Lopi burn pot decay

[Griny]

I've been watching my burn pot slowly fall apart and lately it had a hole in it where it shouldn't
We've bought the stove new in September 2007 and after 3.5 burn seasons it's falling apart...
Any of you Lopi owners have the same problem? I have been burning the first year Pinnacle (very bad pellet lots of ashes) then Blazer also dirty pellet lots of soot, then 2 seasons of Bear mountain nice clean and hot pellet and this year I've been burning Atlas premium, very hot pellet, first time I had to turn my stove down to almost the lowest setting.

 

[imacman]

Griny,

if Travis makes the pots the same as my '05 Astoria, that should be stainless steel.....amazing that happened. But, the Travis 7 year warranty covers firepots, so you should be able to contact your dealer to get a replacement.

I'd also shoot an email off to Travis with a picture....maybe they have an updated firepot??

 

[DMZX]

They are stainless steel, and should last for quite a long time. You must have gotten a bad one Griny. As imacman stated, your dealer should replace it under warranty.

 

[Griny]

Yeah I read the warranty deal and its just over 3 years old and it is still covered under warranty which is good however I was wondering if other people have had the same problem.
I did call the dealer and they will provide me with a brand new one next Thursday, I asked how much one was for fun and she quoted me $72 and change I was surprised that it was that much though.
My burn pot is made out of Stainless steel, I watched it get cracks in the welds pretty much after the first burn season.

 

[imacman]

Just because it's stainless does not mean it will never have some failures. But the way yours actually lost a big piece is weird. Like I said, I'm sure Travis would be interested in seeing that.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I have seen firepot errosion on other stoves.

The Pot on our Quad downstairs has a place that the weld has burned away and the thing is cracking.

The stainless pots like yours should not go away like that.

Looking at the one large pix. The holes in the bottom where the slot is are punched in the plate and then the parts are welded together.

What probably happened is that the metal between the holes cracked and then the heat and other dynamics going on there caused the edges to errode as they got super hot.

Sharp edges will fail fairly fast once they get red hot.


Definately want to get that taken care of under warranty for sure.

Snowy

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I grabbed your pix and blew it up bigger so I could see well.

I marked the cracks that have formed.

Stainless does some strange things depending on the alloy.

After being punched and then welded together, that burn pot has some serious stresses built into it.

Now the spot where the failure has occured is right in the middle, the hotest spot in the pot, right below the drop tube where the fire is going to be like a little blow torch.

Once the cracks form, the edges go away really quick under high temps.

Just think of the firepot like a horse shoe in an old blacksmiths Forge.

Air being blasted up through the fuel and the temps here are pretty high.

Here is a marked up copy of the piccy you posted.

Snowy

 

[Griny]

I grabbed your pix and blew it up bigger so I could see well.

I marked the cracks that have formed.

Stainless does some strange things depending on the alloy.

After being punched and then welded together, that burn pot has some serious stresses built into it.

Now the spot where the failure has occured is right in the middle, the hotest spot in the pot, right below the drop tube where the fire is going to be like a little blow torch.

Once the cracks form, the edges go away really quick under high temps.

Just think of the firepot like a horse shoe in an old blacksmiths Forge.

Air being blasted up through the fuel and the temps here are pretty high.

Here is a marked up copy of the piccy you posted.

Snowy

Yeah I figure with heating and cooling it thousands of times alloy's tend to get brittle even cast iron exhaust manifolds from older cars get brittle tend to warp or crack.
If you look at the 2nd pic you'll see the larger hole (this is where the igniter sits behind) is a crack up to the next smaller hole. Underneath is a weld that is cracked from left to right, this happened very soon after we got it.

 

[Salty]

My St Croix york insert has had a crack in it since the spring, and it's doing the same thing as yours. Rust and scale all over the inside, it's noticibly thinner than before. I was going to call the dealer and order a new one. If these guys tell me $75 then I'll decline and make my own for about $2 and an hour or so of my time.

 

[checkthisout]

I grabbed your pix and blew it up bigger so I could see well.

I marked the cracks that have formed.

Stainless does some strange things depending on the alloy.

After being punched and then welded together, that burn pot has some serious stresses built into it.

Now the spot where the failure has occured is right in the middle, the hotest spot in the pot, right below the drop tube where the fire is going to be like a little blow torch.

Once the cracks form, the edges go away really quick under high temps.

Just think of the firepot like a horse shoe in an old blacksmiths Forge.

Air being blasted up through the fuel and the temps here are pretty high.

Here is a marked up copy of the piccy you posted.

Snowy

Yeah I figure with heating and cooling it thousands of times alloy's tend to get brittle even cast iron exhaust manifolds from older cars get brittle tend to warp or crack.
If you look at the 2nd pic you'll see the larger hole (this is where the igniter sits behind) is a crack up to the next smaller hole. Underneath is a weld that is cracked from left to right, this happened very soon after we got it.

I just bought an Avalon Newport after my In-Laws have had no problems with their little Lopi for ten years.

That sucks. I often wondered if that could happen over time. How's the rest of the stove doing?

 

[Griny]

[/quote]

I just bought an Avalon Newport after my In-Laws have had no problems with their little Lopi for ten years.

That sucks. I often wondered if that could happen over time. How's the rest of the stove doing?[/quote]

Does the Avalon Newport have a similar burn pot?
The rest of the stove is doing quite well actually.
Auger motor is fine just a little noisy but has been from the beginning. Exhaust fan is fine I wonder if it needs lube? Convection blower is fine too

 

[Griny]

My St Croix york insert has had a crack in it since the spring, and it's doing the same thing as yours. Rust and scale all over the inside, it's noticibly thinner than before. I was going to call the dealer and order a new one. If these guys tell me $75 then I'll decline and make my own for about $2 and an hour or so of my time.

Mine has never been rusty, soot and crud build up yes but that can easily be removed with scotch brite or a small wire brush.

 

[jtakeman]

I wouldn't get all worried here, We have only seen this one so far. I would only worry if we saw loads of them showing up. Covered under warranty so not such a big deal. May have just been some bad material(too much carbon) that this one was made of. Stainless handles heat pretty well and we don't see this as much as the cast iron burnpots.

 

[checkthisout]

I just bought an Avalon Newport after my In-Laws have had no problems with their little Lopi for ten years.

That sucks. I often wondered if that could happen over time. How's the rest of the stove doing?[/quote]

Does the Avalon Newport have a similar burn pot?
The rest of the stove is doing quite well actually.
Auger motor is fine just a little noisy but has been from the beginning. Exhaust fan is fine I wonder if it needs lube? Convection blower is fine too[/quote]

The bottom looks to be cut from the same stock as minel, the back and sides have less air holes and are most likely smaller dimensionally than yours.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Does the Lopi have the square hole in the Intake Air plenum inside the stove?

The Avalon Astoria does and when I blocked it to keep warm room air from going up the chimney, the burn pot got alot more dirty such as caked ash and the air holes getting blocked up!! So burn pots really like warm air to keep clear and maybe last longer??

 

[Griny]

Hello

Does the Lopi have the square hole in the Intake Air plenum inside the stove?

The Avalon Astoria does and when I blocked it to keep warm room air from going up the chimney, the burn pot got alot more dirty such as caked ash and the air holes getting blocked up!! So burn pots really like warm air to keep clear and maybe last longer??

Yes it does have a square hole in it along with a gate valve to slow temper the intake air.

As for the warm air going up the chimney, no I have not blocked that up. As far as having an influence on my burn pot you kinda me lost there.
Did you mean the warmer the intake air the least amount of temperature difference thus less stress in the burn pot? This is very far fetched though, I don't think that has anything to do with this personally.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Temperature can make a difference, the auto mechanics say to Never put real cold water into a car radiator right when the engine is overheating because you could crack the engine block!

However since you did not block the square hole you are not getting cold intake air. The reason Travis cuts that square hole is to add warm intake air to make the stove perform better and it does! However I have found it takes more pellets or 1 higher heat setting to warm my house with the square hole in place!

As far as your burn pot goes, do you have an Outside Air Kit? If so do you have extremely cold air coming in?

If your air is not extremely cold coming into the burn pot, then I would say that you have a defective burn pot and you should get a new one under the waranty.

 

[Griny]

Hello

Temperature can make a difference, the auto mechanics say to Never put real cold water into a car radiator right when the engine is overheating because you could crack the engine block!

However since you did not block the square hole you are not getting cold intake air. The reason Travis cuts that square hole is to add warm intake air to make the stove perform better and it does! However I have found it takes more pellets or 1 higher heat setting to warm my house with the square hole in place!

As far as your burn pot goes, do you have an Outside Air Kit? If so do you have extremely cold air coming in?

If your air is not extremely cold coming into the burn pot, then I would say that you have a defective burn pot and you should get a new one under the waranty.

Cold water and cold air are two extremely different things for example when talking car mechanics you would like to have as much cold air going into the engines combustion chamber because colder air is more compressible then hot air, hence the inter cooler on most turbo diesels to allow compressing more air through the turbo.
My pellet stove can't draw air from the chimney because the cap is totally sealed off only the exhaust is sticking through, it recirculates the houses air.
I don't think colder air is a problem for a burn pot in a pellet stove. And no I don't have a outside air kit.

 

[imacman]

.....I don't think colder air is a problem for a burn pot in a pellet stove. And no I don't have a outside air kit.

While I agree with the first sentence, I think you should re-think the second one. This is directly from the Travis Ind. owners manual:

"Travis Industries strongly suggests outside air for all residential installations, especially for those that are energy efficient, air-tight homes."

 

[Griny]

.....I don't think colder air is a problem for a burn pot in a pellet stove. And no I don't have a outside air kit.

While I agree with the first sentence, I think you should re-think the second one. This is directly from the Travis Ind. owners manual:

"Travis Industries strongly suggests outside air for all residential installations, especially for those that are energy efficient, air-tight homes."

This is what the manual states about combustion air for the Lopi Pioneer Bay insert, we live in a single level rambler built in 1968 with crappy insulation and 1968 aluminum windows (with storm panes though 8-/ )

Mobile Home Requirements
• Outside air is required (used for combustion) - see the directions below.
• The heater must be bolted to the floor (Some states do not require this; check with your
local building department).
• The heater must be grounded to the steel chassis of the mobile home (Some states do
not require this; check with your local building department).
WARNING: DO NOT INSTALL IN SLEEPING ROOM.
CAUTION: THE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF THE MANUFACTURED HOME
FLOOR, WALL, AND CEILING/ROOF MUST BE MAINTAINED.
Outside Air (used for combustion)
• Outside air is optional (except in mobile homes or when required by local building codes).
• Must not be drawn from an enclosed space (garage, unventilated crawl space).
• Must not be over 15' long.
• Must be made with 1 3/4" diameter or larger metal or aluminum duct with a metal screen
attached to the end to keep out rodents (P.V.C. or other combustible materials may not
be used). Use the Travis Industries Outside Air Kit (part # 99200136).
• Must not terminate above or within 1' of the chimney termination.
• Must have a rain cap or down-turned elbow to prevent water from entering.
• Must be located so that it will not become plugged by snow or other material.

 

[checkthisout]

Cold air didn't do that.

It's crappy pot material/assembly or extremely corrosive pellets.

I am burning Blazers right now as well.

 

[imacman]

Interesting that the Astoria owner's manual I have (2007 edition) says something different....I would think they would be consistent across all model lines.

Well, anyway, if you don't have an issue with pulling more cold air through the cracks & crevices of your home, and then sending that warm air that you already paid to heat once up the exhaust pipe, who am I to stop you...... :zip:

 

[Griny]

Cold air didn't do that.

It's crappy pot material/assembly or extremely corrosive pellets.

I am burning Blazers right now as well.

I agree on the cold air, not sure about the extremely corrosive pellets, perhaps I should put a anode on it? :cheese:

 

[Griny]

Interesting that the Astoria owner's manual I have (2007 edition) says something different....I would think they would be consistent across all model lines.

Well, anyway, if you don't have an issue with pulling more cold air through the cracks & crevices of your home, and then sending that warm air that you already paid to heat once up the exhaust pipe, who am I to stop you...... :zip:

All homes have cracks and crevices I think homes built now are worse then the ones built 30 years ago but thats another story but Im pretty sure Im stepping on somebody's toes right now...
My basement is insulated so shouldn't have too much cold air drawn in from there, the attic has about 20" of insulation. not too much loss there its just the windows and the walls where Im loosing the most.
Most homes should have enough venting going for them other wise you couldn't run a bathroom fan the get the funk out after dropping off a load at the pool :shut: . Or even a kitchen stove fan!
Which means if you don't have enough venting action in your house you have more chance of stale air, mildew, mold etc in other words you want your house to vent!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Interesting that the Astoria owner's manual I have (2007 edition) says something different....I would think they would be consistent across all model lines.

Well, anyway, if you don't have an issue with pulling more cold air through the cracks & crevices of your home, and then sending that warm air that you already paid to heat once up the exhaust pipe, who am I to stop you...... :zip:

All homes have cracks and crevices I think homes built now are worse then the ones built 30 years ago but thats another story but Im pretty sure Im stepping on somebody's toes right now...
My basement is insulated so shouldn't have too much cold air drawn in from there, the attic has about 20" of insulation. not too much loss there its just the windows and the walls where Im loosing the most.
Most homes should have enough venting going for them other wise you couldn't run a bathroom fan the get the funk out after dropping off a load at the pool :shut: . Or even a kitchen stove fan!
Which means if you don't have enough venting action in your house you have more chance of stale air, mildew, mold etc in other words you want your house to vent!

New construction generally provides 1 air exchange per hour. An old house typically is much higher. Once you get to 0.3 exchanges per hour you really need an air to air heat recovery venting system or you start having health problems.