I had decided to reverse the agitator rotation on my USSC 6500 to see if it would make it easier for the ash to dump in to the ash pan when I pulled the dampener open.
The area under my burn pot is not symmetrical. There is a shelf towards the back. The dampener opening starts about the middle of the burn pot and goes all the way to the front when all the way open. The stock agitator rotation pushes the ash pellets towards the back of the burn pot. This causes a build up of ash on the shelf behind the dampener opening.
By reversing the rotation of the agitator I was thinking that the ash would build up on the front of the area below the burn pot and then would dump into the ash pan when I pulled the dampener.
The results:
The good:
Switching the rotation did push the pellets/ash to the front of the burn pot and allow for it to me dumped when pulling the dampener.
The bad:
Pushing everything to the front of the burn pot changed the location of the fire. It was much closer to the glass. That combined with the air flow issue (more on that later) caused the glass to get dirty a lot faster. It also felt like it reduces the efficiency of the stove. No hard evidence of this, but the air coming out on low heat setting felt cooler.
Doing this also caused an air flow issue that resulted in poorer pellet burning. In stock form the draft air was pulled in directly under where the pellets were pushed to. With the reversed agitator rotation pushing the pellets to the front of the burn pot the air was pulled through the burn pot behind where the pellets were. This was very noticeable when the stove would have to run at a higher heat level. The burn pot would fill up with ash and half burnt pellet. Increasing the draft fan helped with this some, but still did not solve it.
Conclusion:
While reversing the agitator rotation did make it easier for the ash to fall into the ash pan, it wasn't worth the other issues it caused. I put the agitator rotation back to stock rotation. This allowed for good burning at higher heat levels and a lower draft fan setting.
I know some other USSC users were looking at doing this. The firepot in my 6500 is a different style then most of the other USSC stoves, so others may not have the issue it caused in mine....thought I would share.
The area under my burn pot is not symmetrical. There is a shelf towards the back. The dampener opening starts about the middle of the burn pot and goes all the way to the front when all the way open. The stock agitator rotation pushes the ash pellets towards the back of the burn pot. This causes a build up of ash on the shelf behind the dampener opening.
By reversing the rotation of the agitator I was thinking that the ash would build up on the front of the area below the burn pot and then would dump into the ash pan when I pulled the dampener.
The results:
The good:
Switching the rotation did push the pellets/ash to the front of the burn pot and allow for it to me dumped when pulling the dampener.
The bad:
Pushing everything to the front of the burn pot changed the location of the fire. It was much closer to the glass. That combined with the air flow issue (more on that later) caused the glass to get dirty a lot faster. It also felt like it reduces the efficiency of the stove. No hard evidence of this, but the air coming out on low heat setting felt cooler.
Doing this also caused an air flow issue that resulted in poorer pellet burning. In stock form the draft air was pulled in directly under where the pellets were pushed to. With the reversed agitator rotation pushing the pellets to the front of the burn pot the air was pulled through the burn pot behind where the pellets were. This was very noticeable when the stove would have to run at a higher heat level. The burn pot would fill up with ash and half burnt pellet. Increasing the draft fan helped with this some, but still did not solve it.
Conclusion:
While reversing the agitator rotation did make it easier for the ash to fall into the ash pan, it wasn't worth the other issues it caused. I put the agitator rotation back to stock rotation. This allowed for good burning at higher heat levels and a lower draft fan setting.
I know some other USSC users were looking at doing this. The firepot in my 6500 is a different style then most of the other USSC stoves, so others may not have the issue it caused in mine....thought I would share.
