B for what its worth I started using a cheap electric leaf blower to clean my 3500. I seem to get better results than when I used a shop vac. I just bought a Lowes $30 special blower and a rubber plumbing connector(cant think of real name). I pull the exhaust cap and slip the connector on pipe with blower attached. Open stove door and turn blower on. I the rap or beat on everything in the firebox. All that mess gets sucked out into the yard. Works great and stove is cleaner than it has ever been.

Two things: make sure you hook up the exhaust to the suction side of the blower and dont stand near the outlet end of the blower!LOL.

I figured it since it stored ok in the basement it should in the bin also. Just wasnt exactly sure why all the bins around here have the big fans running during harvest. I know they have grated floors the air is pushed through. I guess they do that so they can shell it at a little higher moister content? I now need to come up with a nice color paint to match the rest of the buildings. I was told NO to the galvanized look by the house. Thanks

Ok so I almost have the wife talked into letting me put a used feed bin in her flower bed for corn storage. It is a metal 2.5 ton bin and comes with a flex auger. I got it for the cost of me removing it which works out to be about a case of beer for my two buddy's who helped. I figure it should hold about 100 bushels of corn. If I fill it up in the fall, say around the middle of Oct will I need to use some kind of aeration to keep the corn from drawing damp? I usual get corn from a friend and although I dont know the true moisture content it has to be low because I have no trouble burning or storing in my sealed wood bin in the basement. I just dont know how temp changes outside(hot one day cool the next
) will affect the corn in the metal bin. Any ideas?

Cant believe I missed that part of the post(at start up). Thats what 13hr shifts and 16hr days do to you. Good advice

VT, I had a different but also odd issue with my 3500 last year. The auger would not stop feeding. Checked some stuff and came down to the unplug, let sit a few minutes and plug back in. In the aviation field we call it powering down and back up. Has worked fine since so it might be worth a shot. Does the motot for the auger run when the auger is not turning? There is a lot more wisdom on here than I can offer. Just be patient they will get you going. In the mean time, try the power down and back up. Make sure you turn the stove off, wait for it to shut down and then unplug, let sit couple minutes and fire back up. Good luck

Rona, thanks. I would love to use a straight auger. I have to make a turn at a basement door to get to the bin. I have about 15ft from the driveway through the sunken walkway to the basement door. the storage bin sits to one side of the door. I currently vac the corn in using 1 1/4" grounded electrical conduit. Just thinking of ways to speed up the process. I can pick up a feed auger fairly cheap with a roughly 100 bushel metal bin. The bin needs a little work but not much. I am just trying to talk the wife into letting me put the bin in her flower bed.If I can I'll just gravity feed the corn/pellets into the basement from the bin outside.

Can I move corn with a flexible feed auger? It's a level run of about 15-20ft. Can you move pellets with the same set up? Thanks

Anyone ever burned oats or a mixture with oats? Was talking to an older guy who has the same 3500p set up as me and he said he was mixing oats, corn, and pellets and loved the way it burned. Sounded a little odd to me but I'm going to stop by his place this week and see what hes doing. I was also told some of the local farmers have "dirty" oats they can not sell as food grade or something like that. They said they would sell cheap to get rid of it. I'm not sure what the term "dirty" oats meant. Thanks

Due to high corn prices this year we are looking into burning pellets. I might mix with corn(still deciding). My question is, is it better to use the stirrer pot with the pellets or just keep the non-stirrer pot in. I burnt about 10 bags or so at the end of the season last year using the non-stirring pot and it seemed to do ok. Just wandering what everyone else is doing and the advantages and disadvantages to using one over the other. Thanks

Thanks. Never thought about using the klinker pot with straight pellets. I'll give that a try. Just thought for some reason I needed to use the stirrer pot when burning straight pellets. Thanks again.

Chad

Need a good starting point. Our corn supply is dwindling and I am going to finish out the heating season with pellets. I only ever tried to burn straight pellets one other time and had a heck of a soot problem. Granted I did not burn them long enough to get the stove set up. I'm going to be burning Energex pellets. I'm going to put the stirrer pot in to burn the pellets. What is a good stirrer level setting to start with? Should I need more air, less air or the same? Thanks

Chad S

Just an update. We have had no other issues with the corn feeding. Must have been something in the auger flighting that fell out when I pulled it and I did not see it. I also had a lot of dust built up in the housing. Maybe this helped the issue of corn not feeding correctly. any way after running a 50/50 mix of pellets and corn for two days we are back to 100% corn. All the important people in the house are happy. That makes me a happy man. Thanks to all who offered some advice.

Chad S

sorry it took so long for a reply, I had to get a few hours sleep. Yes tge auger was still turning. It's hard to explain but it almost looked like the corn kernal were to small and getting bunched up between auger and housing. I have had it running all day and so far so good. Maybe I was seeing things this am. 15 hr woork days does that to ya. Gona cross my fingers and continue tyo monitor it for now. Thanks for the help

Ok so I came home this am and pulled the feed auger. Nothing jammed or binding up the flightings. I put the stove back together and fired it back up. when you watch it feeding the corn it almost seems like there is not enough corn dropping from the auger to keep a good fire going. sometimes the corn seems to get "stuck" between the auger and the auger housing. Thought maybe I have some bad corn but I am still burning from the same batch as before and its last years corn. It passes the snap test great.

The only thing that has changed is we had a power outage last night for about 3hrs. I did notice the auger shaft is not brite and polished looking but has a dull haze to it. Could this have something to do with the feeding problem? I'm stumped. the only thing I can think of is to try some different corn. I did mix some pellets with the batch I refilled the hopper with. I am going to see if that makes a difference. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appriciated. Thanks

Thanks tall. Not sure about which auger I have. I bought the stove about three years ago if that helps. I'll look when I get home. Not getting to excited yet. Knowing my loving wife she probably is not even looking in the correct place. She was unhappy when I told her to empty the hopper into 5 gallon buckets and inspect the hopper bottom. Will update.

Ok so I'm at work tonight and my wife calls. She says there is no corn coming out of the auger in my 3500p. she said the auger is turning. I told here to empty the hopper there must be something blocking the auger feed hole(stalk, cob, etc). She did and said there was nothing there. So when I get home in the am I need to investigate and fix it. Is there anything I might be missing. I know this sounds like an obvious fix or problem but I'm sitting here thinking about it and thought a second set of eyes or opinion would not hurt. Thanks