Greene Team Dated 11/08: Clinkers, not ash

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gbreda

Minister of Fire
Aug 3, 2009
1,255
Lakes Region, NH
As I have posted before, I have been burning Greene Teams all season so far. First 1.5 ton were dated 2/09. They produced great heat, alot of light fluffy ash and a good amount of carbon buildup in the burnpot (that could have been from low burning in the shoulder months).

I am now burning a pallet dated 11/08. They give the same great heat, but the ash is all hard. Not alot of volume like the other bags, but full of clinkers. No soft ash at all. I will say, almost no carbon buildup in the burn pot.

Most clinkers are small, pebble like, but I do get some large onew too. Here is a pic of 2 that I just removed from the pot (compared to a quarter). The rest was pebble like.

Note: none of the clinkers are adhearing themselves to the burnpot, so they do just push out and into the ash pan.

Curious if anyone else out here has any dated 11/08 and getting the same results.
 

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Funny you are saying that. I am burning my first bag of the year of the Greene Team. They are dated 7/08. I had great luck with them last year. They are very good,but do tend to have small clinkers. I will keep you posted.
 
www_godzilla said:
Funny you are saying that. I am burning my first bag of the year of the Greene Team. They are dated 7/08. I had great luck with them last year. They are very good,but do tend to have small clinkers. I will keep you posted.

Yeah, the do give good heat. Great flame from these pellets. Here is a pic tonight just after restart of a quick burnpot emptying and cleaning. Almost no carbon.



Stove Temp 5
Manual
Feed Rate 5
 

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I had a newer date and they burn pretty well for me with good heat. I didn't get any clinkers(I don't think I would anyways because of the agitator in my burn pot). Only issue I saw was long pellets. Bag date was 11/09. If I can find them and the price is good. I'll stack some in the basement.
 
jtakeman said:
I had a newer date and they burn pretty well for me with good heat. I didn't get any clinkers(I don't think I would anyways because of the agitator in my burn pot). Only issue I saw was long pellets. Bag date was 11/09. If I can find them and the price is good. I'll stack some in the basement.

Hey Jay

So if agitated while burning, clinkers wont form? All a learning experience for me.

Geno
 
I don't have an agitator and I am not getting any clinkers. All I get is light, fluffy ash that is half of what I got burning LG's last year.
 
gbreda said:
jtakeman said:
I had a newer date and they burn pretty well for me with good heat. I didn't get any clinkers(I don't think I would anyways because of the agitator in my burn pot). Only issue I saw was long pellets. Bag date was 11/09. If I can find them and the price is good. I'll stack some in the basement.

Hey Jay

So if agitated while burning, clinkers wont form? All a learning experience for me.

Geno

Hey Geno

In a severe case I get them but not the pot clogging monsters some will get. The agitator-stirrer usually brakes them up and keeps the air holes clean in the pot. If you look at the new testing thread I am working on. Look at the Lake Regions. You will see what I mean. Also makes me wonder, Because I don't really see much clinkering. If my stove isn't the right stove to be doing the testing. I had to beef up my disclaimer. Just in case.

If you look at my bigbox test and check out the clinker I got with the Inferno's. That was the 1st and Only big(really not that big) clinker I have ever got in this stove. My quad and bigE would have had one the size of the burnpot. Probably would have had to smash it out too. Those are top feeders. Bottom feeders like the Harman's just push them out of the burn pot. But you still may have to scrape to keep the air holes clear. I just sit back and watch the burn(usually with a few brewski's). :) Me very spoiled now! :p

jay
 
jtakeman said:
gbreda said:
Hey Jay

So if agitated while burning, clinkers wont form? All a learning experience for me.

Geno

Hey Geno

In a severe case I get them but not the pot clogging monsters some will get. The agitator-stirrer usually brakes them up and keeps the air holes clean in the pot. If you look at the new testing thread I am working on. Look at the Lake Regions. You will see what I mean. Also makes me wonder, Because I don't really see much clinkering. If my stove isn't the right stove to be doing the testing. I had to beef up my disclaimer. Just in case.

If you look at my bigbox test and check out the clinker I got with the Inferno's. That was the 1st and Only big(really not that big) clinker I have ever got in this stove. My quad and bigE would have had one the size of the burnpot. Probably would have had to smash it out too. Those are top feeders. Bottom feeders like the Harman's just push them out of the burn pot. But you still may have to scrape to keep the air holes clear. I just sit back and watch the burn(usually with a few brewski's). :) Me very spoiled now! :p

jay

Hi Jay

My final decision on a stove really came down to the P68 or the Enviro Maxx. I dont think the Maxx was a multifuel and no agitator. I think it had the frame holes for the agitator set up though. Would this mean that the Maxx would not do as well with "tough" pellets as the Omega being a top fed system?

Your right about the bottom feed pushing out the clinkers. The only issue I think I see is this. Yesterday, I was gone for about 7 hours (shopping for pellets of course and possible better pellet hauler) and the temps here were no higher than 13 deg. I did leave the stove at Stove temp 5 instead of reducing to 4 while not there. When I came home the house was still at 70 deg upstairs. The stove used quite a bit of pellets though. I noticed that the front inch of ash had alot of small clinkers and a few large ones. The fire edge had a big one forming (that was the big one in the pic). There was a huge buildup of burning pellets behind the inch of ash/clinkers. So much that they reached the flame guide. I did not get this kind of pellet buildup with the large fluffy ash (makes sense). The flame was big and billowing over the top and towards the glass.

The bottom feed is pushing them out, but being harder to push out, I'm wondering if I am getting a bigger buildup of burning pellets. If I use the scraper to "even" out the pellets towards the edge of the pot, the flame is just as strong but shorter and less "billowing". Like the pic I posted.

Geno

edit: I am not getting unburned pellets in the ash pan, so this issue may be normal and more an observation and learning for me.
 
gbreda said:
jtakeman said:
gbreda said:
Hey Jay

So if agitated while burning, clinkers wont form? All a learning experience for me.

Geno

Hey Geno

In a severe case I get them but not the pot clogging monsters some will get. The agitator-stirrer usually brakes them up and keeps the air holes clean in the pot. If you look at the new testing thread I am working on. Look at the Lake Regions. You will see what I mean. Also makes me wonder, Because I don't really see much clinkering. If my stove isn't the right stove to be doing the testing. I had to beef up my disclaimer. Just in case.

If you look at my bigbox test and check out the clinker I got with the Inferno's. That was the 1st and Only big(really not that big) clinker I have ever got in this stove. My quad and bigE would have had one the size of the burnpot. Probably would have had to smash it out too. Those are top feeders. Bottom feeders like the Harman's just push them out of the burn pot. But you still may have to scrape to keep the air holes clear. I just sit back and watch the burn(usually with a few brewski's). :) Me very spoiled now! :p

jay

Hi Jay

My final decision on a stove really came down to the P68 or the Enviro Maxx. I dont think the Maxx was a multifuel and no agitator. I think it had the frame holes for the agitator set up though. Would this mean that the Maxx would not do as well with "tough" pellets as the Omega being a top fed system?
Geno

I was looking at the maxx as well. hearthtools(a member here) gave me the heads up about the Omega and its plus's. The maxx will clinker just like my bigE did. Stirring, mixing, or agitating(there may be other ways too)is the same as you scraping and stirring manually. The stove just does it for you. If the stove does not have something to keep the burnpot open, Then the stove owner is going to need to do it. I guess I took the lazy man's route. :lol: The only added maintenance is I need to lube the chain once a season and check the chain tension in the fall.
I only need to scrap the pot if I hear a noise like a whale song. That means there is some carbon build up in the pot and the agitator is rubbing over it. Not annoying but you do notice it. I do the stove cleaning once a week so I generally don't get that unless the pellet quality is iffy. Neat feature and we should see more stoves lines going with a similar system.
 
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