P61a went out. Too much ash?

[Hoot23]

Time for a cleaning, ash pan is about topped off. That's about normal. That ash looks heavy and clumpy.

 

[TonyVideo]

Have you ever scraped the pot entirely? Carbon deposits build up at the bottom and I use a chisel and screw driver by hand to get to the bottom of the pot. I then vacuum that out and then clean all the holes with a large paper clip bending out one side and hold on to the remaining clip. Also if you burn always on the lowest setting ash will get real close as in this pucture. What is your feed rate and normal settings? It still shouldn't go out.

 

[cory127]

Have you ever scraped the pot entirely? Carbon deposits build up at the bottom and I use a chisel and screw driver by hand to get to the bottom of the pot. I then vacuum that out and then clean all the holes with a large paper clip bending out one side and hold on to the remaining clip. Also if you burn always on the lowest setting ash will get real close as in this pucture. What is your feed rate and normal settings? It still shouldn't go out.

I've only had the stove for about three weeks so I haven't done a full cleaning, but I scrape the burn pot with the tool that came with the stove every time I put pellets in - once or twice a day. Feed rate is at 6, room temp auto around 66 degrees.

 

[TonyVideo]

I think this normal for a low burn all the time. In auto and room temp the fire will go out and the igniter will kick in. Bang on your pot after shaping as this will help any ash on the ignitor to be knocked off. My guess was too much ash on the ignitor as well and not enough heat getting to the pellets to reignite. I never use the ignitor unless daytime temps get into the 60's. I leave mine in manual to keep a small fire going for a quicker heat up when needed. I would make a habit of scraping the burn pot morning and night and a good scraping and cleaning at least around when the ash pan needs emptying. A good cleaning makes for a clean and efficient burn and capture as much heat as possible by the heat exchangers. Usually do it once a week, or 2 at the max. Don't be afraid to bang on that pot after scraping. I think this is an isolated incident and see if it happens again. Hopefully your ignitor is still working ok and not out.

 

[cory127]

I give the burn pot 1 or 2 good whacks every time I scrape it. When it went out I turned the stove off and on again and it fired right back up so I don't think it's the igniter. Appreciate the brainstorming though. Full clean out every week seems excessive if the manual says to do it after every ton (so far I've burned about 30 bags).

 

[Bioburner]

Depends on the pellets. Your pan is full it's probably time to do a full cleaning.

 

[cory127]

Planning on it this weekend

 

[Hoot23]

I've only had the stove for about three weeks so I haven't done a full cleaning, but I scrape the burn pot with the tool that came with the stove every time I put pellets in - once or twice a day. Feed rate is at 6, room temp auto around 66 degrees.

Get yourself a heavy duty scraper. The on that comes with the stove doesn't get it done

 

[Tonyray]

View attachment 130680View attachment 130681

Alright, just got home from work and this is what the burn pot looks like (door was open for the second pic). Fire was still going, but didn't have much room. Starting to think more and more that it went out the other night because of the ash.

wow!! I have the same stove and never saw that much ash [so close to the auger]..
... you need to change pellets I would assume .....wonder if the ash is just too heavy to move off into the ash pan..?
I run my fingers along the burnpot and sure nuff, I come across little bumps that I did not see. they blend in so well with burnpot there easy to miss.. also use a flashlight to scan your burnpot.
I would need a carbon deposit pretty high and long[speedbump they call it] to hold back that much ash//

 

[cory127]

Giving it a good cleaning this weekend. Thinking that might help. Either way I don't think I'll be burning new englands next year.

 

[Tonyray]

Cory,
feed rate#6 at 66 degrees? sounds awful extreme to me....why so high on the feed?...
when I'm set that low on temperature, be it stove or room temp, my feed rate is 2.5 or 3 Max....
Surprised no one else has brought that up......

 

[cory127]

Cory,
feed rate#6 at 66 degrees? sounds awful extreme to me....why so high on the feed?...
when I'm set that low on temperature, be it stove or room temp, my feed rate is 2.5 or 3 Max....
Surprised no one else has brought that up......

Keep it 66 at night and when we're gone otherwise it's 72ish. I followed the instructions in the manual to set the feed rate. Let the stove burn stove temp 7 feed rate 6 for well over an hour and the pellets never got close to the edge of the burn pot. My understanding of the feed rate setting is your way of telling the stove how fast it can feed pellets before it pushes unburned ones over the edge.

 

[Don2222]

If the end of the room probe is lying on a warm floor next to the stove then it would shut down. Is the end up 5 feet from the floor to get a good reading?

 

[Tonyray]

Keep it 66 at night and when we're gone otherwise it's 72ish. I followed the instructions in the manual to set the feed rate. Let the stove burn stove temp 7 feed rate 6 for well over an hour and the pellets never got close to the edge of the burn pot. My understanding of the feed rate setting is your way of telling the stove how fast it can feed pellets before it pushes unburned ones over the edge.

ok. ok... I see the problem...
Don't worry so much about the manual and the feed rate/ash line expiriment..
I never did it and many others here will admit it's not a must but a guidline if you have problems..
It's a Harman.. it will regulate the pellets correctly on it's own..[provided you keep it at the proper feed rate they recommend..]
bring your feed rate back down to # 3...temp at 66 is fine......
if you open your control door, it's printed on the inside about feed rate.... 3 or 4..
Try that for a night....
I have the same stove and regardless of room temp or stove temp,
my feed rate is always at #3- 3.5....been there since November......

 

[cory127]

If the end of the room probe is lying on a warm floor next to the stove then it would shut down. Is the end up 5 feet from the floor to get a good reading?

Probe is about 3' off the floor. The stove was set around 66 deg. When I got up it was 60 in the room and the stove was stone cold so it had been out for awhile. I don't think it's the probe. I've been running in room temp mode pretty much since I got it and the temp is pretty accurate.

 

[cory127]

ok. ok... I see the problem...
Don't worry so much about the manual and the feed rate/ash line expiriment..
I never did it and many others here will admit it's not a must but a guidline if you have problems..
It's a Harman.. it will regulate the pellets correctly on it's own..[provided you keep it at the proper feed rate they recommend..]
bring your feed rate back down to # 3...temp at 66 is fine......
if you open your control door, it's printed on the inside about feed rate.... 3 or 4..
Try that for a night....
I have the same stove and regardless of room temp or stove temp,
my feed rate is always at #3- 3.5....been there since November......

How would having the feed rate too high cause the ash buildup?

 

[alternativeheat]

Planning on it this weekend

With really good clean burning pellets you can make it longer without cleaning. If that burn pot set of photos is just from this morning then I can tell you that those are some ashy pellets you have there. With those in my stove I might not even wait for the weekly cleaning and might do a mid week cleaning as well. Okanagan DF pellets burn clean, you don't even need to scrape the pot daily with those. Although even at that I have a funky batch of them at the moment, I've never known them to have clinkers or light colored pellets mixed in but these have both. Still low ash though.

How would having the feed rate too high cause the ash buildup?

I'm not so sure it would but I would turn it down anyway unless your makes house extreme demands on the stove to heat it. Most people here run a feed rate someplace in the 3's and 4's. Feed rate 6 is for when you need to run the stove flat out, all it's got or for very quick ramp up of temp on a large increase in heat ( like when your house got down to 60 but you wanted it to be 75), in which case the stove might feed at that setting depending on other settings. Day in and day out average heating conditions there just is no need for a high feed rate and who knows you might save a few pellets too. iN the extreme cold of mid winter I had my feed rate set just under 5 and the stove would recover the house heat quickly but now were are in the so called shoulder season, it's been set at 3.75ish for a month now. In th end setting the feed rate is telling the stove it can draw that much but it probably never would unless conditions warranted it.

 

[Tonyray]

With really good clean burning pellets you can make it longer without cleaning. If that burn pot set of photos is just from this morning then I can tell you that those are some ashy pellets you have there. With those in my stove I might not even wait for the weekly cleaning and might do a mid week cleaning as well. Okanagan DF pellets burn clean, you don't even need to scrape the pot daily with those. Although even at that I have a funky batch of them at the moment, I've never known them to have clinkers or light colored pellets mixed in but these have both. Still low ash though.

I'm not so sure it would but I would turn it down anyway unless your makes house extreme demands on the stove to heat it. Most people here run a feed rate someplace in the 3's and 4's. Feed rate 6 is for when you need to run the stove flat out, all it's got or for very quick ramp up of temp on a large increase in heat ( like when your house got down to 60 but you wanted it to be 75), in which case the stove might feed at that setting depending on other settings. Day in and day out average heating conditions there just is no need for a high feed rate and who knows you might save a few pellets too. iN the extreme cold of mid winter I had my feed rate set just under 5 and the stove would recover the house heat quickly but now were are in the so called shoulder season, it's been set at 3.75ish for a month now. In th end setting the feed rate is telling the stove it can draw that much but it probably never would unless conditions warranted it.

Cory,
the above post is pretty much spot on for your question about feed rate.

 

[Blindsider]

I would put a thermometer right next to where you have the temp probe. Otherwise you're just assuming it's stopped working because something went wrong since you didn't check the lights on the side. If it was in manual mode and was out you'd definitely have an issue. I have a 61A and have never turned the feed rate past 4 in either mode. Never had an issue with it going out in either mode. I had crazy ash build up with green supreme pellets myself.

 

[Tonyray]

I would put a thermometer right next to where you have the temp probe. Otherwise you're just assuming it's stopped working because something went wrong since you didn't check the lights on the side. If it was in manual mode and was out you'd definitely have an issue. I have a 61A and have never turned the feed rate past 4 in either mode. Never had an issue with it going out in either mode. I had crazy ash build up with green supreme pellets myself.

yep///
should be called Green Supreme Ash pellets....