P-68 clinker buildup

[MrWinkey]

Thought I would quit hijackin the other gentleman's post and put up some pictures of my P-68 burning the elcheapo delux pellets. These look like clinkers to me as they are harder than a rock. The 1st one is burning a 50/50 mix and I let it burn while I was at work with that, so about a 11 hour burn.

The second picture is overnight with a straighter mix of junk pellets. If I run the cheaper pellets straight it builds up the big lumps of rock hard buildup evenly accrost the burnpot not just on the sides.

Thanks!

 

[Xena]

Your pictures are the size of a few postage stamps
so can't see much detail.

 

[GVA]

The clinkers would be that stuff that fuses itself to the burnpot requiring some force to remove it.
If it falls off the edge of the burn pot then it would be considered ash.
I'll find a link for you on cleaning hopefully it will open on that page.
http://www.homewarmth.com/38&61cleaning.html
It's after when they say scrape carbon deposits from the burnpot.
In the guy's hands those be the clinkers.

 

[MrWinkey]

http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p68clinkwt4.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p68clinkntjw1.jpg

Sorry that shouold be a better picture.

Ok so that's ash even if it's rock hard and seems to clog up the burnpot? I thought that the ash would be soft or at least not like a rock.

 

[GVA]

http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p68clinkwt4.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p68clinkntjw1.jpg

Sorry that shouold be a better picture.

Ok so that's ash even if it's rock hard and seems to clog up the burnpot? I thought that the ash would be soft or at least not like a rock.

Depends on the pellets.
Most pellets will turn to an ash that looks like an ash
some turn to what resembles sand or coffee grinds.
Some like the 3 bags of fireside from HD that I tried this past week kinda looked like that (in your picture).
IMO try some different pellets, as those burnpot holes should be clear.. So either it's a heavy ash or you are either due for a cleaning or you do not have enough air (draft) on the stove.
What I mean by clear is if you were to burn standard pellets the ash bed gets real thick, but the ash is blown away from the holes and kinda looks like swiss cheese.
Anyway I can't remember If this is a new stove or not but Give me an idea of how long have you had it, venting, OAK, location, pellets, last cleaning, ETC.
If your ash is that hard it could be poor combustion problems.......

 

[MrWinkey]

Had the stove nearly a month.

It gets cleaned weekly. 4" vent pipe through an older masonry chimney so it should not have any vent problems.

It seems to mostly be 1 brand of pellet that does that. The other ones sometimes get some buildup on the sides.

no OAK yet It should be going in soon as I get the last few parts.