OK to drop active flame?

[hockeyfun1]

I have a St Croix Ashby pellet insert. If I shut it off, it can take up to an hour for the fire in the burn pot to turn off since the fan is still going until it detects the fire is out. Can I just turn the unit off, use the slider to have the pellets on fire in the burn pot drop to the level below, then use the next slider and have them drop again into the sealed metal area meant for people to store ash until they clean it after a few days of use?

I want to do this so I can restart the stove quicker. Or would an active fire in the second drop be an issue (obviously the first drop would be an issue since the burn pot has slits in it)?

 

[tbear853]

I shut mine off which just kills the auger ..... fans run until there is no heat .... ran near 2.5 hours yesterday at shut down. If Winter cxomes back, I'll start with a clean stove burn pot, etc. My auger is a long strip of steel coiled over a solid rod fitted to a tube, it stops the fire so no burning back into the auger.

I have seen a power outage that lasted over an hour even, no power = no fans, and when power did come on, stove had enough heat left in ashes and partial burnts that it started back up.

 

[heat seeker]

On my stove, the auger stops as soon as I shut the stove down, and the remaining pellets in the pot burn off in a few minutes. The fans continue to run until the proof of fire switch cools, maybe 20 minutes. How does your fire last an hour? Does it keep feeding pellets? And why would you want to restart the stove so quickly?

 

[hockeyfun1]

I think it still feeds for another minute or two to clear the auger. I'd want to restart quick if a clinker started blocking up the burn pot, so I could clear it out and have a normal fire. If the clinker gets too big in the burn pot, it affects the fire.

 

[heat seeker]

You could dig the clinker out without killing the stove. Just put the stove at its lowest level, open the door, and dig the clinker out, then shut the door. My stove came with an "L" shaped tool to do that, but even a small putty knife would work if you wore a glove.

 

[hockeyfun1]

I have that same L shaped tool. I didn't know if my unit will auto shutoff if I open the door, or if that would cause smoke in my living room, even on the low setting.

 

[heat seeker]

Read your manual - it probably tells you how long you can have the door open without the stove faulting. I think mine is about 60 seconds, but I'm in and out faster than that. Even if it faults, holding the "on" button resets the fault. I don't get visible smoke in the room, but I do get a smoky smell. I'm reluctant to cycle the ignitor more than necessary, it's fairly expensive.