Bad batch of pellets or could I be doing something wrong?

[chillyjillinmaine]

This is my second season with my Mt Vernon AE. Last year I burned 2 tons of La Crete and 1 1/2 North Country. The Le Crete were my favorite - high heat, fluffy white ash no clunkers. North Country were okay not as hot, more ash but not significant.

This year I grabbed a few bags of Crabbe while I was waiting for my pellets to be delivered. Not happy with those at all - lots of dark, sticky ash and a lot of clunkers.

I was very happy to finally get my order of Okanagan Platinum delivery as I was anxious to try after hearing so many good things. I have to say, I am really not impressed at all. Tons of dark sticky ask and a ton of clunkers - I have to break them up in order to vacuum them.

Is anyone else having the same experience with their Okanagan Platinum pellets? Or could I have some setting wrong that they are burning as they should?

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

 

[chken]

This is my second season with my Mt Vernon AE. Last year I burned 2 tons of La Crete and 1 1/2 North Country. The Le Crete were my favorite - high heat, fluffy white ash no clunkers. North Country were okay not as hot, more ash but not significant.

This year I grabbed a few bags of Crabbe while I was waiting for my pellets to be delivered. Not happy with those at all - lots of dark, sticky ash and a lot of clunkers.

I was very happy to finally get my order of Okanagan Platinum delivery as I was anxious to try after hearing so many good things. I have to say, I am really not impressed at all. Tons of dark sticky ask and a ton of clunkers - I have to break them up in order to vacuum them.

Is anyone else having the same experience with their Okanagan Platinum pellets? Or could I have some setting wrong that they are burning as they should?

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

I know you have an insert, and it's not as easy to clean, but there have been recent reports of Crabbés not burning well at all this year. You need to purge your stove and vent of any trace of bad pellets before using good ones.

 

[chillyjillinmaine]

So even if I only burned about 15 bags of Crabbes and have since burned about 60 bags of Okie Platinum would the Crabbe still have that much of an effect?

 

[chken]

So even if I only burned about 15 bags of Crabbes and have since burned about 60 bags of Okie Platinum would the Crabbe still have that much of an effect?

Once you gum up the works, they don't magically disappear once you put in super clean unleaded.

 

[chken]

Just imagine if you can see, "lots of dark, sticky ash and a lot of clunkers", what it must look like in parts of your stove and venting that you can't see.

Simple test, try 10 bags of LaCretes or North Country, since they ran fine before, if they run well, then maybe it's the Okies and not the dirty Crabbés.

 

[chillyjillinmaine]

I do clean regularly. How do I purge and vent?

 

[chken]

I do clean regularly. How do I purge and vent?

Oh, not technical terms. When you make a special mess, as with the bad pellets, you need to do a special cleaning. That's more than your regular cleaning. Super thorough. If it were me, I would clean it until I felt it was as clean as when I installed it. And that means the stove AND the venting.

 

[chillyjillinmaine]

Do I need to call for it to be serviced?

 

[chken]

No, I would clean it as well as you can, FIRST, then see where you are. Do the pellet test.

 

[chken]

Actually, do the pellet test first, that's your baseline, then you'll know whether the stove's dirty and needs a thorough cleaning, or whether you need to tweak your settings for the Okies.

 

[chillyjillinmaine]

Dumb question -but what do you mean by the pellet test?

 

[chken]

Dumb question -but what do you mean by the pellet test?

No problem.

You already know that the LaCretes and NC burn well. Run a test using those pellets to see how your stove runs. If the stove runs poorly, then you know your stove needs a thorough cleaning. If the stove runs just like it did before, then you know your stove needs its settings tweaked for the new brand of pellets.

 

[chillyjillinmaine]

oh okay, that makes sense I will try that. Thank you for all of your help.

 

[Wilbur Feral]

If you haven't done a cleaning that included pulling the combustion motor and running a brush through every inch of vent pipe AND the little pathways at each side of the rear of the stove (just before the blower, with the exchanger plate removed), then you have not thoroughly cleaned the AE.

You also need to use the pointed end of the cleanout/scraper tool in all the holes in the burnpot. My first year or two with the AE I thought I was doing a thorough cleaning each month. Then I actually did one and said OH! THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN!

You don't need to pull the motor and go past it outside more than once every 1-3 tons (depends on what you're burning) but those little pathways under the exchanger are the Achilles heel, along with the burnpot holes. Do those every month, along with a thorough vacuuming and brushing of the area where all the things stick out from the back of the exchanger, behing the exchanger plate.