Gotcha gotcha. I'm a fan of the hangers myself, been using them since I've started burning. Especially when the corn clinkers are solid, they help a great deal.

It's nice having a control on the exhaust.. I can let the fire go completely out, remove the clinker, pull little pieces out with tongs, brush the back wall, heat tubes and glass door. Turn the auger back on, crank the exhaust at full blast and she re-lights everytime.. Maybe I should appreciate my setup a little more, just wish I had something a little bit bigger.

Sounds like I might be diving into something too quick. I ordered a larger blower yesterday, I'll see if that helps and probably change my tune. Thanks for the input fellas.

We have 4 AES stoves. 2 - 3500P, 1 - 3500, and one
of the first stoves they produced (JA something).
We burn 100% corn and use stirrers on all stoves.
We NEVER have to clean our stirrers. Shut them down
once per week and give them a cleaning and back in
business for another week.
I know many people here say they use oyster shell and it
won't work for them, but we use oyster shell and do not have
any trouble. Its all about fine tuning the amount. Most people
don't use enough.
Stirrers last 2 years on stoves we run on 1 & 2
and on the stove we run on 4 the stirrer last 1 yr+.
We have had our stoves for about 10 years and just replaced
two exhaust blowers this year.
The old JA stove was filled to the brim on Friday (3pm) before Christmas
and left till Monday morning. Still had plenty of corn. We have the
two lids open and 1 x 12 between them, kinda like side boards.
If you want dependability AES Countryside is the way to go.
olf20 / Bob

I prefer the stirrer with straight wood pellets only. I can burn a week with no shutdown or maintenance. There's no clinker to mess with and very little fly ash, but a hard deposit will plug the holes in the bottom of the pot in about a week, so I have to shutdown for that.

Corn produces a lot of fly ash when stirred. Even with pellet/corn blends, I think you'll have a cleaner stove, and a more complete burn using the clinker pot.

I have been using my 3500 for 10 years also. I burned corn, corn and pellets mixed, dog food, oats and this year straight wood pellets. I switched over to the clinker pot 3 years ago and have never looked back especially with corn. I have thought about putting the stirrer back in for pellets but have not yet. I have a 3000 in the basement and have not even fired it up this year. The 3000 does not even compare to the 3500.

That must have been one desperate day when you burned the dog food.

I also tried dog food, got a free 50 lb bag and just had to try it. Burned Ok no problems but unless you live near a factory and can get the damaged dog food it would not be cost effective.