25 pdvc (2008) ash appearance.

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Moxie-guy

Member
Feb 16, 2018
5
Maine
I purchased this used from a friend. I'm burning the same pellets he did (Lowes-Green team). When I got the stove and cleaned it out the ashes were Gray and powdery, I've had it running for 5 days now and made several adjustments but my ashes remain the same, dark grainey looking. The only known difference is that he ran it mostly at 9 - 9 and I like 1 - 2 as I have a small area to heat. Thanks.
 
Low burn settings tend to be a a little dirtyer. Have you done the burn pot mod? Plugging the holes under the burn plate will help with the burn and will allow you to dial in the feed rate and air on lower settings.
 
Thanks for the reply,
Covered the holes last night, no change this morning, still dark and grainy. Are flying sparks normal? Kinda like popcorn.

The stove was seriously lacking maintenance when I got it so this is still a work in progress, ill replace all the gaskets as I can. I'm sure that will help. But in all I'm not surprised its burning a bit different at 1-2 settings.

The flames look good, nice and crisp, window stayed pretty clean over night only slight clouding.

Seems to burn more pellets then I would expect...filled it from empty last night at 8:30 and hopper has enough pellets to last about another hour (its 0800 now), 3.3 lbs/hr?
 
Yeah sparks are ok and normal with the mod done. You can fine tune your LFF &LBA for heat and economy while on the heat settings 1&2. 24hrs on 40# bag pretty good. ;)
 
Sorry i miss read the times. I run mine on 2 with the bottom 3 @ 2-1-1 but it does not run 24/7. Most stoves run better at higher heat setting. Try running it at 5 for a couple hours and see if the color changes. Your stove vent pipe is probably not the same config as your buddy’s. But on the other hand they may be the same brand of pellets, but they can be different from batch to batch and year to year. To get heat you gotta burn more. All you can do is keep the stove clean and a good flame and enjoy the heat.
 
I had the same problem. What I did to help was block the two holes under the burn pot and also blocked a number of the holes in the burn plate with stove cement. I don’t get the black sooty build up like I did before. The burn plate stays much cleaner now. Oh and I also drilled the remaining holes out this a bit large.
 
You could also swap a couple bags with your buddy and see How his Pellets burn in the stove now.