Empty hopper pics (I know....)

Pouring into my hopper

 

Came inside from cleaning up more snow this afternoon and remembered that I hadn't filled the hopper this morning. So I opened up the hopper to find about 10 pounds or so left and a ton of fines right over the auger opening in the bottom of the hopper. So I stuck my hands in and stirred things around and figured that I would let the last ten pounds burn up along with the fines. An hour or so later I walked by the stove and noticed that there was no flame. Status light was in 4 blinks. This is normal for my setup because I have a thermostat wired in series with the room probe and burn in room temp manual. I let the stove finish shutting down, took out all the pellets in the hopper and used a shop vac to vacuum the fines out. Put some new pellets in and it fired back up. I think all the fines may have formed a plug on top of the slide plate.

I haven't screened for fines since my first year burning. Just been dumping everything right in.

 

Let mine run out this morning so I can give it a quick cleaning, I haven't been cleaning the fines out either. I just vac out the the fines every ton or so. I will be making one of those cool pvc vac systems next year for sure though.

 

I'm trying a trick my boss told me about. She said to take a wet rag and use it to get the hopper walls damp. After this you lightly dust the inside of the hopper with talcum powder. It's supposed to "lubricate" the hopper walls and make it easier for the pellets to slide down as the hopper runs low. I'm not going to lie, my stove tunnels pretty bad so if this works I'll report back.

 

I gave the Englander hopper a little help with some 600 grit sandpaper… smoothed out the galvanized steel. Then I sprinkled some powered graphite onto the hopper sides… slippery!

My St. Croix has never needed any help getting the pellets to slide down into the auger.

 

This was my P68 a few days ago. Still burning-but not for much longer. Those back 2 corners will generally run down. The only area that holds up fuel is the vac switch on the upper left hand corner.

 

Getting closer to seeing what the talcum powder does, may not have an answer until morning but I plan on letting it run til it goes out. I wish I took a before pick but I've never been good at planning ahead unless it was for beer, food and a day off.

 

I've never had to vacuum fines out of my stove. It just eats them. I run mine dry every few weeks just so they don't build up too bad.

 

From your P61A? Because mine builds up pretty bad, about every ton it looks like this......

 

Lots of fines in many pellets. My St. Croix usually gets a diet of pellet very with few fines but I have had some this years with a hell of a lot of crap in 'em… never bothers the stove.

The Englander in the shop is a little more finicky… had two auger jams with some crappy pellets but none since.

 

This years North Country have alot of fines but not getting that much in the fines collector.

Either way, the unit is doing its job on your stove

 

I think running it dry every few weeks is what I am going to do.

 

The talcum powder trick did work. I would say that before I did it I would probably end up with about 2 lbs of pellets all hung up on the sides and I could see the auger (if I didn't stir it or add pellets) and this morning the stove was out and there were maybe 2 cups of pellets hung up around the auger shaft.

It works!

 

I use the foil tape along the corners, plus spray furniture polish on the hopper walls....those helped a lot.

I'm going to try the talcum powder trick the next time I shut the stove down for a cleaning.....that should be Friday, as the temps outside are supposed to hit at least 50.

 

I was referring to the hopper, not the fines box.

 

Yes I am, but the thread was about fines and pellets hanging up in the hopper. That was what I was referring to.

 

Another trick on slicking up the hopper is taking a sheet of wax paper and rubbing all over, kinda like sex wax on a surfboard I do this at the beginning of the season, you would be amazed at how slick the hopper will get