Eastern Embers - Are you still getting the same heat?

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fedtime

Feeling the Heat
Sep 13, 2009
272
Down East Canada
Fellow Maritimers, is it just me or does it seem like your stove is chewing through more Eastern Embers pellets than previous years to produce the same heat? I've got my stove set as last year, but I swear I'm putting far more pellets through the stove. To prove the point, I switched over to Trebios and had a slower burn rate, more in-line with my experience last season.

Anyone else seeing this? Do I have a bad batch of pellets, or is this a trend?
 
Great question. Hope someone else chimes-in with their observations soon.
 
Pellet length the same??? That's a BIG influence on feed rate.
 
Physically, the pellets don't look any different from years gone by. I've been burning them for probably 5 or 6 years now.

What caught my attention? My stove is running out of pellets overnight when buring Eastern Embers - which has never happened before. Even on the coldest days, I can top the stove off and easily get a full night of heating out of it. I switched to Trebios and - presto - the hopper is 1/3 full in the morning.
 
Trebios, eh? I just started a 2-week trial-run of Trebios here today after being less-than-thrilled with Canawicks. Was going to jump to the Eastern Embers or LGs (Granuelles) but I figured I'd give the Trebios a shot since they were new around these parts through Wally World. Hopeful that they impress!

Your Eastern Embers sound like they might be holding less BTU content in them this year. (???)
 
I'm thinking the same - less BTUs per pound.

My pellet choices here in Halifax, NS, Canada (in order of preference):#1 LGs (haven't seen these for a year or two); #2 Granulco (also not that common) tied with Trebios (Wal-Mart); #3 Blazing Comfort (Bin Doctor); #4 Eastern Embers (pretty much everywhere); #5 Canawicks (Canadian Tire) tied with Cozys (Kents). As you can tell, I've not been impressed with Canawicks either.
 
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Ah, glad to hear that I'm not the only one who finds that Canawicks pellet tend to leave a person with wanting better results. Thanks for your input. After this run of Trebios, I'm looking forward to getting into some LGs...thanks for letting me know what you think of those as well. Up here in Edmundston, we've got Eastern Embers, LGs, Canawicks, (All at RONA hardware) Trebios (Walmart) and Comfy-Cozys (Kent). Wish we'd have the opportunity to try out all of these excellent pellets like Somersets that we keep reading about on the board here, but then again, as someone who has been running a pellet stove for only a couple of months, it might be best that my options are limited as I've already become far-too obsessed with this new "hobby". :)

Stay warm over there in N.S., fedtime, and hope you don't have too many of the Eastern Embers left over in your crib to get off of them more sooner than later.
 
Firstly, I must say that I have used Eastern Embers for many years.

Recently, I have found the pellets are plugging up my pellet stove.

They do not seem to burn completely, just turn to coals and stay in the burner box until they plug it solid.

I have tried various draft and feed settings, but unless the feed rate is almost off, the problem will arise.

I first noticed this toward the end of last season, but the problem returned this fall.

I have also noticed the pellets are much smaller than they used to be in the past, most are less than 3/8" long now.

I tried to crush out a glowing pellet that was in the ash can, and it acted like a sponge, squishing down and returning to it's former shape.

I suspect the pellets are higher in moisture now than they used to be. Maybe they weigh more that way, so they're cheaper to manufacture.

I have contacted Eastern Embers, and they ALWAYS blame the reseller for improper storage. The industry is self regulated, and they are the ones who decree if their pellets are premium or not.

I feel these pellets are really just bagged up animal bedding pellets that are not suitable for burning.

I will be trying others next week, probably the Walmart ones.

That's my experience with Eastern Embers recently.

- TechOwl -
 
The industry is self regulated, and they are the ones who decree if their pellets are premium or not.
Report them to the Pellet Fuels Institure...For sure....They will be on them like moss on a rolling stone.
 
Ya, I have, That's how I found out about the "self-regulation" thing. Basically, the manufacturers test the pellets and send the results to the Institute in order to maintain their use of the logo etc.

- TechOwl -
 
Ya, I have, That's how I found out about the "self-regulation" thing. Basically, the manufacturers test the pellets and send the results to the Institute in order to maintain their use of the logo etc.

- TechOwl -
Oh Cheeses Techowl....That was purely sarcastic bud.....Don't hold your breath waiting for any action. The last thing PFI wants to do is irk one of their few remaining dues-paying members.
 
I am burning Eastern Embers for the fifth year in a row with no different results then other years. They give great heat, my stove is easy to light and there is very little dust in the bags. I know for a fact that my pellets were stored inside until I picked them up.
 
OK, firstly, sorry for the long delay in getting back to the thread. Weather and machinery issues got in the way.

I switched to the Trebios pellets from Walmart, but my burner plugging issues continued, so it was not the Eastern Embers that had changed.

I stripped the stove apart as far as I could and checked the airflow from intake to exhaust, but it looked clean all the way through.

I reached up and put my hand on the little knob that one pulls to clean the heat exchanger pipes and it dawned on me that the problem started around the time this little gadget got locked into placed.

I had tried some pellets from Maine that had a LOT of moisture in them, so much so that creosote built up inside the pellet stove. It took a month to get ride of the sticky stuff, but the cleaner plate did not seem to want to free itself, so I let it be and made sure I vacuumed the pipes every week during the cleaning routine.

The area around these pipes was almost fully blocked with ash. The vacuum would not pull the ash out completely. I scraped the residue with a screwdriver, and started loosing up the lower area, then I soaked the pipes down with the pellet stove cleaner until I could slide the cleaner in and out once more.

Since then, I have had no problems with the plugging issues.

It just goes to show that sometimes the obvious problem is the culprit. I knew there was blockage somewhere, but I also thought I was cleaning the heat exchanger pipes well enough.

I will continue to use the Trebios pellets though, as they are 10% cheaper than the Eastern Embers at my local Home Depot. I found the burn rate to be very close to Eastern Embers, but cleanup is easier with the Trebios ones.

This week, however, Walmart was out of pellets, with more coming in Sunday or Monday, so I had to buy Eastern Embers this week.

- TechOwl -
 
Fellow Maritimers, is it just me or does it seem like your stove is chewing through more Eastern Embers pellets than previous years to produce the same heat? I've got my stove set as last year, but I swear I'm putting far more pellets through the stove. To prove the point, I switched over to Trebios and had a slower burn rate, more in-line with my experience last season.

Anyone else seeing this? Do I have a bad batch of pellets, or is this a trend?


Can anyone explain how different pellets that go through an auger go through at different rates? The auger produces the same volume each time but with longer pellets it may or may not use less or more.

I own a Piazetta Monia and I am having a problem with the Auger motor noise sounds like a Mouse wheel winding up. Also I get a huge amount of creeking and crackling from expansion and contraction of the metal.

Payzants had 1600 bags today and sold out in an hour at 10 bags each of Eastern Embers.

Sobeys has 20 pound bags of Blazing comfort but I have not tried them yet.

I figure I have enough now till mid March, and a heat pump to use when temps are over zero C.

I was budgeting for 100 bags this year at $650 approx cost which saved me about $1000 in electric bills and then more depending upon how much I use. I have an instant Fire Hot water infloor heating system and it is expensive with NS electricity prices going through the roof so I wanted to get off the grid with pellets again. Had a stove in 1994, Whitfield but very noisy and hard to clean back then.

I would like to turn the fan up a little bit at different levels on the Monia, does anyone know how to do this?

My house is almost 3000 square feet and the heat only goes up the staircase, and I get 20C to 21C upstairs most of the time depending upon the sun and how cold outside with the system running 24 hours a day justabout.

One more question, about VENTS, I am thinking of putting a few in the floors in the Kitchen dinning room area to allow heat to come up from nine foot ceilings downstairs to allow heat to rise upstairs and also may by the
garage door at the front of the house. Has anyone done this and does it help? I assume I would have to box in between the floor joists.

Sportster
 
Can anyone explain how different pellets that go through an auger go through at different rates? The auger produces the same volume each time but with longer pellets it may or may not use less or more.
Sportster

Depending of the type of stove you have, I think that hotter burning pellets would feed at a slower rate than others. My Harman stoves have a sensor that monitors the temp of the flu gases and adjusts the feed rate depending on the temp setting selected. Not sure if other stoves work like that or not? I don't think my old Whitfield had the same type of sensor so it wouldn't compensate the feed rate in the same way.

Eastern Embers have been my pellet of choice for 4 or 5 years now. I did think I noticed a slight difference in the heat they put out this year, but wasn't sure.

I've been checking stores daily for the past few weeks, and finally scored 12 bags at Home Depot in Bayers Lake last night, @ $5.71/bag. I might try to pick up another 10 but should be good now thru mid April - assuming it's ever going to warm up!
 
I found that with my 2nd year burning Eastern Embers ( 2010-11)...the heat was way down from the 1st year, I burned them one more year after and was similarly disappointed..I dont think the Comfy cozy are any better, but the quality of the pellets does seem to vary from year to year....not much choice around here if you want to buy in bulk!
 
I loaded up on Cozys in the fall when they were on sale. They burn fine in my Harman heat-wise, but the pellet length is more variable then the Eastern Embers and Trebios I find. I regularly find pellets over 1.5" in length. Not an issue for me, but easily could be for others.

I'd love to buy in bulk - like 3-4 tons. But the local suppliers won't offer any discount for bulk and I've been totally unsuccessful in forming a buying club in the HRM. I get loads of interest and everyone wants in, but when it comes time to put money down very few follow through.
 
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