Older Mt. Vernon firepot rot

I have seen this.
It generally happens when a stove is not running incorrectly and there is a prolonged excessive build up of hot material in the burn pot.
The big HHT burnpot is good but it does allow a greater margin of error in operation where other stoves would go out it just keeps chugging along.
We ban our users from using coated grain mainly because who know what toxic crud is being blown out the back, I dont think the pot rot is specifically related to coated seed, more just poor operation. Over here, at least, our seed coating always leave the grain purple. Your hopper photo looks more like just dirty corn. Dirty corn is bad Mmm K.
As Kap says, if run properly corn is great. The real thing to consider is that the exhaust temp must always be high if using standard venting as the corn smoke will eat out thin stuff in a blink if it starts to condense, like all grains.

 

I'll post a pic of the whole pot once I pull it out this weekend.

 

Well, there you have it!

 

And the dealer sold it like that. Sad

 

Yes, according to him. He hardly even burn this thing because it was all jacked up then the combustion blower went.

 

Unbelievable! Of course, we have pictures, so it did happen.

 

That dealer needs a swift kick in the Azz , what a scum bag

 

X2!

 

While I have zero experience with this unit, the damage to that pot looks alot like overfired cast iron....we see it in wood and coal stoves that have been allowed to run with unrestricted draft for too long a period of time. Its often thought of as rust, but its not...its more a red color....burned cast iron. Also, when I look at the residue in the bin, I think that thats indicative of early pyrolysis of the pellet.....basically, the temp got hot enough on those surfaces to cause the more volatile components of the pellet to start to pyrolize, which would leave a sticky yellow/brown residue. In short, the thing looks like it was burning way too hot.

 

I guess I'll just keep the stove refurb update in this thread. This one is, by far, the worst one I picked up to redo.

I couldn't get the two rear baffle bolts out as they were seized pretty good so I had to weld washers on the the head of the stove bolts and use vise grips to get them to spin out. Actually went better than expected. And yes, I pulled the control board out before I stared welding...lol

To save me some aggravation, I wound up taking off the entire back cover of the stove to have better access to the comb blower. It was definitely the right call as that came out a lot easier than expected too. I still needed to cut and pull on the silicone but it wasn't too bad. As you can see, they neglected to install a proper comb blower gasket and also installed mixed hardware screws. The motor they used actually looks just like one from an Englander stove.


The exhaust blower housing tail piece was also loose and not sealed well. They siliconed the chit out of it but it was peeled back and loose. I'm sure it probably leaked a bit on start-up. So I took it off, cleaned it up and put down new silicone ans screws.

They did a COMPLETE hack job on this stove. The convec blower bearings are also shot so a new one is getting installed. Probably won't make much off of this one as I'll have some $$$ into it.

 

I don't understand how someone could sell something like this, and sleep at night. Takes all kinds...

 

I can't believe it myself. I might take a ride one day to the place that sold him this stove and see what else they have there. The place is relatively close.

 

It pays to put high temp anti-seize grease on things in these stoves. kap

 

Took advantage of the nice weather today and got most of the painting done on the stove.

 

Looks like a new stove.Nice job.

 

It sure does, x2

 

Thanks!!! It's getting there, waiting for a couple parts to come this week and hopefully finish it up this coming weekend. My garage looks like a bomb went off in it so that is also on the list of things to do this weekend.