned first and then buffed once the silicone dried.
 
alpinestars96 said:
Great ideas! THANKS! For the time being I will push most of it towards the middle I check it often enough anyways.

That's what I do now.

What stove do you have? You might want to add it to your signature like most folks here so we won't have to ask in the future.

I am currently waiting for my stove to run out of pellets so I can vac out the hopper and do the wax job.
 
Somewhat, but I fondle them so much that I manually push them down on a regular basis.

However, I came home from work one day to a cold stove that had plenty of pellets around the upper rim of the hopper.
 
It's amazing what a good coat of Turtle Wax paste can do. I let the hopper run empty last night and gave it a quick cleanout with the vac. After that, a good coat of the paste wax. I was pretty generous with it, let it sit on there a little and then buffed it all out with an old t-shirt. I filled it back up and resisted fondling or checking on it until a few minutes ago and was pleasantly surprised. It definitely did the trick.
 
There have been MANY threads that had discussions about this.

In my case, a good sanding w/ fine sandpaper, followed by a good vacuuming, and then a coat of spray furniture polish.
 
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