Having trouble with our pellet stove again. Now the pellets are spilling over from the burn pot. Any ideas what is wrong?
pellets spilling over
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Yep... x3 or 4. Its an airflow problem. But cant be specific without knowing the specifics. Either dirty stove or air leaks. More likely a plugged up unit.
silverfox103
Feeling the Heat
DexterDay said:
Agreed.
BTW, would you please put the year, make, & model stove into your signature line so we don't have to ask each time you post a question or a problem??
Thanks
She has an Afton Bay and this was her problem before. Still sounds like the stove is plugged to me.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/87106/
Dirty black glass means a bad burn. Pellet build-up or back-up indicates a bad burn.
Sounds like the stove is plugged up still. The hammer trick may have worked for a minute. But another month has gone by and the stove should be thoroughly cleaned. From the inside, vent, and cap.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/87106/
Dirty black glass means a bad burn. Pellet build-up or back-up indicates a bad burn.
Sounds like the stove is plugged up still. The hammer trick may have worked for a minute. But another month has gone by and the stove should be thoroughly cleaned. From the inside, vent, and cap.
Eatonpcat
Minister of Fire
Oh well.
You may want to locate the vacuum tube on your stove and remove it from its barb on the stove. Before doing the following. When you are done with the leaf blower reattach it to the stove.
Now the reason I'm recommending the leaf blower is because it can actually empty the nasty spot in all of the St. Croix stoves. The older ones only have two clean outs and the nasty spot really requires three to be certain you get it cleaned. If you want to just use a regular shop vacuum and brushes be certain that you can get to all of the air path in the heat exchanger, with both the brushes and a vacuum hose.
Once again, your stove and venting likely need cleaning. If you have access to the termination cap on your venting remove and clean it.
Attach an electric leaf blower with vacuum ability to the venting using the vacuum side of the blower, make certain it is not plugged in, turn the blower on, make certain it isn't aimed at anything you don't want covered in ash etc.. .
Then plug the blower in.
Go back inside and rap on the back of the firebox.
Then go outside and see if any crud is still coming out of the leaf blower.
If there isn't anything coming out of the leaf blower, unplug it, remove it from the venting, reinstall the termination cap.
Fire up the stove and properly set the damper according to the manual.
Likely you didn't get all of the crud out the first time if your combustion blower hasn't been removed for over one ton of pellets burned you need to get a gasket, remove and clean the blower (the only place there may be crud is between the impeller and the motor mount plate and if there was build up on the blades of the impeller. Usually the leaf blower takes care of most of this if it is done every 1/2 ton or so of pellets burned.
Once you are back to proper operation whenever the burn gets bad repeat the cleaning.
You may want to locate the vacuum tube on your stove and remove it from its barb on the stove. Before doing the following. When you are done with the leaf blower reattach it to the stove.
Now the reason I'm recommending the leaf blower is because it can actually empty the nasty spot in all of the St. Croix stoves. The older ones only have two clean outs and the nasty spot really requires three to be certain you get it cleaned. If you want to just use a regular shop vacuum and brushes be certain that you can get to all of the air path in the heat exchanger, with both the brushes and a vacuum hose.
Once again, your stove and venting likely need cleaning. If you have access to the termination cap on your venting remove and clean it.
Attach an electric leaf blower with vacuum ability to the venting using the vacuum side of the blower, make certain it is not plugged in, turn the blower on, make certain it isn't aimed at anything you don't want covered in ash etc.. .
Then plug the blower in.
Go back inside and rap on the back of the firebox.
Then go outside and see if any crud is still coming out of the leaf blower.
If there isn't anything coming out of the leaf blower, unplug it, remove it from the venting, reinstall the termination cap.
Fire up the stove and properly set the damper according to the manual.
Likely you didn't get all of the crud out the first time if your combustion blower hasn't been removed for over one ton of pellets burned you need to get a gasket, remove and clean the blower (the only place there may be crud is between the impeller and the motor mount plate and if there was build up on the blades of the impeller. Usually the leaf blower takes care of most of this if it is done every 1/2 ton or so of pellets burned.
Once you are back to proper operation whenever the burn gets bad repeat the cleaning.
Thanks to all. My husband got fed up and took the stove right out of the house and did a major cleaning to it in the garage. He found a mouse nest in the heat exchange and found where the heat flutes are were plugged right up. So out came the compressor and a vacum after a bit of a mess he put the stove back in the place and it is working perfectly. He did find some places that were plugged but didn't think they would be. So we are back in business! Thanks to all for your advise and help.
sharon26 said:
Never know what you'll find... ;-P
Sounds like he actually got it clean this time. A hammer can only do so much. No replacement for a good old fashioned deep clean (compressed air helps too) :lol:
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