Flame Guide

[dillydo]

The flame guide on the fire pot keeps getting pushed off. Pellets seem to feed into the fire pot at too high of a rate. At the moment I have the feed set on #3. I've had my Harman Accentra since 10/2004. Currently I'm using New England pellets. I've cleaned the stove & pipes. I scrape the fire pot once or twice a day after the flame guide has been pushed off & I've put it back in place. It'll burn fine for awhile & then the pellets pile up & push the guide off again and again. It's frustrating!!

 

[Defiant]

Sounds like your guide has distorted or the fireback plate is not holding it in place

 

[Pellet_Pete]

Burned 7 ton of NEWPs last year, my first year w/pellets, & had similar over-feeding problems (though never pushed off my flame guide!). I now know that every time this happened was attributable to some part of the cleaning regimen that I hadn't yet come to appreciate. A few suggestions based on my personal learning curve:

1. My first guess is that your ESP and/or vent are all ashed up. If insulated by ash, your ESP isn't going to "feel" the correct exhaust temp, so the stove will increase feed to make up for the perceived deficit. Might be getting some ash buildup at the base of your venting too - this is why I now fully appreciate the benefit of a cleanout tee.
2. Burn pot cleanout. Those are ashy pellets and if the inside of the burn pot is full you could be getting some combustion air supply anomalies.
3. Heavy carbon buildup in burn pot? Only thing I can think of that might actually make the pellets push up on your flame guide. All of my over-feed experiences just pushed pellets out & over into the ash pan.

Good luck!

 

[RKS130]

Burned 7 ton of NEWPs last year, my first year w/pellets, & had similar over-feeding problems (though never pushed off my flame guide!). I now know that every time this happened was attributable to some part of the cleaning regimen that I hadn't yet come to appreciate. A few suggestions based on my personal learning curve:

1. My first guess is that your ESP and/or vent are all ashed up. If insulated by ash, your ESP isn't going to "feel" the correct exhaust temp, so the stove will increase feed to make up for the perceived deficit. Might be getting some ash buildup at the base of your venting too - this is why I now fully appreciate the benefit of a cleanout tee.
2. Burn pot cleanout. Those are ashy pellets and if the inside of the burn pot is full you could be getting some combustion air supply anomalies.
3. Heavy carbon buildup in burn pot? Only thing I can think of that might actually make the pellets push up on your flame guide. All of my over-feed experiences just pushed pellets out & over into the ash pan.

Good luck!

If your pellets are particularly short, you may want to dial back the feed rate. I have been burning FSUs this year and they are uniformly short. While the flame guide never was displaced, I did have too many pellets in the burn pot and dialed the feed rate back to 2 in order to address the issue. Since then no worries.

 

[dillydo]

Thanks for the possible causes of the flame guide getting pushed off. I scrape the burn pot just about every time it happens. I've cleaned the stove a couple of weeks ago from top to bottom. I use a refrigerator brush to clean out the tube from the front to the stove pipe & I use a oil filter wrench to remove the bottom of the stove pipe to clean out those ashes & tap on the pipe to remove ash from the stove pipe. I have been burning New England pellets for years. I've been using a pellet stove since 1996. I have a Harmon Accentra 2 which I got in 2004. Next warm spell which could be on Thursday during a rip roaring nor'easter, I'll do another clean out! Just got another ton of New England this morning. Time to check the stove again! Again Thanks for all information!

 

[dillydo]

Sounds like your guide has distorted or the fireback plate is not holding it in place

I'll have to check the fireback plate! This is the second flame guide for my Accentra & it looks rather rough!

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

Burned 7 ton of NEWPs last year, my first year w/pellets, & had similar over-feeding problems (though never pushed off my flame guide!). I now know that every time this happened was attributable to some part of the cleaning regimen that I hadn't yet come to appreciate. A few suggestions based on my personal learning curve

1. My first guess is that your ESP and/or vent are all ashed up. If insulated by ash, your ESP isn't going to "feel" the correct exhaust temp, so the stove will increase feed to make up for the perceived deficit. Might be getting some ash buildup at the base of your venting too - this is why I now fully appreciate the benefit of a cleanout tee.
2. Burn pot cleanout. Those are ashy pellets and if the inside of the burn pot is full you could be getting some combustion air supply anomalies.
3. Heavy carbon buildup in burn pot? Only thing I can think of that might actually make the pellets push up on your flame guide. All of my over-feed experiences just pushed pellets out & over into the ash pan.

Good luck!

What exactly is an "ESP" please? Thank you.

 

[Pellet_Pete]

What exactly is an "ESP" please? Thank you.

Exhaust Sensing Probe - measures temp of exhaust gases, i.e. how hot the stove's burning. Not sure, but it may be a trademark Harman thing?

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

Exhaust Sensing Probe - measures temp of exhaust gases, i.e. how hot the stove's burning. Not sure, but it may be a trademark Harman thing?

Thanks Pete. Do you know if the Quad MVAE has one?

 

[SwineFlue]

Thanks Pete. Do you know if the Quad MVAE has one?

The ESP is a Harman-only device