Pelpro pp130. Lazy flame. Overflowing burn pot. All of sudden Only 1 ton pellets in.
- Thread starter llidisky
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Super cool, I'm really interested in trying to replicate your mods! Would you be able to post some pics of the burn pot itself never time you have it out to clean it? My oem pp130 pot seems to fill up in a day or less and would love for it to burn cleaner!
Hey Jeff, I just finished doing a lot of tests and modifications to my pot and came up with a design that works very well for me. My stove runs full blast 24/7, some days almost burning 3 bags in 24 hours. I also had a lot of ash accumulation in the burn pot after 24 hours. To the point that the flame was so lazy that I was just basically wasting pellets. A lot of people burn only a bag or less in 24 hours, so they don't have this issue and will just tell you CLEAN YOUR STOVE REGULARLY. Which I agree with, but I am someone who refuses to leave any performance or efficiency on the table with anything.
I am currently waiting on a new burn pot to be shipped so I can build a cleaner version of my "test pot" It functions flawlessly, but there was a lot of welding, drilling, welding, drilling done so its no visually pleasing. I plan on making it very clean by tig welding the holes shut and laying out the holes evenly spaced. My test piece was mig welded and the holes location was based off of where ash was building, and varying hole sizes to accommodate for where more or less flow was needed due to the factory router of intake air.
I can assure you that simply drilling additional holes in the bottom will not produce a great result unless you significantly increase the volume and speed of the air (I am working on a set up for this as well by increasing exhaust fan speed). In all of my tests, the majority of factory holes must be welded shut.
I can send you pictures and rough numbers of hole size if you are interested. But don't judge my welds, I didn't feel like spending tons of time prepping and tigging just to possibly drill it back out lol.
Here is some pictures of after my final mod. This was 48 hours running full blast. I also have an excel sheet and word file explaining the progression of the modifications and comparisons to stock.
Edit: Also, don't think of this as a "never clean your stove again" type of modification. As you can see, all the ash that would typically build up in the pot is now piled up inside the firebox like some higher end stoves. I still vacuum every 2 or 3 days, but its a 2 minute process. I let the fire die down, open the door, and vacuum all the cool ash out from around the pot and firebox, shut the door and let it go back to normal. Opposed to shutting down, vacuuming, pulling the burn pot, scraping for 15 minutes, and turning back on.
I am currently waiting on a new burn pot to be shipped so I can build a cleaner version of my "test pot" It functions flawlessly, but there was a lot of welding, drilling, welding, drilling done so its no visually pleasing. I plan on making it very clean by tig welding the holes shut and laying out the holes evenly spaced. My test piece was mig welded and the holes location was based off of where ash was building, and varying hole sizes to accommodate for where more or less flow was needed due to the factory router of intake air.
I can assure you that simply drilling additional holes in the bottom will not produce a great result unless you significantly increase the volume and speed of the air (I am working on a set up for this as well by increasing exhaust fan speed). In all of my tests, the majority of factory holes must be welded shut.
I can send you pictures and rough numbers of hole size if you are interested. But don't judge my welds, I didn't feel like spending tons of time prepping and tigging just to possibly drill it back out lol.
Here is some pictures of after my final mod. This was 48 hours running full blast. I also have an excel sheet and word file explaining the progression of the modifications and comparisons to stock.
Edit: Also, don't think of this as a "never clean your stove again" type of modification. As you can see, all the ash that would typically build up in the pot is now piled up inside the firebox like some higher end stoves. I still vacuum every 2 or 3 days, but its a 2 minute process. I let the fire die down, open the door, and vacuum all the cool ash out from around the pot and firebox, shut the door and let it go back to normal. Opposed to shutting down, vacuuming, pulling the burn pot, scraping for 15 minutes, and turning back on.
I would love pics and specs if you get the time! My pp130 stove is in my barn where we have our business, and due to her and her employee's schedules I can't always get in there every day to shut down and clean the stove. Being able to go 2-3 days if needed would be a life saver! My email is the same as my user name at g mail if that's easiest to send. Thank you!
I will try and get it sent over to you tonight. Don't worry about reading through the word document too much as it was just something I did as a notebook for myself. In the bottom section you will see a couple notes about hole size and location for the last modification. Feel free to ask anything.
I am intrigued with your burn pot mod...... I live in Idaho at high altitude, 6500 ft, and have been having issues with ash build up no matter what brand of pellets or adjustments I have tried. As I understand it, all holes except for the igniter port, have been plugged of and the grate pattern drilled into the bottom...? Is it possible for you to provide a better picture of your mod ? Surely appreciated
Sorry guys, I've been out of town working around the clock. These are some junk photos but all I have to work with right now, I'll upload pictures of the stainless pot I made that looks more professional. But the red holes are 1/4", blue is 3/16", and unmarked are about an 1/8".
All the holes in the outer perimeter are slightly angled in towards the center to make a nice lifting flow and tight flame. Not super important, but it's what I did. Most importantly I'd say make sure you have at least the amount of holes I have as any less than this I wasn't having sufficient flow. The one hole on the back angled piece I left as kind of a safety, so if something bad happened there would still be some air going to the pot.
