Is this a normal amount of ash?

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agrossm

agrossm

New Member
Dec 12, 2009
16
St. Louis, MO
Just curious if this is an excessive amount of ash or a normal amount after an full hopper burnt. Stove has been burning on a heat setting of 3 and blower at 9 since about 7 or 8 last night. I added a few more pounds to the hopper last night before bed. Gonna shut her down pretty soon and clean the ash out.
 

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agrossm said:
Just curious if this is an excessive amount of ash or a normal amount after an full hopper burnt. Stove has been burning on a heat setting of 3 and blower at 9 since about 7 or 8 last night. I added a few more pounds to the hopper last night before bed. Gonna shut her down pretty soon and clean the ash out.
Click to expand...

Ash is made from the pellets.

If the pellets are of a bad quality you will get more ash than pellets of a good quality.

If you see unburnt pellets in the ash then your stove has issues such as to high of feed rate or air to fuel mixture.

Air to fuel issues are clogged or improper venting, damper open or closed to much, and dirty stove.

Good burning pellets have no smoke and a grayish ash with no clinkers.

Black ash is also indications of a problem with incomplete combustion.


Eric
 
I guess that is my real question. As I am new to pellets, I was wondering if I am burning good pellets. I suppose I am as I have no unburnt pellets, no clinkers, and my ash is grayish. I've thought about trying a few bags of a different brand to see how they compare, but I only know of two other places that sell them locally.
 
agrossm said:
I guess that is my real question. As I am new to pellets, I was wondering if I am burning good pellets. I suppose I am as I have no unburnt pellets, no clinkers, and my ash is grayish. I've thought about trying a few bags of a different brand to see how they compare, but I only know of two other places that sell them locally.
Click to expand...

Just like finding a good beer. You need to sample other products before finding the one you like.

Glad to hear you have a good ash.

Eric
 
The glass look's clean and sounds like your burn is pretty good. I don't think you need to shut it down and clean it. Sounds like you just need to do a quick scrape and continue to burn. The burnpots generally require daily maintenance. Most stoves come with the tool to do the scraping.

The cleaner burning pellets will give you longer burn times before you get the burnpot full of ash. What pellets are you burning now?

If you tell us what other pellets brnads you have available near you, We could help or suggest another brand to try.

Not all pellets are created equal. There is the good, the bad, and the ugly out there. Here is the way I test my pellet brands. check link.(very long and takes a bit to read)

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/42511/

Have fun.
jay
 
Hi jtakeman, currently I have about 2/3 a ton of Ozark Hardwood Products pellets (http://www.ozarkhardwoodproducts.com/fuel.html). I'm not too sure what the other brands near me are, as on retailer wanted $6.50 per bag w/ no discount on a ton and the other wanted $6 and might work out a discount on a ton. I'm buying the OHP's at 4.99 and working w/ the local HD to see if they can get me a ton cheaper. I find it odd that pellets are not more common around here as there are a few pellet manufactures in MO.

This might be a stupid question, but I thought you had to shut the stove down to clean the burn pot? Or do you guys just do it on the fly? Won't I get an error code if I open the door w/ it fired due to the loss of draft switch? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but like I said I'm new to stoves/pellets.
 
agrossm said:
Hi jtakeman, currently I have about 2/3 a ton of Ozark Hardwood Products pellets (http://www.ozarkhardwoodproducts.com/fuel.html). I'm not too sure what the other brands near me are, as on retailer wanted $6.50 per bag w/ no discount on a ton and the other wanted $6 and might work out a discount on a ton. I'm buying the OHP's at 4.99 and working w/ the local HD to see if they can get me a ton cheaper. I find it odd that pellets are not more common around here as there are a few pellet manufactures in MO.

This might be a stupid question, but I thought you had to shut the stove down to clean the burn pot? Or do you guys just do it on the fly? Won't I get an error code if I open the door w/ it fired due to the loss of draft switch? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but like I said I'm new to stoves/pellets.
Click to expand...

IMO, No questions are stupid. As far as I know most do it on the fly(quickly and may need a good glove!) and close the door with no error's. But I don't own an Englander. My stove does my scraping for me. I only shut down once a week to do a cleaning.

I don't have any experience with the pellet brand you are using. But there are a few members here that my chime in. I hear a lot of good things from Uncle Jed's pellets. The only brand I tried that might be available near you are the Marth hardwoods. I liked them. But if the OHP's are affordable and the ash amount is acceptable. No real point in changing brands. Burn what you can afford.
 
agrossm said:
Hi jtakeman, currently I have about 2/3 a ton of Ozark Hardwood Products pellets (http://www.ozarkhardwoodproducts.com/fuel.html). I'm not too sure what the other brands near me are, as on retailer wanted $6.50 per bag w/ no discount on a ton and the other wanted $6 and might work out a discount on a ton. I'm buying the OHP's at 4.99 and working w/ the local HD to see if they can get me a ton cheaper. I find it odd that pellets are not more common around here as there are a few pellet manufactures in MO.

This might be a stupid question, but I thought you had to shut the stove down to clean the burn pot? Or do you guys just do it on the fly? Won't I get an error code if I open the door w/ it fired due to the loss of draft switch? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but like I said I'm new to stoves/pellets.
Click to expand...

Your stove looks the same as mine ,I open the door all the time and scrape the ash over the front edge of the burn pot . Just take the grey ash not the still glowing pellets or it will go out .You can vacuum it out later when you are shut down . You don't want it open long as you will smell smoke pretty quickly .I usually give the glass a quick wipe while I am at it .
 
agrossm said:
Hi jtakeman, currently I have about 2/3 a ton of Ozark Hardwood Products pellets (http://www.ozarkhardwoodproducts.com/fuel.html). I'm not too sure what the other brands near me are, as on retailer wanted $6.50 per bag w/ no discount on a ton and the other wanted $6 and might work out a discount on a ton. I'm buying the OHP's at 4.99 and working w/ the local HD to see if they can get me a ton cheaper. I find it odd that pellets are not more common around here as there are a few pellet manufactures in MO.

This might be a stupid question, but I thought you had to shut the stove down to clean the burn pot? Or do you guys just do it on the fly? Won't I get an error code if I open the door w/ it fired due to the loss of draft switch? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but like I said I'm new to stoves/pellets.
Click to expand...

Not stupid at all. I've burned a PDVC for 5 years. Several times a day I open the door and use a tablespoon to clear the ashes. Doesn't hurt anything at all. Keeps air holes clear for more efficient burning. Not sure if there are anything new on your stove. Mine made in August of '05. There are several things addressed in the manual for the company's protection (such as not opening the hopper during burning), which wouldn't be a very practical way to operate a stove if you had to let it go out to refill the hopper.
 
I give my burnpot a daily scrape while the stove is running, on my stove theres a 60 second window for the board to sense vacum again,before it sets the error 2.
 
Looks normal to me. Several times a day I open the door up and scoop out the ash. Or a few times when working, before I go to work, when I come home and before bed.
 
I'm not brave enough to clean it while it's running. I have fly ash that I don't want to pop out on my carpet. But then, I also have an ash pan that catches most of the ash.
 
If you like the OHP pellets I have 35 bags for sale @ 4.00 per bag and might be able to get you more at that price.
 
sc0872, sent pm.
 
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