Hi All,
I am in year 6 of enjoying my Quadrafire Mt Vernon Insert. I burn about 5 ton a year. I live in a relatively leaky cabin and do struggle to keep the humidity up with 2 large Lasko humidifiers.
So, before this heating season I switched to pulling outside air into the fire hoping that I might get a bit less air infiltration and moisture loss. I think it has made a slight improvement in that regard.
But, pulling that frequently COLD air through the burnpot has changed the consistency and behavior of the ash, the most frustrating part being that occasionally, when the stove does it's autoclean, the little shelf of ash at the bottom of the burnpot does NOT DROP into the ash bin (it clings in place as the burnpot bottom goes back and forth under it undisturbed). So the next time it goes to light it drops the pellets on a ~.5 inch layer of cold ash and the pellets do not ignite. (And I get a failed ignition error) It's happened a half dozen times and more frequently as it's gotten colder. The layer of ash can be easily broken up with a poker but will hold it's shape a bit.
On the positive side I would say that I get less ash in general (it also seems a bit darker than I remember which surprised me).
Any thoughts on what I might do differently other than break up the layer before autoclean runs.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Z
I am in year 6 of enjoying my Quadrafire Mt Vernon Insert. I burn about 5 ton a year. I live in a relatively leaky cabin and do struggle to keep the humidity up with 2 large Lasko humidifiers.
So, before this heating season I switched to pulling outside air into the fire hoping that I might get a bit less air infiltration and moisture loss. I think it has made a slight improvement in that regard.
But, pulling that frequently COLD air through the burnpot has changed the consistency and behavior of the ash, the most frustrating part being that occasionally, when the stove does it's autoclean, the little shelf of ash at the bottom of the burnpot does NOT DROP into the ash bin (it clings in place as the burnpot bottom goes back and forth under it undisturbed). So the next time it goes to light it drops the pellets on a ~.5 inch layer of cold ash and the pellets do not ignite. (And I get a failed ignition error) It's happened a half dozen times and more frequently as it's gotten colder. The layer of ash can be easily broken up with a poker but will hold it's shape a bit.
On the positive side I would say that I get less ash in general (it also seems a bit darker than I remember which surprised me).
Any thoughts on what I might do differently other than break up the layer before autoclean runs.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Z
