Cleaning up after fire in hopper

[NortheastSuperstar]

Oh man... the overfilling burn pot turned into a fire up the auger and into the hopper last night while we slept. (St. Croix Auburn; burning pellets) The stove shut down with a #2 light blinking (vacuum problem) and the hopper stuff smoldered until we got up this morning and stopped it. Now the entire inside of the stove is gummed up with sticky resin. We vaccuumed it out as much as we could and cleaned the plugged holes in the burn pot. Now the idea is to fire it up and hope all this stuff burns off. Does this sound right?

Incidentally, the stove did a good job containing the fire. It's smoky in here but not enough to set off the alarms until the hopper top was opened. I'm glad opening it didn't start a flash fire there... could have been bad

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You should be able to wipe that crud off with some warm water and dish soap, it will however make a mell of a hess (trying to keep it family rated). Be sure to clean the drop chute or pellets might stick in there.

You really need to thoroughly clean the stove including the venting.

Use a leaf blower/vacuum in vacuum mode outside your house or a very strong shop vacuum with drywall or hepa filters, thump the back of the fire box to loosen up any ash, close the door, and turn on the leaf blower.

I have no idea about your cleaning procedures, however the primary cause of pile up is a dirty stove.

I would also test the combustion blower before restarting the stove, in case it was a contributing cause to the pile up.

 

[gyingling]

What Smokey said.

Also, I had a problem with poor quality pellets doing the same thing, not burning thoroughly, piling up and overflowing the pot.

Was it really windy in NH when this happened? In South Central PA yesterday it was brutal. Wind in the direction of the exhaust outlet can affect stove performance.

 

[UncleAnthony]

Best news is the issue was contained and no-one was hurt.

Ditto on what Smokey said.
I check and clean the burnpot daily.
The leafblower trick works wonders !

 

[NortheastSuperstar]

Well it's cleaned out and fired back up. TONS of thick smoke came out of the chimney as it burned off.
So, we are having an increasingly hard time with the stove clogging with ash and not burning right. Are St. Croix's just awful stoves? I'm tired of looking like a coal miner...

 

[mnkywrnch]

The auburn is a corn stove and is tough to burn pellets in it are you using the optional pellet burn pot?I'm running a st croix Prescott which is the same as the auburn just with the versa grate system to remove ash from the burn pot,it's been trouble free (knock on wood)for three years.

 

[magsf11]

The auburn is a corn stove and is tough to burn pellets in it are you using the optional pellet burn pot?I'm running a st croix Prescott which is the same as the auburn just with the versa grate system to remove ash from the burn pot,it's been trouble free (knock on wood)for three years.

I have the same stove and had not have any trouble, just minor stuff. I try to keep mine very clean. glade no one was hurt thats the important thing.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The St. Croixs have a slight weakness when it comes to cleaning them. There is a part of the stove that is very hard to get to in order to do a complete cleaning. The leaf blower (operating as a vacuum) and rear fire wall thumping is a very good way of getting the problem area cleaned.

The newer stoves had a third ash trap clean out plug added to them because of this.

 

[mnkywrnch]

The auburn is a corn stove and is tough to burn pellets in it are you using the optional pellet burn pot?I'm running a st croix Prescott which is the same as the auburn just with the versa grate system to remove ash from the burn pot,it's been trouble free (knock on wood)for three years.[

I have the same stove and had not have any trouble, just minor stuff. I try to keep mine very clean. glade no one was hurt thats the important thing.

A good friend has the auburn and has a tough time going longer than two days burning with pellets even with the pellet burn pot.

 

[mnkywrnch]

The St. Croixs have a slight weakness when it comes to cleaning them. There is a part of the stove that is very hard to get to in order to do a complete cleaning. The leaf blower (operating as a vacuum) and rear fire wall thumping is a very good way of getting the problem area cleaned.

The newer stoves had a third ash trap clean out plug added to them because of this.

This is true I've learned how to clean this stove to the point were it's second nature.

 

[krooser]

You need to run your stove EVERYDAY on 5 or 6 to get rid of any deposits that will plug the stove... 1/2 hour should do it. My wife cranks it up before she showers and turns it down afterwards...