combustion air on whitfield profile 30

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aburress1223

Member
Jan 10, 2011
108
Virginia
I am on my second season with a Whitfield Profile 30. After burning about 12 hours the burnpot starts clinkering,(burning on medium) I have tried 3 different suppliers of pellets with little to no difference. I have removed combustion fan and cleaned, cleaned venting, it vents through a 3 inch through the wall 36" length. I removed the firebrick cleaned (brushed out and vacuumed the passages. I have called tech support at Whitfield/Lennox, they instructed me how to adjust the pellet feed as well as the combustion air calibrating the electronic control panel. I have the combustion air wide open as well as the draft control. I have adjusted the feed from +1 which was the factory setting in increments all the way down to -4. At -3 to-4 the clinkering is much less but heat output suffers. At -2 clinkering will start at about 10-12 hours. I am considering adding 6' of vertical venting . Does anyone know if this will help?
 
How long has this been going on?

What are you burning for pellets?

Please describe the fire?

Did you clean out from the heat exchanger through to the combustion blower cavity? This frequently includes ash traps which normally come in pairs and sometimes several layers deep(ash trap inside of an ash trap, you can get all but the last one clean and still have a plugged stove).
 
I have cleaned combustion fan, ran a brush up both ash ports as far as it would go. (got a lot of ash out of them) I have cleaned heat exchangers and between them with Whitfield supplied pellet brush as well as removed fire brick and cleaned behind them. The fire is great, very lively until it starts clinlering after 10-12 hours. Are there any plates that can be removed to access the heat exchanger better on the profile30?
 
Put all of your adjustments to their default settings and try to get a good burn going just adjusting the damper.

Once you have a good flame going if clinkers are still forming back off the feed one trim adjustment.

Monitor and if needed back off one more feed trim adjustment.

The problem is one of time, temperature, moisture, and mineral content of the ash.

If you change any of these the problem will go away.

By backing the feed off a smidgen you are reducing the amount of ash will be produced at one time allowing the air flow to more easily eject the ash. Since clinkers are sintered ash, no ash no clinkers.

The actual process is quite interesting even if being a pain in the rump. If one gets enough airflow going to keep most of the ash from remaining in the fire pot clinker formation is prevented.

Once you get things adjusted you can usually increase the firing rate one step and just monitor it (this assumes that the trim settings are persistent).

I'm not familiar with the insides of that stove, frequently heat exchangers are hard to clean. You just have to use a mirror to see into things and a stiff brush to remove the junk.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
.....The actual process is quite interesting even if being a pain in the rump. If one gets enough airflow going to keep most of the ash from remaining in the fire pot clinker formation is prevented.....

So true, Smokey. When I switched over to the Barefoots, using the same 1-1-1 settings on my 10-cpm, I got a couple of big clinkers after the first bag. I raised the Low Burn Air 1 notch (I am now at 1-2-1) and clinkers have disappeared....and I have run about 10-12 bags through the stove since then.

Pretty amazing what a little extra air will do.
 
Thanks so much Smokey the Bear for taking the time to try and help. I started with adjustments in small increments last night, the clinkering was not nearly as bad this a. m. I wil;l continue with small adjustments. THANKS AGAIN!!
 
I bought my Profile (insert) used and just started using it last Nov. The guy I bought it from assured me that everything worked fine, but I've had this same problem from day 1. My installation is very similar - horizontal about 2 foot run right out the back of the chimney. I've cleaned and vacuumed several times, removed and cleaned the exhaust fan, etc. but nothing seems to help! One other problem I've been having is the stupid flame sense eye has to be cleaned off every other day or so. Have you tried to oil the fan motor? I was going to try that next. One would think if the fan wasn't spinning fast enough the pressure switch wouldn't allow the stove to work....
 
I also have a profile 30 (insert), it is 4 years old. My draft air is a lot more dampnered down than yours.If I open it up the half burned pellets would blow out of there.So maybe something isn't right there. Now I do clean the clinkers twice a day and maybe will open mine up a little and see if that does anything but I am getting good hot heat from it on medium, about 250+using Somersets. Most of the time it is in the low position 24 hrs. a day. My settings should still be the same as the factory set them. I also assume you cleaned behind the metal plates on the lower right and left in the ash pans?
 
My owner's manual states that the motor can't be oiled, but others have given methods on this forum to oil these permanently lubed motors. Thanks for the suggestion I will give it a try ASAP. As soon as we get some warming I'm going to shut down clean again and try to oil. I have been making small adjustments the past few days it has helped the situation some.
 
You have to play with the burn unless you switch pellets.

The two things you have and these are the only two things you have is to increase the air flow or trim the feed back and by trimming the feed I'm not talking changing the heat range on the stove the actual feed within a single heat range.

By adjusting these two things you will completely burn what can be burned of the pellets while helping remove the resulting ash from the burn pot.

It may take using both one down (feed trim) to slow the ash formation and the other up (air trim). If the damper is set using small increments and waiting to see the impact one can frequently get things to a point that only one control needs to be changed.

If you can't get the correct balance your stove is likely dirty, you have a pellet that is high in inorganic materials, or your combustion blower might be a bit off.

When you clean the stove be certain to get between the impeller and the housing on the combustion blower. A lot of stoves that are clean are frequently far from it.

The other real gotcha in combustion air control is an improperly installed vent system.

If the vent is out of specification you will not be able to control the draft. The draft can vary wildly in some cases but usually it results in high ash production which is the very last thing you want when dealing with clinker formation.

I fought clinker battles in the past, both wood pellet clinkers and coal clinkers, and yes you can get a lot of heat while creating clinkers, however it isn't good for allowing long burns.
 
Yeah from what I've read my first bet is that it's dirty. But I sure can't find any buildup. I checked behind the brick but there's no ash traps there on this model. I had the exhaust fan off but I didn't clean the fan blades they didn't seem THAT dirty! There was no ash buildup inside the housing. I have cleaned the buildup behind the trap doors on each side behind the side trays... I tried playing with the trim/calibration but doesn't seem to affect anything much. The best thing I've found is to open the door while it's running and scrape the pot with a putty knife. I sure wish this model had the agitator everyone talks about on some brands! When the pot is clean I can tell a difference in the flame when I close/open the damper and I can get a flame to dance between 3/4 and full open but never the pellets. As far a pellets I've tried two brands - SIH and whatever Meijer sells but there doesn't seem to be much difference there either.
I can tee into the exhaust pressure switch line and measure what kind of pressure it has but I'm not sure what it supposed to be. Anyone know if the service manual gives this info?
Thanks
 
snsb said:
Yeah from what I've read my first bet is that it's dirty. But I sure can't find any buildup. I checked behind the brick but there's no ash traps there on this model. I had the exhaust fan off but I didn't clean the fan blades they didn't seem THAT dirty! There was no ash buildup inside the housing. I have cleaned the buildup behind the trap doors on each side behind the side trays... I tried playing with the trim/calibration but doesn't seem to affect anything much. The best thing I've found is to open the door while it's running and scrape the pot with a putty knife. I sure wish this model had the agitator everyone talks about on some brands! When the pot is clean I can tell a difference in the flame when I close/open the damper and I can get a flame to dance between 3/4 and full open but never the pellets. As far a pellets I've tried two brands - SIH and whatever Meijer sells but there doesn't seem to be much difference there either.
I can tee into the exhaust pressure switch line and measure what kind of pressure it has but I'm not sure what it supposed to be. Anyone know if the service manual gives this info?
Thanks

Make certain you clean all of the crud off of the heat exchanger use a mirror to see into that area and use a good stiff brush like a brass bore brush to clean things out paying particular attention to the both the right and left hand sides near the top of the firebox.

When cleaning did you remove the two ash trap covers they are below the back "brick" wall according to the manual I just went through for the 20 and 30 models, there is one on each side and run a brush up and down inside of them followed by a hose attached to a properly filtered shop or ash vacuum, look for where the exit is near the bottom and run the brush and vacuum in there as well.

After which I'd apply a vacuum hose to the exhaust venting. If you are venting straight out and have a leaf blower with vacuum attachment you can do that from the outside of the house.

I would make certain that there was no buildup on the burn pot liner. Use a small brass brush to scrape off any deposits and to get the openings in the liner back to original size.

The burn pot receptacle needs any ash cleaned out of it as well.

Also make certain the burn pot is properly seated.

One other thing to do is to clean out the combustion air intake from inside the burn pot receptacle and from the air intake on the back of the stove.

That photo eye situation is comical, the fines can get to the photo eye itself and other crap can get to the filter it looks through. You really have to clean three surfaces. The front and back of the filter in the drop chute and the front of the photo eye after opening up its hiding spot in the hopper.

ETA: Dave Gault hearth.com member Wood Heat Stoves has been open to providing copies of various service manuals. Why don't you PM him with an email address, the model and serial number of your stove and inquire about a service manual.
 
Per the manual
Correct combustion air/proper burn characteristics When the dampner is correctly set the burning pellets should move/wiggle around slightly and the flame should be bright yellow. The paragraph before this says if the dampner is open to far the pellets will lift off the grate and fly into the air much like popping corn does. If I had your stove I would want more to see more combustion air to start with .
 
The clinker is formed from non burnable silica like materials that form a crude glass like substance when they melt during the burn.

I have two Whitfields, an Advantage II and a Prodigy II

I burn ground hazelnut shells and see a fair amount of clinkering.

I have tried adjusting things and pretty much have exhausted this as a fix.

Sooooooooooo twice a day, I switch the fuel feed off for maybe 30 seconds to a minute, just enough to allow the fire to drop to just coals, then I open the door, and scrape out the clinker with a long handled scraper tool (Long handled putty knife) then close the door and switch the feed back on.

You want to be sure to leave enough coals to ignite the fire again.

I do this little manuever twice a day and if I am home all day as on a Sunday, I may do it more.

The cleanest Pine pellets will likely keep the pot about the cleanest of any pellets.

The Whitfield airflow characteristics through the firepot are just not quite high enough velocity to blow out the heavier stuff.

If you crank the airflow up then it causes other issues, as in burning out the fuel supply between auger cycles on the low setting.



Good luck and keep us posted

Snowy
 
I really want to thank everyone for all the advice. I followed about all the suggestions. Today is a nicer day here in Virginia so I took this opportunity to give my Profile 30 the leaf blower treatment. I left the blower running while I cleaned the insides, ash traps and heat exchanger. I cannot believe the difference, I've actually had to cut back on the air trim it was blowing pellets out of the burn pot. This was a nice problem to have after not having enough air. MANY THANKS TO ALL!!!!!
 
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