Solved a new problem (for me) on Mount Vernon AE Insert

[Greg Omagh]

Earlier today I notoiced the fire was out and the Min Burnpot Temp was on the error list. I normally see this when it runs out but we'd just filled it. So I cleaned the fireplace and because the pot had good pellets in it I didn't vac the pot, just scraped it. I emptied the ash tray too.

The fire went into startup and just sat there, nothing happened. I thought the igniter had gone, even though I could see the red hot glow in the crack under the door, so I decided to power the fire off completely. Doubted this as soon as I did it, so I powered it on again after a respectable pause.

When I did that the fire went into autoclean which emptied the pot. Darn, all those good pellets gone. I decided to recover them, but to my surprise there was a ton of ash (and good pellets) in the just emptied tray.

My conclusion is that the ash had built up in the burnpot and somehow escaped the last autoclean causing the pellets to not be in contact with the igniter, so the fire wouldn't light which caused the min burnpot error. I am burning 90% blazers but we'd been using some Maine Woods the last 5 days, which seem dirtier, though they burn nice. In future I'll vac the fire more and always vac the pot.

 

[joescho]

That's wierd.. usually when mine dumps it get srid of everything in the pot. You may have had a clinker in the pot keeping that from happening or something like that.

 

[john193]

The auto clean feature isn't an excuse for cleaning inside the fire pot. There are still clinkers to be tended to. I clean mine weekly, using a wire brush attachment on my drill and a flathead screw driver.

 

[jimfrompa]

The auto clean feature isn't an excuse for cleaning inside the fire pot. There are still clinkers to be tended to. I clean mine weekly, using a wire brush attachment on my drill and a flathead screw driver.

I have free standing MVAE and have learned that cleaning the firepot is all-important. I also use a screwdriver with the blade ground sharp, then vacuum out the firepot.

 

[JoeS]

The auto clean feature isn't an excuse for cleaning inside the fire pot. There are still clinkers to be tended to. I clean mine weekly, using a wire brush attachment on my drill and a flathead screw driver.

Ditto!