Clinker City

Sorry NO pics. Hands were covered with soot and oil.

I just cleaned my stove after about 10 days of hot burning.
Mostly Hammer Hot ones with a few bags of FSU's thrown in. Averaged about 2 to 2-1/2 bags a day.
Had the stove burning on Level 4 (out of 5) controlled by the thermostat in Hi/Low mode.

In a first for me, the Agitator rod tines actually had clinkers bonded to them. What a "mother chicken" to scrape off.
And the burn pot liner was glazed with about 1/8" of solid carbon buildup. By far the worst I have ever seen.
My usual 5-in-1 tool just polished the carbon. I had to take the liner down to the shop and get serious with a wood chisel and hammer. Even still couldn't get it all off down to bare metal.
I resorted to soaking it in penetrating fluid (50-50% mix of ATF and acetone) for about 20 minutes.
This softened the carbon enough to use the chisel and wire brush to get it all off.

Think I'm gonna invest in a sandblast box. less messy. lol

Not sure why the buildup was so bad.
Only thing I have done different than normal was running the stove hotter and using the Hammers.

While burning, the flame was good and had minimal glass sooting. As expected with a good hot flame.
Had a 3/4 full ash box after about 23 bags. So not a lot of waste. Minimal unburt pellets.

Are Hammers know for clinkers?
Probably clean again next Sunday and see if it is the Hammers or hot running the stove.
The week is forecast to be closer to normal temps vs the deep freeze we have been living in for the last 2 weeks. So I will be burning on level 3 like normal.

---Nailer---

 

I tried Easy Off original oven cleaner some years ago for carbon build-up on the burn pot. As I remember, it worked pretty well/ Just spray on (burnpot sitting on 3-4 layers of newspaper), let sit a while, scrape/wash off.

 

I put my EP burnpot in hot, soapy water and in a few minutes the carbon flakes right off. It's Ajax dish soap if it matters...lol

 

Unfortunately, we keep seeing/reading of more and more complaints on the Hamer's. Their quality has gone down.

 

My buddy has a quad Castile and has always gotten his hamers from Acushnet. He loves his hamers and the heat they throw. This year he decided to pass after what he went thru last year. He opted for cubex and north country and very happy with both. Got them from fireplace showcase

 

Back when I had a pellet burner, I used to refer to them as "Hamer's Huge Ones". I still have MOAP (Mother Of All Pellets). It's 3.75 inches long and came from a bag of Hamers that looked more like Lincoln Logs than pellets.

 

I had to get a clinker in out of my stove yesterday because my grates wouldn't shake.

 

Jay,
Running in Premium Pellet mode. Always have. You are right the agitator would cycle more in Regular Mode.
Never tried it.....will give it a shot and see if it helps.

As to the Combustion motor trim.....no change.
Will pull the cover off and see if the ribbon came loose from the daughter board or have a pinched wire somewhere.
Its weird as only the combustion trim is being affected. I'd think if it was the ribbon cable more controls would act up. (who knows,? )

Thanks for the ideas,
---Nailer---

 

Clinkering is not just common with pellets that have too much dirt and "nonburnables" as we get some clinkers in our Whitfields using the nut shells.

The nuts are cleaned of all crap such as the husks and loose junk, then washed in a disinfecting bath to kill any salmonella that may be present before they are cracked.

The shell halves then run out the waste system and through a huge trash fan that breaks them up well before they enter the huge hopper.

There really should be zero dirt or non burnable materials introduced, but there is still a hard ashy gray/black clinker that forms in the burn grate.

Just part of having a fire, and the hotter the fire the harder the carbon deposits can get.

Our Quad 1000 will cook up a glob of hard black glass like material in the bottom of the pot that looks like gravel from the road.

All part of burning solid fuel me thinks.

WE used some pine pellets one season that was really clean and left very little residue.

Our stoves are on fairly tight cleaning regimens, with the little stove at every 3-4 days and the big one at weekly intervals.

the little stove has a tiny fire pot and a tiny ash pan, so there is not much room for the left overs...

We get the hard carbon deposits in the fire pot on the Li'l Whit and as described they can be nasty to get off.

When the buildup is bad I just take the pot outside and go after the carbon with the propane torch and the stuff pops off readily.

Don't do it in the house/stove as the stuff has been known to fly a long ways.

Would not be cool to have a chunk of hot carbon pop out and land in the couch


Just all in a days work....

 

Thanks Snowy,
I normally get clinkers as I run Big Box Pellets most of the time. I'm used to cleaning/scraping them.
This was different.
The M-55 has a 1/2 pipe shaped Burn Pot Liner about 10" long and about 3-1/2" in diameter.
The clinker formed in the center section of the front and rear side wall about 4" wide and about 3" tall down to the air slits. In some places it was almost 1/8" thick.
This is where they usually form, but not this bad.
And they were unbelievably hard. Took a wood chisel and a hammer to scrape it off. And even then took solvent to loosen.
I have heard of the torch method and the heat it hot then dump in cold water method but have never need to try them.

Besides.....gives me reason to get/build a blasting booth. lol

---Nailer---

 

I soak my parts in hot water with dish detergent. Been doing it for years. Minimal cleaning with a brass brush.

 

^^ You forgot to hook the chain back up.

 

Clinkers were an enormous problem when I had a top-feeding Quad 1200. The stove had to be shut down 2x per day to clean out the clinker as the trap door at the bottom of the burn pot was as useless as boobs on a bull. The problem was alleviated when I picked up a Harman P61A. The bottom-feeding design of the Harman just pushed ash and clinker over the edge and down into the ash pan. It did require scraping of the burn pot, however, this could be done while the stove was running. If I were to ever get another pellet burner, it would 100% be a Harman.

 

Here is a video clip of how I remove any clinkers on my top feed stove with out shutting it down.

 

Ravelli?

 

Yes, a Francesca...it's in his signature.

 

Ooh sorry, I dont see signatures on my phone for some reason...which is where I do 95% of my FHC browsing!

 

WE have to do that little maneuver about every 6-8 hours on our little stove.
There is enough residue with the shells and the airflow through the grate is not enough to blow the cinders out of the pot.

But with the super low cost of the shells its a moot point.