Decided not to burn this year - corn here is $6.50/bu. Of course LP is $1.90 per gallon, so still probably close to break-even, but I'd rather not mess with all the hassle for break-even. Not tearing out the stove yet - will see what next year brings.

Read the last posting here:

iburncorn.com/forum/8-general-corn-burni...imit=10&start=30

before you're so tough on the guy. Not justifying what he did, but helps explain a little.

Ah - understand your question now. Nope - hard to turn all the time - door open or closed. I've got to replace my door glass this off-season, which requires taking the door off (drill out and re-tap the mounting screws) so I'll work on soaking it and getting it freed up then.

It's hard to turn at all - to open or close. It takes two hands and lots of effort to pivot it at all. I'm pretty sure it isn't threaded in too far - I've never had it apart.

Guess the title says it all. Any ideas? I've tried spraying Kroil and WD-40 both inside and out on the door handle threads. Not getting any better. My only idea is to take the door latch hardware off and unthread the door handle completely. Is this possible? I know it would take one heck of a big pipe wrench to even turn it 1/4 of a turn now.

I think I finally solved my problem. Now I don't think it was fines - I think my combustion blower was on the way out. Bearings started getting really loud about a week or two after my problems. I think it was slowing down and not providing enough air. I replaced the blower and now it's running great! (except when I let it run out of corn this morning...)

Oh, and I don't clean my corn. Probably should, but it is quite clean. Newer Deere combine to a grain cart to my wagon, so not a lot of chaff or cracked kernels. If it happens again I'll start cleaning.

Make sure it is the right kind of stainless. I would guess this is 304L stainless, while 'good' corn pipe is 29-4-C. Corn exhaust is much more caustic than tankless water heaters.

Has been burning good for 4-5 days, so I ain't messing with it! I think my problem was the fines buildup near the auger. I watched inside the stove for one whole light/burn/burn out cycle about a week ago and the feed auger motor never skipped a beat once, so pretty sure that isn't it.

Well, new furnaces are efficient for a couple other reasons too (secondary coil that 'exchanges' more heat for one). But my corn burner inlet is plumbed to the outside because I had to go out through the north wall of my house. Without the air coming from outside too the stove would go out if I had a north wind. Doesn't now! My stove would be sitting in the yard if I couldn't plumb it outside!

Ok - have burnt now for 24 hours. Running slightly less intake air than before. Also think I broke my outlet air snap disk and that may have caused my latest shutdown problem. So far so good!

Tried the plier test - it shatters/crumbles. No mush/wet at all. Nope - no condensation in bucket at all. Huh? what now?

Well, back to square one. Taking corn to be moisture tested tomorrow. It burnt well from about 10 p.m. to sometime between 3 and 6 am. Came down to a burn pot full of corn this morning. It's about gotta be wet corn, but it was 14.5% when I brought it home. It's outside, but well covered, and worked with the same bin and same cover all last winter.

Wow - glad it's working out. Link here for anyone else interested:

forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=11525

Do you have a link to the story on the old site? I'm an EMT and burns are WAY scary.

Ok - umm - may have fixed it. Got home and checked out exhaust - completely clean. Pulled exhaust blower - completely clean and spins great. Added about 50% pellets to the hopper. Started it up and it lasted 10 minutes before flame went out. Decided to try cleaning hopper one last time. Took every bit of corn out of hopper, and saw buildup of fines on left side of auger. Vacuumed it until it was spotless. Started it up 35 minutes ago and now it's burning great.... Darn it - should have listened to ya'll. Good news is my corn is probably ok. Wasn't looking forward to trying to get more - would have had to disconnect my gravity basement corn delivery setup, and try to pull a gravity wagon with 200 bushels in it through snow covered yard. And then put it back... Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and I broke my low temp snap disk taking the combustion blower out. So I gotta get another one of those too.

I am beginning to doubt the fuel too - I have 200 bushels in a gravity wagon sitting outside, but it is covered, and worked fine covered just like this last winter. I'll get some tested tomorrow if I can.

Tried re-starting on 5 after lubing the combustion blower, but only lasted about 20 minutes. 'caught' it and was able to put it into shutdown for awhile to burn up the fuel and get it back to hot. Restarted before that went out and am now going to try on level 3 with less air than I usually do. I am able to control inlet air with a Banjo ball valve I installed 4 years ago. We'll see how tonight goes.

Oh, and olf20 - I had a setup similar to that a couple years ago but it all rotted away. Have burnt just like this for 2 years, so I can't think it's all the sudden my chimney especially since the wind is gone now and it still won't burn.

Update - burned last night for about 30 minutes. It did it again (died) - I went to bed. Tried it again today (wind was totally gone) - lasted about 3 hours this time. I just heard combustion blower kind of varying speed a little I think. Will try lubing it and see if that helps.

Well, I cleaned the stove really well, including under the two plates inside the burn area, although they weren't bad at all inside. Also lubed auger motor with some Kroil. Turned feed rate up a little. Running now for 30 minutes on level 5 - best I've done all day. Will watch it for another 30 minutes and then I'm done with it for the day!