Adding corn

[amynrichie]

We currently have the stove in P mode, but are going to burn a 50/50 corn/pellet mix. The manual tells how to switch to pellet mode, but I cannot find instructions on how to switch back to corn mode. Help, please?

Thanks!

 

[GrahamInVa]

From the Manual...

FUEL CHANGE PROCEDURE

When starting the stove with corn, push the “AIR ON TEMP†button and hold, which will rotate the
Stirrer mechanism in the Burnpot. Release the button when the 4-prong side of the Stirrer is straight
up (in the “12:00†position as shown in Illustration 2, page 13) before following the previous
instructions concerning placing the handful of pellets in the Burnpot and starting your fire.

Changing from Pellets to Corn

Your unit was primarily designed to burn pellets, but will also burn corn. Your unit comes ready to
burn pellets by default; if you would like to burn corn in your unit, follow the steps below.

WARNING: Do not open the door on this unit if the Stirrer is still moving!

See instructions “Setting the Stirrer†on page 13 in this manual.

NOTE: Before performing these steps make sure the unit is out and completely cold!!

1. The control board must be reset to burn corn. Unplug the unit and plug back in, then press
the Blower Speed up and down buttons at the same time and release. You should see a “1
thru 8†in the Heat Range window. Push the Heat Range up arrow until you see a “5â€. Wait
for the window to clear. You are now set to burn corn. To change the stove back to burn
pellets, Push the Heat Range down arrow until you see a “1â€. Wait for the window to clear.
You are now set to burn pellets.

 

[imacman]

Graham,

those directions are for a different stove than the OP's.....they have a corn burner that will also burn pellets if the stirrer is removed and the control board is re-programmed. They are correct in that the manual doesn't tell how to switch back to corn:

"Your unit was primarily designed to burn corn, but will also burn hardwood pellets. Your unit comes ready to burn corn by default;

If you would like to burn pellets in your unit, follow the steps below. WARNING: Do not open the door on this unit if the Stirrer is still moving!
See instructions on “Setting the Stirrer†earlier in this manual.

NOTE: Before doing these steps make sure the unit is out and completely cold!!
1. Remove the Stirrer shaft (See Illustration 2)
2. Unplug the unit and plug back in, then press the Heat Range down and Blower Speed
down buttons at the same time and release. You should see a “P†in the Heat Range
window.
3. Follow lighting instructions."

Amy & Rich, do you remember what letter showed-up in the window the first time you changed it? I'm guessing it has to be a "C".

 

[GrahamInVa]

Woops... Looked at the wrong manual I guess. Glad someone here knows.

 

[KodiakII]

Wow!! You can afford to heat with corn??!!

 

[amynrichie]

Well, I can afford to use some corn as my Dad has a silo full of it, and I can get it for a decent price. We won't be burning 100% corn, that's for sure! I can only afford to mix enough nice dry corn to get through a pallet of crappy pellets.

Imacman, Rich changed the mode, I know it is in pellet mode right now. He is out of town, and is unable to help. I went through the steps mentioned in the manual, but it did not change back to corn.

Thanks!

 

[jtakeman]

Not sure on your stove, But many can run 50/50 pellet/corn without issues. Might not need corn mode for that ratio?

Does the agitator run in pellet mode?

 

[amynrichie]

Not sure on your stove, But many can run 50/50 pellet/corn without issues. Might not need corn mode for that ratio?

Does the agitator run in pellet mode?

no, it does not. I kind of wish it did because I am getting pellet buildup/clinkers from the pellets.

 

[jtakeman]

Not sure on your stove, But many can run 50/50 pellet/corn without issues. Might not need corn mode for that ratio?

Does the agitator run in pellet mode?

no, it does not. I kind of wish it did because I am getting pellet buildup/clinkers from the pellets.

You would think they would run it once in a while(say every 15 to 30 minutes) to help clean the pot. imacman is our resident pro on the 10 CPM. Maybe he has some insite?

My enviro runs everytime the auger feed fuel into the burnpot. Does it both for corn and pellet mode. Over kill for pellets, Even bad ones. Less pellet picky with the agitator busting up the clinkers. About the only clinkers I get are the size of a peanut.

Can you burn pellets in the corn mode?

 

[amynrichie]

Not sure on your stove, But many can run 50/50 pellet/corn without issues. Might not need corn mode for that ratio?

Does the agitator run in pellet mode?

no, it does not. I kind of wish it did because I am getting pellet buildup/clinkers from the pellets.

You would think they would run it once in a while(say every 15 to 30 minutes) to help clean the pot. imacman is our resident pro on the 10 CPM. Maybe he has some insite?

My enviro runs everytime the auger feed fuel into the burnpot. Does it both for corn and pellet mode. Over kill for pellets, Even bad ones. Less pellet picky with the agitator busting up the clinkers. About the only clinkers I get are the size of a peanut.

Can you burn pellets in the corn mode?

I have been told that we can burn pellets in corn mode, just will need to do a DEEP cleaning more often because of the ash flying around. Right now we are running the stirrer manually every 1-2 hours when we think about it just to break up the bottom. We are having to do a shut down about every 24 hours to empty the burn pot and start over. What a pain.

 

[jtakeman]

Not sure on your stove, But many can run 50/50 pellet/corn without issues. Might not need corn mode for that ratio?

Does the agitator run in pellet mode?

no, it does not. I kind of wish it did because I am getting pellet buildup/clinkers from the pellets.

You would think they would run it once in a while(say every 15 to 30 minutes) to help clean the pot. imacman is our resident pro on the 10 CPM. Maybe he has some insite?

My enviro runs everytime the auger feed fuel into the burnpot. Does it both for corn and pellet mode. Over kill for pellets, Even bad ones. Less pellet picky with the agitator busting up the clinkers. About the only clinkers I get are the size of a peanut.

Can you burn pellets in the corn mode?

I have been told that we can burn pellets in corn mode, just will need to do a DEEP cleaning more often because of the ash flying around. Right now we are running the stirrer manually every 1-2 hours when we think about it just to break up the bottom. We are having to do a shut down about every 24 hours to empty the burn pot and start over. What a pain.

I don't know much about the cycles on these Englander/SummersHeat/TimberRidge stoves. But running in corn would probably save you from tearing into the stove every 24 hours. The fly ash that spreads is minimal and most settles back down to the ash pan, At least in my stove. Like I said mine runs constantly and The fly ash isn't much worse than when I disconnected the motor leads to the agitator. I only scrape my burnpot once a week even with crappy pellets. Running the agitator more often beats shutting the stove down daily to clean the pot. That's what the agitator is for IMHO. I'm betting you'd be able to go for days. Then do the full clean once a week. If your worried about ash on the heat exchanger just pull the cleaning rod here and there.

Heck worth a try just to see how it goes? Or run the stirrer once every 30 minutes or less. It will keep the pot cleaner.

Pete where are you???

Mike H. from Englander, Should also be able to help you. Maybe they can add a feature for pellets that aren't up to snuff and at least run the agitator once in a while in pellet mode? Maybe call it cruddy pellet mode?? hehe! ;-)

 

[imacman]

Imacman, Rich changed the mode, I know it is in pellet mode right now. He is out of town, and is unable to help. I went through the steps mentioned in the manual, but it did not change back to corn.

Hi Amy.

Are you sure you're pushing the 2 buttons quickly enough? Once you unplug the stove, and plug it back in, you only have about 5 seconds to press the buttons. If you DO get them pushed in time, I think the letter "C" should appear.....I'm just guessing on the letter "C", since "P" means pellets.

IMO, if you can't get it to switch, call Mike at Englander Tech tomorrow, or send him a PM here.....he'll be able to get it changed.

 

[jtakeman]

Pete, Have you had any pellets burn so bad you needed to try the corn program to burn through them?

 

[imacman]

Pete, Have you had any pellets burn so bad you needed to try the corn program to burn through them?

Yes. Last winter I had a couple of instances where the Barefoots were "clinkering" some. Didn't realize it was probably an airflow problem at first, so I switched the stove to corn mode (it changes the fuel/air ratio, and makes the stirrer run a lot longer on each cycle).

Pellets still seemed to burn OK, and stirrer broke the clinkers up just fine.

I've made some changes to the bottom button settings since that time, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the pellet pile gets down to the leftover 1/2 ton of Barefoots.....gotta go though a ton of Lignetics Hard/Soft blends to get to 'em.

 

[kykel]

Not sure on your stove, But many can run 50/50 pellet/corn without issues. Might not need corn mode for that ratio?

Does the agitator run in pellet mode?

no, it does not. I kind of wish it did because I am getting pellet buildup/clinkers from the pellets.

You would think they would run it once in a while(say every 15 to 30 minutes) to help clean the pot. imacman is our resident pro on the 10 CPM. Maybe he has some insite?

My enviro runs everytime the auger feed fuel into the burnpot. Does it both for corn and pellet mode. Over kill for pellets, Even bad ones. Less pellet picky with the agitator busting up the clinkers. About the only clinkers I get are the size of a peanut.

Can you burn pellets in the corn mode?

J Does your stove have a premium pellet mode. Mine does and the agitator turns for 1 minute every thirty minutes. On reg pellet mode it turns when the auger turns.

 

[jtakeman]

Pete, Have you had any pellets burn so bad you needed to try the corn program to burn through them?

Yes. Last winter I had a couple of instances where the Barefoots were "clinkering" some. Didn't realize it was probably an airflow problem at first, so I switched the stove to corn mode (it changes the fuel/air ratio, and makes the stirrer run a lot longer on each cycle).

Pellets still seemed to burn OK, and stirrer broke the clinkers up just fine.

I've made some changes to the bottom button settings since that time, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the pellet pile gets down to the leftover 1/2 ton of Barefoots.....gotta go though a ton of Lignetics Hard/Soft blends to get to 'em.

Thanks pete, I have a friend(been trying to get him to join here) that wants one. But needs more info. How do you run the agitator in pellet mode manually? He's looking at 3 and the 10 cpm from am/fm is more in his price range. Second is the PE warmland, But its only a pellet eater. M55 is the 3rd but way out of his price range.

 

[imacman]

.....How do you run the agitator in pellet mode manually?......

If you want to run the stirrer manually, you just push and hold the Air On Temp lower button......the stirrer keeps running until you stop pushing the button.

It can be used to manually break clumps if you want, but mainly it's used to set the stirrer prongs to the vertical position (so the burn pot & stirrer can be removed from the stove during cleaning).