King 5502m pot filling and smoldering

[Ryan McGomery]

My father has had his stove for 4 years. Did all the maintenance. Vented correctly. By the book in other words. A few weeks ago, he accidently had his df set on 3, didn't mean to, and this is when the problem started. His pot will fill, and not burn all the pellets. With different brands as well. It will fill with pellets, and not burn correctly. It keeps trying to fill. He cleans his pot. No error codes . And will happen again. Within 16-24 hrs. We took it apart last week, and the vertical vent going out side was half plugged. Thought that fixed it. Still happening. Any thoughts as to why? No licensed techs within 100 miles. Isn't there a way to make it do a self check, to make sure all sensors are functioning correctly? Thank you in advance

 

[Jeremy6500]

My father has had his stove for 4 years. Did all the maintenance. Vented correctly. By the book in other words. A few weeks ago, he accidently had his df set on 3, didn't mean to, and this is when the problem started. His pot will fill, and not burn all the pellets. With different brands as well. It will fill with pellets, and not burn correctly. It keeps trying to fill. He cleans his pot. No error codes . And will happen again. Within 16-24 hrs. We took it apart last week, and the vertical vent going out side was half plugged. Thought that fixed it. Still happening. Any thoughts as to why? No licensed techs within 100 miles. Isn't there a way to make it do a self check, to make sure all sensors are functioning correctly? Thank you in advance

Just to verify, it ran fine and then a few ago it started with the smoldering/overflowing?

If this is the case then it sounds like an airflow issue, not anything with a sensor. I had this issue with my 6500 until I figured out how to get it/keep it clean. What I was missing were the vertical ash cleanouts on the back wall of the burn chamber. They allow access to the the 1" gap behind the burn chamber that you can see where the draft fan attaches to. It pulls the draft up through the burn chamber, then back down through the 1" gap behind and out. This 1" space can fill up with ash and make it not flow correctly.

Also, if the vertical vent pipe was that dirty then the rest of the exhaust track might be as well. I would pull the exhaust fan to clean it and the chamber out really well.

For future cleaning I would suggest getting a leaf blower to clean the exhaust track. If you Google pellet stove leaf blower there are a lot of videos that show what I am referring to.

If you get the issue resolved make sure you post back the fix so future searchers with the same issue can find it.

 

[Jeremy6500]

The doors I am referring to are shown at the 2:08 mark of this video. If you do the leaf blower thing it can greatly cut down on the need to take the vent apart to sweep it out.

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[Ryan McGomery]

Took apart draft fan, and tube leading to burn chamber, filty. Just blowing it out apparently wasn't enough. It had absorbed moisture during summer, and was like dirt in the bottom of the tube. As is well again. Thanks Jeremy 6500

 

[Jeremy6500]

Took apart draft fan, and tube leading to burn chamber, filty. Just blowing it out apparently wasn't enough. It had absorbed moisture during summer, and was like dirt in the bottom of the tube. As is well again. Thanks Jeremy 6500

Glad you got it working well agian.