What stoves can run for several days w/o shutdown to scrape and poke holes in the fire pot

[Doug Doty]

I don't know why it matters as it is really not a big deal to do but since mine won't run for days without a shut down and scrape / poke, and I see and understand that the Harman's can run for days without having to shut down to scrape and clean the fire pot I am wondering if others have a design that will also. Is the Harman bottom feed setup really that good at pushing the ash up and out and is this the whole of why it works so well, does it really work that well. I certainly think there are others that are great stoves but what about ones that are hands off like I think I am understanding the Harman's are. I will run this stove this season but we are building a new open concept barn style house on a new piece of property we are closing on Wed. and it will certainly be set up to work well with a free standing pellet stove right from the design phase and I am thinking Harman as of now but interested in what else I should be considering, I don't want to have blinders on. Parts availability and prices are a little factor but minimal interaction with the stove on a daily basis will be important also as I will be less interested in tinkering daily by next year. Harman has some edge as we have solid dealers for them around here.

It just seems wrong to shut down for a scrape / poke even for a few minutes on a real cold day, I just don't like it.

 

[heat seeker]

Most stoves should be able. Mine is.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

The Mt Vernon AE can run through several bags before the ash pan needs emptying. The stove can run for extended periods (days to weeks depending on the pellets) without cleaning in the firebox and the fire pot only needs cleaning after about a ton. The baffle needs removal for cleaning eventually.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Lets see.... I've been running my USSC 6039 HF continuously since last Friday without opening the door at all. Opened the hopper numerous times to fill it and it's been unseasonably cold. I believe I've went through about 15 40 pound bags of Somersets since last Friday, the wife likes it warm...so do I.

It's been running basically wide open 24-7 (HR9, RFauto, DFauto, Agitator-auto and fuel delivery set at 2.75 pounds/hr., with the draft shutter just cracked allowing the outside air to supply the bulk of combustion air, without letup until today when the t'stat idled it back.

I tend to keep it on HR9, everything else auto, all winter and let the t'stat in the kitchen regulate the stove. I might vary fuel delivery (pounds per hour) if the weather gets more temperate, but usually I get lazy and just let her rip....

The glass is clean (other than some white ash in the corners) and the flame is sharp. I'll shut it down tomorrow and vacuum it out, empty the ash pan, soak the pot and stirrer for an hour, button it up and let her go for another week.

It's not the most expensive stoive on the block but it's so easy to custom program various scenarios for pellets or corn or pits or grain, it fits my bill perfectly, besides, I have lots of replacement parts....

 

[Doug Doty]

mine sure wont, no clinkers just ash build up in the bottom of the pot and chokes it down from lack of air. I think it will run longer on higher settings as the larger fire seems to burn more completely or the additional draft from the extra heat expels some of the ash keeping it going a little longer. I got it to run 60 hours with nothing but it died and shut down a hour after backing it down to 3. I am working on a custom scraper design so I can work in the pot a little better with out losing the fire or shutting it down. The way these stoves are made you cannot get in there without having your hand directly above the fire, thus the shut downs to scrape and poke. I watched a p68 pushing it's own ash over the edge and self clearing as much as you could see in a few minutes and was wow'd by the design effectiveness compared to the old dinosaur designs.

 

[bags]

Just let mine run for two weeks straight without doing a damn thing except opening the door for about 15 seconds to do quick and dirty pot scrapes while it was running once a day or three. I have gone two to three days in between that also. I am pretty certain it would go longer easily. I did do a good clean today because it was about 61* here. Nothing was built up much in the pot when I did the clean either. In those 2 weeks I ran about a half of a ton or 25 bags without any effort other than dumping them into the hopper. It was fairly cold here. I am not sugar coating anything. Just the facts. I am going to go for a month this round

Did a pretty thorough clean today. Scraped pot, pulled probe and wiped off, sent the brush thru the exhaust vent, got the little bit of junk from under the pot at the igniter, hit the fines box, dumped ash pan, scraped the exchanger, and vacuumed out.

Good for a month except cleaning the glass once a week if I want to and a quick pot scrape daily. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Doug Doty]

Lets see.... I've been running my USSC 6039 HF continuously since last Friday without opening the door at all. Opened the hopper numerous times to fill it and it's been unseasonably cold. I believe I've went through about 15 40 pound bags of Somersets since last Friday, the wife likes it warm...so do I.

It's been running basically wide open 24-7 (HR9, RFauto, DFauto, Agitator-auto and fuel delivery set at 2.75 pounds/hr., with the draft shutter just cracked allowing the outside air to supply the bulk of combustion air, without letup until today when the t'stat idled it back.

I tend to keep it on HR9, everything else auto, all winter and let the t'stat in the kitchen regulate the stove. I might vary fuel delivery (pounds per hour) if the weather gets more temperate, but usually I get lazy and just let her rip....

The glass is clean (other than some white ash in the corners) and the flame is sharp. I'll shut it down tomorrow and vacuum it out, empty the ash pan, soak the pot and stirrer for an hour, button it up and let her go for another week.

It's not the most expensive stoive on the block but it's so easy to custom program various scenarios for pellets or corn or pits or grain, it fits my bill perfectly, besides, I have lots of replacement parts....

You really know your stove compared to me trying to learn mine, so do you have it tuned to burn more completely leaving less ash or does the 6039's agitator clear it that well or both ??

 

[SidecarFlip]

Mine is 10 years old and it was out even before thatt so nothing is 'cutting edge' at my house. It's more of a matter of learning the capabilities and exploiting them to the best of the appliances abilit'y. I just run it hard, it likes that. I'm not into a silk purse, I'll take a sows ear if it keeps us warm.

It took a couple years and some modifications to get it to perform like it does. Now it's fill it up 2 times a day and ignore it. I pay little if any attention to it. It does it's thing and I do mine.

Foremost on my list is quality pellets or good corn. Second is a clean vent and third is a clean combustion gas path to the venting, which, in my case goes from 3 to 4 because my outside vent is over 15 feet tall.

 

[Mealie38]

I can run my Breckwell Big E for 3 weeks or more burning Okanagan Douglas Fir,probably longer but the guilt gets to me.
Love those Okanagan DF after 3 weeks of running 24/7 just a dusting of ash.

 

[Doug Doty]

Mine is 10 years old and it was out even before thatt so nothing is 'cutting edge' at my house. It's more of a matter of learning the capabilities and exploiting them to the best of the appliances abilit'y. I just run it hard, it likes that. I'm not into a silk purse, I'll take a sows ear if it keeps us warm.

It took a couple years and some modifications to get it to perform like it does. Now it's fill it up 2 times a day and ignore it. I pay little if any attention to it. It does it's thing and I do mine.

Foremost on my list is quality pellets or good corn. Second is a clean vent and third is a clean combustion gas path to the venting, which, in my case goes from 3 to 4 because my outside vent is over 15 feet tall.

3 to 4 ??? are you referencing W.C. vacuum ?? I am straight through the wall and turned up with a T to a cap. Planing to extend up above the roof line this week before it gets cold.

 

[Mealie38]

The USSC AP5660 I have in the basement seems to be staying clean also.
I haven't ran it that much though only 5 hours at a pop and on first heat setting.

 

[bags]

I'd like to get ahold of some good softwood pellets. Haven't seen any around here yet. I will be looking though to give them a try. Interested in seeing the difference between those and the hardwoods I've been burning. Hardwoods are all I've seen here or been able to use but I just started burning pellets 32 days ago.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I modded my pot (I have 2 actually), one is soaked and cleaned and the other is in the stove, that saves time on the cleaning end. My pots are both modded with larger holes in the bottom 3 rows/ My agitators I make myself from stainless bar stock, Pulse MIG welded. I radius the ends to conform to the curvature of the pot so it don't hang on any carbon buildup, but rather scrapes it off. At some point I'll probably start producing firepots that are already modified as well as agitators. There are a bunch of USSC stoves in use and USSC wants stupid prices for consumables like agitators and fire pots.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Stoves are like a new girlfriend. Just when you think you know the in's and out's, they throw you a curve......

 

[Doug Doty]

Don't say " new Girlfriend too loud, today is our 19th anniversary here.

 

[Mealie38]

Happy Anniversary

 

[becasunshine]

Depending not only on the brand of pellets, but on the individual year for any particular brand of pellets, I have to shut our Napoleon down at least once a day to empty the burn pot.

If I'm going to shut 'er down long enough to allow the burn pot to cool so that I can handle it, I'm going to vacuum it while I'm in there. It takes me five minutes, no more, to vacuum the fire box, the baffles, vacuum out and under the burn pot, and run the brush attachment over the convection tubes and on the fire box walls. I vacuum out the ash bin while I'm at it, rather than taking it all the way outside. I'm going to take the ash vacuum outside eventually to dump it anyway. I see no reason to make a second trip with the ash bin.

We have a PowerSmith ash vacuum so if the stove is cool enough for me to handle it with bare hands, it's cool enough for the ash vacuum.

If I had this purchase to do over, I probably would buy a Harman. The Napoleon is a great little stove for the money and it does what we need it to do, but I suspect that it's not the easiest stove out there in terms of maintenance and honestly, we could use a few more btu's on the coldest days. And she's picky picky picky about pellets, IMHO.

I tear this stove down at the end of every ton, at least twice a year, and I vacuum out the entire exhaust pathway. I mean, I clean out the guts in this stove when I pull it down. We have a direct vent exhaust pipe with good clearance, so it's easy for me to vacuum out the exhaust pathway from outside. I vacuum out the exhaust path from the terminal end all the way back up into the stove with the Shop Vac and an extra long hose at least once a week during the burn season.

Even with all of this maintenance which admittedly isn't that difficult but it is demanding in terms of doing it regularly, with all but the best of the best pellets I have to empty that burn pot at least once a day. Mid-range pellets will form a clinker like clockwork once a day.

Gaskets are all good, before you ask. I have replaced the door gasket and I replace the combustion motor gasket at least once a year.

It's not really cost effective for us to have a stove do-over now. Then again, when thinking in terms of btu's, they aren't free. Bigger heat from a different stove means more pellets burned. The Napoleon is very frugal in terms of pellets used per btu's put out. We have done a timed burn and a 40 lbs. bag will last us well over 24 hours, close to 30 hours. So we go through fewer bags of pellets with the Napoleon and it carries the house by itself in all but the coldest weather here.

 

[mainegeek]

I vote for Mt Vernon AE with a decent pellet.

I've owned an AE for 6 years, I've been running the stove recently on MH / softwood / High Altitude. I'm still dialing in the flame height adjustment. I switched to the softwood setting last winter when my father criticized my stove during a 4 day power outage because it would shut down every hour (my furnace/house was not then wired to a generator). I happened to have the Quad AE service manual on hand and checked it for clean times. I switched the fuel type to soft pellet fuel so it would shut down ~every 3 hours to auto-clean instead. I found that setting caused a lazy flame though which the high altitude setting has since resolved but I'm still dialing in the flame height (pellet feed rate) to get the most heat. The high altitude setting gave me a healthier flame but the pellet feed rate isn't quite dialed in. At -5 the flame would go from large to small to large. Now at -2 it stays consistent but it doesn't seem like it is throwing out as much heat as it should.

 

[3650]

I wanted to get another stainless pot because mine is warped, but the $250 price tag stopped me. I only paid $650 for the stove. Ill probably try to make one. I'd like to have two. One to soak in drain cleaner while the other is getting dirty.

 

[Big papa]

I don't know why it matters as it is really not a big deal to do but since mine won't run for days without a shut down and scrape / poke, and I see and understand that the Harman's can run for days without having to shut down to scrape and clean the fire pot I am wondering if others have a design that will also. Is the Harman bottom feed setup really that good at pushing the ash up and out and is this the whole of why it works so well, does it really work that well. I certainly think there are others that are great stoves but what about ones that are hands off like I think I am understanding the Harman's are. I will run this stove this season but we are building a new open concept barn style house on a new piece of property we are closing on Wed. and it will certainly be set up to work well with a free standing pellet stove right from the design phase and I am thinking Harman as of now but interested in what else I should be considering, I don't want to have blinders on. Parts availability and prices are a little factor but minimal interaction with the stove on a daily basis will be important also as I will be less interested in tinkering daily by next year. Harman has some edge as we have solid dealers for them around here.

It just seems wrong to shut down for a scrape / poke even for a few minutes on a real cold day, I just don't like it.

Hi Doug. I only shut my stove down every two weeks for cleaning it's pretty easy to clean as well scrape the pot once a day you don't have to shut the stove down to scrape the pot or take the ash pan out and yes the bottom feed is pretty nice it pushes ash out of the burn pot into the ash pan I think this is a pretty cool design.

 

[Bill L]

Enviro M55, with the agitator rod you don't need to scrape the burn pot daily, running or not. I go two weeks without doing anything other than add pellets. The limiting factor is the shallow ash pan on the insert, could probably go longer with the free standing and the deeper ash pan

 

[Wilbur Feral]

The Mt Vernon AE can run through several bags before the ash pan needs emptying. The stove can run for extended periods (days to weeks depending on the pellets) without cleaning in the firebox and the fire pot only needs cleaning after about a ton. The baffle needs removal for cleaning eventually.

Ditto. I vacuum out our MVAE ash pan and firebox out once per week, and when burning a low ash (0.5%) pellet have gone almost two weeks. Takes about one minute, maybe two. Scraping the firepot has always sounded odd to me for five years, as I had the first hard residue ever this month, and that was a tiny amount on the bottom in a place that did not affect performance. Once per month in coldest months I take off the baffle and clean that area and the small exhaust ports, and make sure the firepot holes are all clear (occasional ash in one or two). Takes about 20-30 minutes.

For my little Whitfield Quest stove I vacuum out the firebox every day before I start it (old manual light) which takes maybe 30 seconds. It gets a monthly deeper cleaning as well. That scraping and stirring stuff is for the birds, people.

 

[mustangwagz]

I modded my pot (I have 2 actually), one is soaked and cleaned and the other is in the stove, that saves time on the cleaning end. My pots are both modded with larger holes in the bottom 3 rows/ My agitators I make myself from stainless bar stock, Pulse MIG welded. I radius the ends to conform to the curvature of the pot so it don't hang on any carbon buildup, but rather scrapes it off. At some point I'll probably start producing firepots that are already modified as well as agitators. There are a bunch of USSC stoves in use and USSC wants stupid prices for consumables like agitators and fire pots.

Interesting, i too drilled out the holes in my burn pot, and added a few at each end of the burn pot to help with the "ash clinkers" that would sometimes build up right there. my agitator gets some white calcium looking buildup on it when im chewing up corn and pellets. thinkin i need some better corn and maybe some chicken scratch. FWIW, i also plugged the round holes behind the "fiberboard" or what ever its considered.

i scrap every couple days just ot make sure the holes are clean in the burn pot. i dont shut down though, no need to. Today ill shut it down totally and suck it out with my water bong shop vac.

 

[F4jock]

I don't know why it matters as it is really not a big deal to do but since mine won't run for days without a shut down and scrape / poke, and I see and understand that the Harman's can run for days without having to shut down to scrape and clean the fire pot I am wondering if others have a design that will also. Is the Harman bottom feed setup really that good at pushing the ash up and out and is this the whole of why it works so well, does it really work that well. I certainly think there are others that are great stoves but what about ones that are hands off like I think I am understanding the Harman's are. I will run this stove this season but we are building a new open concept barn style house on a new piece of property we are closing on Wed. and it will certainly be set up to work well with a free standing pellet stove right from the design phase and I am thinking Harman as of now but interested in what else I should be considering, I don't want to have blinders on. Parts availability and prices are a little factor but minimal interaction with the stove on a daily basis will be important also as I will be less interested in tinkering daily by next year. Harman has some edge as we have solid dealers for them around here.

It just seems wrong to shut down for a scrape / poke even for a few minutes on a real cold day, I just don't like it.

Been running my Harman two weeks burning up to a bag a day w/o a shutdown or cleaning. Sounds more like a pellet problem to me. Weather supposed to get warm so will clean today or tomorrow.

 

[wolfie770]

Englander 25EP I never have to scrape the burn pot. As long as I burn a quality pellet. I have found that Hamer's Hot Ones burn hot and clean in my stove. The only thing I ever have in the burn pot is the burning pellets. Greene Gold pellets formed some clinkers last year, so I had to clean the pot more often. With a good pellet I can go more than a week, but I am clean crazy and will not let it go that long. A clean exhaust is also a must.