Instant Heat pellets

I never touch my damper regardless of the pellets I burn... but I really haven't burned any real bad pellets.

My dealer sez if you need more air the stove is dirty...

Hello

A Stove tech told my neighbor what to do to burn his bad pellets.

A spoon full of powdered graphite in the hopper helps the bad pellets go down, bad pellets go down.... in the most delightful way

I guess it helps to grease those clinkers!

Oyster shells work for corn clinkers, I wonder if it would help with wood pellet clinkers?

funkadelic1022 said:

My stove is as clean as it can get. I have gone through it as thouroughly as I can without getting out a rubber glove to check cracks. Has anyone else tried the graphite method or these pellets?

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Do you clean behind the firebox every week? Do a complete tear down after every ton of pellets?... clean the combustion fan and room air fans, clean out the ash and carbon from the exhaust? Have you tried the 'leafblower trick' to do a final clean-out?

I'm not trying to bust your b@@@s here but we have seen lots of new folks come here with stove problems only to have them discover that they have never learned how to PROPERLY and COMPLETELY clean their stoves... once the cleaning and maintenance issues have been resolved the stoves run like new.

Many dealers are clueless as to how to clean a stove and they pass their ignorance on to their customers... not the stove owners fault.

Welcome aboard... this is a great place to learn and help other stove users.

Sorry to hear you can't get Barefoots.
I am down to my last three Barefoot bags.

Huge difference going from Barefoots to "INSTANT COLD" Pellets.
I got no heat out of those .

InstantHeat-LESS I callum, got over a 1/2 ton left from last yr, I'll useum in summer in my fire pit out on the patio.

Pellet-King said:

InstantHeat-LESS I callum, got over a 1/2 ton left from last yr, I'll useum in summer in my fire pit out on the patio.

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Yes, InstantHeat-LESS is a way better name !

InstantHeat was the brand that i burned for the frist yr. I never really had a problem with them. of course that was befor i found this site and found out that there were many other brands out there. there would be no way I would burn them again, they did have a lot of ash, but never had any clinkers and the heat was ok ( for a shoulder season pellet)

I think you will have to adjust the air flow to actually lower flow. I have InstantHeat and had to reduce air compared to Barefoot to reduce my ash (does not really make sense does it now). Somehow the wood mass is less dense than Barefoot and if you keep the high air flow you used before, maybe insufficient burn causes lots more ash ? They are a solid average in heat output and pretty typical for box store stuff, the only weird thing is the white haze they leave behind in the stove - not sure if they do additives.

I would not burn them again, but have a good ton left for the rest of the season and they kept the house warm and the heating bill resaonable.

funkadelic1022 said:

I did an internal cleaning of the stove today. Had some ash in there after all. I took a vacuum out and got in everywhere I could. I also took a coathanger to the places that I could not reach and vacuumed what came out. My question now is how do I get in to clean out the fans? Also in cleaning out the vent outside am I good to take the pipe apart in order to get in to clean it all out or should I leave it as is and get what I can out? I have a St. Croix Hastings stove.

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A leaf vacuum job on that venting will likely get the mess that was trapped in your stove provided you thump on the rear firebox walls (do not do this thumping if those walls are cast nor while any fake brick is still in the stove).

St. Croix issued a change for a number of its stoves to include a third clean out so you can get to the primary problem area in their stoves.

Read the following: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/596351/

I have a Hastings and I have burned Instant Heat this winter. I will not burn Instant Heat again however because they clinker up the burnpot whenever I burn them which causes the flame to go lazy and the pellets to spill over the sides, they stink. I would def recommend regular cleanings of this stove. I clean the inside of my stove, including ash cleanouts, twice a week and take the leaf blower to it once a month to clean the venting system. You may not need to clean as often, but my stove runs 24/7 and is my primary heat source. I love my stove but it is picky about which pellets it likes to burn.

I got quite a deal on Instant Heat this winter. I had no problems in my Hastings. I do make sure to adjust the flame for different pellets. It can also be they are now better. The instant heat are the best ones I have this year.

I burned 10 bags and thought they were pretty good.TSC has em for $4.18 a bag.

I picked up 2 bags at TSC, But haven't tried them. Nice to hear some are saying pretty good.

I don't think they are the best. But for a good price, they were not a problem. I don't have problems with any pellets though. I think it is because I am good at "tuning" my particular stove to the pellet. My biggest problem was lots of ash from NA pellets. I got mine at CountryMax.

Been using them instant heats all season long and have had zero issues with them. Plenty of heat, maybe a bit more ash, house 72 on level 3 and sometimes 4 when below zero. I will use them again.....

funkadelic1022 said:

Does anyone else have one of these stoves? According to the diagram I hit all the needed places to clean a lot of the ash out of. I will have to purchase a new leaf blower in order to do more, but has anyone ever cleaned out the pathway along the "1" to "2" area before?

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Go in from the combustion blower cavity, brushes and vacuum. thump along the rear of the fire box wall after removing any fake firebrick. Go in from the clean-outs on both side with brushes aimed up or with a flexible rod attached to a drill and let it beat about just keep it away from the combustion blower. Thump on the wall some more, use brushes and vacuum.

Finish with a very strong vacuum from the combustion blower cavity or a leaf blower in suction mode attached to the vent system (remove termination cap, and leave the stove door open or disconnect the vacuum tube from the barb on the stove).

I burned instant heat primarily this winter. They did the job on all but the coldest nights, but I would not get them again as they were prob the worst of the pellets i have burned.