Big-E not as hot

Can't speak to the Ligs.

But I can ask you if you got the crud out of the air chamber below the burn pot and how many pellets have you put through the stove since the last time you cleaned the combustion blower cavity, the blower impeller, and the exhaust path from that cavity back through the heat exchanger and into the fire box as well as your external vent starting on the other side of your combustion blower cavity?

Then there is the convection blower to think about.

Also you might want to check your gaskets. As a bad door gasket can cause problems.

snikr said:

.....I'm wondering if the pellets (Lignetics) are the cause or my thermometer is bad.

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Which version of the Lig's are you burning? All hardwood, softwood, or the mix?

snikr said:

I"m Burning the Lig mix.

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Are they the green or blue label mix? The blue label mix wasn't nearly as hot as the green mix for me.

When you clean your burn pot do you brush it until it is almost brand new and all of the holes are clean?

What color is the residue above the burn pot on the back wall of the firebox?

If you haven't cleaned your venting from the combustion blower cavity to the vent cap inclusive and you have burned at least one ton, you need to clean it.

Be very very careful about sticking anything into the combustion blower cavity with the fan installed, it is easy to bend the fins and cause trouble. Best method is to remove the fan assembly and then do the brush and vacuum routine.

When cleaning the venting remember to remove the tee cap, I frequently remove the cap with a plastic bag (empty pellet bag) under it (my tee is inside)that way what falls out goes into the bag and not all over the place. Then I tape the bag to the pipe and go at from outside the house down into the tee and from inside the blower cavity out towards the tee, that way it gets into the bag or the vacuum. The point here is that the leaf blower doesn't need to be used and you can clean the mess without making a mess inside the house even if the tee is inside. I've also been known to just check the vent and attach a leaf blower if it isn't too bad in the horizontal run. If the weather is warm I will do the leaf blower every week as it takes very little time and prevents having to do a major cleaning operation when it is bone numbing outside.

I know I'll get the bum's rush for saying this, because everyone here preaches clean, clean, and when you're done, clean again, but in my experience, most variables on my stove can be blamed on pellets. I've found differences between brands, between same brands, different pallets, and even differences between bags on the same pallet. I do the maintenance called for in my manual, and don't find an unusual amount of ash where it shouldn't be, but I've been ready to tear the thing apart because of low heat, clinkers, and excess ash, but when I try a different brand of pellets, all seems to be cured. Right now, I'm on a ton of Okanagan's, and can't speak highly enough of them. Just my observations.

We don't preach clean, clean, clean for the sake of giving a pellet manufacturer a free pass.

Those folks usually get hammered when they mess up. I'll bet that compressedwoodsupplier might even have some stock of taken back pellets from one manufacturer that got its cart before its horse.

It gets preached because most folks do not follow the manuals recommended inspection and cleaning schedule.

They post here and say they cleaned the stove and when they actually discover what that means find all kinds of ash, some from not having cleaned certain areas of the stove for several years and many tons.

If you burn wood pellets you produce ash, the ash will wind up some where. Where it winds up determines what its effects will be, unless it is in the ash pan those effects are going to be negative.

On the surfaces of the heat exchanger less heat comes out of it, less air flow, dirtier burn, more ash is produced, go back to part one of this line.

In horizontal venting less air flow, dirtier burn, more ash is produced, go back to part one of this line (this one gets even worse because a lot of these runs never had a rise to start with and some are actually going downward).

And so it goes .....


Now if you start out with a pellet that already has a large amount of inorganic material in it you'll have more ash to start out with and the end state gets reached earlier.

However, even these pellets can be burned if the ash produced isn't allowed to pile up where it causes burn problems.

If you like the Okies you should also like the Barefoot and several other pellet brands.

One ton of PFI premium grade pellets produces no more than 20 pounds of ash, now twenty pounds of ash is a lot of ash, even 6 pounds of ash is a lot (talking Oakies here I believe), if it gets deposited in just the right spot can cause the next ton of pellets to produce a lot more crud in the stove.

Fuel and air are the only two things if one stove is involved, if you did a through job of cleaning and your gaskets are all good then fuel is what is left.

Snikr,
I'm curious as to what temperatures you were getting and are now getting and if your BigE has flue plates. I purchased this stove a couple of weeks ago and have been extremely disappointed (you can view my rants here https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/52181/).

Thanks
Roger