new to this/clunkers

What brand of pellets are you burning?

Well those "clunkers" aka clinkers aka sintered ash aka carbon or charcoal sand aka pumice are caused by heating ash (which is the source of the silicon [sand]) and carbon to a high temperature in the presence of moisture.

Now it just turns out that the wood pellets when burned in the fire pot provides all of the material to form clinkers and the fire provides the required temperatures.

To some degree you can control clinker formation.

1. Reduce the ash content by making certain to use only low ash pellets.
2. Provide enough air flow through the fire pot to eject as much of the ash as possible without ejecting the pellets.

As for condensation on the exterior of the OAK tubing, visit your local hardware store and get thin insulated non foam pipe wrap material (metal foil covered fiberglass) and wrap that pipe.

You probably know this already but make sure your burn pot liner is seated correctly and clean. If not, you will get a large mass of partially burnt pellets and your fire wont be quite right. Also, if you manually light your stove go easy on the gel.

jsvo said:

what causes clunkers,after running my napoleon np40 for 3 bags the burn pot was caked full .came out in one big hunk.stove is new so its not dirty,pellets were screened before going in,and window had very little black on it,wiped off with paper towel.also noticed that outside air tube is covered in condensation on outside badly,almost frost where it comes through wall.took off hose and no condensation inside tube i can find. help!

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I also will stir the fire box once a day to keep the holes clear.

South of Boston said:

jsvo said:

what causes clunkers,after running my napoleon np40 for 3 bags the burn pot was caked full .came out in one big hunk.stove is new so its not dirty,pellets were screened before going in,and window had very little black on it,wiped off with paper towel.also noticed that outside air tube is covered in condensation on outside badly,almost frost where it comes through wall.took off hose and no condensation inside tube i can find. help!

Click to expand...

I also will stir the fire box once a day to keep the holes clear.

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Don't ever be bashful about stirring or digging it out as needed. To listen to some or look at a model in a dealers shop you would think there is almost no waste in pellets. There can be plenty I assure you. Just do what you gotta do. Most times changing pellet brands will help but sometimes its worth buying the cheaper stuff just for the price. Right now I am burning Penningtons in my corn burner and have to leave the grinder on to knock it down. You can do the same just stirring it, just be aware of the ash that blows out when you have the door open as it tends to accumulate on the ceiling over the winter.

Cornel Klinker frequents my stove ocasionaly and has his Sargent say, I no nothing! I no nothing!

I popped a 2" x 2" x 6" klinker out of my fire pot late this morning. It was trying to starve my fire of air. Next time I go to the hardware store I'm going to get a can of Clinker B Gon . That'll fix Cornel Klinker.

Not sure about your Napoleon but Quadra-Fire recommends you scrape and dump the burn-pot daily, which in my case equates to around a bags worth of burn. I bust up any clinker that has formed with a gasket scraper, give the pot a quick scrape, and pull the pot dump handle a few times. It's about a 30 second routine on the worst day. I would expect some significant clinker after three bags with no maintenance, unless your stove has some kind of auto-clean cycle.

If you can get it out in one piece then more the better. Thats what I do when burning corn in mine. The grinder tosses so much soot around that I just let it build up and pull the clinker twice a day. Not much of a job if you are careful and don't break it up. I just flip mine off to the side dump bin and leave it there to scoop out all at once when the stove is either off or running on low. If you want a KLUNKER just go buy a US made car with over 100 K on the clock. Then you will be familiar with klunker. I know all about it.

jsvo said:

what causes clunkers,

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Definitely try a different pellet brand. When I burn Barefoots (doing that now), I get clinkers that have to be cleaned out at least once a day but it's low ash. Hamers tend to be both low ash and low clinker (but don't seem to burn quite as hot) and Michigan Wood Pellets (softwood) are high heat with lots of ash but zero clinkers. Comes down to whether you want to clean out ash or clinkers I guess

Wierd thing is I went for at least 3 to 4 weeks with no clinkers at all but starting about a week ago the clink started up again?
Not sure why but I am burning the same pellets form the same delivery with all air and burn setting unchanged.

A quote from Harryback and pretty much sums it up

"the characteristic of your ash will depend on your rate of burn and the type of pellets you burn.
For instance the higher the amounts of salts in your pellets, the more cohesive chunks (clinkers) you'll have.....the existence of salts will lower the fusion temp of silica, increasing clinkering."
I'll add that most PFI members will have the guaranteed analysis on the back of the bag and it should list the sodium content....lower the # the lower the clinker........IN THEORY....... But as we all know each batch will vary....