St. Croix - Auburn Help

[Jason Frost]

I apologize if some of these questions have been answered somewhere else in the forum. I ran a few searches and was not able to find any clear answers to my questions.

To give you a little bit of background, my wife and I purchased a house a little over a year ago and the house already had a St. Croix Auburn installed by the previous owner. I am extremely new to the world of multi-fuel / pellet stoves and I did my best to get through last winter, even if it was a little rough and frustrating at times. I have recently run into a couple of issues with my stove and I'm hoping that some of you with more experience can guide me in the right direction. I did notice that the previous owner installed the retro-fit pellet burn pot into the stove, but the original multi-fuel pot is still available. This leads me into a my questions...

1. I seem to have broken the rake in the burn pot. This happened because there is often build-up preventing the rake from moving. Eventually, likely due to my frustration and lack of knowledge, the weld that holds the threaded rod into the rake broke off. Should I buy a new one, or can I just utilize the original burn pot in place of the retro-fit one?

2. Is there any benefit to using one burn pot over the other?

3. My stove does not have the brick pieces in the back, just the flat metal. Are these something that is required in order for the stove to work properly, or it is just a cosmetic thing?

I thought I had more questions, but that's all I can think of at the moment. Thank you all in advance for the assistance.

Thank you,
Jason

 

[bbfarm]

By "rake" do you mean the rod that you pull in and out to loosen up the ash acumulated in the burn pot? I would get another one.

I believe the brick is cosmetic. We ran ours without any while I fixed it. The replacements are made of metal now.

I don't know the answer for burn pots unless yours is a multi fuel like ours. Then I think there are different burn pots.

 

[Jason Frost]

Yes, by "rake" I mean the part that you slide in and out to loosen the ash. The rod itself is fine, it's the threaded part on the plate that broke off, so you can push the rod in and out but the plate stays in one spot. My stove is a multi fuel stove. I was finally able to get somebody on the phone from a nearby St. Croix dealer and he informed me that I should be able to use the original burn pot to burn wood pellets. He said that they were initially sold with a separate pellet burn pot, but more recent testing has shown that it is no longer needed. You just have to remove a shield off of the top of the original burn pot and it will work just fine. I'm going to swap it out tonight and see how it goes. Either way I will have to wait for the new rake to come in, so something is better than nothing. I'll post on here once I know whether or not it will work out.

Thank you very much for taking the time to help me out.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

A burn pot controls where the combustion air enters the fuel pile, there is a difference and some burn pots for corn will allow the combustion air to bypass the pellet pile, and burn pots for pellets may not get the air distributed well through the higher fuel pile. Some multi fuel stoves do not have different burn pots, those that do generally require that the proper burn pot be in the stove for it to work correctly.

Are you talking about the versa grate shaker in that burn pot? Some folks do not even run theirs.

 

[Jason Frost]

It looks like it's the Retro-fit Pellet Pot Scraper that I'm having the issue with. Here is a picture:

I don't think my stove has a grate shaker on it. There is nothing automatic in the burn pot. With the current burn pot, there is only the part above with a rod that slides it in and out, and a tray below the burn pot that pulls out. I'm not really sure what the purpose is for the bottom plate though.

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

It looks like it's the Retro-fit Pellet Pot Scraper that I'm having the issue with. Here is a picture:
View attachment 119293
I don't think my stove has a grate shaker on it. There is nothing automatic in the burn pot. With the current burn pot, there is only the part above with a rod that slides it in and out, and a tray below the burn pot that pulls out. I'm not really sure what the purpose is for the bottom plate though.

that looks like the one for my pellet burn pot. I don't use that pot I use my corn pot and seems to work better for me. with the corn pot there is a rake to cut the clinker or ash. I found that the pellet burn pot was too small.

 

[KodiakII]

I gave up on using the rake a long time ago. The theory is they catch or scrape the coals off the top of your clinker before you drop it into the ash pan, so you don't have to relight. I just drop it now, quickly put some wadded up newspaper in and a cup full of pellets and relight.
I also bought the retro pot when the price of corn went way up here. To tell the truth it does not burn pellets any better than the old corn pot.

 

[Jason Frost]

So, I swapped out the burn pots last night and placed the original multi-fuel pot back in. So far, I like it a lot more than the wood pellet pot. It definitely seems like it's a little bit easier to take care of, and I like that it's bigger. I did have to adjust the damper a little bit to fine tune the air flow with the larger pot, but otherwise everything looks good. I did notice that mine must be a little older because the sides of the burn pot are supposed to be removable, but mine are welded on. I'm assuming this is why it was originally purchased with the wood pellet pot. The only purpose of this is so that if the pot overflows, the pellets will spill into the ashpan instead of continuing to build up. I think I'm just going to have to take the pot to a friends house and cut the sides off of it. Other than that, things are working perfectly.

Thank you all for the help and advice.

 

[KodiakII]

I'd leave it run and see how it works out. Mine has never overflowed pellets.