Burn Pot Caking up on my Englander IP

How's your burn pot to cradle air sealing? Do you get the piled up "ash volcano" around the burn pot? If not, air may be leaking around the burn pot and not getting directed through the pellets to help clear the ash.
How's the fire in general? Could be an overall air movement issue too.

I do get some caking in mine, but not to the extent you're describing. My cleaning routine is currently a daily burn pot stir/scrape while the stove is running and then a weekly cleaning and it's been working out well. I do get a nice fireworks show when I close the door after the daily stir, so it's definitely loosening up the ash.

have we done a "plates off" cleaning lately? remove the two small plates at the base of the firewall and clean that area out , also while doing so if you remove the brick facia fromthe back wall and bang around a bit on that back steel firewall it will help to get trapped ash to fall down to the cleanouts for removal as well