Upgraded to a 25-PDV, one weird problem...

[abovethesink]

Hi. I posted a while back about my 25-PDVC, but I saw a good deal on its big brother unexpectedly and jumped on it. The stove is MUCH better. I love it. I am running into one serious problem though. The pellets in it just don't fall into the top auger sometimes. They just sort of stay on the sides. I don't know how to combat this. It has also been happening at a time in which I have been experimenting with different pellets, so it has happened with three different brands now. There can be A LOT of pellets in there still too. Because of this, I cannot trust it to keep running through a ten hour work day to keep my house from freezing.

Do users of this stove really need to manually push the pellets down every couple hours? It is like the sides just aren't steep enough. Is mine weird or is this common?

 

[Mt Bob]

Happens on a lot of stoves.Many fixes that help.First,empty hopper(or mostly),clean inside hopper well,with something that will not leave a residue,then--(options),wax with car wax,wax by rubbing with wax paper,spray with graphite spray,spray with moly spray.Do not spray if stove is running/has flame.

 

[Darryl]

I have the same stove, and I lined the bottom of the hopper with high temp aluminum duct tape. This stuff is so slick that the pellets don't stand a chance.....never once have any pellets NOT slid down to their eventual demise of ultimately being transformed to ash!!

 

[Pete Zahria]

I sanded mine with fine sandpaper (220) same direction as you want the pellets to travel
then gave it a coat of car wax... (Mothers, to be exact)
All but a very small handful drop, all the time..
I do that (just the waxing, now) once at the beginning of the season,
and then maybe half way through again when I do a good cleaning job..
Two stoves... same result on both.

Dan

 

[zrock]

I have the same stove, and I lined the bottom of the hopper with high temp aluminum duct tape. This stuff is so slick that the pellets don't stand a chance.....never once have any pellets NOT slid down to their eventual demise of ultimately being transformed to ash!!

Im asuming your talking the tinfoil tape used for sealing duct work. Usually its called aluminum foil tape not to get it confused with normal silver duct tape. That is actually a pretty good idea and would have never thought of that and a pretty cheap fix..

 

[Mt Bob]

Im asuming your talking the tinfoil tape used for sealing duct work. Usually its called aluminum foil tape not to get it confused with normal silver duct tape. That is actually a pretty good idea and would have never thought of that and a pretty cheap fix..

You are right.Actual "duct" tape was,for years,the aluminized/metal temperature rated tape.It is approved for duct work,to reduce the chances of a fire spreading.Now we have "duck"/"duct" tape.I do not understand why someone/some industries have not complained,and qualified this issue.Perhaps it is because,over the years,the ductwork coming off of furnaces is at a much lower temperature?

 

[zrock]

The original duct/duck tape worked well in its day. I remember as a kid our furnace runs were all done with the original and it held up fine. We lived in that house for 10 years..

I use the tinfoil on all ductwork and venting I do

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[Darryl]

Im asuming your talking the tinfoil tape used for sealing duct work. Usually its called aluminum foil tape not to get it confused with normal silver duct tape. That is actually a pretty good idea and would have never thought of that and a pretty cheap fix..

Oh yeah, definitely the tin foil tape.I think it was around 8 bucks for the roll at Home Depot. It is THEE fix for this problem, like I said in my original post, not one pellet has ever not slid down to the auger. No more mounding the pellets up to avoid the issue, just dump the bag in, close the hopper lid, and enjoy. I'd like to take credit for the idea, but someone on here posted a while back that they used the tape, and that's why I tried it.