6039 is on straight pellets now...

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Might have waited a bit too long, pretty warm out to be busting the stove's chops on pellets but it has to be done to rid the stove and venting of the nitric vapor. Wife will just have to have all the windows open I guess......

Installed the new burn pot today as well. Had to do some fitting as the new one's rear flange was a might too wide. Nothing the 15" disc sander couldn't handle however. Got the old one soaking in water. Once it's free of any deposits I'll fire up the Inver Tig and fix the crack. Whoever welded the new one did a bang up job. Nice TIG welds, not stacked dimes but good penetration and no spatter whatsoever. I always appreciate looking at and applying good secure welds. Good welds make a job, bad welds show like a sore thumb.

I have 3 ton of pellets and 4 ton of corn in the barn, shrink wrapped and stacked on pallets, 4 high.

Getting close to a wrap up here in SE Michigan.

 

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Remainder of my corn is palletized, stretch wrapped, shrouded and put in the back of the barn along with the pellets for next fall / winter. Used up 4 bags of pellets and I'm on propane now. Time to take the stove and venting apart, service all the drives, replace the convection blower with the new one I bought and tidy everything up and call it a wrap.

See ya next year (I hope)....

 

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Of interesting note... I just pulled the new burn pot out and it's loaded with hard carbon. It's soaking in warm water which will loosen it so I can remove it easily but, when I'm running my corn and pellet mix, I get little hard carbon buildup in the burn pot at all, just a bit of clinkers which I pop out of the pot while the stove is running, No ash to speak of unlike corn which produces a huge amount of ash. I'll take the ash over the hard carbon anytime. The hard carbon likes to cover the draft holes and make them smaller.

Other issue I am having with the new replacement pot is, it covers the front of the burn pot pedestal completely so the 'air wash' thing is covered. I'll have to modify the front lip of the pot with some air holes so the draft air can 'wash' the view glass sort of... The view glass is completely obscured with dark ash. Don't really matter to me but it is fixable.

I had to grind the back lip of the pot before it would fit under the fake brick back panel and drop in. The back lip was about 1/8" too wide and the pot would not fit flat on the pedestal.

I need to replace the door gasket this summer as well. Mine is getting pretty ratty. It's only 20+ years old....lol

I'll grease all the drives while I'm at it. Ran 4 bags of pellets. That should have driven off all the nitric vapor that condensed in the stove and the venting. Don't want that in there corroding everything.

Having 2 pots will be nice next winter. I can soak one with the other in service and change out when I clean the unit every 4 days. I had no degradation of the 'agitator rod' at all this year. Looks as good as it did when I put it in in September.

Gotta go and get my socket set and impact driver and take the side panels off, disconnect the control board and tear into it. Might paint the exterior this year as well. Paint is getting a might thin on the exterior. Will see how that plays. Not moving it outside so I need to be careful and cover everything up and mask off carefully or my wife will kill me....lol