I have a USSC 6039 Harvester. I researched this stove and it seemed to be the best buy for the money. I started burning Pellets for the first half of the winter but I have found Corn to be cheaper now than the pellets so I switched to Corn. The corn was tested at the feed mill at 12.5% moisture, within the 11-15% the manual says. Its a medium size corn that seems to be pretty clean, I screened out a few stalks but not much. When I first burned it I got alot of clinkers so I added some Oyster shells. That has softened the clinkers and they don't seem as bad. The problem I have had is the fire will go out after maybe 6 hours. I have tried adjusting the draft fan but that has only served to blow out the flame after a few minutes. We only need to keep the stove typically on the first setting and I clean the stove often. What should I be doing to prevent the fire from dying every 6 hours or so?? Thanks in advance!
Need help with Corn
- Thread starter dmckay
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woodsman23
Minister of Fire
Turn up the feed rate on the stove this should keep it running. I have a friend that bought the same stove and it is a working mans or womans stove for sure. There are wayyyy to many adjustments to make with blower settings and that darn pot stirrer. It heats well but it is to much work for me... Do you get alot of ash inside the stove and pan??
schoondog
Feeling the Heat
I've got the 6039 insert and I burned a 50-50 pellet corn mix for a short while. There was another guy here a few weeks ago that burned corn in his US Stove and he had some settings that he posted. Try doing a search for members burning corn topic that I started and you should find him and maybe PM him. In the mean time I like woodsmans theory, try turning the heat range up in manual mode. You could also try calling US Stove too.
Schoondog
Schoondog
I have a 6039 hearth focus and burn a corn mix in it. I had the same situation as you--pellets became too expensive and I have been making the switch to corn.
My opinioon is that you will not get a very good corn burn on R-1. You don't even get an efficient pellet fire on HR1. You'll have to bump your feed HR setting up to 2 or 3. Three is the better of the two settings.
I usually run my stove with a corn mix at HR3, RF9 DF1 and AU 1. I am partially heating a 2,300 sq ft bungalow with my stove. You can reduce the room fan ratge if that is too much heat for you. The secret to corn burning is to supply just enough dracft to burn the corn without overheating it and welding the kernels into clinkers. The other secret is not to mix the burn pot too much so the corn gets a chane to burn up.
If you want to burn straight corn, mixed with oyster shell to prevent clinkers, you have to set a higher heat range. In most cases that roasts me out of the house. As a result I mix somewhere between 10 and 30 per cent pellets with the corn for the most efficient burn at lower settings.
The corn should be around 14 per cent moisture content. Much more than that could create chemicals that may eventually rot your vent pipes and much less moisture content inthe in the 10-11 percent range will burn fast like pellets.
Let me knows if this helps.
Stan
My opinioon is that you will not get a very good corn burn on R-1. You don't even get an efficient pellet fire on HR1. You'll have to bump your feed HR setting up to 2 or 3. Three is the better of the two settings.
I usually run my stove with a corn mix at HR3, RF9 DF1 and AU 1. I am partially heating a 2,300 sq ft bungalow with my stove. You can reduce the room fan ratge if that is too much heat for you. The secret to corn burning is to supply just enough dracft to burn the corn without overheating it and welding the kernels into clinkers. The other secret is not to mix the burn pot too much so the corn gets a chane to burn up.
If you want to burn straight corn, mixed with oyster shell to prevent clinkers, you have to set a higher heat range. In most cases that roasts me out of the house. As a result I mix somewhere between 10 and 30 per cent pellets with the corn for the most efficient burn at lower settings.
The corn should be around 14 per cent moisture content. Much more than that could create chemicals that may eventually rot your vent pipes and much less moisture content inthe in the 10-11 percent range will burn fast like pellets.
Let me knows if this helps.
Stan
Last night I set the agitator on 9 and no problems. I don't know if this was right but now I'm going to try what you said, the only issue is I don't seem to be able to lower my DF setting, instead I am just opening slightly the manual damper until I get a good but not real rapid fire. Am I taking the right approach?
if it works great. Your right about the fire, it should be like an active campfire, not a blow torch. I don't know about the agitator being on 9 . I would think it would work better slower but whatever works.
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