M55 Burn Pot Enhancements

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JHASS

Member
Dec 29, 2008
123
Jersey Pines
Started off last year burning corn, had a problem with it bouncing out of the burn pot to the extent that when
doing the weekly cleaning and emptying the ash pan there was probably 2 pounds of clean unburnt corn in it.
Then I read J-Takeman post on the mods he made to his Omega burn pot so I decided to try and enhance mine
with out welding it (yes I can weld do it for a living ) just wanted to do something that could be removed in case of
any warranty work that might need to be done. After 4 iterations this is what I think works the best. It is perforated
stainless steel and seems to not interfere with the air flow, lets the ash be blown out and leaves the pellets where they
burn best in the burn pot not the ash pan.
Thank You J-Takeman for the idea and all the other info you so graciously add to this site. :)
 

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Cool,

How did you attach it? I don't see any screws.

I'll have to take another picture of mine, Because the tabs I welded on the bottom to straddle the agitator rod are starting to rust away. So this could be a better fix for the bottom fall out! There almost gone now and I am starting to loose some fuel again. Not to bad yet. But might ask you for a template of sorts so I can "copy" your design.

I also saw corn hit the agitator rod and bounce over the back side of the burn grate. So I welded some iron to the area around the tab that goes under the drop chute. That part is holding up fine. Looking at the M55 the burnpot seems closer to the back wall than whats on my Omega. Do you see any bounce over the burn grate?

Nice work! Thanks for sharing! ;-)
 
Jhass...great idea!

I was thinking about doing something like what J did, except bolt the tabs on instead of welding. That way they can be replaceable. Did the tabs affect the airflow in the burn pot?

PS: I wish we had an Enviro category or sticky on this forum. This way we could all input mods and tips for our stoves. Works great on my other forums. A lot less searching that way.
 
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I drilled and tapped for 2, 10-32 button head screws on each side. Sorry didn't take any pictures of that angle.
As far as bouncing out the back I don't see any, the lip to the burn pot is right up against the wall in
the back. Not to jinx myself but in the 4 or 5 cleanings I did last year I may have only found 2 or 3 pellets
in the ash. With the perforated steel it doesn't seem to affect the air flow at all the fire still looks as if it wasn't there.
 
On a fresh start I still get pellets to the edge of the liner, But none go over. Fire will come out the bottom and up the sides as normal until it builds the ash layer. Then it will just get a whisper here and there. Didn't seem to burn bad and its been on for 3 seasons. It never clogged with ash. Only bad thing is the steel is in the fire and it rotted out.

I'd like to try what jhass has done, Might see a bit more fire around the sides? I'm probably going to have to get a new burn grate though. Mine is rusting past my welds now. So with my top mod and jhass's bottom mod, It should be a done deal!

To the others,

How I figure this out was I would put pellets in the sides of the liner after a cleaning. Then start the stove as usual. Once it built the ash in that area, It was no pellets in the pan. I just got tired of dueing that all the time. But its wasn't too hard. If your tired of loosing fuel, Try that first. You'll see why I and jhass added something. ;-)
 
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I get about a small handful of pellets in my ashpan for my weekly cleanouts. Of course we shut the stove off at night and then fire it up once per day. All of them fall during startup. I wish Enviro would have programmed the agitator to come on later than it does on startup. I don't see the need for it to come on so soon. It pushes the pellets out of the pot, especially if it took a little extra time to ignite and there are a bunch of pellets waiting to catch fire.
 
I would watch while burning and depending on the position of the agitator I would actually
see the pellets (or corn) hit one of the fingers and shoot right out of the pan even with an ash build up
in the burn pot.
 
I was cleaning the stove this afternoon and thinking of this exact problem. I'll give it a go!
Thanks!

I'm thinking something real simple could be made to junt hang from the top of the burn pot.
 
Omega was much worse. I'd get about a soup can full of precious pellets without it. Even worse yet with corn. I couldn't stand it! Try the pellets on the edge trick for now.

jhass, glad you screwed it on, Remove the screws and who's the wiser. Doubt they would even see the holes. ;-)

Here's my mod see pictures.
 

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Here's a pic of it burning on setting 1 as the other settings where to bright. You can see
how it lets the air flow thru it.
 

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So we can compare, Here was my prototype before I did my welding. I think I see more pretty fire with jhass's! ;-)

See how far the pot looks forward. The reason for the top gaurds.
 

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flynfrfun said:
PS: I wish we had an Enviro category or sticky on this forum. This way we could all input mods and tips for our stoves. Works great on my other forums. A lot less searching that way.

I haven't been over there in some time. Are there lots of M55's showing up? I guess I can post my stuff over there, But don't think I saw one Omega owner hanging there.
 
I meant my RC airplane forums. :red: Are you talking about iburncorn?
 
jhass! You burnin' unobtanium in that thing or what? Your pic makes it look like you've got it white hot. I'm jealous!
 
Guys...a word of caution. Watch your mods carefully. If a part of the steel comes off and gets caught up in the agitator, all kinds of bad things can happen. :bug: Whatever you do, make sure you build something secure that won't work itself loose with the heat cycles.

I like jhass's mod, but I was thinking that extending the tabs down into the burn pot would help direct the airflow more up the pot. Sometimes I see the flame licking up the outside of the pot. I feel this is a waste of pellet fuel as that flame would be better off adding to the flames in the burn pot which shoot up towards the heat exchanger.

J, did you experiment with longer tabs? Based on how little ash builds in my burn pot, I could probably get away with a 3/8" or so gap down to the burn pot itself.
 
Yes I did several experiments, First with 1/8" thick plate that just extended down into the pot
around the agitator as far down as I could and still be able to put the pot back together with out
grinding the nubs off that help position the pot. Then I tried the 1/8" plate down to the agitator and
bent out about 1 1/2", this seamed to help but the pellets still made it past, next was to extend it
out 3 1/4" decrease the angle so that it went deeper in the pot and machine the slot for the agitator
so that it would encapsulate it but this seemed to disrupt the air flow and I would have a pile of unburnt
pellets up against it. That's when I started with the perforated steel, several different lengths and angles
to come up with what I am at now. I am not sure if you can see it in the picture but I tried to make it so
that in case the metal fatigued or got hot enough to gravity bend it would either hit the side of the burn pot
or the bottom with out touching the agitator. On another note should it break totally off it is far enough out
that it should fall clear of the fingers on the agitator
 
flynfrfun said:
Guys...a word of caution. Watch your mods carefully. If a part of the steel comes off and gets caught up in the agitator, all kinds of bad things can happen. :bug: Whatever you do, make sure you build something secure that won't work itself loose with the heat cycles.
Good point. If you notice my proto, You'll see the screw heads on all the little trial pieces I added.

flynfrfun said:
I like jhass's mod, but I was thinking that extending the tabs down into the burn pot would help direct the airflow more up the pot. Sometimes I see the flame licking up the outside of the pot. I feel this is a waste of pellet fuel as that flame would be better off adding to the flames in the burn pot which shoot up towards the heat exchanger.

I don't see much issue of spreading it out. But I see your point. I kind of like the fire spread out more. Mine is contained so some of the look is gone.



flynfrfun said:
J, did you experiment with longer tabs? Based on how little ash builds in my burn pot, I could probably get away with a 3/8" or so gap down to the burn pot itself.

My tabs were 3/4 inch long(not anymore). I filled the liner with ash(by hand). I laid a straight edge across the liner(with ag removed) and flatened out the ash so it was level with the adge. I put the burn grate on and measured the distance(1/2"). Duh, The agitator shaft was 1/2".

I added 1/4" for luck. Got real lucky cause it worked first time out. Made mine out of sheet metal like the rest of the mods on it and screwed them to the side. Ran the stove for some time(used to remember but old age?) and once I felt like it was what I wanted. Out came the 1/4" plate steel, 1/4 angle iron and my trusty grinder. A day of cutting and a few hours of welding.

If I redo the tabs on the bottom, It will be sheet stainless screwed to the side with ss screws.
 
This is great. Glad to see other people that are not afraid to "tweak". Thanks for the info guys.
 
Tweak, Well I went a little overboard with mine. Its still all removable/replaceable/back to stock(less fire grate). So it can easily go back to OEM and sold with out any issues.

Glad I can help, door is always open. ;-)
 
Actually burning Greene Team just to see how they burn, so far so good. As far as mods (enhancements)
wait till the warranty is done I have quite a few that I want to try. I want to see if I can use a SLC 5/04 to
run this stove, just think about the possibilities you could set it up so you could access it from you mobile phone
on your home network and see whats doing what and tweak it if necessary. I know that by the time I get around
to trying this one of the stove companies will have already done it but, but it would still be a fun winter project.
 
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