Harman Advanced hopper cleaning question

[Ral66]

After doing the weekly cleaning of my pellet stove I decided that I would vacuum out the hopper. When I restarted the stove the burn pot filled up with pellets to the point that they were falling into the ash pan. It took longer for the pellets to start burning and when they did start the flames were really high for a few minutes. This only happens when I clean out the hopper. Is there something that I'm doing wrong? Or is there any way to prevent this from happening?

 

[Delta-T]

I'm not really sure how that is related. Stow start-up is usually caused by dirty igniter or debris clogging the holes in the burn pot. Very strange indeed.

 

[summit]

clean out your burnpot underneath access... usually a bunch of ash builds up down there and causes slow starts. Weird if it only does it after you clean out the hopperProbably, if the system was empty of pellets the initial feed to fire would be just "priming" the auger w/ fuel: it does not get the pot full enough to contact the air coming thru from the ignitor thus it has a slow ignite because it doesn't start up till the unit calls for more feed during the 36 min ignition time, thus pucshing out a lot of pellets, making a fireball for a while.

 

[Meneillys]

The slow start up might also be caused by the pot being full of pellets restricting the hot air from flowing across the pellets then they do ignite and there is twice as much fuel as normal so big fire. Maybe if when you start it just catch some of the pellets dropping out of the shoot so it has a normal amount in the burn pot.

 

[HomeHearth]

Your burn pot is dirty, go to harman's web site and go to the cleaning section and it will a step by step on how to clean it !

 

[Ral66]

I would like to thank you all for your response to my question. The burn pot is cleaned weekly. All carbon deposits are removed and all ash is removed from underneath the burn pot so I know that is not the problem. This only happens when the hopper is cleaned. To many pellets are pushed into the burn pot causing the slow start, about 30 seconds to a minute longer than normal.

I will try Meneillys suggestion of removing some pellets from the burn pot before it starts.

 

[Bank]

Wow, I thought I was the only one who had that problem. It takes almost 13 minutes to start up after I clean it out completely. Mean while when I just scrape the burn pot every couple of days, it catches in about 4 minutes. What's up with that?

 

[Souzafone]

Clean the area around the igniter. Guaranteed the igniter is packed with ash.

 

[Bank]

I always clean the igniter chamber last to make sure nothing else falls through when I'm cleaning

 

[Meneillys]

When you clean the hopper do you happen to be pushing pellets into the auger? Maybe filling the auger up with more pellets than it would normally have in it? I know my quad has a spring looking auger and if I stick my hand near it and push I can feed pellets into the burn pot without the auger turning.

 

[Trophy_67]

when I clean my stove I take a small pinch of bought 15/20 pellets and place right over the igniter hole for a quick light in "START UP" mode.
Instead of waiting for the unit to deposit enough pellets to reach the igniter I get a quick ligt up ..an no major flare ups...just a suggestion.

 

[Bank]

I'll give that a try Saturday AM.

 

[HomeHearth]

Take your igniter out and of the Burn-pot and clean it! cleaning you hopper shouldn't have anything to do with your pellets over feeding? What is your feed rate set at ? it should be set at 3-4 !