Dirty Glass

New to the thread, and new to pellets, though I've been around a bit of wood and coal fires my whole life. I just installed a harman p43, and being that the goal was to cut heating costs (300 a month for a one story, 1000² ft house seemed excessive) I bought green supreme at 200 a ton. I understand that it's a bit dirtier than other pellets, I'm fine with that, but as I'm running it, the glass on the stove is getting a lot of build up fast. I am running it on the lowest settings until I get the thermostat, so I'm wondering if that has something to do with it. So the question is, is there something I can do to prevent the glass from dirtying as quickly, like running it hotter, or is that just the nature of burning a cheap pellet?

 

Lower settings can produce dirtier glass - especially from pellets that can run ashy, such as GS. If I could get GS for $200/ton, I would think heavily about switching from the TSC MWP's that I normally run. You can try running the stove hot for 20 minutes or so once a day, which can help clean the glass (or may not, but at least will help the exhaust stay cleaner)

Are you waiting on a temp probe (thick wire, attached to the back of the stove), or a thermostat? If you have the temp probe, try using that as the room temp sensor until the thermostat is in. Once you get the end of the probe in an appropriate position, it can be pretty good (although when heating whole house, a thermostat in the room to use as a setting point is much better).

 

BTW - welcome to the forum!

 

I agree. The lower setting will cause the glass to haze over quicker. Think of it like backing the air control/damper down on a wood stove and the temp drops to under 400F.

Bumping up to a higher heat setting should help. I do find that after time, no matter what setting you have the stove on, the glass will get a bit dirty.

 

I'm waiting on a temp probe, that I'll be using as a thermostat. I've read that with the harmans, you can coil them up behind the stove, and just adjust the onboard temp dial until the room is where you want it. Then it'll keep the room at a constant temperature. I'll try cranking it, see if that works. If not, I guess I'll just need more glass cleaner...

 

Yeah, I fully expected it to get dirty, just not half the glass being opaque after one day.

 

I've had that happen! My stove has settings from 1-5. If I run under 3, it gets dirty very quickly; probably about a day's worth of burning.

 

Is your P43 new or used?

 

Used. It's a 2011, I got it from a friend for 800. She had left it on her back porch for a couple of years, so it was pretty rusty, but nothing a wire brush couldn't handle. New gaskets, new ignitor, and the auger and burn pot got polished up pretty well.

 

Great! If used I was going to suggest the door gasket may be playing a part in the dirty glass, but if you already replaced it, that’s ruled out. It’s most likely just a combination of low burn and the pellets themselves. Over time you will find that different pellets will have an impact on how quickly the glass gets dirty. If you are willing and able to get your hands on something other than GS, suggest giving a few different brands a shot and see what you like.

 

I've found that this time of year when the stove shuts down and starts up a lot the glass will get dirtier than when it's colder out and the stove is running steady. I run my stove in stove temp mode so it never shuts down once it gets cold.

 

i noticed when i use the stove temp mode on my harman the glass stays clean forever. however,
the " ramp up/ down/off/on/rinse/lather/repeat" in room auto mode gets the glass dirty quickly..

 

I was using on stove temp, but wicked low. I've got it on room temp, it's actually doing slightly better for me, but that's probably due to hotter fires in between the low temps, rather than a constant smolder.

 

i like stove mode but really eats up the pellets....not sure how low i can set the feed rate for long stretches since my concern is burning that close to the auger... I assume feed rate # 2 would be ok..

 

As low as that thing gets. For one night, I turned down the max auger feed to 1, and that made it really low. On stove mode, it's just too hot. I like the heat, but it's hard to justify blasting it all the time.

 

I don't see why not. Aside from having an inefficient and potentially dirty burn, it shouldn't do much for the auger. It is designed to burn down into the pot again and again on the room setting, I don't see why it wouldn't withstand the heat.

 

Mine is the exact opposite. But, that is probably because in stove mode it will be at a low burn forever. My P43 glass stays clean for a couple of weeks but the P61a dirties up within a week. Probably because the small stove will burn for 20-25 minutes before shutting down while the big stove is up for a much shorter time. Or, it could be that the glass of the P43 is much closer to the flame, so gets and stays hotter.

Eh, I had to clean the glass for the woodstove at my previous house every week - and it got much dirtier and was harder to clean, so I really don't worry about how fast or slow the glass on my pellet stoves gets dirty.

 

During the deep of winter, when the temps are in the single digits and/or the wind is howling, I do that for the P43 at night. If I try to leave it on room temp (its on a thermostat), it starts back up just as soon as it is done shutting down. I'll turn it to stove mode and down to 1 or lower. Any higher and the 950 sq/ft main floor gets way too hot. I've had people tell me it's not good for the auger, and perhaps it is (I don't know enough to argue the case one way or the other) but unless I want to open windows that is the way I need to run it. If I have to replace an auger sooner, so be it.

 

I don't mess with the feed rate but I run it in stove temp with the heat setting as low as it will go and the distribution blower off.

 

off? how does that all work.. no blower but using the radiant heat/?