Pellet stove overflowing

[Jim_Rogers]

Sometimes, not too often, my pellet stove burn pot overflows with pellets.

Like this:



 

Any advice on what causes this?

How can I prevent it from happening again?

Jim Rogers

[beenthere]

Would have to hear how the auger is controlled, and what tells the auger to stop delivering more pellets.

What might that be?

[limbwood]

looks like you need more air coming in to keep it burning faster, mine has a lever on side you pull out to adjust, sometimes if pellets are a little damp you need more air.

[Jim_Rogers]

Thanks for your advice.

Stove is cold now, I'm going to clean it and make sure that the door(s) gaskets are good.

Jim Rogers

[redprospector]

I've got an old pellet stove in storage that I need to fix. The auger on it is controlled by a timer. When it started acting up, it would overflow the burn pot once in a while. Then it started happening more often, and then it would take spells of not feeding at all and the fire would go out. I tried a rheostat to get by while trying to find the right parts, but that didn't work too well.
Good luck, I hope yours doesn't end up in storage like mine.

[Hilltop366]

Not enough draft can cause not completely burned pellets, wondering if it is nothing mechanical if it could be a certain wind direction causing air pressure on the exhaust?

[Jim_Rogers]

I did a little research and found a site and article that explained the causes.

Basically, a dirty stove vent to the chimney and other places.
I just last night gave it a very good cleaning and today it's running fine so far.

Here is a link to that article.

help...http://www.pelletstovepro.com/2012/02/pellet-pile-ups-low-heat-and-black-glass/

Jim Rogers

[Hilltop366]

Good, glad to see you got it going right!

[kensfarm]

The first thing I do is a good cleaning out.  My starter rod doesn't work so I get a couple nice red coals from the fireplace to start w/.   I've tried the burn jell too.  If you get a fast fire on startup.. that's keeps the pellot's from piling up from the start.

I drilled about half of the holes in the burn pot larger and it really made a big difference.  I been running a Breckwell for last 15 years.. had to replace the draft blower once. 

[Gwhunter]

Jim, I've had this problem on my St Croix and found the main culprit was plugged holes in the burn pot. It was too obvious until I removed the pot and could see the hole being plugged.

[Jim_Rogers]

So far it has been running fine for a few days.
I'm going to clean it a little more often and hopefully it won't happen again.

Jim Rogers

PS how many bags between cleaning on yours?