Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Some of the new enterprise storage arrays using ssd are intense. 45TB in a 1U chassis. 1U = 1.75" for those who don't know the term.

 

Nothing like waking up at 1:30 AM to the smell of skunk. Then realizing the pellet stove is going, and it has an OAK, so the stink is going to just keep being pushed into the house

Went to bed and covered up my head with blankets until the alarm went off. Let the cat out and it stunk less outside than inside

 

Same thing happened in Kittery when I got up around 2am early Sunday morning. The smell was still lingering in the house Sunday night............something to look forward to.

Another lovely surprise was that either the skunk or a raccoon got into the trash that same night

 

Well, if that happens I have way more problems since the animal would have to get into my house to do that . Can imagine the mess if you have trash pickup, so have to put bins at the curb or a dumpster though .

 

I wasnt at home and the trash is generally in a secure container here but this time it was forgotten and .........

 

Believe me, my funk smelled better - that's why I had my head under the blankets.

 

Just Man up and be proud of it

 

Update.

I replaced my flame guide (was original from 2009) more than 2 weeks ago. Did nothing else, just replaced the flame guide and scraped the heavy carbon from the burn pot.

• My fire bricks cleaned up immediately and have stayed that way with low burns
• Much faster ignition (3ish minutes)
  
• Firebox walls are cleaner
  
• Better heat from low burns
  
• No Carbon buildup in the burn pot
• The little bit of sticky creosote like stuff around the upper bolt area of the burn pot burned off and cleaned up
• Less ash

The 5-6 minute ignitions and the slight creosote I started getting lately let me know something was up, but it wasnt cleaning related.

So, ttdberg the pine based 802's were not the cause of the carbon buildup I have had all season or the dirty low burn as I thought it was....it was the very old flame guide that looked fine.

In my case $27.00 part from Fallons Home n Hearth appears to have fixed all of this
YMMV

 

G that is so awesome to hear!!! Thanks for sharing.

I’ve been hesitant to believe the flame guide could have such a large effect, because as you say it always looks fine. Now that I see this, I’m going to order one for the P68, which to this day still has the original one from 2008...certainly can’t hurt and maybe it really will affect the strobe light flame pattern I’m seeing too.

 

Writing me a new 32 bit Mint 18.3 ISO an update blew my portable system. Don't know why and don't really care. New ISO is in its verification step. Prolly something I screwed up.

 

Yeah, Lousyweather has mentioned on several occasions to replace every 2-3 years. For 27 bucks at the dealer and seeing the results I think I will take that advice. I wonder if my burn has been slightly affected for previous years and I just didnt notice it.

Now gonna pick one up next time through Hampton Falls for my honeys XXV as hers is from 2010 or 2011..........

 

I dont know if you are close to a Harman dealer or not, but I found that picking one up was cheaper than ordering plus paying shipping charges........I go within a few miles of Fallon's place whenever I got to Massachusetts for my dad.

 

yep.....the price is likely nearly the same from any Harman dealer, within a buck or two......mailorder would make sense to be a bit higher....stop by a dealer

 

Honestly, don't think it will stop the strobe effect, but they do deflect and break. I have people bring them in in pieces....that shoulda been changed years ago. But once they start to deflect, they no longer make full contact at the rear of the burnpot, and flames generally move behind it, causing it to erode faster.....

 

Like subbie, I really thought I had a firebox door gasket issue (dollar bill test is still not great but not that bad either) but the old flame guide must have been letting air through at the base of the burn pot and messing up the air/fuel.

 

maybe, gbreda, but the air is pulled through the holes in the burnpot and the airwash, and I kinda find it a stretch to think it would affect the air/fuel. Might affect the appearance of the flame......when the fire gets behind it, it looks like the fire is coming out the side of the burnpot....sometimes the flame guide is fine, its just not seated correctly......if the user does a poor job of scraping the burnpot, the carbon accumulations cause the unburned pellets to lift the flame guide and cause it to come off the rear of the burnpot

 

All of a sudden there's a out of stock epidemic of Harman's flame guides being created by FHC pellet pigs........................................
I better get mine yesterday.................................

 

Funny you mention that as when my issues were getting worse, I actually wondered about that and pulled some pellets away from the base-this was also with a freshly cleaned burn pot. It had no effect either way.

I have been dealing with heavy carbon buildup all season and thought it was the pine based 802's I was burning where I would get a solid 1/8" of carbon that I never got before (other than the speed bump). I would clean that carbon once or twice a week and it would be back within a day.

Since changing the guide, I have had zero carbon in over 2 weeks of many low burns. Even the speed bump is minimal.