Burn pot trouble?

[smokeater]

I have a Drolet pellet stove it is about two years old.It is installed in a cabin at the lake so it doesnt get used much I maybe burned 10 to 15 bags through it.The last few times I noticed the burn pot was half full of ash and crud, the stove ran about 24 hours or so.Is this normal? It seemed the first few times it was used the pot had hardly anything in it.The only difference is the weather is a lot colder than the first few times I used it otherwise same pellets etc.Thanks for any help.

 

[gyingling]

Did you have it turned up higher because of the colder temps?

I can run mine on low to med low for a couple days before stopping to clean out the burnpot. Any higher settings, I'm cleaning it daily.

 

[jtakeman]

Looking at the Drolet manual it does say to check the burnpot on a regular basis. That usually means daily. It should have come with a tool to quickly open the door and do a quick scrape of the burnpot.

Fuel quality also plays a roll in the cleaning routine. Some pellets will offer more time between pot scrapes and full clean outs. What brand are you burning?

 

[smokeater]

Thanks for the replys folks,I cant remember the name of the pelletsI know they are a softwood we dont get much of a choice around here.gyingling that is exactly what is happening the last time I had it running it was left on high the whole time I should have thought of that myself. Thanks. The stove sure has worked well Im thinking of putting one in the house as a backup for the woodstove.

 

[pete324rocket]

If you had a magnetic thermostat attached to the front of the stove,you could see what heat you are getting with different damper settings. Otherwise, like a lot of people, you will probably run the stove with too much draft just so that no ash accumulates in the burnpot. Here is the news....its okay to have the burnpot full. It is a "fire" after all, and to milk the most heat out of it(unless you have lots of money and don't care) restricting the airflow out to the world is a good idea. Yes ,you will have to attend to the burnpot more often in this case and I have a long rod with a hook on the end and often pull the bottom out of the fire and push it over the side of the burnpot, while it is running. Be quick or smoke will escape...but if you are in a camp...theres your atmosphere. Recall there are holes on the bottom of the burnpot also and a stir while running will allow some ash to escape to the bottom under it.