Brand new pellet stove user

[elevenessee]

Hello! About a month ago, due to a very sudden life change, I moved from a very warm place to a very cold one, and became the proud owner of a brand new Master Forge H140XL. I have never heated a home with a pellet stove prior to this, and as a wildfire survivor, it has taken quite a bit to get used to the idea of a constant fire burning inside of my house!

I’ve been using the stove for about a month now, and am pretty comfortable with most of its features. I have a few questions. Recently, it seems like more pellets have had to accumulate in the fire pot than previously before it ignites. Is this cause for concern? Also, sometimes the pellets bounce back out of the fire pot and accumulate behind it, up against the middle flue plate and burn as a small secondary fire there. I can’t imagine that’s a good thing, and would love to know your thoughts on what is causing this to happen, and how to prevent it.

The fire pot has changed color significantly since beginning to use the stove. Its lightened considerably, and for lack of a better term, just looks burned. I clean it well, vacuum and scrape off the ash, but is there more I should be doing? Is this normal wear and tear? How often should a fire pot be replaced, if at all?

Lastly, my neighbors tease me mercilessly for doing what the manual says, and cleaning my pellet stove everyday. I haven’t missed a daily cleaning, or any of the more intensive weekly cleanings. Are they right, is this overkill? Or am I correct to maintain the stove so judiciously?

Looking forward to hearing what you think about all this!! Thank you in advance.

 

[Joe.G]

Burn pots will change color, I Burn my stove 24/7 in the winter and I clean it once to twice a week and probably once a month I will now hook up the electric leaf blower and use that ( Google it works very well ). I am not familiar with your stove so I am not sure if it is normal for pellets to pop out of the burn pot my stove used to do it until I bought a klinker king attachment from ebay and it really helped . Pellets burning outside of the burn pot will dirty things up faster as well. Is the burn pot filling up in one day? you may have an air flow issue or feeding pellets to fast. Pictures of your stove burning may help.

Pellet brands also burn differently in stoves, one brand you may love and one brand may make you hate your stove. I burn Barefoot as my cold winter pellets and a couple diffrent types that work in my stove for warmer days as there is a very noticable diffrent in heat out put.

 

[mellow]

I shut mine down at night as well and clean it, but I also let the heatpump heat the house at night. I have mine set on a timer to turn on automatically at 6am, you should be able to do the same with yours. Some pellets will burn different then others, I went through at least 15 different brands of pellets before I found one at a decent price point that burned well.

Your stove will last longer with you taking care of it.

 

[zrock]

I only clean mine weekly and just dong a quick google it looks like your burn chamber is similar to mine so you could probably easily extend your cleanings to every couple of days or weekly. I do a deep clean 1-2 times a year depending on how cold it is and how many pellets i go through.

 

[johneh]

My stove burns 24/7 from November to the middle of April.
It is cleaned once a week and a full tear-down cleaning after
1.5 tons of pellets. It has been this way for 22 years.
I have 2 fires going in my home one pellet stove in the
summer kitchen turned family room and a wood furnace
in the basement. Never had any problems doing so. Have
been heating with wood for 45 years. Pot colour change normal
Sparks from burn pot normal pellets bouncing out a few can do that
more likely too much air for combustion. Pellet lighting may be some ash
in the igniter tube or the holes in the pot for the igniter are dirty
plugged with ash or carbin. Just remember the fire is small and contained
in a steel box with more than one safety device to shut her down if
something goes astray. Enjoy the warmth Welcome to the forum