Help with burning corn in Accentra.

[Carrie_H]

We have a Harman Accentra, purchased new 2 years ago. We normally use Somerset pellets in it but my mom gave us corn to mix in for this winter. She has a grain farm and it is grown here and stored in her grain bins.
We've been trying to burn half pellets, half corn but the corn creates so much ash that it starts burning cool after only a day or so. After two days, forget it--it can't even heat the room it's in. The entire ash pan is completely full after 24 hours and is heaped up like a mountain. It needs a pretty thorough cleaning after these two days. When we switch back to straight pellets, it burns clean and we have no issues with heat.
Any ideas about this? Should we switch to a lower percentage of corn? Is the corn not dry enough?

My husband is ready to pitch the corn but it is a cheap (free) source of fuel for us.

Any feedback would be appreciated.
Carrie

 

[DAKSY]

The main problem with corn is measuring the moisture content.
Then there are the sugars which tend to form clinkers after burning.
You can try changing the blend to 25%, but you're probably STILL gonna have issues.
Talk to your Harman Dealer about replacing the burnpot with the one from a PC45,
That & the auger extension, which is designed to break up the corn clinkers, might help.

 

[bags]

What Daksy said but I think switching out the burn pot would be a bit of work. I have run a 50 / 50 corn and Somersets mix without issues but I did notice that the ash was more and it was a bit messier to clean after the 1 month / 1 ton of burning. That said I know the corn I used was dry. Very dry.

Bioburner, Rona, and some others have some good experience with the corn and most stick to a mix of pellets and corn. From what I understand the corn needs to have a moisture content of 15% or less. Wetter corn will not work out well. The corn kernel should be dry and crack when you bit into it and not be mushy at all.

Hopefully they will check in and give input. If you can get it free and such I think it would be worth a bit of extra effort and / or figuring things out. All Harmans now are set up to burn a mix of corn up to 50%. Both my P68 and PC45 do it with the regular pots. Although the PC45 has a corn pot, stirrer, etc specifically for 100% corn burning too but I never have used that. The guy I bought it from did and burned corn 100%. I think he had issues too and gave up selling it because his corn was wet. That and he never cleaned like he should have which can even be a problem with pellets.

Turned into a sweet deal on a like new PC45 for me. What is the corn you are trying out's moisture content???? Supposedly it is at 15% after drying but may not be. Something to do if you want to see how it should be is go to tractor Supply or similar and buy a bag of corn and do the 50/50 mix. These bags are like $8 for 50 lbs but you will get heat and not waste $8 bucks. Test one out to see what corn and pellet mix should be doing and characteristics of burning. I usually just dumped a bag of pellets into the hopper and guessed about the same on corn then mixed them inside the hopper with my hand.

 

[Mt Bob]

What Daksy said but I think switching out the burn pot would be a bit of work. I have run a 50 / 50 corn and Somersets mix without issues but I did notice that the ash was more and it was a bit messier to clean after the 1 month / 1 ton of burning. That said I know the corn I used was dry. Very dry.

Bioburner, Rona, and some others have some good experience with the corn and most stick to a mix of pellets and corn. From what I understand the corn needs to have a moisture content of 15% or less. Wetter corn will not work out well. The corn kernel should be dry and crack when you bit into it and not be mushy at all.

Hopefully they will check in and give input. If you can get it free and such I think it would be worth a bit of extra effort and / or figuring things out. All Harmans now are set up to burn a mix of corn up to 50%. Both my P68 and PC45 do it with the regular pots. Although the PC45 has a corn pot, stirrer, etc specifically for 100% corn burning too but I never have used that. The guy I bought it from did and burned corn 100%. I think he had issues too and gave up selling it because his corn was wet. That and he never cleaned like he should have which can even be a problem with pellets.

Turned into a sweet deal on a like new PC45 for me. What is the corn you are trying out's moisture content???? Supposedly it is at 15% after drying but may not be. Something to do if you want to see how it should be is go to tractor Supply or similar and buy a bag of corn and do the 50/50 mix. These bags are like $8 for 50 lbs but you will get heat and not waste $8 bucks. Test one out to see what corn and pellet mix should be doing and characteristics of burning. I usually just dumped a bag of pellets into the hopper and guessed about the same on corn then mixed them inside the hopper with my hand.

All harmans now are set up to burn a mix of corn up to 50%?Nope,went away,doesn't exist,went away,quite some time ago.Without an stirrer type system,high immanence is a fact.An accentra is not ever going to be a corn stove.

 

[rickwai]

Harmans are not corn stoves. The pc45 was never a good design for a corn burner. It had auto ignition that would burn straight corn that was the only benefit. They produce a ton of sooty black ash (incomplete combustion) w/ corn. If you want to burn corn get a stove that was designed to be a corn burner. I have been burning straight corn in a St. Croix for many years now. My ash in the stove is white to tan in color with dense black ash in the lower part of the stove. I have run mine for up to 2 weeks without shutdown since these stoves have the clinker drop system. My wife even runs the stove if I am out of town with no problem.

 

[Carrie_H]

"What is the corn you are trying out's moisture content????"

I have no idea. How do people measure this? It is grown on a farm and we transported it here in large covered buckets which are stored in our garage, next to the bagged pellets.

 

[Carrie_H]

Harmans are not corn stoves. The pc45 was never a good design for a corn burner. It had auto ignition that would burn straight corn that was the only benefit. They produce a ton of sooty black ash (incomplete combustion) w/ corn. If you want to burn corn get a stove that was designed to be a corn burner. I have been burning straight corn in a St. Croix for many years now. My ash in the stove is white to tan in color with dense black ash in the lower part of the stove. I have run mine for up to 2 weeks without shutdown since these stoves have the clinker drop system. My wife even runs the stove if I am out of town with no problem.

I did know they are not designed to burn corn but a selling point is that it can do up to 50/50. So I am expecting it to do that and have been disappointed! A 4K stove should do what's advertised.

 

[Carrie_H]

All harmans now are set up to burn a mix of corn up to 50%?Nope,went away,doesn't exist,went away,quite some time ago.Without an stirrer type system,high immanence is a fact.An accentra is not ever going to be a corn stove.

Do you know when it went away? We bought our stove in 2014 and were told that by the dealer, and it is also printed in the manual.
The corn is free for us, and no loss of investment, but it is annoying! My mom bought a quadrafire at the same time we bought ours and has had no issues burning the corn from her farm.

 

[Watcher1]

"What is the corn you are trying out's moisture content????"

I have no idea. How do people measure this? It is grown on a farm and we transported it here in large covered buckets which are stored in our garage, next to the bagged pellets.

Go back to the farm ask to use their tester. Make sure they show you how. I buy my corn in the fall out of the bin before new crop goes in. 10% or better. Simple trick/ pair of plyers squeeze a kernel, it should just shatter completely.

 

[Watcher1]

Harmans are not corn stoves. The pc45 was never a good design for a corn burner. It had auto ignition that would burn straight corn that was the only benefit. They produce a ton of sooty black ash (incomplete combustion) w/ corn. If you want to burn corn get a stove that was designed to be a corn burner. I have been burning straight corn in a St. Croix for many years now. My ash in the stove is white to tan in color with dense black ash in the lower part of the stove. I have run mine for up to 2 weeks without shutdown since these stoves have the clinker drop system. My wife even runs the stove if I am out of town with no problem.

What kind of St?

 

[jp99]

Harmans are not corn stoves. The pc45 was never a good design for a corn burner. It had auto ignition that would burn straight corn that was the only benefit. They produce a ton of sooty black ash (incomplete combustion) w/ corn. If you want to burn corn get a stove that was designed to be a corn burner. I have been burning straight corn in a St. Croix for many years now. My ash in the stove is white to tan in color with dense black ash in the lower part of the stove. I have run mine for up to 2 weeks without shutdown since these stoves have the clinker drop system. My wife even runs the stove if I am out of town with no problem.

I use an 85% corn and 15% pellet mix in mine, and it seems to run fine. Every so often you have to remove clinkers from the stir rod, and sometimes a thin one in the pot, but that's it. Combustion seemed good and I got plenty of heat out of mine. It's a noisier stove with the stir rod and corn though.

The ash can fills up in about one week versus four weeks for pellets only. It's not a huge inconvenience to empty that once a week.

 

[Mt Bob]

Do you know when it went away? We bought our stove in 2014 and were told that by the dealer, and it is also printed in the manual.
The corn is free for us, and no loss of investment, but it is annoying! My mom bought a quadrafire at the same time we bought ours and has had no issues burning the corn from her farm.

Please post the part in your manual,that shows you can burn 50% corn.As I fix stoves part time,and have the early and newer manuals,and have one in my house,I think you are wrong.

 

[jzm2cc]

Addendum for Burning Corn and Pellet Fuel Mixture

Harman pellet burning, free-standing stoves and inserts have been tested to ASTM E1509 for burning shelled corn

in a mixture with wood pellets. The listing approves up to a 50% corn and 50% pellet mixture. Different mixtures of

corn will have distinctively different burn characteristics depending upon moisture content and variety. The operator

should closely monitor the stove's operation when burning a new corn/pellet mixture or a different variety of corn,

and make any necessary adjustments to feed rate. Since corn is typically higher in ash and moisture content, cleaning

and ash removal will be needed more frequentl

 

[Mt Bob]

Addendum for Burning Corn and Pellet Fuel Mixture

Harman pellet burning, free-standing stoves and inserts have been tested to ASTM E1509 for burning shelled corn

in a mixture with wood pellets. The listing approves up to a 50% corn and 50% pellet mixture. Different mixtures of

corn will have distinctively different burn characteristics depending upon moisture content and variety. The operator

should closely monitor the stove's operation when burning a new corn/pellet mixture or a different variety of corn,

and make any necessary adjustments to feed rate. Since corn is typically higher in ash and moisture content, cleaning

and ash removal will be needed more frequentl

Show me that in an accentra manual.

 

[Border1225]

Show me that in an accentra manual.

According to a PDF copy of the manual for an Accentra insert, page 46 is an addendum that covers the burning of corn. It also should say it on the label on the back of the stove.

 

[Zeus]

Show me that in an accentra manual.

 

[Zeus]

Show me that in an accentra manual.

Now showing corn burn able in the accentra manual one of the reasons I bought mine even has pictures.

 

[jp99]

Show me that in an accentra manual.

(broken link removed to http://downloads.hearthnhome.com/installManuals/Accentra.pdf)

Here's the link to the manual on this site, Nov 2014 date.

Read the addendum as pointed out above, or look in the lower right corner of page 27 of the manual itself. Operation with up to 50% corn is discussed.

 

[bags]

ALL Harman stoves have the ability to burn 50% corn mixed with pellets. This is a fact. The PC45 was the only stove that could burn 100% corn although most chose to mix pellets when running corn in their PC45's because burning 100% corn can be a challenge.

Carrie, Your stove will burn a 50/50 corn and pellet mix. I just think you got ahold of some wet corn or some that has a higher moisture content.

Do yourself a favor and just go and spend $8 bucks at TSC or another agri-feed business and buy a bag of good dry corn and mix that with some pellets so you can get an idea of what to expect.

Which pellets are you burning??? Do you know the moisture content of your corn after it left the dryer? The pellets actually help the corn to burn better so you may also have some iffy pellets. You have to start somewhere to figure out the issue. Better yet after you get the $8 buck 50 lb. bag of gold plated special corn ($8 bucks for a 50# bag is special) run that first. Then steal some of the same exact corn your mom is using and see what that does.

I have ran a 50/50 mix in both my P68 new in 2014 and also my used PC45 that is older. Both ran well and I had no issues but the corn ash and residue is a bit more to clean and makes a better mess all said and done.

 

[Mt Bob]

cool I stand corrected.sorry

 

[bags]

No big deal at all, Bob. I have missed some things and there is always a barrage of others that will gladly set anyone here straight. Confusing things is easy dealing with so many makes, models, and so forth.

Burning corn can be a PITA just because it is messier but if the price is right it can well be worth that. Carrie the OP's price is way right being free. If I could get it free I'd be all over it. She just needs to figure a couple of things out and hopefully she checks in with results.

Just like humping 40 pounders is a better deal for some vs. flipping the stat switch. Convenience and easy costs some money and / or time. LOL!

 

[FirepotPete]

I don't know the stove in question, other than having seen a few in action. But, I will add my $0.02 about burning corn. Maybe this is already known but will add anyway.

The first two years with my stove I tried mixing pellets and corn, now I burn 100% corn but there are some things that still are the same.
Corn takes more heat to ignite, that's why most stoves with ignitors will still need pellets to get the fire going before corn is mixed in.

On the lower heat settings I've found that the corn burns dirty without proper air, more air than pellets need. Once the corn/pellets get a good flame going it seems that the corn doesn't need as much of a increase in air, percentage wise, when going to a higher heat range. There seems to be a sweet spot where the corn is burning hotter so less increase in air is needed. It still needs more air than on lower settings, just not as much as what I needed when burning straight pellets.

I know all stoves are different, everyone has a different setup and even those that are the same we might have different wind/temp conditions. So like I said just my $0.02.

 

[jp99]

cool I stand corrected.sorry

Together on this site we all learn and I have learned a lot more from here than I've contributed. I figure together we make a good knowledge bank and help each other out. This corn and wood pellet burning is a bit of an art, not just a science, because we have so many variables to play with.

I have some 10 pages of logs and notes from the first two seasons using my PC-45. I recorded every variable, every outside condition, my fan setup in the house to distribute the air, and every stove setting. Having a nuclear power plant operational background taught me how to log everything and then begin to examine it for relationships. It was the only way I could learn to tune my stove for my setting, and yet -- I still learn some tricks here. Running these stoves isn't trivial.

 

[FirepotPete]

Having a nuclear power plant operational background

What's you lifetime Zoomie count????? Ahh, operators never get zoomies.

 

[jp99]

What's you lifetime Zoomie count????? Ahh, operators never get zoomies.

Wasn't bad, but I did have a few Rx compartment entries (inspection purposes only). Probably only 500 mrem over the four shipboard years