Open door while burning?

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tiger

tiger

Feeling the Heat
Feb 3, 2014
438
Seabrook, MD (DC suburbs)
I've read here that some open up their stoves after a shut-down while still hot, but how about while there are still flames? I do see a fair amount of ash-Styrofoam (no word for it, but it's light and crumbles to the touch) accruing in the firepot, I'm thinking I'd like to open up once a day for a few seconds and scoop it out of the firepot and down into the ash pan (not easy because the pseudo-logs are a bit in the way). Safe? Advisable? Or turn it off, let the flames die out, scoop out this debris and turn it right back on?

Data points: New-ish Accentra insert, usual burn over a weekend of 3-4 bags, then light cleaning, Hamers pellets.
 
I will crack my stove open every few days for about 5 seconds to vacuum up any loose ash around the burnpot with my ash vac. I only open the door enough to get the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner in. I'll also to a 5 second cleaning of the ashpan.
 
On my Harman, if the flame is roaring, I will dial back the temp and let the flame die down a bit, open the door (slowly), scrape ashes off the lip and scrape down the pot (door wide open), shut the door, and we are both happy. I believe if I take to long the stove will shut down until vacuum is reestablished.

On my St. Croix, haven't tried while it was running yet. It makes me nervous because the pot isn't as far back into the stove as for my Harman. but, it is no big deal to shut it down for a little while to clean as long as the basement stove is cranking.
 
tiger said:
I've read here that some open up their stoves after a shut-down while still hot, but how about while there are still flames? I do see a fair amount of ash-Styrofoam (no word for it, but it's light and crumbles to the touch) accruing in the firepot, I'm thinking I'd like to open up once a day for a few seconds and scoop it out of the firepot and down into the ash pan (not easy because the pseudo-logs are a bit in the way). Safe? Advisable? Or turn it off, let the flames die out, scoop out this debris and turn it right back on?

Data points: New-ish Accentra insert, usual burn over a weekend of 3-4 bags, then light cleaning, Hamers pellets.
Click to expand...
Yes in a Harman it's not a problem at all and was suggested by two different dealers actually. Just open slowly, you will see the flame go lazy, once it does that you can actually both scrape off the excess ash and scrape any carbon off the pot right under the hot burning pellets. A small amount of smoke smell might enter the room but nothing big. When you close the door in a minute or two the flame will reestablish. At first it looks like you killed the fire but it will light back up.
 
Don’t leave the door open too long or the vacuum switch will trigger a stove shutdown.
 
alternativeheat said:
Yes in a Harman it's not a problem at all and was suggested by two different dealers actually. Just open slowly, you will see the flame go lazy, once it does that you can actually both scrape off the excess ash and scrape any carbon off the pot right under the hot burning pellets. A small amount of smoke smell might enter the room but nothing big. When you close the door in a minute or two the flame will reestablish. At first it looks like you killed the fire but it will light back up.
Click to expand...

Yep, no big issue at all on the Harmans.
 
Harman will shut off the flow of pellets as soon as you open the door and break the vacuum. You can have it open for quite a while before it shuts down. Reason being that the shut down on harmans is in part a response to esp temps. If you were to leave the door open for 10 min, there was still a decent sized pot of embers, the embers would reignite once you closed the door and continue to provide adequate heat for the esp to signal all is well.

Having said that, keeping the door open for 10 minutes exposes many other hazards, embers popping out onto floor, possible excessive flue gas into house, ext.

I open mine to scrape the heat exchangers and give the pot a quick scrape into the ash pan once every other day or so. It was advised to be by my dealer and works well to keep the stove maintained between full shut down cleanings.
 
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Never been an issue with any stoves I have had or worked on if done slowly on opening and usually under 20 seconds open(Hestia triggers complete shutdown that's not reversible)Still have the hair on the back of my hands
 
Thanks all, good advice especially about opening the door slowly, probably the opposite of what I would have done.

Thinking about fabbing a tool to pull the debris out of the firepot quickly, instead of the Harman scraper. I visualize a miniaturized version of my roof rake.
 
tiger said:
Thanks all, good advice especially about opening the door slowly, probably the opposite of what I would have done.

Thinking about fabbing a tool to pull the debris out of the firepot quickly, instead of the Harman scraper. I visualize a miniaturized version of my roof rake.
Click to expand...
If you wear a glove ( it seems some here do not) you can get your hand inside the confines of the box or at least inside the door frame . Obviously the intent is to work fairly quickly but I have not gotten burned yet. It takes maybe 30 seconds to accomplish scraping off the ash and a quick but good scrape of the pot under the fire or glowing embers ( you will lose the fire briefly but it comes right back after shutting the door). You will catch on to the routine quickly. I use no fancy tool but then I don't have the fake antlers in my stove ( logs) and even if I did, on the P61 as I understand it, they sit behind the flame out of the way.
 
No need to open my stove....holds lots of pellets and lots of ash :)
 
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I'll second using gloves, that way you can flip that dang Harman tool around and use both ends. I'll add that you should turn the distribution blower down first as well - I had some hot embers whizz by my face before I figured that one out.
 
Right now I'm burning EXTRA dirty pellets(((FIBER ENERGY PRODUCTS))).Having to hot clean twice a day.Takes 1-2 min.Stove has never missed a lick...
 
tiger said:
Hmm, I was looking for an excuse to get a pair of BBQ gauntlets.
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What ever. Bare hands if you're extra tough, rose gauntlets if you're a wimp, something else if in between !! LOL. I had some insulated buckskin winter gloves that worked great but I think my wife tossed them after a stove cleaning that got too nasty. Right now I'm just using work gloves , they seem fine. It's not like poking a hot coal fie inside a pellet stove. Coal stoves are intense by comparison..
 
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Oven mit.
 
tiger said:
Thanks all, good advice especially about opening the door slowly, probably the opposite of what I would have done.

Thinking about fabbing a tool to pull the debris out of the firepot quickly, instead of the Harman scraper. I visualize a miniaturized version of my roof rake.
Click to expand...
I open the door of my Harman, pull the ash, close the door. Matter of five to ten seconds. Never need to do more to the burn pot until I do my cleaning. Wouldn't recommend longer under any circumstances but you pays your money you takes your chances. I have gloves but don't use 'em. Wife does.
 
F4jock said:
I open the door of my Harman, pull the ash, close the door. Matter of five to ten seconds. Never need to do more to the burn pot until I do my cleaning. Wouldn't recommend longer under any circumstances but you pays your money you takes your chances. I have gloves but don't use 'em. Wife does.
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Curious what you think is going to happen if you took 30 seconds and scraped the carbon off the pot too. I can tell you nothing happens, except the carbon is gone. Of course that assumes pellets that make carbon, which many do and some do not.. But you might need to borrow your wife's gloves !
 
alternativeheat said:
Curious what you think is going to happen if you took 30 seconds and scraped the carbon off the pot too. I can tell you nothing happens, except the carbon is gone. Of course that assumes pellets that make carbon, which many do and some do not.. But you might need to borrow your wife's gloves !
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Don't think anything will happen, well maybe sparks or smoke as the fire dies and the draft decreases or ash on the hearth, just haven't needed to bother with doing that in going on six years. Thing burns fine w/o it if I use quality pellets.
 
F4jock said:
Don't think anything will happen, well maybe sparks or smoke as the fire dies and the draft decreases or ash on the hearth, just haven needed to bother with doing that in going on six years. Thing burns fine w/o it if I use quality pellets.
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Softwood ?
Have you found any hardwood pellets that in a lower burn do not carbon up the pot ?
 
F4jock said:
Hardwood. Use Lignetics. Very happy with them.
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I get very little carbon with Energex hardwood but ashy. I could go without scraping the pot for a few days but do it anyway out of habit..

I just got done with LG softwoods that were good last year but formed a really hard carbon on the pot this year with a speed bump, daily. I scraped the pot twice a day for carbon more so than ash.
 
My procedure to clean the pot on my 25-PDVC without shutting down is this:

I open the hopper door to top off the pellets.

Once full, I leave the lid open so the hopper switch is up and the top auger is off and not feeding pellets.

I leave the lid open for 4-5 minutes and let the fire die down to just hot embers.

I close the hopper lid and then slowly open the front door and use a metal spatula to scoop the hot ash to the left & right leaving a few of the red-hot embers near the end of the lower auger.

Before I close the door I toss a handful of fresh pellets into the pot on top of the red-hot embers.

I then close the door and within 30-40 seconds, she’s back up and burning.

Within a few minutes the upper auger is caught up and is dumping new pellets into the pot.

This works great and I do it once in the morning and once in the evening when it's real cold and the stove is running 24/7.

Saturdays I do full shut down and clean out with my Powersmith Ash Vac.
 
Shawn S said:
My procedure to clean the pot on my 25-PDVC without shutting down is this:

I open the hopper door to top off the pellets.

Once full, I leave the lid open so the hopper switch is up and the top auger is off and not feeding pellets.

I leave the lid open for 4-5 minutes and let the fire die down to just hot embers.

I close the hopper lid and then slowly open the front door and use a metal spatula to scoop the hot ash to the left & right leaving a few of the red-hot embers near the end of the lower auger.

Before I close the door I toss a handful of fresh pellets into the pot on top of the red-hot embers.

I then close the door and within 30-40 seconds, she’s back up and burning.

Within a few minutes the upper auger is caught up and is dumping new pellets into the pot.

This works great and I do it once in the morning and once in the evening when it's real cold and the stove is running 24/7.

Saturdays I do full shut down and clean out with my Powersmith Ash Vac.
Click to expand...

Did this today and I took some photos.....



IMG_6024.jpg


IMG_6028.jpg


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IMG_6037.jpg
 
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