P43 Question

Ohio P43 · Nov 5, 2009

I just received my first pellet stove, a P43 and couldn't be happier. The dealer seemed very knowledgeable and they installed it too. The question is this...the dealer said it is absolutely no problem to burn a 50/50 mix of corn and wood pellets. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Delta-T · Nov 5, 2009

agreed, should be no problem. You may have to tweak your feed adjuster setting down a notch, and scrape your burnpot a lil more frequently, but aside from that, feed it some corn as see what happens.

mnkywrnch · Nov 5, 2009

Just make sure your venting is rated for corn as it is very corrosive.

Ohio P43 · Nov 6, 2009

Thanks for the replies but I now have an issue. I had to turn down the feed adjuster to 1 and the 50/50 mix is not staying lit. The stove fires up OK but the burn pot becomes very full within a few minutes and the fire slowly dies out. Unless I remove about 1/2 of the pellets from the burn pot it will not relight (in auto mode). Not sure if the feed adjuster is just too fast (can't turn it down any further) or if the pellets are not burning quick enough. Before I added the corn, the stove seemed to work fine however, I was using an inferior pellet with the speed adjuster on 5. According to the dealer, the wood pellet I am now using is a much better grade (they also supplied the corn). Any help would be appreciated.

rona · Nov 6, 2009

What moisture is the corn? It sounds to me like the corn could be a little to high moisture. Maybe try 75% pellets and 25% corn

Ohio P43 · Nov 6, 2009

I thought about the corn moisture but how is that measured?

rona · Nov 6, 2009

This isn't meant to be flippent but there is a tool called a moisture tester that most famers and grain elevators have. They take a small sample of kernals and put it in the tester and it reads the moisture. 15.5 is the norm for nu2 corn. That is about the right moisture that you can store corn without it spoiling. But 12-13% is perfect for burning. Some stoves are made to burn 100% corn and others are pellet stoves that you can burn some corn together with pellets.
I am guessing your corn is a little wet and that is why I suggested to try a 75-25 mix instead of 50-50.
A old fashioned way of telling if the corn is dry enough it to crush a kernel with a plier. If it shatters it is dry enough but if it mushes then it is wet and won't burn.

HEMI · Nov 6, 2009

rona said:
What moisture is the corn? It sounds to me like the corn could be a little to high moisture. Maybe try 75% pellets and 25% corn

when i bought my 43 i asked him about mixing corn and he said to use a 75/25 ratio

Ohio P43 · Nov 6, 2009

rona said:
That is about the right moisture that you can store corn without it spoiling. But 12-13% is perfect for burning.

I will try the 75/25 mix and hope that works in addition to crushing a kernel or two with a pair of pliers to check moisture content. Rona mentioned something about the corn spoiling. Looks like I will have quite a bit of corn left over for next year if I burn a 75/25 mix. The corn is sealed in 50lb. thick paper bags. Will this spoil to the point where it can't be burned next year? I live in Ohio and should know these answers but...

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm an old wood burner and could talk hours and give advice on that subject but this is all new to me.

Delta-T · Nov 6, 2009

it can spoil to the pont of being useless, as it will ferment. Likely the chipmuncks and squirrels and other critters will find it long before that time comes, LOL. Feed adjuster at 1 is too low for any type of "normal" operation. good luck

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