I've owned my stove for about 6 heating seasons. When I installed the stove the dealer did not recommend an OAK. In the past 5 years I have installed new windows, doors and sided the house. In the past I would stay away from burning hardwood pellets due to excessive clinker material left in the burn pot. The pellets I have found to work best in my stove are LG Granules. I'm wondering if there is an air flow adjustment that can be made to the stove to help in burning HW pellets? Would this be an OAK? I see that on many news stoves they can make air flow adjustments. Looking for a little guidance.
Mount Vernon Quadrafire a few questions?
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The only airflow adjustment that I know of is to keep all the holes in the burnpot clean and open. My Mt. Vernon doesn't have any problem with clinkers. As a matter of fact I've never seen one. I only burn hardwood pellets. It is hard to see, and feel the holes in the burnpot front. I don't think adding a OAK will have any effect on you burning airflow. The OAK only changes where the stove gets it air from. Have you taken off all the cast iron baffles and cleaned behind them?
David
David
I cleaned the baffles out about 1 month ago, the ash never ends up there LOL..... I will clean it out again in late Dec then again sometime in Feb for the final few months of burning.
Whenever I buy "supposed premium HW pellets" I get clinker galore in the burn pot. Presto pellets garbage, Inferno pellets garbage and a few other big box store brands out there. When burning these brands, if I don't clean out the burn pot every 8 hours or so, the burnpot forms a nice large pumice clinker. I have no clue how other people can burn this stuff???? I was hoping there was something I was missing on my stove to get more air into the equation to burn this crap to completion....
Will continue to buy what works for my stove
Whenever I buy "supposed premium HW pellets" I get clinker galore in the burn pot. Presto pellets garbage, Inferno pellets garbage and a few other big box store brands out there. When burning these brands, if I don't clean out the burn pot every 8 hours or so, the burnpot forms a nice large pumice clinker. I have no clue how other people can burn this stuff???? I was hoping there was something I was missing on my stove to get more air into the equation to burn this crap to completion....
Will continue to buy what works for my stove
Wow...either I'm doing something totally wrong or maybe I'm just fussy but I clean my stove once a week, thoroughly by removing the baffle...cleaning those little ports on each side that the baffle sits in, dumping the ash pan and vacuuming out the dishcarge of the stove itself. It's recommened you clean those ports often as ash and whatever blocks those areas. I also scrape the burn pot and make sure those holes in the fire pot are totally open and this happens at least every other day. Maybe it's excessive but I have never had a problem and I do have an OAK. I guess my .02 worth is just peace of mind that I'm doing the best I can to allow the stove to do the best it can.
Cleaning out the baffles that much does seem like overkill. I have cleaning them out from start to finish in about a 1/2 hour now. What do you use to get in between the baffles to clean(tool)? Depending on the pellet i'm burning, small clean outs will be from twice a day to every 2-3 days.
What I clean the tubes behind the baffle is a good ol' 4 inch wide paint brush along with having my Rigid vac right next to my sweeping to suck up any soot or ash that come off the heat exchanger tubes. I also have a variety of smaller plastic tubing that I use to get into the ports on both sides where the baffle rests. I use a dryer lint cleaning device that I bought at lowes for cleaning the exhaust piping. I try to make it simple, cheap and still user friendly. So far I must be doing OK because I've burned some real junk....both hardwood and softwood without to much of a hickup. Never had a clinker(sound of knocking on wood) and maybe it's luck. Cleaning my stove isn't a hassle and pays me with big rewards in keeping me warm.
Never thought of the paint brush...I use a lint eater to clean between the tubes, but it is very difficult to control with a drill attached. When I clean the burn pot, I use my vac with a brush attached to it. Cleans out the many air holes quite nicely.
krooser
Minister of Fire
Get in the firebox with a hammer and start tapping on the walls of the firepot and you'll probably see lots of ash falling into the ash traps... they plug up there on a regular bassis. Get it behind the fireboxthru the ash traps with a long bottle brush or coat hangar or use a leaf blower to suck the ash out of the vent pipe... I bet you'll solve your problem.
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