Hi again everybody!
Small problem here with our NPS40. I pulled it down on Tuesday and did a mid-winter Big Clean: pulled the sides off, pulled the motor, vacuumed the motor housing and the exhaust fan blades, vacuumed the exhaust vent from the motor side, then vacuumed the exhaust vent from the outside. I also vacuumed out the combustion fan? the other fan on the other side and the rest of the inside compartment. I installed a new motor mount gasket since the former one fell apart when I removed it this time. I pulled the little trap doors on the back of the fire box and vacuumed those traps.
I also did the usual cleaning- firebox, burn pot, heat exchangers, emptied the ash bin, etc.
The stove fired right up afterwards and ran like a top for 24 hours- then shut itself down.
There wasn't a huge build up of ash in the burn pot. In fact, there was almost no ash build up in the burn pot. We've been running the stove on 3 damper, 4 feed and that gives us a very clean burn.
The pellet bin wasn't empty but it was getting there. There were pellets on top of the auger screw but not the usual several pounds- more like several handfuls or shovelfuls, if that makes any sense. Some of the pellets were distributed up the sides of the bin. In other words, while there were plenty of pellets there wasn't the weight of a full bin on top of the auger, pushing pellets into the feed.
The burn pot was almost burned out and nearly empty, contained next to no ash, fresh pellets had dropped and they didn't catch fire. The stove went out.
We thought it was an aberration, took that opportunity to let the stove cool, cleaned it, filled it and went on about our lives.
This evening- ditto. Instant replay. Same thing all over again.
Does this happen to anyone else out there? Does the stove need to be topped off with pellets? I know we've ran the stove just about out of pellets in the past, in order to vacuum the fines out of the auger feed. We do that on a fairly regular basis- but a lot of times we'll just shovel the remaining pellets out of the bin. We have rarely let it run to empty or near empty.
Of course, when it's my *intent* to do so I tend to babysit the pellet bin and shove what pellets remain down toward the auger.
We have traditionally shut our stove down once a day to vacuum it, and we reload it with fresh pellets before we fire it back up. We've been trying to let it go for two days this year- cleaning it every day seems a bit compulsive and we need the heat to keep our NG furnace from running as soon as the stove is shut down. Similarly, we've been trying to let the bin empty to the point where we can simply empty a whole bag of pellets into the bin at once.
This is a new pattern of stove maintenance for us- so I can't really compare to last year.
I know that as soon as we clean this stove and reload it, it will fire right up and burn for 24 hours with no problems.
What think you, Wise Ones? Why is my stove shutting down at 24 hours with some pellets left in the bin, and on the auger?
Small problem here with our NPS40. I pulled it down on Tuesday and did a mid-winter Big Clean: pulled the sides off, pulled the motor, vacuumed the motor housing and the exhaust fan blades, vacuumed the exhaust vent from the motor side, then vacuumed the exhaust vent from the outside. I also vacuumed out the combustion fan? the other fan on the other side and the rest of the inside compartment. I installed a new motor mount gasket since the former one fell apart when I removed it this time. I pulled the little trap doors on the back of the fire box and vacuumed those traps.
I also did the usual cleaning- firebox, burn pot, heat exchangers, emptied the ash bin, etc.
The stove fired right up afterwards and ran like a top for 24 hours- then shut itself down.
There wasn't a huge build up of ash in the burn pot. In fact, there was almost no ash build up in the burn pot. We've been running the stove on 3 damper, 4 feed and that gives us a very clean burn.
The pellet bin wasn't empty but it was getting there. There were pellets on top of the auger screw but not the usual several pounds- more like several handfuls or shovelfuls, if that makes any sense. Some of the pellets were distributed up the sides of the bin. In other words, while there were plenty of pellets there wasn't the weight of a full bin on top of the auger, pushing pellets into the feed.
The burn pot was almost burned out and nearly empty, contained next to no ash, fresh pellets had dropped and they didn't catch fire. The stove went out.
We thought it was an aberration, took that opportunity to let the stove cool, cleaned it, filled it and went on about our lives.
This evening- ditto. Instant replay. Same thing all over again.
Does this happen to anyone else out there? Does the stove need to be topped off with pellets? I know we've ran the stove just about out of pellets in the past, in order to vacuum the fines out of the auger feed. We do that on a fairly regular basis- but a lot of times we'll just shovel the remaining pellets out of the bin. We have rarely let it run to empty or near empty.
Of course, when it's my *intent* to do so I tend to babysit the pellet bin and shove what pellets remain down toward the auger.
We have traditionally shut our stove down once a day to vacuum it, and we reload it with fresh pellets before we fire it back up. We've been trying to let it go for two days this year- cleaning it every day seems a bit compulsive and we need the heat to keep our NG furnace from running as soon as the stove is shut down. Similarly, we've been trying to let the bin empty to the point where we can simply empty a whole bag of pellets into the bin at once.
This is a new pattern of stove maintenance for us- so I can't really compare to last year.
I know that as soon as we clean this stove and reload it, it will fire right up and burn for 24 hours with no problems.
What think you, Wise Ones? Why is my stove shutting down at 24 hours with some pellets left in the bin, and on the auger?
