I am having issues with my Lennox PI40 county insert. I have been burning Lignetics Green Supreme pellets for years and all year till now and suddenly this mound of soft black residue has been forming in the burn pot to the point that the combustion air will after 3-4 days become almost totally blocked. Does anyone know what this could be caused by? I have always had good luck with these pellets for several years.
black mass forming in burn pot
- Thread starter wantsomeheat
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
More than likely its the pellets, they change from batch to batch. almost 6 years since i have used Lignetics they were horable the last 40 bags so we moved to another out of CA. Try a few different brands and see what burns in your stove good.
Thanks for the heads up on lignetics pellets. I did not suspect that it was the pellets as I have been using them for 4 years and no problems. I just opened a fresh pallet of them and the first 20 bags of the pallet were ok. I ran the hopper till all the pellets were gone and vacuumed the dust out which had collected at the bottom. It was substantial and my thoughts were that this buildup was causing this but I guess not now.
All manufacturers have this problem. The quality of the raw materials changes and thus the quality of the pellets change batch to batch and year to year.
Some manufacturers are better at controlling the quality over time. But it isn’t surprising you are having issues when you compare one year of pellets to another.
Some places will exchange your problem pellets for another ton of the same brand. Reach out to where you purchased the pellets from, maybe you will get lucky.
Some manufacturers are better at controlling the quality over time. But it isn’t surprising you are having issues when you compare one year of pellets to another.
Some places will exchange your problem pellets for another ton of the same brand. Reach out to where you purchased the pellets from, maybe you will get lucky.
I generally scrape the burn pot each night. It takes about 30 seconds and helps the fire burn cleaner.
I seem to be working my way to that reality while not being anxious to get up on the roof with our current snow and ice cover I am hopeful that I can clean out the flue from the inside and see if that helps this situation. I have cleaned the internal passages that would inhibit the combustion air flow into the burn pot but that did not seem to be a problem. The strange thing I am seeing happen in the burn pot area is this build up of black cakelike residue is forming on the vertical surface of the burn pot but it does not seem to be building up in the base of the burn pot as it previously was doing and blocking the combustion air supply. So maybe the clean out of the excess fines that had accumulated around the auger pickup area has had some benefit. But the issue is still happening so indications are there is still some change that needs to be addressed. Maybe it is the flue??
Are you talking about “clinkers”? Our Harman gets the Harman “ speed bump” art the bottom and sides with some pellet brands or if left long enough but is easily scraped off…could you post photos or a video?
I will attempt to differentiate it from "clinkers" to clear that up a bit. I do sometimes find clinkers in the burn pot but they are not large and are as you say easily scraped off. What I am experiencing here is different than that. This thing that I have is more cake like in that the consistency is softer and easily breaks apart and is removed not necessitating scraping at all except maybe to clean up a bit. It breaks apart easily and does not attach to the metal as it is easily removed. The pellets that feed into the burn pot seem to land on the pellets already ignited and break them up and this activity appears to play a part in the activity. It is suffice it to say different than a clinker though.
I have 2 customers who have had the same thing this year. One Lennox, the other and Envrio fe2
After a full cleaning air intake to exhaust termination, the problem has been eliminated.
Because of it being so cold here this year for such a long period, they were burning their
stoves hotter with more pellet consumption than in previous years. Burning pellets
would pile up in the burn pot, not allowing the bottom ash to be blown out of the pot.
This gave a pile of ash (black) and compacted in the pot. After a complete cleaning
And adjusting the draft gate for a little more draft, they have had no more problems
After a full cleaning air intake to exhaust termination, the problem has been eliminated.
Because of it being so cold here this year for such a long period, they were burning their
stoves hotter with more pellet consumption than in previous years. Burning pellets
would pile up in the burn pot, not allowing the bottom ash to be blown out of the pot.
This gave a pile of ash (black) and compacted in the pot. After a complete cleaning
And adjusting the draft gate for a little more draft, they have had no more problems
I appreciate that explanation as it gives me as insight into my problem. I did fiddle with the combustion air vent a bit and I have had some improvement from the work and that as I am not sure which actions have had a helping effect but now I am thinking that I may need to pay more attention to that draft adjustment going forward. I have cleaned out the flue in the past from the bottom side of the chimney as the pipe terminates at the stove and has a flap that allows you to clean it from the bottom but right now my ash vac has died and it is a very dusty operation without that to help contain the dust. So I'm shopping for a new vacuum so I can do that cleaning again from the inside and that may help also.
Similar threads
