Cast vs stainless burn~pots

I have a stainless burn pot in my Ecoteck, it is very easy to clean it, and the air-holes are typically never clogged.

I have experiance with both the cast and SS Breckwell pots. Only difference I saw was carbon sticks to the cast a bit more. Both still required the pots to be cleaned every other day and a chisel was needed for both. So unless you present is burned through, I would save the cash for now. I'd only take the plunge if the old one is worn out.

And if it is burned out on the bottom, Just cut out the bottom with a grinder leaving a lip around the edge. Get a plate that fits in it and drill some holes like the original. It will extend the old one for a few more seasons. Leave it removeable as its easier to clean. Do a search here on breckwells burnpots. Someone posted a thread on it. It works very well IMHO.

Chisel??? I use a plastic spackle knife !

I have both Cast and Stainless. I believe my Quad has the best combustion efficiency of all of them. The Cast is Very thick and gets Much hotter and retains that heat. Which ensures complete combustion.

My Buddies Baby Countryside has a stainless pot (corn) and we tried a Cast pot (pellet) for about 2 weeks (Thank you Jrsdws) and combustion was more complete with higher temps.

These may be two very different cases with different stoves and prove nothing. But the Carbon build up on my CPM, Fahrenheit, and PDV are greater than my Quad.

Every stove and install is different. YMMV

The burn pot material has nothing to do with the stoves efficiency...........

My burn pot, stainless, began to erode this season (the third for my stove). I was surprised that it lasted only 2.2 seasons or about 9 tons of pellets before it began to erode, being that I run my stove on medium-low 99% of the time.

I found a thread here, using the search engine, that showed pictures of an eroded Lopi burn pot that duplicated mine that was still under warranty. So,I too got a replacement under warranty and noticed that the base was a bit thicker than the old one. I hope to get 5 seasons out of it.

Pelleting In NJ said:

The burn pot material has nothing to do with the stoves efficiency...........​

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Agree....
The hard stuff is from the minerals in the wood. All living organisms, whether plant or animal, have minerals such as iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, etc.....and whether your burn pot is stainless, cast or glass or whatever....you will still get the hard build up.

Pelleting In NJ said:

The burn pot material has nothing to do with the stoves efficiency...........

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Not heating efficiency... No. I will agree.

But combustion efficiency, Yes. A Pot that is Hotter will start, support, and sustain a Hotter fire and burn the pellets more completely. This is fact. Some stoves have terrible combustion efficiency.

(These #'s mean nothing other than an example)
Drop a sweater in a stainless drum with an internal temp of 900°

Drop the same sweater in a Cast drum thats 1,200°… Which will ignite faster??

Combustion efficiency is different than the stoves heating efficiency (input - output)

A hotter material will always help ignite faster and Cast has the qualities to hold the heat. Ask Grandma why she loved her Cast iron skillet. Just sayin

mr coffee said:

I have an older breckwell with a cast pot.. would a stainless one stay cleaner/perform better?
I do a lot of work grinding and scraping to free up all the airholes

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There have been a couple of Breckwell users on here over the last year (one recently) that did not like the stainless burn pot. I believe their complaint was the pots do not last very long. I have had my stainless pot for at least four years and it looks like it will last at least another four years. The holes in the stainless are elongated/oval compared to the circular holes in the cast.

One reason the stainless pots may not have lasted long for those other guys (I’m just guessing here) is because of the igniter. My 1994 Breckwell P24i does not have an igniter. Never having had an igniter I don’t know why that would make a difference but I don’t know why my stainless pots has lasted longer than the cast pots. When my cast pots were going bad I used to place a couple of heave washers in the bottom to try and extend their life.

The air holes don’t get clogged in the stainless like they did in the cast. One reason is they are larger, plus elongated. I used to use a nail to clean out the air holes in the cast pots. Just insert it in the hole and twist it around until it was clear.

One problem with the stainless pot is that the side flanges/guides would expand out making it difficult to remove/insert the pot from the main outer container. I used to hammer them down a little but then I got smart and filed the slots in the main container to make them a little larger. I haven’t had any problems since. If you’ve never seen the stainless pot you might have a hard time visioning what I am talking about.

Carbon build up still happens on the stainless pot. I clean my insert once a week and use a putty knife to chip the carbon away. It’s not hard, doesn’t take long and only happens on one side of the pot.