Mt Vernon AE. Burning wood pellets. Started end of last season - the pellets are getting jammed high up in the shoot causing shut downs. I've been sticking a bottle brush or screw driver up there to knock them down and will work again - for awhile. I emptied hopper and vacuumed area best I could at end of season, but doing it again.

Is it likely dust clogging that I need to get at in a different way, or is this a motor or some other issue?

Thanks

How long are the pellets? Some brands run much longer lengths than others. I have seen some where at least half of the bag was 1" or longer.

Is your wall control saying auger jam on it or does it just not drop fuel and go out? Either way you should be getting some error on it?

Also have you used a mirror to look up there to see if there is a foreign object up there causing the plugs? And as BF said, is there any error codes? I have seen pellets get clear to the top of auger and jam them up. If this is the case, you just need to remove the auger assy. to clear. Kap

Kap could you put a few firecrackers in the pellet hopper to clear those jams that might occur once in a while????? Might just clear the dust out of the ole Space Shuttle!!!

By the way, Kap is certified by NASA to work on the Quad AE!!!!

Glad to see the forum is back up and working!!

AR

Always the comedian. (Don't quit your day job.) You can do whatever you want, just don't expect me to help ya fix it. LOL Glad to see ya still in the game AR.

It's too bad that wood pellets aren't the size of corn kernels. Too much variance in size between brands. Auger feed furnaces simply cannot drop the volume of pellets compared to corn....less heat, for the same setting.

Thanks for the replies. Some longer pellets last year. Try to break them up, but can't get em all. I will take a look this weekend and let you know. Not sure how to remove to auger assembly though if that's needed.

Easy enough to do. I can walk you thru it.

I've had such jams on my stoves in the past. First one was an aluminum warning label that evidently was in the hopper when I bought it. Had to pull the auger for it. I also had a plastic 'peanut' jammed up there. Most of the time it was the lousy super long Carolina Wood Pellets bridging over the chute. Like Kap said, use a mirror and light to see if there is something up there partially blocking the chute opening.

Good luck