Woke up the other morning to the sound of the baseboards ticking and the oil boiler rumbling along. Huh? It’s not that cold out. Long story short, the stove shut off. And to add insult to injury, it shut down not soon after I loaded it up for the night. Took it apart the other night and found a whole bunch of fines by the auger. I’m guessing those blocked the pellets from the intake. And the answer to a question no one asked: The stove can old almost 10 gallons worth of pellets. Got it all cleaned up and running in about an hour. The service rails were the best investment I made for this stove. We’ve had it for 9 years and I’ve been able to do my own upkeep.
Sometimes you can suck enough of the fines out to get it running by putting a shopvac hose where the pellets drop into the fire bowl. Run it for a few seconds. Once you burn all the pellets you can give it a good clean. Just saves you from having to empty 10 gal of pellets!
Well, as bad as emptying the hopper, and hearing the boiler going was, the fact that it was a free fix, and you didn't have to wait for a service person (which I hear can take weeks) or parts was priceless.
Very good points. It was a simple fix. I like that tip with the shop vac too. I should probably let the hopper empty every so often and get in there with the vac to clear things out. I’m burning Still River Pellets this winter and they have quite a bit of fines.
I let my England stove run low on pellets so I can give it a full cleanout this weekend. It heats the barn/shop. I think there is enough to take the chill off the barn in the morning. I plan to spend the day cutting and splitting firewood then do a total clean with the shop vac on the pellet stove late afternoon. I bet it looks just like yours!
Keep us posted! Curious to hear what you find. If anything, I’ll be letting the hopper run low more often to prevent the buildup. And probably give it a good vac every so often.
