Harman P61A oil stain in burnpot

[hockeyfan]

Hello,

Came home this evening after my wife did a routine shut down of the stove to find what appears to be some kind of oil burned in the burnpot. Any idea what this might be? Auger failure? Pellets contaminated?

The wife mentioned an extra smell of smoke in the house (usually none), but other than that did not sense something was amiss. My trained eyes say there is something quite amiss.

Any ideas? I normally clean the stove inside and out every 2 weeks, but I am not sure where that oil could be from. I have had a slight auger squeak once in a while, but that may be neither here nor there.

Comments appreciated.

 

[bags]

My guess would be something in the pellets or in the bag of pellets that was dumped in. There really isn't any oil anywhere to leak. I've seen something similar when I mixed in some corn.

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

Hello,

Came home this evening after my wife did a routine shut down of the stove to find what appears to be some kind of oil burned in the burnpot. Any idea what this might be? Auger failure? Pellets contaminated?

The wife mentioned an extra smell of smoke in the house (usually none), but other than that did not sense something was amiss. My trained eyes say there is something quite amiss.

Any ideas? I normally clean the stove inside and out every 2 weeks, but I am not sure where that oil could be from. I have had a slight auger squeak once in a while, but that may be neither here nor there.

Comments appreciated.


View attachment 192631

I cut my bags open with a pair of scissors. Any chance a small piece of plastic fell into the hopper? That might account for the "oily" looking spot and the smell.

 

[Cody901]

I just had the same thing happen but I found it on the flame guide and the ash pan. I did find something in a bag acouple weeks ago but can't remember what it was. Is creosote oily like that also?


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[Tails1]

Creosote can be oily like that yes but this looks like a contaminate in the pellets. Check the pellets in the hopper to see if you see anything. If not then relight the stove and run it hot for a bit to burn that off.

I would be more concerned with why you could smell combustion in the house, this shouldn't happen ever unless something is wrong.

 

[Bioburner]

That's creosote. Can happen in short burns or some damp pellets and the stove temp not getting a good burn. Maybe not a very good burn due to stove needing a cleaning and its short on air. I get the same thing in my shop stove if I don't get things clean or just not enough stove burn time to get the pot-stove to temp as the shop temp is not normal operating temp of 60 plus.
After you get the stove properly cleaned fire it and let it run good and hot for awhile and see what happens
The rest of the stove burn chamber looks very good with a nice light tan

 

[hockeyfan]

Thanks for all of your replies.

I think it may have turned out to be something in the pellets. After a thorough cleaning ahead of schedule (which I do every 2 weeks, and the chimney had just been swept earlier this month) the contaminant burned off without any further issue. The only hiccup I had was that all of my brushes were coated with the same bright yellow residue that I found all over the stove.

I do not believe it was creosote as it appears to have been a one-time event. However, I'll pursue another possible theory. What I also found at the time was a lot of unburned pellets in the burnpot (not shown in the picture because I had already cleaned it). Definitely not a normal shutdown process. What would the stove do if someone inadvertently opened the door and left it ajar before the shutdown process was over? Would the open door cause such inefficient burning and cause the yellow and black residue all over the stove?

I have rambunctious kids around and I am wondering if one them bumped the door handle and accidentally opened the door (and they are old enough to know better). Wild theory or probable cause..... ?

 

[Bioburner]

My previous reply left the door open to bad air. Yeah I know, pun intended. Leaving the door ajar would prevent the proper air flow through the pot and then the pot temp would fall and poorly burnt fuel would soot the works etc etc. Can have the same issue when gaskets start to fail.

 

[Tails1]

Thanks for all of your replies.

<snip>

I have rambunctious kids around and I am wondering if one them bumped the door handle and accidentally opened the door (and they are old enough to know better). Wild theory or probable cause..... ?

Perhaps that also explains why you could smell smoke as normally that shouldn't be.

 

[TStark]

I concur

Appears you had a flameless smolder going on in the xfer tube, the smoke condensed on the flame guide.

Best check the hopper door gasket or pellets stuck under the hinges