Partially burned pellets going into ash pan?

[Nick Sterner]

I have a new Hampton GC60 that while running in regular mode I have partially burned pellets spilling over into the ash pan? I'm wondering if this is normal or if I'm losing BTU's? I'm getting approx 12 hours out of a bag on heat level 3 which according to Regency level 3 should burn 4 lbs an hour so I'm not overfeeding it. If I run it in premium mode this does not happen but I also get a very uneven flame, all on the left and I don't get the heat that I do in reg mode. When I say partially burned they still resemble a pellet but are cherry red ambers. They stay cherry red for quite a while in the ash pan before they burn out. Any thoughts on this?


Thanks!!

 

[jackman]

I don't have your particular stove but on mine that's just wasted fuel. I keep the pellet feed rate set low so that the pellets burn in the back of the pot. This results in a hotter burn, less carbon build up, and better efficiency.

 

[mikestod]

When the stove first turns on it takes a bit for the ignitor to ignite the pellets being dropped into the burn pot during the first few minutes. As a result, the pellets in the burn pot don't burn fully before the stirrer starts kicking what it thinks is ash out of the burn pot. This causes these unburned and partly burned pellets to end up in your ash tray. Unfortunately, its the nature of this stove's design in conjunction with the timing of the pellet auger and stirrer. Had they programmed a few delays in the first few minutes after being started, this would not happen as much, but there may be other reasons not to add such a delay.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the amount of unburned or partly burned pellets at startup:

The first has to do with the control function you choose. What control setting are you running it on? Auto, Hi/Lo or Manual? It will do this the most on Auto, as the startup happens every time the stove turns on. When it is colder, you can run the stove on Hi/Lo more. In Hi/Lo there will only be one startup, then the stove will drop down to level one when your thermostat is satisfied. That will keep a small flame in your firebox, it will also keep the stove up to temp, so you really don't loose out on efficiency (during the colder season anyway when the stove needs to run more). The additional benefit beyond not wasting as many pellets during startup, is that the life of your ignitor will be extended as it will not cycle as frequently.

Second, if you are home to tend the stove you can open the fill hatch after the ignitor turns on and the pellets in the pot start to glow. The auger won't feed pellets while the cover is open, so you there will not be as many pellets being added to the pot. Once the flame is established you can close the lid, for me this seems to save a few pellets from being wasted during startup. Keep in mind that the stove will throw an error code if the lid is open for too long (2 minutes I think, you'll see the #4 flashing). If this happens, just hit the power switch to restart it.

Last, some on here have fabricated a modification where they add screens or some other type mechanism to the ends of the firebox to keep the pellets in but still let the stirrer push the ash out.