Question for any and all Whitfield owners

Since we run our Whit's on the shells the burn characteristics are different.

Yesterday during the tests on the new to us little Whit I noticed that the flame in the pot blows out and down from the drop tube.

The little guy is running on pellets and the entire behavior is a bid different than our P2 in the house that runs shells.

We have never run the Whits on pellets so I can't compare.

The little guy upstairs sees the flame come right up past the drop tube fairly evenly across the grate.
The new one on pellets sees the flames depressed in the center and curl up on each side of the drop tube.


My theory is that the pellets have enough air space in the feed auger and hopper that air is drawn into the auger tube and then down into the fire out the drop tube.

The shells tend to totally fill the tube, thereby blocking much if any air from being passed in and down the tube.

Any info ????

 

These stoves do not have a sealed hopper.
None of the Whits did.

Not a big issue, just trying to figure out if the flame blowing away from the drop tube is a normal behavior for these stoves.


I always thought that the sealed hopper was used on the bottom feeders to help prevent a burn back due to a possibility of a draft getting started back up the auger tube.

It does make sense that having air flowing down the tube would help keep any possibility of a fire trying to go back up the tube negated.

I am not sure whether this air flow was "By design" or that is just happened.

At any rate, we have never had any issues with our other Whits.

 

My whit flame tends to go toward the back, most likely due to front airwash. I do in occasion see a bit of a pattern in the flame where it looks like air may be coming from the drop tube.



Sorry for the dirty glass.

 

Hi Snowy
Do you have the Nylatron Auger Bearings or the old bronze bearings in those stoves?