Clinker Formation

[HDFF03]

I have an Envirofire top feed pellet stove insert. I recently changed fuel brands (due to lack of supply) from Stove Chow to Southern States brand and I have been getting clinkers in the burn pot. Is there anything I can do to help prevent them from forming? I searched the forum and Google, and have not found any answers other than how they form. I have adjusted the feed rate and blower some, with little success.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Corie]

Unfortunately, a big part of clinker formation is what's actually in the pellets.


You probably should have burned a few bags of the new pellets to see if this would happen. Keeping the combustion blower air a little higher might help, but other than that, you're probably pretty stuck with what you've got.

At least that was the experience we had when we tested out some other brands of pellets.

 

[richg]

Clinkers are a fact of life with a top-feeding stove. I had a Quad 1200 several years ago, and it made mega clinkers no matter what fuel I used. had to shut the dang thing down two times a day to chop the clinker out. Ditched that stove, got a bottom-feeding Harman P-61A, and clinkers are a thing ofthe past. My P-61, which I have named Oscar, eats any grade of fuel and keeps on truckin. I sometimes think you could pour M&M's in the hopper and it would burn them.

 

[HDFF03]

Southern States was the only place that had pellets, everyone else was out and did not know when they would get more in. These seem to burn longer and produce less ash than the Stove Chow I was burning. This has been the only brand that has produced clinkers in my stove. I guess I'll open the blower some more and see what happens.

 

[Corie]

Ron,

The reason clinkers are a problem in top feed stoves is that they become too heavy to be tossed out of the burn pot by the combustion blower. They just sit there and become larger and larger until the stove must be shut off and the problem removed.

The bottom feed stoves push the burnt pellets out of the burn area, so when a clinker forms, it's just pushed into the ash pan with the other burnt pellets.

 

[drizler]

Its a common problem with corn stoves easily fixed by some secret super ingredient of proprietary nature sold for big $$$. To get this in generic form go to the local feed store and buya bag of crushed oyster shells. Tossing and mixing a cup per full fuel bin will magically make them dissappear for the most partl. Don't tell anyone I told you, its a secret. $45 for bag of "clean burn" or $6 for 50 lbs of oyster shells; you decide . Some say you get what you pay for - not!
I'll take my finders fee now...................................

 

[HDFF03]

Thanks for the replies. So far opening the blower up more is working. If all else fails I'll try the crushed oyster shells.

 

[Shane]

Hmm, that's strange I've scraped some hellacious clinkers out of harmans, earthstoves and englanders (the only three horizontal feed systems I've worked on) much worse than any top feed stove I've ever seen. As much as I hate to admit it probably the best burnpot design I've encountered is the one that Whitfield makes Ultra grate I believe it is called. Bars instead of holes seems to work much better. That's about the only good thing that I have to say about a Whitfield though.