Solid Ash in the Burn Pot

[nin28]

I have a Englander 25-PDVC and I'm using Fireside Premium Grade wood pellets I purchased from Home Depot. I've been using these pellets since I bought the stove this year. As the winter has gone by, we are getting more and more solid ash in the burn pot. I clean out the stove of ash twice a day and do full semiweekly clean ups. Does anyone know why chunks of hardened ash continues to grow in size? Thank you.

 

[jamobi]

I had a similar thing happen with my stove, which I found to be improper fresh air setting. I didn't have enough air getting to my burn pot. Try giving it a little bit more air, and see it that helps. Good luck,
Steve

 

[Souzafone]

The clinkers you describe almost always occur, but if they become larger or occur more frequently, there's a combustion issue. The only ingredients are fuel and air. To insure adequate air, the stove must be cleaned thoroughly from time to time, and the air intake must be adequate, and there must be no leaks. If this is all good, look at the fuel. Your fuel hasn't changed, so how has it been stored?

 

[nin28]

I'll try giving the air intake a good cleaning. Otherwise, the stove is pretty clean. Besides cleaning out the air-intake, how do you adjust the air intake? I just got a new shipment of pellets and they are sitting on a pallet covered with plastic. They are outside, but I've stored pellets this way before and never had a problem. Thanks.

 

[nin28]

I've got the stove's vent going outside the house directly out the rear of the unit. The pipe only goes up about 5 ft from the pipe that leave the house. The intake is about 1 ft to the right of where the outgoing vent is. It's a pretty standard build. The house is from 1959 and is pretty drafty. We've hung some sheets to seals off the cold areas of the house. Any ideas? What do you mean by OAK, btw? Thanks.

 

[krooser]

I burned some Fireside's last year and they were a good pellet but they did leave a lot of clinkers. You''ll have to put up with the clinkers or find another pellet.

 

[moorehaven]

If you are just dumping your bag of pellets straight into the stove's hopper, your problem could be that the fines (pellet dust) collects in a dirty burn-pot, creating a mass (klinker) which will lay below your burn-pot stirring rod. Once I accepted the fact that bags of fuel that had been handled too many times or pallets that had been trucked too far over-less-than-perfect roads were prone to having an above average fines content, I started sifting my pellets like I do my corn before filling the hopper. Cured my pellet-based clinker problem. When they are corn-based, I know my air-intake is to low.

 

[nin28]

How does one sift the pellets? What do you use? Thanks?

 

[moorehaven]

Frame up a chute with 1/4" screen, pour the pellets in one end, as they slide down over the screen, the fines drop thru, pellets drop out other end of the chute into a bucket, then it's bucket to the stove hopper. Same with my corn, with the addition of 1/2" pre-screen to catch corn stalk pieces, corn falls thru to the 1/4", and so on. Google "Corn Cleaners" for a better description if you need to.