What is a Burn Pot?

A pellet stove has some unique parts in its design compared to other stoves. Keeping these parts clean and in working condition ensures maximum efficiency and a long life from your stove.  

One such part is your burn pot. Knowing how it works and keeping it clean and well-maintained helps you gain the warmth and efficiency you need.  

Here is a guide to understanding what your burn pot does and cleaning and replacing it when the times comes.

What is a Burn Pot

The burn pot is a metal pot located within the combustion chamber - the area inside the stove where the heat is generated. The burn pot receives wood pellet deposits from the auger and air from outside the firebox by way of a combustion fan. The fuel and air then mixes together to create more fire and more heat. 

 Along the base of the burn pot are holes that allow the fresh air to come in to keep the fire going and ash and carbon deposits to filter down into an ash pan for later removal.

Burn pots are standard in all pellet stove models, such as those by Harman, Lopi, Quadra-Fire, Enviro, Englander.

What Types of Units Use a Burn Pot?

Burn pots are used on pellet stoves. Since a gas stove uses gas as fuel, there is no need for the pot. Wood stoves and wood fireplaces use larger wood logs that sit on the base of the firebox.

Issues to Be Aware of With Burn Pots

Since burn pots receive air and filter out ash and carbon deposits through holes at the base, the pots should be cleaned regularly to remove the ash and carbon deposits that don’t strain through the burn pot’s holes.

Do You Need to Replace Your Burn Pot?

A burn pot can warp or break over time, and that will lead to some efficiency issues with your stove, including the effectiveness of the igniter.

How to Replace a Burn Pot

Your stove model may come with instructions for how to replace your burn pot, but here is a general guide to the process. The process is fairly pretty simple.

You will need a ½” or 3/8” socket wrench (depending on your model of stove). Also note that you will need to remove and replace the rear docking gasket whenever you replace your burn pot. It sits directly between the burn pot and the auger. You can easily remove it after you remove the burn pot.

Here are instructions for removing your burn pot:

1. Turn off your stove and let it cool
2. Unplug the stove from the wall
3. Access the burn pot through the front glass door of the stove
4. Your burn pot may be loose inside a burn pot housing, or it may be one entire unit. If they are separate, remove the burn pot first.
5. Now you can remove the burn pot housing. Typically there are four screws, two on each side. They may be hard to remove; if so, you can spray them with WD-40 and wait about an hour, or use a pencil torch to heat them, which will loosen them.
6. Remove any remaining nuts holding the burn pot to the igniter. You may find the nuts underneath the burn pot. Once unscrewed, a metal plate will become loose, helping you access the igniter later.
7. Slowly pull out the burn pot so not to break or damage the wires of the igniter.
8. Disconnect the igniter wire connections.
9. Fully remove the burn pot
10. Unscrew the interior bolts that hold the igniter cradle to the burn pot.
11. Do any ash cleaning inside your stove and on the parts while you are here.
12. Remove the gasket behind the burn pot that holds the burn pot to the auger frame. 
13. Wipe away any debris behind the gasket.
14. Replace the gasket and burn pot in the reverse steps of those just provided. When reconnecting the wires, it won’t matter which goes to which. 
15. Close the front door, plug back in the stove, and check to ensure it works properly.

How to Clean Your Burn Pot

In many pellet stoves, you are prompted on the electronic control panel when to clean and do general maintenance on your pellet stove. You will see a message requesting you to clean/scrape the burn pot, and that message may come about every week during times of the year when the stove is in heavy use. (Harman models, for example).

To do the cleaning (Ross, this is Harman, so keep it generic)

• Scrape any ashes into the ash pan. The pan is located... (typically under?)
• Keep scraping the pan to loosen carbon deposits, and move them out as well.
• (If the fire goes out during this process, close the door and start the fire again.)
• When done, press the Reset button on your control panel.

Your Burn Pot: Your Home for a Warm and Efficient Fire

Your burn pot is key to an efficient burn by catching the pellets from the auger, feeding them with heat, and holding them as they burn while feeding in oxygen and removing the ash and carbon deposits to keep that flame going. With some simple cleaning now and again, you ensure a properly working pellet stove with minimal cost for fuel.