Low Burn

[mmckee83]

With the warm temperature yesterday I left the house in the morning, turned the stove down and never bothered to fill it as it was pretty low on pellets, I figured that it would probably run out by noon or before and would be good and cold when I got home so that I could clean it. Well that was with good intentions and all until to my surprise when I got home the stove was still burning. It barely sipped pellets all day, I guess with the recent cold temperatures I forgot that on the low settings it literally sips pellets and will run for a few hours on a few handfuls.

One question that I will through out there though is that when it finally ran out and I went to clean it there was, what I would say, a good coating of creosote more so in the bottom of the stove and behind the ash pan. Is this a common site for low burns and will it burn off when we crank it back up hotter again when it turns back cold?

 

[CT Pellet]

With the warm temperature yesterday I left the house in the morning, turned the stove down and never bothered to fill it as it was pretty low on pellets, I figured that it would probably run out by noon or before and would be good and cold when I got home so that I could clean it. Well that was with good intentions and all until to my surprise when I got home the stove was still burning. It barely sipped pellets all day, I guess with the recent cold temperatures I forgot that on the low settings it literally sips pellets and will run for a few hours on a few handfuls.

One question that I will through out there though is that when it finally ran out and I went to clean it there was, what I would say, a good coating of creosote more so in the bottom of the stove and behind the ash pan. Is this a common site for low burns and will it burn off when we crank it back up hotter again when it turns back cold?

mmckee83-... Good question, I get this kind of phone call almost every day during a winter warm-spell.....It is not uncommon for this kind of build up when the stove is running on low. Your stove, when running hot, will burn nice and clean. But remember that on a lower setting, it is not burning as hot and the air from your combustion blower is not as strong either, thus resulting in a burn pot that gets glogged up a little bit more. Liken it to driving a car....when you are doing a lot of stop and go driving around town, your injectors will get a little dirty....but when you hit the highway and rev it up a bit, they clean right out. I guess the bad news is that when it is warm out, you need to do a little extra to clean the stove. But the good news is, when it is warm out,...well, it is warm out.