First Snafu with the new Pellet Stove

[joescho]

Well, I guess it had to happen. It was only a matter of time.... My first screwup with the new Mt. Vernon...

Came home yesterday, pumped the thermostat up to 72. Went to the bedroom to change. Came back, no fire... no pellets in the pot either

Opened up the hopper, full....

Took a handful and put them in the pot because the igniter was still red. Thought that if it realized there was a fire going in the pot it would start to feed pellets..

Nope, just ended up with a fire in the ashpan when it did an autoclean on me...

Got metal ash bucket I use for my wood stove in the basement and put all that in the bucket, and took a closer look.

Here I see up the shoot a PILE of pellets which a long pellet got jammed and gummed up the works....

I gave the pellet chute a proctology exam, and the pellets came out of there like I just hit the jackpot on a slot machine

Clean out the pot of the WAY TOO MANY pellets and start over....

Five minutes later, voilà, fire!

Presto Pellets - last I buy of them...... They burn ok and hey nothing is perfect, can have a long pellet once in a while - it happens but they were on thin
ice with me over the amount of fines anyway.....

JS

 

[UMainah]

I had my first issue the other day too. I came got home from work and the gf tells me the stove went out and won't start back up. There was quite a bit of ash build up so I decided the first thing to do would be to do a good cleaning. The hopper was half full so I put another bag in before doing anything (not a good choice at the time). Put a handful of pellets in the pot and started it up. After a short bit I realized the auger wasn't working. Turned off the stove and jammed my arm down through 80lbs of pellets (harder to do than one might think) and felt something metallic towards the bottom. Grabbed a couple buckets and the empty bag and proceed to scoop out the 80lbs of pellets. At the bottom I find a woman's watch jammed as tight as can be. I then proceed to destroy the watch while trying to get in out, but all i accomplished was breaking the band and leaving the rest jammed in the augur. Had to take out the auger to finally get everything working again. The gf is not allowed to load the stove anymore if she has on jewelry.

 

[smoke show]

I gave the pellet chute a proctology exam, and the pellets came out of there like I just hit the jackpot on a slot machine

Quote of the day...

 

[DV]

I gave the pellet chute a proctology exam, and the pellets came out of there like I just hit the jackpot on a slot machine

Quote of the day...

Ha! Sometimes you gotta GO DEEP! Glad you got it fixed.

 

[ironpony]

thought it was going to be about one of those junk HarmOns

shakes head walking away

 

[nailed_nailer]

dtaylor
Well at least you know what to get her for Valentines Day.

A new watch with stay on band.

---Nailer---

 

[John97]

This seems to be going around...

From another thread:

The AE doesn't seem to mind long pellets. I was making an effort to break them up at first but no longer do, haven't had any problems.

Well, I sure jinxed myself here.

I woke up this morning to the disturbing sound of my heat pump running. I have the heat pump thermostats set to 65/68 so that if the stove shuts down for some reason they will kick on to keep the house from getting cold.

I went downstairs and found the thermostat display reading auger jam. I checked things out, found nothing seemed wrong at first. I opened the front door and shoved the micro vac hose attachement up the drop tube and a whole mess of pellets came pouring out, enough to fill the burnpot all the way to the top. Among them were a whole bunch of long pellets.

I scooped most of them out, broke up the long pellets and dumped them back in the hopper. I gave it a quick vac job and buttoned it all up. Stove fired right up and has been fine since.

My wife looks at me like I am a mental patient because I started sifting through the pellets and break up the long ones before dumping them in.

 

[joescho]

Wow that's just about exactly what happened to me. Although I did not think to sift through the pellets to look for longer ones. However, it sounds like a good hobby!!

 

[heat seeker]

Oh oh, more pellet fondlers...

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Oh oh, more pellet fondlers...

They all need a 12 step program, that's for certain.

 

[heat seeker]

Oh oh, more pellet fondlers...

They all need a 12 step program, that's for certain.

Does that mean more than 12 steps from pellet stash to stove?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Oh oh, more pellet fondlers...

They all need a 12 step program, that's for certain.

Does that mean more than 12 steps from pellet stash to stove?

Nope, in their cases it needs to be a a lot further away, say at least a mile.

 

[joescho]

I wonder if there's a suport group for that.

I mean 12 steps and all....

 

[jtakeman]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

 

[joescho]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

I'm sure he was thinking of other than himself.

 

[smoke show]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

I'm sure he was thinking of other than himself.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

NOT

 

[jtakeman]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

I'm sure he was thinking of other than himself.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

NOT

Closest fire god will do, I think that would be me! :cheese:

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

I'm sure he was thinking of other than himself.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

NOT

Closest fire god will do, I think that would be me! :cheese:

Hey, what about Pete??

 

[smoke show]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

I'm sure he was thinking of other than himself.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

NOT

Closest fire god will do, I think that would be me! :cheese:

Hey, what about Pete??

CRS????

 

[jtakeman]

I am hearing that the cure is related to giving your excess scrounged fuel to a fire god! :cheese:

I'll bet you have someone in mind tooo!

I'm sure he was thinking of other than himself.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

NOT

Closest fire god will do, I think that would be me! :cheese:

Hey, what about Pete??

CRS????

Pete can have Joe S, I'm after OMV's! :cheese:

Heat Seeker is in my terratory too! But I can only take 2 ton's. And I'll be in the same boat. So I'll have to pass some on to the next nearest fire god.

Or its just way too warm in here and I am hallucinating! :red:

 

[heat seeker]

I stand ready to help in a pellet overage emergency. Just sayin'…

I'll find the storage room.

 

[John97]

Pellet sorting is a preventative measure, not a sign of any type of deficiency.

 

[jtakeman]

^^^^^Denial stages^^^^^

Nearest fire god will contact you. ;-)

 

[John97]

Nonsense. It's just one facet of my battle against the evil electric company.

I felt genuine shame last week when I woke up and the heat pumps were on because the stove shut down.