Ash related problems have more than occasionally been observed in pellet burners during the last years. These problems can lead to reduced accessibility of the combustion systems as well as bad publicity for the market. The objectives of the present work were to; (i) evaluate how different raw materials for pellets affect the accessibility of the existing burner equipment, (ii) determine which of the ash forming element(s) that could be responsible for the deposit/slagg formation and, (iii) estimate the critical slagging temperature for the different raw materials. Stored and fresh materials from sawdust, logging residues and bark were used as raw material in three different pellet burners. The results showed that the slagging properties were relatively sensitive to the variations in total ash content and ash forming elements of the fuel. It is therefore recommended that ash rich fuels like bark and logging residues should not be used in the existing residential pellet burners. Both fuel and burner type affected the amounts of ash deposit produced. The degree of sintering (i.e. the strength of the deposits) was mostly affected by the fuel composition. Subsequent controlled sintering test of the produced deposits/slags showed critical slagging temperatures of about 850-900 degreesC for stored bark and about 1000 degreesC for fresh bark and stored and fresh materials from sawdust and logging residues. The results further indicated that the Si-content in the fuel correlated (relatively) well to the sintering tendencies in the burners. Chemical equilibrium models were used to interpret the experimental findings, and good quantitative agreements between modelling and experimental results were generally obtained. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.