New Install Harman P35i Insert - Sparks - Is this normal?

[M@dMinute]

So I bought and installed my P35i myself a couple weeks ago. See pictures below, The 4" pipe has an increaser to connect to my 7"x 25' chimney liner. Everything has been great so far. Maybe I didn't really notice it until yesterday but when the auger starts feeding pellets tons of sparks are going everywhere. I have only burned about 5 bags so far because the temp is just really starting to drop to the 30's this week in my area. Only thing I have done is scrape the burn pot as far as maintenance goes.

Is this a normal thing? I saw online it could be due to excessive air flow or too fast of feed. I wanted to get your opinions.
I have it set on the Harman default feed of 4 and am running the thermostat.
I am running Cheat River Pellets.

Video (I tried to get the control panel so you could see when it is feeding)

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Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[TheRambler]

Its not uncommon by any means, however my xxv only does that during ignition/startup 95% of the time. To me this appears to be one of a few things.
1) one hell of a strong blower. Try switching to L and see if it still does it.
2) lots of fines/pellet dust in your pellets

If 1, then it will improve slowly over time. And if 2 either be careful when adding pellets or clean/sift them as some people do.

 

[M@dMinute]

1) one hell of a strong blower. Try switching to L and see if it still does it.

Does knob for the blower that blows heat into the room also control the blower for the pellets? If so I have it on Max. I will try and turn it down and see if it makes a difference.

2) lots of fines/pellet dust in your pellets

I haven't been sifting, what's the best method to do this? Pour from bag into a bucket and let the dust blow away?

 

[TheRambler]

I dont really know if the knob controls the combustion blower too, but you would be able to tell relatively quickly. As far as sifting i personally dont do anything crazy, but am careful not to dump the fines in when pouribg a bag directly into the hopper. I normally dump a few bags at a time into a rubermaid tote next to the unit then use a scoop to load into stove as this is easiest for my wife to do. So naturally the majority of the fines and dust settles to the bottom of the tote and stay out of the unit.

 

[JDenyer236]

Try it with the fake log removed. Sometimes you can get a lot of turbulance near the log set.

 

[M@dMinute]

Try it with the fake log removed. Sometimes you can get a lot of turbulance near the log set.

I read a lot of comments saying the log was a waste. The wife likes it though... I will give this a shot too, thanks.

 

[M@dMinute]

So I took the log out, I don't think I was scraping far enough down the pot. I was trying to get away with cleaning without fully removing the log. As soon as I scrapped the burn pot all the way down the issue stopped. Burning good again. Thanks!

 

[mepellet]

Completely normal operation. Nothing to be concerned about.

 

[TimfromMA]

Fake log sets may be pretty but they're just one more thing to collect ash on and clean.

 

[Tim Linden]

I found the FSU to spark quite a bit, but the Green Supreme didn't.

 

[mepellet]

A lot of the sparks are from the fines.