Burn Pot: How 'full' is full?

[RKBAGUY]

I have an AF Integra and have been wondering how 'full' the burn pot needs to be before emptying it out. For those of you who own an Integra (old style), how far do you let it go - do you let it run to the top of the pot, above the uppermost vent holes, or do you empty earlier? In other words, how do you judge when it's time to empty?

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

I'm confused. Empty the burn pot of what? Doesn't ash fall out on its own, or do you mean empty it of pellets? Klinkers (if you get any) can get scraped and removed when you add another bag.

 

[RKBAGUY]

Yes, the majority flies out and lands in the surrounding pan, but there's always a bit left behind. So, at what point do you empty the accumulation in the pot?

 

[hyfire]

Empty everyday.

 

[steamguy]

Knock it out every time you light a fire in the stove. Takes six seconds, literally. Pull it out with two fingers, invert it, and BANG it once or twice on the ash catch pan. That will knock out the clinkers. You will have to scrape the burn pot once in a very great while but knocking it out like this is the way to do it. The stove was made with this in mind.

Had an Integra for many, many years. Wore that stove out, it was a great stove, and we miss it a lot because they're not sold in our part of the country any more...

 

[Mark_ms]

I scrape down the burnpot just about everytime I add pellets into the hopper while stove is running and don't take too long 10-15 seconds.
The max I can go is about 7 days (running 24 hrs per) before I need to shutdown and vaccum ash out in pan and a thourough cleaning of burnpot.
A cheap investment is a small 6 inch wire brush brush for scraping burnpot.

 

[RKBAGUY]

Ok, so here's where things get confusing.

I have answers from once a day, to once a week. I understand there are variances between pellets, and that you can set the potentiometers on the user control board for combustion and auger rate for +/-25% of the dial adjustment, but I've found that I can go only about three days on 'pilot' (at factory settings with dial set all the way to low) before the ash climbs to the topmost ring of air holes in the burn pot.

So, does that sound about right to you guys, or should I be looking for further diagnosis? Again, because this is my first experience with a pellet stove, I have no idea what to expect or what's normal operation.

 

[CygnusX1]

I usually clean mine out once a week. With dirtier pellets, more often.

I guess the best answer would be: whenever the pot looks like it needs it.

 

[Pellet-King]

I'm so glad i dont have to ever deal with clinker's or ash buildup in my burnpot.....Whitfield, the first and still the BEST!!

 

[RKBAGUY]

I'm so glad i dont have to ever deal with clinker's or ash buildup in my burnpot.....Whitfield, the first and still the BEST!!

Posts like this really don't help.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I'm confused. Empty the burn pot of what? Doesn't ash fall out on its own, or do you mean empty it of pellets? Klinkers (if you get any) can get scraped and removed when you add another bag.

No, not all ash exits a burn pot in a drop feed system, nor does it all exit your pusher feed system's burn pot.

Your feed system however pushes a lot more of it out of the way than a drop feed system does especially if the drop feed system's fuel/air ratio isn't correct.

The air flow in a drop feed system is what removes the ash in a drop feed system.

If you start with a properly adjusted air/fuel mixture and a clean vent system a drop feed system should be able to go through a good number of bags of pellets before the burn pot needs to be emptied.

Frequently what happens is that the air/fuel ratio isn't correct, the burn pot builds up at the same time the vent system (which starts just above the burn pot) gets loaded up with more than the normal amount of ash so any subsequent fuel/air adjustments are less than optimal.

There should only be a single layer of pellets in the burn pot at any time with a drop feed system, said another way, you should always be able to see the bottom of the burn pot.

To the OP,

Now since the question was how full should you let it get before cleaning the burn pot out, no higher than halfway. The fill up process really accelerates because the airflow is no longer optimal.

Here is a link to some pellet comparisons done by one hearth.com member you should take a look at the ash volumes and weights to get a feel for the differences in pellets that indicate what your stove needs to be able to handle in ash extraction: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/60581/

 

[Vinelife]

Once a day during busy burning .. no need to do it every time you start it up..