# too much ash is a pellet stove...why?



## tundraSQ (Feb 9, 2007)

Just wondering why my XXV is creating so much ash lately. I am filling the ash bin in about 15 bags or less....plus I notice the heat output is not so great...should I be turning the feed rate up or down?


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## TMonter (Feb 9, 2007)

Did you recently change brands of pellets?


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## tundraSQ (Feb 9, 2007)

TMonter said:
			
		

> Did you recently change brands of pellets?



no...but with the cold snap I have pretty much maxed out the temp to try and get the most heat. maybe that is the wrong way to go abotu it?


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## TMonter (Feb 9, 2007)

Remember wood has a relatively low ash fusion temperature so cranking up the heat may cause more of the ash to clump up instead of carry out of the stack. Are you getting small chunks in your ash?


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## tundraSQ (Feb 9, 2007)

TMonter said:
			
		

> Remember wood has a relatively low ash fusion temperature so cranking up the heat may cause more of the ash to clump up instead of carry out of the stack. Are you getting small chunks in your ash?



mostly fluff....but yes chunks too.


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## yooperlou (Feb 9, 2007)

Don't feel like the lone ranger on this one   Since we have been getting all this below zero weather the same is happening up here.  I also cranked the heat on my stove and have played with the feed rate but it seems to make little difference.  I have been burning hardwood pellets lately and there is a huge difference between that and softwood ones.  Seems as though no matter what I try to change I get some clinkers and lots of ash.  Have to blame it on the pellets and the weather both it seems because my stove never did this before.  Of course we haven't had this kind of cold snap in over ten years either.


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## HarryBack (Feb 9, 2007)

the main reason it seems the pellet stove doesnt put out as much heat as it used to is because the heat exchangers tend to cake with ash after awhile, insulating the stove from the inside. Try cleaning the heat exchanger. As for the ash, if its colder, you burn more pellets, ergo, more ash. The bin on the XXV isnt huge in the first place, so, I think its plausible you could be emptying it every week to two weeks. 
Also, clean the fins on the combustion fan while youre at it.


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## GVA (Feb 9, 2007)

tundraSQ said:
			
		

> TMonter said:
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> 
> 
> ...


1st like Harry said make sure you do a thourogh cleaning.
2nd what brand are you burning?
3rd what do you mean by maxed out the temp?
What's your feed rate at?
Whats temp set to?
Are you in stove mode or room temp?  Where is that knob set to?


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## yooperlou (Feb 9, 2007)

It's true that your heat exchangers need to be clean.  I've noticed that lately I have to clean mine much more than normal and you can tell just by putting your hand in front of the heat blower, (harman fireplace insert).  If you notice, and you will, that it doesn't seem to produce the same heat that is why.  I blame most of mine on burning hardwood pellets, wish I never bought them.


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## GVA (Feb 9, 2007)

It does depend on the pellets too some hardwoods are better than others.... and some softwoods are better than others.
This cold weather I actually had to turn my feed rate down to get better heat distribution (I have no idea why).
I could go a ton between cleanings cause I think the Advance has the bigest ashpan of the line, and it is the hardest to empty it's part of the stove that needs to be removed.  Now through the years I noticed that the stove performance drops after burning the first bag of pellets, so somewhere in the 20-30 bag range I strip the stove down and clean it (even the flue pipe).   I usually watch the weather and try to do it on the warmest day.  I'm at about 15 bags since last cleaning and I can't hold my hand in front for more than a couple of seconds so I know she's burning clean and hot right now.
I'm using New England Hardwood and the only drawback that I have seen with any hardwood pellet is that the produce more clinkers.... and they don't have that nice pine tree scent when burning them :cheese:


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## yooperlou (Feb 10, 2007)

I work in a research lab  and decided to do a little testing tonight after hours, not a scientific paper test but a real test all the same. Test was based on a known standard BTU of coal.  Hardwood pellets (bioplus is the brand) produced 7950 BTU.  Fir pellets (pinnacle) produced 8150 BTU, Pine (forgot the brand) 9100 BTU.  If you burn at 9100 vs 7950 your ash is less, the burn is hotter and the need to clean your stove is less.  I'll never buy hardwood pellets again.  When I burned wood in my wood stove of course you can't go wrong with hardwood and I'd use nothing else but in the configuration of a pellet stove softwood is much better.


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## GVA (Feb 10, 2007)

Again there are differences between pellets.  NE hardwoods I believe in the mid to high 8000's I want to say 8800BTU.
Where are you located?
On the east coast until recently we mostly only had hardwood pellets but now Softwoods are being shipped to us from the west coast and Canada.  So we burn what we can.    Fir and Pine are both softwoods and have almost 1000 btu difference according to your test....  So all in all pellets have quite a broad spectrum of types of wood in each bag and most don't specify the type of species other than saying hardwood or softwood...
Burn what works for you that's all I can say.


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## restorer (Feb 10, 2007)

Went through what you are going through last two months. My experience was, just cranking up the feed rate didn't produce more heat. I found that the balance of combustion air and pellet feed rate need to be tweaked. Find the sweet spot for your stove. High feed rate and max air produces a lot of ash, but not best heat transfer. Because my stove is basically manual, I adjusted to the best flame and burn feature. Increased the feed rate until the flames got lazy, then added more air. Repeated this several times and found that about 75% of max feed rate and 80
x air gave the best burn and the hottest circulation air. The stove will not, regardless of how sophisticated, will not dial in your max output.

When I tweaked the stove my ash went down per bag by 50%, I assume more finer particles were carried out with the exhaust, very few fluffies and moe of the gritty pieces. 

Good luck with the REALLY nasty weather.


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