Burning on "Low" question

[hemlock]

Hello,
When I run my Mini on the #2 setting (second to lowest), the glass dirties up pretty badly overnight. Anything above #2 is fine. Is this normal for pellet stoves? Is running them on a lower setting fouling up the flue, and is it alright to run them on "low" for prolonged periods? Thanks.

 

[jtakeman]

Yep! Pretty much normal. You could try to tweak the feed rate when cruisin on low settings or Let it rip for a couple of hours a day to help flush out the goobers.

The newer mini's have feed trim adjustments you can tinker with. What year mini do you have?

 

[hemlock]

Yep! Pretty much normal. You could try to tweak the feed rate when cruisin on low settings or Let it rip for a couple of hours a day to help flush out the goobers.

The newer mini's have feed trim adjustments you can tinker with. What year mini do you have?

It was bought brand new last year. I'll try to tinker with the feed rate. Overall, it's a great little stove. I've not had to run it much over #3 yet. For its size, it throws out the heat.

 

[smoke show]

Yep! Pretty much normal. You could try to tweak the feed rate when cruisin on low settings or Let it rip for a couple of hours a day to help flush out the goobers.

The newer mini's have feed trim adjustments you can tinker with. What year mini do you have?

 

[jtakeman]

It was bought brand new last year. I'll try to tinker with the feed rate. Overall, it's a great little stove. I've not had to run it much over #3 yet. For its size, it throws out the heat.

In the manual, You should see something on feed trim. I'm pretty sure its hold the auger button in and use the feed rate down button to reduce the trim. But I'd be sure to check your manual JIC.

 

[Delta-T]

might be something as simple as giving the damper a wee bit of an adjustment as well. give it a little tap-tap-tap-aroo to close it up about 1/4" or so and see if that helps. (theoretically this will increase the velocity of the air in the combustion chamber, not the volume of air, thereby assisting the airwash a bit, assuming of course that you do not have the damper shut down a lot beforehand).

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

My stove leaves about a one inch square ash patch in the pot when I shut it down. One day I decided to leave it and what do you know...I can now run on my lowest setting and my flame stays constant the whole time. It used to go almost out on the setting higher and leave black streaks on the back wall. Now it looks the same as any other setting. Maybe it will work for you if you have a little ash left over.
Now Ialways leave it...doesnt get any bigger.

 

[DexterDay]

Some stoves burn better on low than others... Some don't like Low at all... Others just get dirty glass...

Trying to tweak the air or feed trim like Jay said is a good idea..

Does it burn the same on 1 as it does 2?

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Low is problematic for most stoves.

My whits will smoke up the glass on low in fairly short order.

The issue is two fold.
1--The fire is low enough that new pellets falling into the pot tend to smoke a bit before they get burnng.
2-- The air flow (depending on the design) can be lower too, causing less circulation and a lower amount of air through the air wash slots around the glass in the door (or wherever the stove gets its airwash)

I have owned several pellet stoves over the years and have never seen one that will keep the glass spotless.

Even our old quads that run full tilt and then shut down on the T stat will skunk up the glass in a few days.

If your seeing BLACK soot, then there is an issue, but a whitish brown HAZE is about normal on the lower settings.

Snowy

 

[exoilburner]

My Harman does the same. Lowering the feed rate stops the black build-up on the glass and stops the increased smoke out of the vent pipe when it's low burning for hours.