Bed of hot pellets

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dubbz

Member
Hearth Supporter
Jan 18, 2007
81
Pocono Mts, Pennsylvania
I have an Englander 25EPI and very pleased overall but single digit temps make it hard to get the ranch style house over 66 degrees. Burning on a heat range of 4 with Energex pellets, I've been scraping the burn pot daily. I was wondering if I should leave the hot bed of burning ash on the bottom. While half the holes are covered with ash, a fair amount are open. That ash appears very hot. Thinking of letting the ash build overnight and see if it raises the temp. Happy to hear any input.
 
I don't know your stove but it sounds like you need more air, if you're getting a bed of buildup that starts to plug the pot. You want more heat, so you need more air to better burn up what's in the pot. You do want to leave enough to keep the fire going between dumps from the auger, but it usually doesn't take much.

With too little air, the process of ejecting the ash from the pot gets impaired, and continues until it's completely plugged. Then the pot will fill up and the fire will go out.