Amaizablaze Corn Stove

it may be obvious, but I suggest you read the instructions, and
clean out the system, (the burn pot, auger assby, etc) also call the manufacturer.

Also clean and check the vent pipe and check for something restricting the it, it maybe a vent problem.

Did it used to work ok? How many hours on the unit?
Did you change fuel? have you tried using pellets vs Corn? you may get different
results.
what is your ash content???

I doubt that people on this forum have experience with this
exact model................I don't.

The stove has been working just great so far this season I'm using the same type corn, this is the second year I've had it. I'll give it a good cleaning and try it again thanks.

Bad seal on the hopper?

Has the Moisture Content of the Corn changed?

Higher Humidity where and when stored.

Exposure to the elements before you received it?

Different supplier from last shipment?

Growing up on the farm, I can see many factors causing this, but I would guess moisture content.

You can find cheap moisture analyzers on eBay that should take you further along this thread, if nothing else works.

Thanks for everyones help, the problem was with the venting, after a good cleaning the stove works good, this is my first corn burner, we live and learn.

Summer to winter...any coarse fuel burning stove needs stack "de sooted" before next season..especially in areas with substabtial humidity change.

MR. GUY

Hi, wildbill54!

Chimney backdrafts (also called 'downdrafts") can blow the heat/flame/smoke back through the burning area (and in your case back into the hopper where the additional heat had ignited the fuel while the draft blew the smoke into the room), so cleaning the vent may not be enough to prevent this in future.

When starting any fire in a stove or fireplace, the air often has to be forced to RISE UP the chimney, where because of the darkness/cooler air temperature inside the chimney, it has a natural tendency to fall down; and even more so in cold and damp weather when the stove or fireplace is likely to be used most often.

Light a big ball of newspaper or a stack of other appropriate quick-lighting kindling in the stove or fireplace when commencing the regular fire. A resulting blast of hot air will have the initial and remaining effluent rising in a correct direction up the chimney as the normal fuel continues to burn.

It's interesting that you've only had this stove for a short while, and the vent was already in need of cleaning. If the dirtyness was caused by chimney build-up in the vent, you migh try chipping up a creosote-removal "log" and/or burning those kinds of chips once or twice a month (or in the case of a log fireplace once or twice a year) either combined with the corn or separately in a separate burning. The chips might keep the vent from dirtying up again.

Mark

The following is not by me (Ron) but from "Cornstoves", who gave me permission to forward it:

Thanks for heads up on the Cherokee 2100. No corn stove should smoke if the corn stove is running on corn. Non-corn fuel, wood or wood pellets mixed within the corn, non-corn dust mixed in the corn, cotton and cattle feed supplement mixed in the corn, soot resulting from non-corn fuel - some of the symptoms causing smoke in a corn stove. Combine run whole kernel shelled farm corn is clean and does not possess non-corn contaminants. Often market corn has 10-15% non-corn contaminants that could smoke. Proper adjustments during initial installation should prevent the problems described. I would suspect the corn stove was not installed by a corn stove dealer, or if so, has been in operation for several months and needs cleaning or readjustment.

Another obvious concern is allowing the hopper to run completely empty with a FD Fan Model 2100 corn stove. If the hopper is empty and/or full of dust, non-corn, butter-fly wings, and/or contaminants, the forced draft fan will obviously blow back through the hopper. There must remain a small amount of fuel in the hopper at all times of adequate depth to "seal" the force of the forced draft fan and prevent backflow through the hopper.

Prevention methods include:

Install the Induced Draft Fan option if non-corn, wood, or wood pellets are mixed with the corn or if the hopper is repeatedly subjected to running completely empty prior to refill. With the ID fan option, the combustion exhaust operates under a vacuum and will draw all effluents into the corn stove furnace area and suck effluents outside the facility through the exhaust pipe. Some 2100 corn stoves have the Forced Draft (FD) fan which pressurizes the stove rather than ID fan vacuum operation.

Never let the hopper run completely empty fuel for model 2100 stoves with the FD fan option. The auger will overheat, expand and stick.

Adjust the divider pen to throw all fuel including the non-corn fuel toward the front of the burner rather than piling up under the fuel chute. The divider pen is not set properly. The local corn stove installer should have set the divider pen correctly during initial installation. If not, simply place a 1" shim under the rear of the stove until proper adjustment can be achieved. The slight slope will make the dust and non-corn fuel feed toward the front much the same as adjusting the divider pen. The divider pen adjustment is made by slightly tapping the divider pen downward until fuel feeds evenly rather than piling up under the chute.

Clean the corn chute at least 6" deep with a long handle brush to clear non-corn soot accumulation.

Treat the corn chute with corrosionx to reduce the coefficient of friction and assist faster sliding motion of fuel down the chute and across the divider pen.

Other more thorough tips may be found with links on www.groups.yahoo.com/group/cornstoves which has over 300 members willing to chime in and answer any corn stove concern.

Thanks again for directing my attention to a cornstoves concern. Other great websites include: www.cornstoves.info, www.msnusers.com/cornstoves, www.msnusers.com/tennesseecornstoves, www.msnusers.com/amaizablazecornstoves

I think you have done a good job of providing infos and links with regard to corn stoves and the various problems, fixes and maintenance of such a stove. Well done and many thanks. I have bookmarked all the links for later reading.

My further comments are that any stove, burning corn or pellets or both, that can suffer from "Burn back" as described, is a danger to the persons living in the house and the house itself. No well designed burner should EVER suffer from such problems in 2007 or 2008!!! Even 2004 to 2006 built stoves should not suffer from this at all....

These types of problems occurred with early designs of some years ago, that should by now be fully corrected.

If the stove in question can suffer from such problems, it should be sent back to the manufacturer for an update and correction. If that is not possible, simply stop using the stove immediately and remove it from the house.

This type of failure (wellknown in the industry!!) can cause filling the house with smoke and can cause death to anyone in that house as part of the products of smoke are CO, CO2 and fine dust particles that get deep into the lung tissues and cannot be expelled by the lungs - this is highly dangerous!

I have a modern pellets/corn burner and I described earlier the redesign that many companies have had to make to stop such failures occurring, in a previous post.

If a redesign is not possible, and the burner is still to be used, then temperature sensors and alarms need to be added to detect such a failure (motor stopped, auger blocked, hopper empty or almost empty etc etc.....what you do when you are not at home I cannot say, but such a burner would not be allowed to stay in my house for 1 second further!!!

A good modern burner just goes out if the auger is blocked or the supply of fuel is gone or anything else happens, it CANNOT be allowed to do anything more than that!!!

Please take this warning seriously!!

Check the following links as it would appear that the law has been changed to combat such failures in Corn and Pellet burners:-

Burn Back

Clean the vent pipe, I did and it fixed mine which was doing the same thing.

I hope what your are trying works in the long run. I have the 4100 and experienced the problem of corn burning up the hopper. After numerous cleaning and fighting this thing for 3 years, I am taking it out and selling it for scrap. I am not even comfortable enough with it to sell it to someone. I have to repaint the walls in house plus go to the expense of replacing this thing with something else. I contacted my dealer numerous times and got nothing but a run around. I contacted the manufacturer numerous times and got no help. All I ever heard was they had not seen that before. I am fed up with the hassle and damage this stove has caused. Every time I cleaned it, it would straighten up for a few days and then back to the problems. It started out just once in a while and then got more frequent. Never again.

Wish you would give to me I could use it. Thanks

Please if you live on the east coast Philly area come and pick this terrible pos up. My god what a misery. Nothing but trouble and mine is 3 years old. Every year the same issues and you can't keep fighting it. Mine is the Amazablaize 4100 and its nothing but trouble.