Lot of sparks in firebox

[Tim M.]

Any thoughts? Seems to just be an awful lot of sparks flying around inside the firebox. I wouldnt say the flame is lazy, it's pretty active but seems to stay low even at the highest heat setting whereas before it would extend up 7 or 8 inches now with all the sparks it seems to keep down around 2 or 3 inches.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Have you got a load of fines sitting at the bottom of your hopper or in your auger flight?

In other words are you feeding any real pellets to the flame?

 

[Tim M.]

Vaccum'd out the entire hopper about 40 minutes ago and relit the fire. Just seems whenever a load of pellets comes down the chute it's like a fioreworks show, ahses everywhere.

 

[Tim M.]

Sparks ^^^ sparks everywhere not ashes.

 

[imacman]

This was a new stove? You've had it how long? And this is a change from previous burning? You never had any sparks before?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Are there a lot of fines in your pellets, they light off and the air current makes them fly around, also if your damper is open too much you'll quickly burn your pellets up to the point that they are very small pieces on their way to being ash and every delivery of pellets will case some of the pieces to get ejected.

You actually want some of that to occur as that is how the ash gets ejected from your burn pot.

Those sparks are ash in the making no matter if they come from fines or small pieces getting ejected.

The only question I'd have is is my flame too brisk and am I just sending a lot of heat up the flue.

 

[Tim M.]

OK - no not new stove it came with out house when we bought it last year, based on serial # it appears it is in excess of 5 years old. Maybe this is either a chitty bag / pallet I am burning through right now or theres something else wrong. I have been burning the same pellets all season and the sparks havent been this bad previously. Still feels like it is throwing plenty of heat out of the tubes but just a low flame and lots of sparks.

 

[CT Pellet]

Tim.
Grab yourself a bottle of Boone's Farm and enjoy the fireworks!
This is merely from the fines in the bag and/or the small pieces getting ejected from the burn pot. It may appear different from what you have seen because of several reasons. You are more apt to see these in the evening when it is darker as opposed to daylight, or possibly this bag of pellets is dustier than the others, or possibly you have a little more bild up of fines in the hopper than other times or even possibly something else. "Different" alone is not indicitive of a problem, and sparks is not unusual. Many times, when people see something that looks different, they think, "uh-oh"....but like Smokey said, it is actually a good thing...its keeping the burn pot clean. Everything is fine.

 

[Tim M.]

Thanks as always folks - I'll let the sparks fly.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

OK - no not new stove it came with out house when we bought it last year, based on serial # it appears it is in excess of 5 years old. Maybe this is either a chitty bag / pallet I am burning through right now or theres something else wrong. I have been burning the same pellets all season and the sparks havent been this bad previously. Still feels like it is throwing plenty of heat out of the tubes but just a low flame and lots of sparks.

If the stove has a damper close it a bit (but watch out for a lazy flame).

It is possible you hit the damper while cleaning or working around the stove and opened it up a bit.

In general you want some sparks in the firebox.

 

[imacman]

In general you want some sparks in the firebox.

But not from the pipe

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

But not from the pipe

Hey that you slickplant?

 

[DexterDay]

As Smokey suggested, does it have a Damper? was it moved or changed recently?