Hmmm. This is getting me thinking about starting some sort of pellet rating system as a wiki.

Thanks for the advice guys. Guess I’ll wait and see if the combustion blower (high altitude setting which increases blower speed) bump fixes it. If not maybe I’ll have to ask the dealer to install 4” pipe.

Regarding Pellets: Same result and I’ve tried Goldenfire, Uncle Jeds’ Cold Remedy, Dejnos and Heartland.

Side Note: Installer has same stove and said he uses Dejnos and Uncle Jed’s and does not have this problem so I think I can rule the pellet quality out.

Other than the Heartlands I can not say I have ever heard of any of those brands.  The Lignetics a very good brand that we can get in Colorado.  Rocky Mountain is another good brand at least it was last year I couldn’t find them this year.  This year they had Heat’rs so I got a ton of those but haven’t tried any yet, its still a little warm yet.  The Heat’rs are very light in color and are not at all sticky or waxy so they should have no trouble feeding.

Late last season I started mixing about 25 to 30% pellets in my corn stove.  I get a much cleaner burn and way less ash with barley any clinker build up.  I have a turkey fryer thermometer stuck in the heat exchanger tube it was running a good ten degrees hotter with the pellet mixture probably due to a better and cleaner burn.  The idea of mixing the pellets came about late in the season when I was running low on corn and wanted to stretch the supply out to the end of season.

By the way the Quadra Fire Mt Vernon in avitar was my first stove that I sold after one season.  The fans on the older models are very noisy and I could never get the heat out of it that I thought I should and since have proven it wasn’t as hot as the stoves I have now.  My guess is the aluminum heat tubes that have to be protected from direct flames by the cast iron plates just doesn’t let them get as hot.  Both of the new stoves have steel heat exchangers that the flame directly hits, they get hotter and hot faster.  I am a happy heater now.

Mike

Haven’t seen the Heatr’s in the MW area but my dad gets down in Albuquerque and loves those pellets!

Waiting to see what the installer does when they come out to do the annual service on my stove this Thursday

Is this a top or bottom feed stove?

It’s a top feed stove Rich

I have the same stove for about four years, and the glass has always been sooted within about 48 hours.  I never adjusted the draft blower as the stove delivers great heat!  For what it´s worth, I´ve only cleaned it once and replaced one snap switch myself.  I believe the igniter just went, but I haven´t replaced it yet, so I don´t know whether that´s really my problem.  I´ll report back once I´m through with that process.

Hey Bill;

Glad to hear from you and I’m pleased that yours soots up in about the same amount of time. Kind of sounds like it’s working as designed. They are great little stoves and really throw out the heat. I’ve just learned to deal with the “light grey” soot buildup and clean the glass once a week. Two heating seasons and almost 4 pallets burned and it’s still working great. I’m using PRO-PEL ( PRO PELLETS) this season and they seem to burn fine although they have alot of dust (fines) in the bag. Only problem is that the auger has gotten really noisy a few times, most likely due to the build-up of saddust in the tube. I just let the hopper clean out and it eventually worked out and got quiet again.  That’s my only complaint so far and it’s been working great otherwise!

I seemed to have gotten a great reply on this forum about the status of my igniter.  Apparently if the fuse blows and the pellets never ignite, then the igniter is definitely shorted out.  Forums like these are great, aren´t they?!  I´m just curious, have you cleaned the unit yourself, or are you using a pro?  I´m even thinking of cleaning the entire flue myself if I can find the right brushes.  We´ll see.

Hey Good Question about the cleaning.

I paid to have mine installed and paid for the first year cleaning which was supposed to include cleaning the flue all the way up (via brush and or vacuum).

Short story. They cleaned the flue passages (instructions in the manual) and all the other easy stuff and then popped the clamp on the trap at the back of the stove and bottom of the flue. Vacuumed out what dropped via gravity. Then buttoned the unit up to go outside and brush/vacuum from the top of the flue out. Came back in and said “can’t do anything from the top because installer sealed chimney flue on install.” What the heck? I didn’t know what to say or do but needless to say, they didn’t really clean anthing inside the 3” pipe from the stove up to the top of the chimney (about 18 ft).

I’m wondering if that is a problem and whether that really needs to be brushed or vacummed out? If so, how am I going to do that now that the installer sealed the top up?

Other than that, no problems yet and very happy with it..

I doubt that the flue is sealed without any way to remove the cap.  That doesn´t seem maintenance-friendly, for one thing.  Eventually, any chimney is going to have to be cleaned.  Let me know what you find on that one and good luck.