Question for Harman XXV users

I have a couple of questions about scraping the burnpot of my Harman XXV (which I've had for a year now).

1. As far as scraping out the burnpot, the book says to do it weekly, but my dealer said to do it every time I put in a bag (which is 1 - 2 times a day). I wonder which is best ? I've been scraping 2-3 times a day.

2. If I haven't scraped in the last few hours, there is quite an ash lip, and the flame funnels up from behind, and spreads out like a fan. If I remove the ash lip (and whether or not I scrape), the flame stands up straight, instead of fanning out. Without the ash lip, the air is more free to come out of the front holes, and therefore less air is available to come out right under the flame. I am wondering if having the ash lip there is really a problem ?

I cleaned the stove yesterday, and I'm thinking of experimenting this week with not scraping every day, and see how that goes. I want to see if the heat output will be diminished.

Does anybody have experiences to share ?

investor7952 said:

It depends on the pellets. I notice with the Fireside ultras the ash is heavy and pumice like. It doesnt like to be pushed over the burnpot very well so needs to be scraped more often. With Hammer hot ones a lot of ash on the lip but it is a fluffy light ash that doesnt have a problem being pushed into the ash pan. I cant say either one has ever had an efect on the way the stove performs. I think the clinker build up in the bottom of the pot is more important to scrape than the ash lip.

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tinkabranc said:

Some pellets burn much dirtier than others and will pile up the ash faster.

I scrape the entire burnpot only once a day to make sure ALL the holes are clear from
clinkers, especially the ones half way down and near the bottom.

If any holes are blocked, the flame will get lazy.
I brush and vac out the stove once a week.

hope this helps

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Thank you Investor and Tinkabranc. I am wondering if maybe with most of the air coming out of the lower holes (assuming that the ash lip is blocking the upper holes), if maybe clinkers won't cover the lower holes so fast ? I will watch to see if the flame does get lazy. I last scraped it yesterday when I did the weekly cleaning.

Tinkabranc, when I scrape daily, it's with the stove in full operation. Is this what you do ? I reach the tool under the burning pellets, and try to tell by feel whether there is clinker build-up. I often feel some, and then feel it gone after I scrape. Once a week, I shut the stove down and feel this area with my hand (I also brush and vac then).

mlwschultz said:

.......scrape the burn pot out once/week. In the beginning I scraped it more frequently, but not that we've been burning the stove for a while, just don't see the need. I do a more thorough cleaning every couple of weeks (shut stove down, let it cool, scrape, brush, vacuum - I was recently told to make sure the air holes in the burn pot aren't plugged up - paper clip inserted in each hole will do - and to take off the plate below the burnpot & vacuum the ash out of there too). We have a good lip of ash at the edge of the burnpot, but it just gets pushed out. Stove is burning very well.

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Thanks for your note mlwschultz and everybody else who has responded - I am on day 2 of not scraping the pot, since I started up after a thorough cleaning on Saturday. I am burning the low-ash Energex pellets. The flame still seems to be full and beautiful, funneling up from behind the ash lip. It even reignited successfully last night while I was asleep. I'll keep watching - if I can have good burning (maybe even better burning) with weekly scrapings, that would be good.

Interesting about the paperclips - I'll have to give that a try. Will a paperclip go through a plugged hole ?

bungalobob said:

I use a drill bit, don't have the size offhand right now, but it works well.

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Hmmm - that's an idea - stiff but small. I have to see which size out of my drillbit set fits.

Tonight (Wednesday night) makes 4 days of not scraping my Harman XXV. I have had it on high and low outputs, depending on my needs and the weather. The flame is funneling out from behind the ash lip nicely, and the heated air coming out of the front of the stove is nice and hot when I need it hot - I think more so than when I scrape daily. I last cleaned (cold shutdown) on Saturday, and hope to get to this coming Saturday without scraping. My whole purpose is to test the Harman instruction book's comment that scraping is a weekly activity, vs. my dealer's comment to scrape once per bag (which is 1-2 times a day). It will be interesting, if I get to Saturday without scraping, to see how bad and how stubborn the build-up is. For now, the build-up is apparently not keeping my flame from burning very nicely.

lecomte38 said:

I tried this no pot clean experiment myself. I found that in 3 days the flames were shooting out through the "funnel" of ash/clinker and hitting the glass. Bad idea so I went back to cleaning twice a day.

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Thank you lecomte for your comments. I found almost the same thing, with the funnel effect, and the flame coming closer to the glass (not quite hitting it though). I guess I didn't see it as a problem because the heat output from the air jet was nice and hot.

I did eventually scrape Wednesday night (after 4 days), because I saw several sparks flying out of the flame - I got the impression that the ash was no longer moving forward very much, and material was shooting out with the flame instead. I don't really know if that's what was going on though.

Tonight makes 2 days since scraping - I'll let it go until a cold cleaning tomorrow.