Is it ok to open the door?

My flame just gets "lazy" and will smolder out because it stops sucking air through the burn pot.

Go ahead and open the door. I have the same stove, and twice a day I scoop out the ash from the burn pot and dump it in to an ash can that I have. It will do no harm to open it up for a bit to tend to your pellet stove. There is no need to shut it down just to do a quick clean up. I do however shut it down once a week to do a good clean out with my shop vac once things have cooled down.

I have not had this happen to me but have read somewhere in here about a guy that had a soot area on the ceiling directly above the general area of the stove from opening the door alot. Again this has not happened to me but I think it was someone in heres cousins, freinds, sisters, teachers, paperboys, uncle........ something like that.................

I also have the same stove...once a day I shut it down...just till the flame dies a bit...I use a hamburger flipper...scoop the ash out to the sides...leave some red hot coals in the middle...and turn it back on again....Once a week I shut it down and vac it out....get a little smoke smell....but I like the abieance of the smell too!

If you have a good working exhaust vent the draft should be good enough to prevent excessive smoke/smell from entering the room with the door open / fire burning while doing some quick scraping of the burn pot.
With my Harman P-38 I use this sequence for scraping every other day:
1.......burn on lowest setting for 10 minutes (to lower stove temperature and size of fire)

2........I always turn off the stove distribution blower so it doesn`t create a suction above the open door to blow whatever little smoke/smell that escapes all over the
house.

3......I open the door slowly

4......I turn up the feed rate setting to #4 which speeds up the combustion fan which helps to exhaust the smoke better.
The auger won`t feed pellets with the door open.

I`m not sure if everyone has this much control over their stove but it works extremely well for me.

strangemainer said:

Ive been waiting for the stove to shut down to scoop out the ash, and then start it
back up. Mostly because of the flame. DO I HAVE TO?

What will happen if I open the door while the unit is running?

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'Is it ok to open the door?'
How else are you going to roast the marshmallows?
I Have the Harman P68, and like the other poster with a Harman, although he adjusts settings before he opens the door, I just wait till the fire is small because the room temp is up, and just do a quick clean of removing ashes and scraping out the burnpot. Takes less than a minute. You do get a little smoke/smell, but hey, it's kind of nice to have that wood burning scent run through the house, and it's only minimal. Interesting about possible soot on ceiling as other poster comments too, I'll have to keep an eye on that, hate to have to paint the ceiling black. I will try the routine of the other Harman poster, I'm new to this as well, and I take all hints and tricks under advisement.