Hi all,
First season with a pellet stove. We picked up a Summer's Heat 55-SHP10 from Lowe's and are burning Maine Woods (aka Athens) pellets.
I've had several upper auger jams. I searched around on the web and found a post on here from Mike at Englander saying to wiggle the motor in the back to work the auger around. Well, I tried that and it worked...but we jammed again not too long after. We have burned probably 12 bags so far and have jammed 6 or 7 times. The worst jam was just yesterday morning, which took a long time to free up.
At first, I thought that dust/finings were the problem, so I have started sifting the pellets to get rid of any dust but still jamming.
I have noticed that most people say that a pellet length of under 1.5 inches is best. The manual for the stove says that up to 2 inches is okay. There definitely is the occasional pellet in my batch that is 2 inches long, so I'm wondering if I am just getting unlucky enough to have a long pellet jam me up. I am pretty sure that we are jamming at the end of the upper auger where the pellets fall down to the lower auger. I have posts from other people saying that this is a 90 degree angle and a design that could be susceptible to jams.
Any advice anyone has would be appreciated! Let me know if I can provide any additional info. So far we have been able to un-jam it pretty easily, but i am concerned about the strain the jams are putting on the upper auger motor and also it is a pain in the butt to have to constant un-jam it and reheat the house!
Thanks!
First season with a pellet stove. We picked up a Summer's Heat 55-SHP10 from Lowe's and are burning Maine Woods (aka Athens) pellets.
I've had several upper auger jams. I searched around on the web and found a post on here from Mike at Englander saying to wiggle the motor in the back to work the auger around. Well, I tried that and it worked...but we jammed again not too long after. We have burned probably 12 bags so far and have jammed 6 or 7 times. The worst jam was just yesterday morning, which took a long time to free up.
At first, I thought that dust/finings were the problem, so I have started sifting the pellets to get rid of any dust but still jamming.
I have noticed that most people say that a pellet length of under 1.5 inches is best. The manual for the stove says that up to 2 inches is okay. There definitely is the occasional pellet in my batch that is 2 inches long, so I'm wondering if I am just getting unlucky enough to have a long pellet jam me up. I am pretty sure that we are jamming at the end of the upper auger where the pellets fall down to the lower auger. I have posts from other people saying that this is a 90 degree angle and a design that could be susceptible to jams.
Any advice anyone has would be appreciated! Let me know if I can provide any additional info. So far we have been able to un-jam it pretty easily, but i am concerned about the strain the jams are putting on the upper auger motor and also it is a pain in the butt to have to constant un-jam it and reheat the house!
Thanks!
