burning wood in a pellet stove

gutlo said:

Here's how I successfully burn wood in my pellet stove.
I have an 8 year old Lopi Yankee. Local cost of pellets is $300-$350/ton, so burning wood became attractive, especially since there's a free local source of plywood scrap.
At first, I supplemented the pellet stream with wood. This worked well, releasing much more heat than pellets alone, until the cast iron plate behind the burn pot warped. I installed a new one ($90), then burned wood alone. I allowed the pellets to run out, lit the fire with gel starter and wood scrap. The augur turned, the blowers blew, and the stove put tremendous amounts of heat, much more than with pellets on max.

It's been working now for 6 weeks, no signs of warpage. I think it wapred originally because the combined heat of the pellets and wood were too much for the cast iron. I add wood every hour or so. Plywood makes far less dust than pellets. I let it cool down overnight, vacuum out the ash in the morning, and I'm good to go.

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I have just forwarded this to your Insurance Agent and he wants to have some words with you.......
I hope you do not have family living in the soon to be fire scene.

Eric

edit for color
"Danger Will Robinson, Danger!"

kinsman stoves said:

I have just forwarded this to your Insurance Agent and he wants to have some words with you.......
I hope you do not have family living in the soon to be fire scene.

Eric

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Eric,

Where's the red text of Danger!!(jk)

We should alert the local fire department to be on standby!!

jay

[quote author="gutlo" date="1235345723"]Here's how I successfully burn wood in my pellet stove.
I have an 8 year old Lopi Yankee. Local cost of pellets is $300-$350/ton, so burning wood became attractive, especially since there's a free local source of plywood scrap.
At first, I supplemented the pellet stream with wood. This worked well, releasing much more heat than pellets alone, until the cast iron plate behind the burn pot warped. I installed a new one ($90), then burned wood alone. I allowed the pellets to run out, lit the fire with gel starter and wood scrap. The augur turned, the blowers blew, and the stove put tremendous amounts of heat, much more than with pellets on max.

It's been working now for 6 weeks, no signs of warpage. I think it wapred originally because the combined heat of the pellets and wood were too much for the cast iron. I add wood every hour or so. Plywood makes far less dust than pellets. I let it cool down overnight, vacuum out the ash in the morning, and I'm good to go.[/quote

REPLY:

Very unusual thing for someone to do , however quite interesting never the less , safety and insurance aside. How about a picture of a piece of that plywood burning in your stove. Not that I`m gonna try it myself but it`s still quite interesting.
What`s interests me is how you do it? I mean with such a small burnpot as found in a pellet stove I wouldn`t think you could put much wood into it.

Eric,

Much better

Gio,

I wouldn't burn plywood in my woodstove-fireplace or outside fire pit.

You don't know what chemicals are in the binders that hold it together!

Don't breath in those fumes from the vent on that thing

jay

Burning plywood in a pellet stove. Just when I thought I'd heard everything. :-S Rick

Gutlo is your pellet stove installed under a bridge?

gutlo said:

...I don't burn ordinary firewood, because it has creosote and costs money.

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Creosote comes from burning wood. Doesn't matter if the wood is called "ordinary firewood" (whatever that means), or kiln-dried lumber scraps, or plywood...or pellets. Whether or not creosote is a problem depends on a host of factors, the primary one being moisture content of the fuel, but there are some other very important variables as well, having to do with burning practices and the physical characteristics of the appliance and the installation. Plywood, OSB, and other kindred manufactured forest products contain lots of glue (binders) that are not only bad for your burning installation/flue, but also for the environment. Rick

I'm always fascinated by posts like this. Will you keep us informed on a long term basis how this works for you? What about other burnables?
I also belong to a forum for diesel cars, and it always amazes me that people aren't satisfied with 50 mpg , they have to try to run their cars on the cheapest, most dangerous fuel they can get their hands on. Used cooking oil, kero, canola oil, lamp oil, used motor oil. I've seen an amazing amount of fail, even if 90% never report it, most just go away. If pellets are too expensive, use a different heating method. I'm sure most of us have a primary heat source that the pellet stove supplements. Please people, if you don't have a multi fuel stove, don't put anything but pellets in it. I don't care if someone intentionally misfuels a car, trashing the engine. Actually I kind of enjoy it, in a reverse kind of way. But misfueling a stove is life threatening, to at least one person, probably more.

gutlo said:

Glo,

The wood doesn't go into the burnpot. It just sits inside the combustion chamber and catches fire.
Eventually, it burns down to glowing coals, whereupon I open the door and insert more wood, which starts to burn almost immediately.

I've also burned different varieties of kiln dried scrap wood. I don't burn ordinary firewood, because it has creosote and costs money.

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Simply "Fascinating"! That`s the word.

Maybe I should try burning tires in my insert! :lol:

CTburns said:

Maybe I should try burning tires in my insert! :lol:

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Now thats what I call multi fuel!

I wonder how he gets those 4X8 sheets into the stove?

" I don’t burn ordinary firewood, because it has creosote and costs money. "
Firewood costs money?

webby3650 said:

" I don’t burn ordinary firewood, because it has creosote and costs money. "
Firewood costs money?

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He hasn't found his neighbor's wood pile yet...

have you tried burning any type of seeds with pellets yet?..maybe sunflower or some other type?I've thrown in a cube of hickory from my smoker outside..little cube maybe 2x2..HOLY #$%^&....I was afraid..very afraid on how hot it got....and I had heat set towards low end also...that was enough experimenting for me...not ready yet to melt my stove up..

Gio said:

gutlo said:

Glo,

The wood doesn't go into the burnpot. It just sits inside the combustion chamber and catches fire.
Eventually, it burns down to glowing coals, whereupon I open the door and insert more wood, which starts to burn almost immediately.

I've also burned different varieties of kiln dried scrap wood. I don't burn ordinary firewood, because it has creosote and costs money.

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Simply "Fascinating"! That`s the word.

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So do you think Harman will start selling a grate that will sit over the ash pan valley so we can burn logs?



Gutlo,
Can you please post some pictures of your setup burning plywood?

perhaps a rotissiere on the outside..it gets plenty hot enough..
I've seen woodstove with grills for bbq'n...why not pelletstove...ummmm the sweet smell of marinated roast beef drifting through my house...who needs air freshners

HarmanP68 said:

perhaps a rotissiere on the outside..it gets plenty hot enough..
I've seen woodstove with grills for bbq'n...why not pelletstove...ummmm the sweet smell of marinated roast beef drifting through my house...who needs air freshners

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I cook on my charcoal grill with wood, does that count? I try to use apple when I can get it, otherwise go with maple or hickory. I use paper to start the fire, and let it burn. I haven't tried pellets yet, and don't think I want to. Wood is good enough for me.

Old carpet burns great you just have to stuff it into the stove real fast before it lights up! Oh yeah only do it at night because your neighbor's will think the Titanic has just pulled up to its berth!

This thread does start me thinking ( dangerous ) Why not design and build a multi - fuel stove? I'd really like the option of switching to wood from pellets in my insert.

Haha all I can say is That's Not To Bright and Here's Your Sign..... I hope there are no Innocent bystanders around this Stove.