Burn pot issue

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jrmurch

New Member
Dec 28, 2022
1
Bath Me
This fall I aquired a pel pro cheap charlie, and this family is grateful for it! We just got over a cold spell so naturally I ran it at the highest feed rate and fan settings. I noticed today that the flame was dancing on the top of the burn pot. I shut it down, let it cool and found the burn pot was full of "crunchy" ash. I cleaned the pot and ash out of the sides, and all is well. What can cause the burn pot issue? Bad pellets? Air flow isn't an issue as the flame is bright and pretty, and it still puts out heat! Any insight would be helpful!! Thank you
 
It's called maintenance. Generally, any top feeder stove that does not have a self cleaning pot needs it scraped once a day.
 
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Reactions: tlc1976
As posted, regular cleanings are part of running any pellet stove.

That being said, brands of pellets can vary a lot. I went from having to clean the pot every 2 days, to every 2 weeks, just by changing pellet brands.

If you’ve got other pellet brands in your town, try some with a clean stove and see if they burn differently.
 
I have a Pellet Pro 130. Over time mine will get ash clumps built up in the burn pot. It eventually will build up enough that the ignitor won't light the pellets after a shut down because the ash build up insulates it from the new pellets.

With that said, quality pellets really help with this.

I did a deep clean on mine the Wednesday before the cold came through (a week ago from yesterday). It burned fine with no issues or overflows etc. I shut it down and cleaned it again yesterday. There was ash build up in the burn pot and I noticed the flame was getting a little lazy, but that's it. On normal weeks I usually will shut the stove down and dump the burn pot a couple of times just to stay ahead of it. From experience I learned that keeping it clean fixes all kinds of issues.


Compare that to my USSC 6500 that has a burn pot agitator and an ash pan underneath. Burn pot doesnt build up with ash. IT can run until the ash pan is full