P61a went out. Too much ash?

[cory127]

Woke up this morning and my P61A was out. Must have been out for awhile because the stove was cold. Only thing unusual I noticed was there was more ash than usual in the burn pot. I scraped the pot, turned it off and back on again and it fired right back up. Was running in room temp auto around 66 deg and the house was 60 when I got up. Burning NEWPs.

Anyone run into this before? Could the ash have put it out?

 

[Bioburner]

How clean is the holes of the pot?

 

[Hoot23]

Didn't run out of fuel?

 

[cory127]

How clean is the holes of the pot?

They look alright. It's running fine now and I hadn't cleaned them.

 

[cory127]

Didn't run out of fuel?

No. Had almost a full hopper.

 

[Hoot23]

It's only 20 days old assuming its new. You might of had a bridge in the hopper not letting the pellets feed. No fuel, no fire.

 

[cory127]

It's only 20 days old assuming its new. You might of had a bridge in the hopper not letting the pellets feed. No fuel, no fire.

Bridge?

 

[Hoot23]

If your pellets are a little long they will sometimes form a bridge over the slide plate not letting any fuel in. You might of opened the hopper lid and closed it before restarting and jiggled them free and now she's running again.

 

[Tonyray]

Bridge?

a bridge is when pellets [in the hopper] gather at the bottom opening and sort of bunch up causing a dam if you will which stops the pellets from feeding.
usually this may happen if the pellets are a bit long..
that said, I have the same stove as you and have burned long pellets[ Stove Chows from HD] and it never happened yet but could ...
As far as ash, I let mine go one time just to see if the flame would go out.. let it go like 4 days worth without manualy pulling the ash down to the ash pan.
I had a wall of ash about 2 inches high and the flame never went out....with a Harman I doubt if it ever would since the burn pot is pretty big and the auger pushes the ash over the edge. most times.
I Say it was not ash but the famous Bridge....
just put your hand all the way down to the bottom in the hopper and stir it around if it ever happens again.

 

[Hoot23]

You have a bottom feeding stove. As long as you have the auger pushing pellets through, the ash will fall off the edge. You might have a full burn pot, but it shouldn't snuff the flame. I've let mine go for 7 days or so, and she kept on burning.

 

[alternativeheat]

Woke up this morning and my P61A was out. Must have been out for awhile because the stove was cold. Only thing unusual I noticed was there was more ash than usual in the burn pot. I scraped the pot, turned it off and back on again and it fired right back up. Was running in room temp auto around 66 deg and the house was 60 when I got up. Burning NEWPs.

Anyone run into this before? Could the ash have put it out?

I probably would have taken the opportunity while the stove was cold to brush the heat exchanger, pull the little trap door for the igniter and scooped what ever ash was in that passage out and like Bio indicates, ream the burn pot holes with my trusty large paper clip. Then fired it back up. I've never had my P61 conk out , I've had it shut down cause up to temp in the room but not woof out. Back in Feb I had some wicked ashy pellets going on, I had huge piles of ash and distorted flame in the morning but never gone out. As soon as I scraped off the ash from the burn pot the flame was normal. I really dislike seriously ashy pellets. When I had those pellets 4-5 scrapings of the ash pot per day was normal activity.

 

[cory127]

Was 4:30 in the morning and I had to get to work otherwise I would have cleaned it. Through my first half ton and planning a full cleaning this weekend.

 

[mikesj]

Sounds like a bridging issue to me. I've had that happen a couple of times over the years. Are your pellets much more than an inch long?

 

[Tonyray]

when my stove goes into maint burn and the flames are way down low,, while the exhaust fan is still running, I do my quick brushing [2" paintbrush] of the heat exchanger, burn pot, the side and back walls, ledges and wherever ash lands which is everywhere....
brush it all into the ash pan...takes maybe 2 minutes..
kind of a mini- cleaning in between my scheduled 7-10 day full balls out cleaning..
little bit OCD but keeps the ash from insulating the heat exchanger and rob us of some heat..

 

[Bioburner]

when my stove goes into maint burn and the flames are way down low,, while the exhaust fan is still running, I do my quick brushing [2" paintbrush] of the heat exchanger, burn pot, the side and back walls, ledges and wherever ash lands which is everywhere....
brush it all into the ash pan...takes maybe 2 minutes..
kind of a mini- cleaning in between my scheduled 7-10 day full balls out cleaning..
little bit OCD but keeps the ash from insulating the heat exchanger and rob us of some heat..

That little bit of ash is a lot of insulation. I do a quick brush down twice a day.

 

[Tonyray]

That little bit of ash is a lot of insulation. I do a quick brush down twice a day.

Jesus H.. Thought I was OCD...

 

[newf lover]

Woke up this morning and my P61A was out. Must have been out for awhile because the stove was cold. Only thing unusual I noticed was there was more ash than usual in the burn pot. I scraped the pot, turned it off and back on again and it fired right back up. Was running in room temp auto around 66 deg and the house was 60 when I got up. Burning NEWPs.

Anyone run into this before? Could the ash have put it out?

Same pellets, but with a P68, I had that happen and I'm pretty sure it was the ash from the pellets. Maybe with the low burn (66 isn't that warm) that the ash wasn't getting pushed out fast enough and the heavy ash snuffed out the fire. 6 years of burning pellets of all different kinds, when I was burning NEWPs was the only time this ever happened. Coincidence maybe, but my bet is it's the pellets.

 

[mepellet]

That little bit of ash is a lot of insulation. I do a quick brush down twice a day.

Dang.... That seems extreme.

 

[DAKSY]

Dang.... That seems extreme.

I guess. I scrape the burnpot every 2-3 bags & the heat exchanger once a week. This year's (& last)
Cleanfire Hardwoods are VERY ashy, but I've never had EITHER of my Harmans shut down due to ash
build up...

 

[Bioburner]

I have a boiler loop that takes the attention and three temp sensors show the differences of keeping a stove clean. Only do a complete cleaning when the ash pan is full . Cabin fever. If I where burning cord wood I would be stuck tending the fire several times a day and with hopper extension only need to fill every 2-3 days. If still had a Countryside there would be far more tending and hoping it doesn't quit for what ever reason.

 

[camdids]

I've had exactly the "Bridge" Twice since having my Insert. Empty Hopper and Fire back up. Once was when the wife decided to get as much as she could in the Hopper. Packed it down like she's Tenderizing a steak.

 

[Delta-T]

anytime you think the stove should be running and it isn't, take a look at the status light to see if it's blinking. It will blink a repeating pattern which is related to specific conditions the stove is perceiving...makes for easier troubleshooting. unlikely to be ash.

 

[cory127]

Same pellets, but with a P68, I had that happen and I'm pretty sure it was the ash from the pellets. Maybe with the low burn (66 isn't that warm) that the ash wasn't getting pushed out fast enough and the heavy ash snuffed out the fire. 6 years of burning pellets of all different kinds, when I was burning NEWPs was the only time this ever happened. Coincidence maybe, but my bet is it's the pellets.

I should have taken a pic. The ash was piled unusually high and almost up against the mouth of the auger. Been running fine since. Will keep an eye on it.

 

[Tonyray]

I remember a post one time not too long ago here where a guy said that at his dealers showroom, they had a couple Harman P 61 or 68's that had not been cleaned in months,'
Big piles of ash everywhere,.. Could hardly see thru the glass it was so dirty... this was done on purpose to show customers that thru it all, the flame , like the energizer bunny, still kept burning.
I;m sure the heat exchanger was probably caked to god knows what but heat output wasn;t the main point for this demo....
[for what it's worth]

 

[cory127]

Alright, just got home from work and this is what the burn pot looks like (door was open for the second pic). Fire was still going, but didn't have much room. Starting to think more and more that it went out the other night because of the ash.