Continuous Auger Jams with Lopi Leyden

[taragl]

Pellet stove: New Lopi Leyden, installed mid-January 2009, fuel gate off since installation

Pellets: Maine Woods stored in a climate-controlled room

Maintenance: Burn area/ash pan cleaned out daily, hopper cleaned weekly, pellets sifted on recommendation of tech

Problem: About an hour after starting the stove, we get the auger jam fault light and the stove shuts down.

We had the tech out today for the third time and he admonished us again to sift the pellets (we are) and clean the auger thoroughly from the hopper side weekly (we do) and restarted it. Two hours after he left, we got the auger fault again.

We called him in, not to clean the auger jam (we can obviously do that ourselves), but to get to the root of why it's happening. Unlike some who have blamed excessively long pellets, this tech said it was small pellets jamming the auger. Ours are 1/2"-3/4" with some 1/4" broken bits in the bottom of the bag. He says sifting will solve the problem, but it hasn't.

The jams seem to happen more frequently when we load a full bag vs a half bag. I managed to keep the stove running for two days by only adding half a sifted bag to the hopper each time. As soon as I filled the hopper, it faulted again within 30 minutes.

Are Maine Woods pellets known for causing auger jams?
If so, would a jam occur within 30-60 minutes of use?
If so, what is a better brand to try?
Are there any stove-based problems which might cause this frequent jamming?

Thanks for your input!

 

[imacman]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

As for your jam problem, in general very short pellets (1/4" ) shouldn't cause any jams....the really long pellets are what do that. The NEWP that I've been burning (3 tons) have very short pellets too, and I have NEVER had an auger jam.

If you have been following this forum at all before posting for the first time, MANY members here have a LOT of problems with Maine Woods pellets to the point that some of them ask their pellet dealer to take them back. And many members don't sift their pellets and have no problems. Personally, I DO clean my pellets, as I'd rather not deal with any fines in the auger, and I have an Astoria stove which uses basically the same auger system you have (both made by Travis Ind.).

Did the tech remove the auger and see if the auger flight was clean or filled with fines?

Not sure about the full/half bag hopper fill as the solution, as these stoves are designed to have the hoppers filled and still work the same. I guess it's possible that the auger motor is defective and is very weak, but I kinda doubt that's the issue.

I'd try 2-3 bags of a different pellet. Since I don't know what you have available in your area, I'll just say that I have used Lignetics, NEWP, Fireside Ultra, Freedom Fuel without any problems. Barefoot, Hamer's hot ones, and Energex are good pellets too.

Hope this helps.

 

[richkorn]

Pellets: Maine Woods

Simple - That is your problem. Search back through and you'll find my issues with those. Get pellets that don't clog up the auger and don't need sifting like Lignetics. I couldn't imagine sifting every bag of MWs, been there and tried that. Heck, 1/2 the bag of MWs would be sifted out!

 

[Utilitrack]

We have a Lopi Leyden as well, no jams since fuel gate removal. We are burning Energex-no sifting the cup or so of fines that are in each bag. Fortunately have not experienced the pleasure of burning Maine Woods pellets. I agree with others that you need to try a few bags of other pellets from different manufacturers in order to tell if it is truly a pellet issue.

 

[flamegrabber]

I burned 1 ton of Maine Woods from Dec 1 thru Jan 19.

They burned pretty good in my Breckwell Big E with no auger jams. Good heat.

But they did have tons of fines, tons, and the pellets were very small and soft. I didn't do any sifting, that would have been way too much work.

Left a huge clinker too every morning. I called the Maine Woods plant and spoke to the manager. He knew about all the pellet problems ( fines, etc. ) and also told me the huge clinker was due to the high tree bark content in the pellets. He said tree bark contains a lot of minerals in it that won't burn.

So I had to clean the stove daily which was a real PITA.

When I started researching the MW pellets on this site ( because they left so much crap in the stove requiring so much cleaning ) I found that plenty of people with Lopi Leyden stoves had auger jams with these specific pellets so I think your stove is OK.

It just doesn't handle crappy pellets very well.

Find some real hardwood pellets. 100% hardwood. The MW's are 80/20 HW/softwood.

FG.

Pellet stove: New Lopi Leyden, installed mid-January 2009, fuel gate off since installation

Pellets: Maine Woods stored in a climate-controlled room

Maintenance: Burn area/ash pan cleaned out daily, hopper cleaned weekly, pellets sifted on recommendation of tech

Problem: About an hour after starting the stove, we get the auger jam fault light and the stove shuts down.

We had the tech out today for the third time and he admonished us again to sift the pellets (we are) and clean the auger thoroughly from the hopper side weekly (we do) and restarted it. Two hours after he left, we got the auger fault again.

We called him in, not to clean the auger jam (we can obviously do that ourselves), but to get to the root of why it's happening. Unlike some who have blamed excessively long pellets, this tech said it was small pellets jamming the auger. Ours are 1/2"-3/4" with some 1/4" broken bits in the bottom of the bag. He says sifting will solve the problem, but it hasn't.

The jams seem to happen more frequently when we load a full bag vs a half bag. I managed to keep the stove running for two days by only adding half a sifted bag to the hopper each time. As soon as I filled the hopper, it faulted again within 30 minutes.

Are Maine Woods pellets known for causing auger jams?
If so, would a jam occur within 30-60 minutes of use?
If so, what is a better brand to try?
Are there any stove-based problems which might cause this frequent jamming?

Thanks for your input!

 

[defield]

Taragl,

We also have a new Lopi Leyden.

Purchased 1 ton Maine Woods pellets in August before having read about them in this forum. ( Would not have purchased them if I had known about this forum and read the threads about them.)

Purchased 1 ton of Lignetics pellets, ( Wish I had known how good they are. Would have purchased MORE)

I screen and mix the pellets at about a 50/50 ratio. Lignetics do not need screening, but the screening device I built will hold two bags of pellets on the platform. Good way to screen and mix at the same time. The screen portion is 1/4" meah hardware cloth.

There are many fines and some sawdust in the Maine Woods, and the pellets are short like yours.

No auger jams and when I let the stove burn down to clean the auger area, it really does not need cleaning ( because of pre-screening the pellets).

I do clean the stove once a day, ashes and glass. No clinkers or build up in the burn pot.

I would suggest trying some bags of pellets that have gotten a good review, to allow for comparison with the Maine Woods, and if they work well, try screening the Maine Woods and mixing with the better grade pellets.

There seems to be very mixed feelings on this site about the labor involved in screening, but compaired to the effort required to keep our the wood boiler fed and happy in the last 27 years, I do not mind screening pellets.

The Lopi is a good stove and you should not be having such frustrations. Good luck. Please let us know the resolution.

Old Ranger

P.S. The Maine Woods fines get fed to the wood boiler . . . . . . an ash shovel full at a time . . . . .

 

[muss]

Hello Taragl & welcome to the forum. I'm burning Maine Athen pellets & having a hell of a time. As far as the fault light & auger jams go, i went & still go thru that. Here's what i do---- When you fill the hopper , you can fill to capacity or not, makes no difference , at least not to mine, i check all around the gasket to remove any crumbles so as no restriction to safety shutoff. Then i close the lid & immediately press the start button. It does take a bit of time but it usually restarts. I also have the problem with the fault light from time to time , i simply flip the side switch on & off to back on & press the start button. All this gets old but boy when the stove runs well it's great. Energex work the best for my Leyden .Called this morning where i bought some last year & they had only 6 bags left & $7.99 a bag. Too expensive for my blood . Asked the guy if they would be going down this spring or summer & he really & i mean really laughed at me . Told me with gas & oil going up, what did i think . Well , i used to go out of my way a few times a year to buy stuff from that hardware store. Well guess what ? He can kiss my ass , as far as anymore purchases from them with that cavalier attitude. Muss

 

[novah]

As far as oil prices going up, I just got home from Home Depot and the oil company that advertises in the front area of the store is charging 199.9 which is down 10 cents from when I bought on Tuesday. Yea, it probably will go up but he is counting his chickens a little early.

 

[novah]

Pellet stove: New Lopi Leyden, installed mid-January 2009, fuel gate off since installation

Pellets: Maine Woods stored in a climate-controlled room

Maintenance: Burn area/ash pan cleaned out daily, hopper cleaned weekly, pellets sifted on recommendation of tech

Problem: About an hour after starting the stove, we get the auger jam fault light and the stove shuts down.

We had the tech out today for the third time and he admonished us again to sift the pellets (we are) and clean the auger thoroughly from the hopper side weekly (we do) and restarted it. Two hours after he left, we got the auger fault again.

We called him in, not to clean the auger jam (we can obviously do that ourselves), but to get to the root of why it's happening. Unlike some who have blamed excessively long pellets, this tech said it was small pellets jamming the auger. Ours are 1/2"-3/4" with some 1/4" broken bits in the bottom of the bag. He says sifting will solve the problem, but it hasn't.

The jams seem to happen more frequently when we load a full bag vs a half bag. I managed to keep the stove running for two days by only adding half a sifted bag to the hopper each time. As soon as I filled the hopper, it faulted again within 30 minutes.

Are Maine Woods pellets known for causing auger jams?
If so, would a jam occur within 30-60 minutes of use?
If so, what is a better brand to try?
Are there any stove-based problems which might cause this frequent jamming?

Thanks for your input!

When you say jam, do you mean that the auger will not turn or do you mean the auger turns but the pellets do not move towards the burn pot. I have the second condition.

My auger always turns but the pellets stop moving after about 1/2 to 3/4 of a bag of Athens pellets. These pellets litterally fall apart. The bag is full of fines and crumbles and the larger pellets quickly turn into fines and crumbles due to the auger turning and breaking up the pellets. What are you experiencing?

 

[richkorn]

As far as oil prices going up, I just got home from Home Depot and the oil company that advertises in the front area of the store is charging 199.9 which is down 10 cents from when I bought on Tuesday. Yea, it probably will go up but he is counting his chickens a little early.

Yep, right now it's cheaper for me to burn oil. We can't forsee what oil proces will be next winter so I will be forced to buy 3-4 tons of pellets this Spring for next season. But there's no way i'm spending more than 300/ton (I burn Lignetics).

 

[lecomte38]

Boy, am I happy with my Harman. It seems to burn anything I dump into it. Sifting each bag of pellets would really bum me out quickly. I was looking at my granddaughter's Cheerios this morning and thought about trying them for fuel.

 

[taragl]

Thanks for all of the great advice, everyone. I wish I had come here first, because you managed to pinpoint the problem that our technician missed for a month. We simply switched to a pellet with fewer fines (Energex and Lignetics both worked) and the stove is running very well. I'll have to pass this along to the stove store so they know what to tell other customers who are having a similar problem.

Now that it's humming along, I'm really enjoying my Lopi Leyden. We were able to open up parts of the house that are usually shut off (3-season porch, attached shed) when we heat with oil. They Leyden is able to keep the entire place toasty on the lowest setting. Thank you!

 

[tumbles]

Don't forget the damper! It's the second biggest adjustment. I can burn the athens pellets by I mix them with Hammer hot one and I adjust the damper almost all the way in (burn great). I try to keep the flame abourt 8 inches tall. If your flame isn't tall enought it might go out (if you're running off thermostat). I love my leyden. I don't sift pellets, but I do clean the ashes in the stove every day. It's a beautiful stove and puts out great heat. There is a learning curve to all stoves. Don't get discouraged. Lastly, watch out for stray pellets on the lid preventing the little gold button from going down. Happened to me and I can laugh about it now.

 

[imacman]

Don't forget the damper! It's the second biggest adjustment. I can burn the athens pellets by I mix them with Hammer hot one and I adjust the damper almost all the way in (burn great). I try to keep the flame abourt 8 inches tall. If your flame isn't tall enought it might go out (if you're running off thermostat).....

By "almost all the way in", what do you mean? What number are you at on the damper rod? 8" tall for the flame all the time sounds like not enough air, IMO. Mostly my flames are about 2-3" above the burn pot...that's it, and the damper is at 1 1/2.....stove never goes out, even on low.

 

[tumbles]

I'm running it on med to high. It's just what I find. When I have a flame in the 3 inch range the ash is brownish and not light gray. I don't get clinkers or jams. I'm no expert by any means. Just my opinion. On med, the flame is in the 4-6 inch range. The athens pellets definitely don't burn as well so I have to push the damper almost all the way in or the stove will go out when it restarts. When I run the Hammers, I can pull it almost all the way out. Problem is I've been mixing them and putting the damper in (pushed in) works best for me. Once again, it's what works for me. I hope I never see another athens pellet again. Atleast until they get their mix right.

 

[richkorn]

What number are you at on the damper rod?

The Leyden damper rod doesn't have any numbers or line markers, it's all by feel.

 

[imacman]

What number are you at on the damper rod?

The Leyden damper rod doesn't have any numbers or line markers, it's all by feel.

Oh, OK....I didn't know that...thought all Travis stoves had the same marked air control rod like my Astoria. Mine is pulled out about 1" from the totally closed position, and seems to run great on all fuel settings. I'm running at med-low right now, it's 20 degrees outside, and house is at 70 on Lignetics softwood.

 

[j00fek]

my friends have a layden, and are having the same exact problem with the same pellets

glad i found this thread before they wasted a call to the dealer,

so its the DAM MAINE WOODS PELLETS

 

[tumbles]

They burn, but they dont' burn like the Hammer Hot One's. I'm sure they will get it right at some time in the future, but the one's I have don't burn anything like the Hammer's. Mixing them 50/50 seems to work best for me. I actually cancelled the other pellets from my dealer as they couldn't garantee they wouldn't be the Athen's ones. I really want Athens to get their stuff together as I really want to see a Maine company make it. However, they still have some work to do. But that's a different thread.

 

[caseyr77]

Um your technician did pinpoint the problem on the first visit, he didn't miss the problem for a month. The Technician did tell you on the first visit that it was your pellets that were causing the problem, but you were convinced that it was the stove and not the pellets. Sifting the pellets was mentioned by the technician because the technician knew the pellets were the issue.

Thanks for all of the great advice, everyone. I wish I had come here first, because you managed to pinpoint the problem that our technician missed for a month. We simply switched to a pellet with fewer fines (Energex and Lignetics both worked) and the stove is running very well. I'll have to pass this along to the stove store so they know what to tell other customers who are having a similar problem.

Now that it's humming along, I'm really enjoying my Lopi Leyden. We were able to open up parts of the house that are usually shut off (3-season porch, attached shed) when we heat with oil. They Leyden is able to keep the entire place toasty on the lowest setting. Thank you!

 

[taragl]

Hi Casey -- you're the tech who came to our house a few times. I'm glad to see that you're on this forum; it's a great resource for gathering the experiences of many stove owners to pinpoint a problem.

It's worth noting that I came here out of desperation after a month with a stove that jammed every 30 minutes. At your last visit, you checked and cleaned the stove, re-loaded it, left it lit, and immediately after your departure it was jammed again. You can imagine our frustration if even a technician couldn't keep it working!

Each time our auger jammed, we were told that sifting pellets was the solution. When that didn't work, we were told to take apart the auger weekly via the hopper. That also didn't work. It wasn't until the February 13th visit -- one month after the stove's January 15th delivery date -- that you finally said the problem was the pellets themselves, not the dust in the bag.

This group was able to immediately note the specific issue of using Maine Woods pellets (and other brands with a higher fines content) with more temperamental stoves like the Leyden. I'm now using Lignetics and Energex pellets with no sifting and no weekly auger dismantling. If I keep the ratio below 50%, I can even throw in a few Maine Woods scoopfuls, but the ash builds up faster. This is great information that you guys, as dealers, can now pass along to people at the time they purchase a stove. It would save a lot of frustration on both ends of the transaction.

 

[richkorn]

Glad you're up and running with some good pellets. I wouldn't put 1 handful of Maine Woods in my stove again.

Also, I found it impossible to sift the Maine Woods because when you try they all break up, there's nothing left to dump in the hopper... :lol:

 

[novah]

I have been trying to burn the Maine Woods pellets by mixing with one of the many kinds (I have put 10 different brands through) of pellets that do feed properly and I find that roughly 1/3 Maine Woods to 2/3 anything else will burn for 3 to 4 days before the auger gets too many fines to transfer pellets. What I plan to do is every 3 days let the pellets in the hopper get low enough to push them to the side. Then all it takes is a 2 second suck up with my craftsman shop vac to clear the dust and things will run again.

Not the way I wanted to go but when you have 4 tons of pellets, you have to make some compromises. I can't remember if I posted this already but I did sell a ton to a co-worker who has a Harmon P61 and he likes them. He said we will talk when the heating season is over so I may be over my problem in the next several weeks.

 

[taragl]

Good luck using up your 4 tons, novah. We have 2 tons of Maine Woods left, plus there's a guy next door whose new stove burns them just fine. With a little mixing and a little bartering, I think we'll be able to get rid of them all.

 

[defield]

Not to flog an almost dead mule, but did I get the only ton of Maine Woods products pellets that are somewhat burnable in a top fed stove??

Mine have to be screened for fines and sawdust, and have to be mixed 50/50 with lignetics, and are in fairly short pieces ( most are way less than 1/2" long) , but at least they are fairly hard and do not crumble when sifted or run through the stove's auger.

I did transport the bags myself and was very careful in the handling, in and out of the pickup and down to the basement.

I was not happy with the maine Woods, but I guess things could have been worse after reading what Rickhorn had to say about them