I have a harman accentra insert and i am currently burning a blend or barefoot and turman pellets depending on what i grab outta the garage recently sticking to the turmans. My issue with the turmans and no other pellets ive burnt like the barefoot, or great american pellets have done this, is in the burn pot the pellet ash hardens and forms a soldid mass of ash overnight when im not awake to clean the ash out that builds up on the lip of the pot what makes this brand do this and no other brand so far has caused an issue like this? Thanks for any help/ suggestions feed setting is on 4 auto light stove temperature setting around 75
ash build up
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Pelletfisky
Member
Maybe a bad batch of pellets or w/e is mixed in, almost sounds like what corn would do. I burn every brand I can get my hands and some ash more then other but my clinkers are very very small if any. I scrape a few times a day. Try cleaning stove well and try again. Maybe find the same brand somewhere else just to see what happens. If it was me I would burn whats cleaner and warm.
jtakeman
Minister of Fire
Turmans are made from 100% Oak fiber. Oak has a heavy gritty ash. You could try lowering the feed rate by 1/2 to see if it helps.
mepellet
Minister of Fire
I get a buildup of ash between the fire and lip also. I pull the ash off the front of the burnpot a few times a day and also scrape while I'm at it. If turning the feed rate down 1/2 helps please let us know.
Thanks for suggestions stove was cleaned well on sunday and still same thing i also turned feed down and still did it i thinl its not burning at high enough rate if anything to push the ash off so it just builds up and hardens but i dont wanna burn higher just for the possible reason to push ash off. The turmans dont leave a lot of ash in burn pot and i like the heat with them however lot of fines in bags of pellets and this is making a mess of stove i think other brands leave stove cleaner with less fines but produce more ash. with these turmans the face plate where the compass is on the accentra is covered in ash and built up to the point the diamond in the middle of the compass is almost unrecognizable i think im gunna go back to barefoots for a while. lot people talking about oakies never tried these and the summersets also never burnt but i think these are soft woods and some people have mentioned to me soft woods have some sap and can cause feed track to gum and and stuff anyone ever experience this and why are oakies called oakies if there a softwood pellet?
just found more info spoke too soon saw the oakies were douglas fir i thought people were shortening okanagans to oakies im new to all this i appologize...im in CT havnt seen the oakies but have seen the okanagans what are peoples take on them and sap issues?
gbreda
Minister of Fire
Dont be afraid to try softwoods. I actually prefer them. The Okies and Somersets should burn very well in your stove. At least that has been my experience.
edit: The Spruce Pointe I have burned for the last 2 years is softwood and very much equal to Okies in burn character. Price makes the only difference between the 2 when I buy.
edit: The Spruce Pointe I have burned for the last 2 years is softwood and very much equal to Okies in burn character. Price makes the only difference between the 2 when I buy.
movemaine
Minister of Fire
I also have a Harman Accentra insert, and found this same issue with Cubex pellets. Cubex burns well, but I would get large chunks of ash blocks (clinkers?) that wouldn't always get pushed into the ash pan by new pellets feeding into the pot. Cubex are made from hardwood flooring by product, so I'm sure there's some oak in there. I switched to Canadian softwoods (La Cretes - similar to Okanagans) and they burn much better, cleaner, and the ash is much lighter/finer. And I found that the softwoods burn hotter than the Cubex did.
gbreda
Minister of Fire
smithw44 said:
This is correct: Okies is short for Okanagan . Now if you ask about how to pronounce that, it can start a whole new direction for the thread !! :cheese:
mrjohneel
Feeling the Heat
My harman P35i insert is burning almost Barefoots exclusively. For me, Barefoots generate a thick black ash (although it never solidifies). And it clumps at the front of the burnpot in front of the flame but before the edge. So I find myself often opening the door, and pushing it off (no unburned pellets are included) and while I'm there I do a good scrape. To get rid of that wall of ash I've turned the feed rate way up -- over 4. I've written about that experiment here. I've tested about 4 other brands of pellets and found that while some don't seem to generate as much heat as Barefoots, almost all produce less ash, especially black ash. Green Lignetics seemed to burn pretty cleanly for me. I know Barefoots are well thought of, but I find them loaded with fines and very ashy (compared to others).
(Totally unrelated: a period or two in a sentence makes stuff easier to read. Sorry.)
(Totally unrelated: a period or two in a sentence makes stuff easier to read. Sorry.)
thanks for all your input! In regard to the periods in a sentence, yeh i'm not the best with grammar and i had a train of thought going didnt wanna lose it sorry..haha. Ok now that i got the whole oakie/ okanagan thing figured out maybe i'll try them out next year, too bad about the mess the turmans make i like the heat and low ash just not the stove mess that comes with the fines. movemaine did you ever figure out any cause of this clumping? thanks for everyones suggestions!
movemaine
Minister of Fire
smithw44 said:
I believe it's just a characteristic of hardwood (and specifically Oak) pellets. Hardwoods have denser ash, that can sometimes clump into crust. I've found that burning softwoods has prevented this.
fmsm
Minister of Fire
Barefoots burn great for me, I do get the darker ash that forms like a cigar ash on the corners but it's no big deal. They burn very hot and produce far less ash than most pellets for me. LeCretes were a lighter ash but I'm not sure it was less ash (lighter=more flying around and into exhaust ports?) or less volume.
i know some people have said that the soft woods give off more heat in some cases but does that mean that they burn faster and ill go through more pellets? right now im burning a bag about every 12-14 hours there abouts. okanagans are available at the place i buy my pellets are there any others recommended i know theres a bunch of threads just asking you guys here about what u like. and whats your opinions on summersets however there not available at the CTpellets where i got my last load from.
fmsm
Minister of Fire
forya
Member
I get the same thing when I burn Hamers. I get a stlagtight of ash that hangs off the edge of the burnpot. I don't get this with the Lignetics, but the Lignetics don't burn near as hot as the Hamers, so it is worth pulling the clump off the edge of the burnpot 2-3 times a day
fmsm said:
Only issue with this is my room temp diode/wire is too short to reach anywhere so it sit next to stove so i need to extend it and not sure how to pull out stove so waiting for the end of the season when i have the company come to do a thorough cleaning and watch them do everything and see how stove pulls out and stuff and maybe throw some 24-2 thermostat wire on to extend it while its accesable.
movemaine
Minister of Fire
smithw44 said:
The Harman pulls out easily.
First, pull off the skirting around the bottom. That's just a big piece of cast iron that pulls out.
Now open both side panels, and undo the latches and make sure the latches aren't still hooked in their openings. Now you can pull out fairly easily. Don't pull out too much, as these are front heavy (like an old school TV) unless you have something to slide it onto.
And again - my stove runs fine with the probe on the return air which is under the control panel.
krooser
Minister of Fire
smithw44 said:
The softwoods contain more lignen which is the sappy stuff from the tree and it binds the pellet together. The lignen burns hotter hence the higher BTU's of a softwood... you won't burn more since the stove's feed rate governs how many pellets are fed into the stove.
slls
Minister of Fire
The way I look at it, hot fire, the thermostat would get to temp quicker. Poor pellets and longer burn, then price comes into playing.
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