I had to replace the ignitor in my stove this morning. When I took the side panels off to get to the wiring harness I noticed a big pile of fines that were built up under the auger motor. There was enough to fill a quart jar and then some. I've run 62 bags through the stove since I got it (58 bags last season and 4 this season) and wasn't expecting to see that large of a pile, although I admittedly used some low grade pellets last season. I've since "seen the light" and have about 2.5 tons of better pellets for this year, one ton of Somerset, one ton of Pro Pellets and a half ton of AWF. There are only a few bags left of the Michigan pellets that I had bought last year when I thought all wood pellets were created equal. I'm trying to get rid of those before the cold weather sets in.
Long story short, while I was in there I gave everything a good cleaning, got the ignitor replaced and the stove fired right up. My wife will be happy as she doesn't like manually lighting the stove. I'd done the leaf blower trick in the spring, so I'm now ready for the cold weather to hit, which it sounds like is coming this way next week. Now its time to consider making a pellet sifter to cut down on fines in the hopper. I'd been careful to not drop the whole bag in, leaving a pound or so in the bag which I'd dump in a bucket and eventually sift. I'm thinking that isn't enough.
Thanks to all for the good advice on this forum. Happy burning.
Long story short, while I was in there I gave everything a good cleaning, got the ignitor replaced and the stove fired right up. My wife will be happy as she doesn't like manually lighting the stove. I'd done the leaf blower trick in the spring, so I'm now ready for the cold weather to hit, which it sounds like is coming this way next week. Now its time to consider making a pellet sifter to cut down on fines in the hopper. I'd been careful to not drop the whole bag in, leaving a pound or so in the bag which I'd dump in a bucket and eventually sift. I'm thinking that isn't enough.
Thanks to all for the good advice on this forum. Happy burning.