Unburned Pellets no ash

[RaxandTrax]

Hi Everyone
New with pellet stoves. We have an Ashley that was professionally installed last year and serviced this fall by them as well. It has been working well. Today it randomly shut off. When we opened the door after cool down the pot was overflowing with half burnt pellets and there is no ash just partially burned pellets. Any thoughts on troubleshooting would be appreciated. Waiting for the partially burnt pellets to cool down enough now to clean it out but here is what we have in the photo. Appreciate the time!

 

[tlc1976]

I know you pay for professional service but do you clean it regularly? Firebox, side ash traps behind the side panels, blower housing, exhaust pipe? Looks like a lot of soot and it might need more air by turning up the damper to get a strong but not fierce flame. Also the burn pot will overflow if it hasn’t been cleaned enough. Depending on the pellet brand, I have to clean and scrape the burn pot every 2 days, or every 2 weeks. I usually clean the ash traps every other time I clean the firebox, and the pipe and blower housing every ton.

 

[johneh]

Dirty stove syndrome
Not enough combustion air

 

[RaxandTrax]

Thank you both. It's our primary heat source and runs 24/7 we clean it every 2-3 days. It was cleaned Sunday Eve and this what was last night. While we waited for a response we uncovered the auger and it was jammed up. Basically grinding the pellets and spitting out wholes here and there. We cleaned it and it seems to be ok today. I was trolling other threads to educate myself and I think our pellets are too long. We have 3 tons of them unfortunately now. We ordered what we thought were the same ones from last year and they are not. I think it clogged it up like you both mentioned above with the ground up pellets just falling into the pot and the whole ones bouncing out. Really appreciate you both taking the time to give guidance. Given the pellets seem to be the issue we are going to clean daily to hopefully prevent this and monitor the auger more closely.