Oily residue and harsh smoke smell

[throatpuncher]

Good evening,

Just joined, trying to figure out what happened to my stove...

This morning, I ran my stove for about 30 minutes just to get the chill out of the house. Turned it off, left for work.

Wife called about an hour later telling me there was a tons of smoke in the burn chamber.

She pulled it out, and took it outside, smoke stopped, but there is a super acrid smoke smell in the living room, and there is an oily residue in the burn pot and on and around the igniter...

No idea what happened. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tonyray]

would help if stove model and brand of pellets...
almost sounds like no air flow in stove..

 

[throatpuncher]

would help if stove model and brand of pellets...
almost sounds like no air flow in stove..

Sure. It's a USSC King pellet stove, 5502m, And am using barefoot hardwood pellets

 

[heat seeker]

Maybe some plastic got in there somehow - toy soldier, piece of pellet bag...any small hands around that may have "hidden" something in the hopper? It's happened.

 

[Tonyray]

Maybe some plastic got in there somehow - toy soldier, piece of pellet bag...any small hands around that may have "hidden" something in the hopper? It's happened.

could be..
that would cause smoke and oily residue..
or, something plastic in the bag of pellets.. not un-heard of..
I would put in fresh pellets and fire up again after cleanng inside of stove and keep eye on it.

 

[throatpuncher]

Maybe some plastic got in there somehow - toy soldier, piece of pellet bag...any small hands around that may have "hidden" something in the hopper? It's happened.

That would make a lot of sense...there's three little ones running around...

 

[throatpuncher]

could be..
that would cause smoke and oily residue..
or, something plastic in the bag of pellets.. not un-heard of..
I would put in fresh pellets and fire up again after cleanng inside of stove and keep eye on it.

Any suggestions on the best way to clean it out? The residue is all over the heating element.

 

[alternativeheat]

Without seeing what it looks like mind you, it sounds like you need a good hot fire in the stove and burn it off.

 

[Tonyray]

.Alternativeheat is right.

I remember about 4 years ago I had a similar situation..
stove walls below the burnpot had a sticky black greaselike coating.
may have been from burning too low of a temp or feed rate on auto mode..[on/off/on/off
[was trying to save pellets.. dumb idea but I was a new burner.
anyways,
was told here to fire that puppy up on high temp and feed rate for couple hours.
had it set at 80 degrees..
it burned all that residue up to a powdery ash..
might have to open your windows if it's warm out...

 

[johneh]

.Alternativeheat is right.

I remember about 4 years ago I had a similar situation..
stove walls below the burnpot had a sticky black greaselike coating.
may have been from burning too low of a temp or feed rate on auto mode..[on/off/on/off
[was trying to save pellets.. dumb idea but I was a new burner.
anyways,
was told here to fire that puppy up on high temp and feed rate for couple hours.
had it set at 80 degrees..
it burned all that residue up to a powdery ash..
might have to open your windows if it's warm out...

X2 Good hot fire burn it off

 

[Tonyray]

X2 Good hot fire burn it off

right..
Think the pellets at the time we're stove chows from HD..
Middle of the road hardwood but didn't like to be burned at low settings i guess.

 

[rich2500]

Another thing to check is if you have an oak hooked up make sure no water got in the pipe, had this happen to me once and it was actually sucking a fine water mist up through the burnpot causing a smoky burn and residue on the back wall around the burnpot.

 

[Tonyray]

Another thing to check is if you have an oak hooked up make sure no water got in the pipe, had this happen to me once and it was actually sucking a fine water mist up through the burnpot causing a smoky burn and residue on the back wall around the burnpot.

that's interesting...never heard of that but sounds plausible..
my oak is covered pretty well. I can bend that cover at bottom of pipe to lower or increase air input..

 

[rich2500]

After that happened I put a deflector above the oak vent and it's been fine, I don't know how the water got in after all the years it was installed and never a problem but it did.