Carbon?

[Bigjim13]

What's the deal with carbon buildup around the burnpot? What causes it? Is this just a fact of life with Harmans or is it all stoves? There are some days when I clean, it takes a lot of elbow grease to get it off! Is this another by product of burning cheap pellets? If I went to a higher end pellet would that help?

 

[Weird tolkienish figure]

What's the deal with carbon buildup around the burnpot? What causes it? Is this just a fact of life with Harmans or is it all stoves? There are some days when I clean, it takes a lot of elbow grease to get it off! Is this another by product of burning cheap pellets? If I went to a higher end pellet would that help?

From what I gather, burning pellets on low constantly will cause this, as well as burning with a "lazy" flame.

 

[DAKSY]

Ahhh, the infamous "Harman Speedbump". I scrape my P61A burnpot
every two bags, & I don't seem to have an issue. My daughter, on the
other hand flat out refuses to do it that often & it riles me, but I get in
there & whack away at it til it's cleared. I've found that burning softwood
pellets gives me just as much heat - maybe a TAD more - & a much
smaller "speedbump", but you may find otherwise. I can't speak to the
different pellets other than that, as I generally burn products certified by
American Biofuels, both soft & hardwood varieties...