Creosote?

[newf lover]

Sorry for this stupid question. Second year as a pellet stove user. Have gone through 2 bags this year. This morning I cranked it up, worked great. Before I left for work I turned the stove down to about 70 and decided to just let it run out of pellets since it was nearly empty anyway. When I got home, I opened the door up to look at it, and there was a fair amount of black residue all over the inside of the stove. Then I was cleaning out the burnpot and noticed a black sticky residue, which I assume is creosote. I've burned about 12 bags of NEWP starting the end of last year and never had this happen before. At the end of last year, I emptied out the hopper and put the leftover pellets in a green garbage bag, and those were the last pellets I put in the hopper. Is the black sticky stuff creosote, and is it likely pellet related or stove related? My hope is it's from the pellets and not the stove, and also because it was on a low burn. The P68 was made in 2008, so I don't think I'm a victim of the sticky stove issue. I hope this was a fluke, what a royal PIA to try and scrape off! The stove was thoroughly cleaned at the end of the season by the dealer, so it's not a dirty stove issue.

 

[Czech]

Your stove is not venting well, how long since you cleaned the vent pipe? IMHO, sounds like the air/fuel mixture is not good, and then consider the fuel. I doubt this is true 'creosote', but rather moisture mixed with ash from bad combustion. Either way it is not good. Try different fuel, make sure the combustion is good, and make sure it is venting well. Just my two cents. My guess is that the stove is not 'breathing' well.

 

[newf lover]

The vent pipe was cleaned at the end of the season, and then just because I wanted to try it out before the dead of winter, I did the leafblower trick. I am hoping it is the pellets from that bag I pulled from the hopper at the end of the season. I opened up a new bag, even sifted them to make sure nothing odd in texture (there wasn't). Looks like it will get down into the 30's tomorrow night, so I'll try then.

 

[Czech]

Leaf trick good! Try new fuel and let us know? Nice pup.

 

[mark d fellows]

I got creosote one time when I burned some pellets without the PFI logo on them. They were in a clear bag. Worst pellet ever. I have also burned the Pennington Natures Heat which also doesn't have the PFI logo, but does have a garantee on the bag without problems.

 

[Fsappo]

I hope it's not creosote and it's a mixture of soot and moisture. The suggestion of rechecking everything to make sure it's clean is a good one. Also may want to try a different pellet and play with the air mixture. You want a yellow active flame. Lazy orange flames = bad

 

[gbreda]

There have been suggestions of the air mixture. I too am new to pellet burning and have a P68. I was told that there is no manual air adjustment on this stove. Is that correct?

 

[newf lover]

That is my understanding as well. I am hoping my problem is that these pellets were leftover from the hopper last year that I threw into a garbage bag last April. It's going to be in the upper 30's tonight, so I am trying a fresh bag. If I have a problem with those pellets, I have a couple other brands to try. The flame and heat were both great.

 

[sydney1963]

The black sticky residue wasn't a piece of plastic from the bag, was it?

 

[newf lover]

sydney 1963 I never even thought of that! I did struggle getting the pellets into the hopper and could have ripped off a piece of the bag by mistake. I should have just thrown the damn things out! I hope it's that. I feel stupid, but that would explain the black crap in the stove. I'll be taking a look at the burn pot tomorrow to see how it looks. I guess I'll never know if it's OK if it was that batch of pellets or a plastic bag, but the plastic sounds very plausible.Thank you.

 

[newf lover]

Harman P68, working great, house toasty warm
NEWP pellets, also working great
Owner's brain, not working so great.
I would bet a ton of pellets that the "problem" was a ripped piece of the garbage bag I was storing the leftover pellets in falling into the hopper when I was loading it.
Duh.
Thank you sydney1964.

 

[sydney1963]

Hope that was it Newf! Happy burning