First dirty burn of the year...Guess which brand of pellets I started using last night?

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That's right Cleanfire Supremes. I hate to keep harping on this, but it is what it is.

I have been burning Pennington's and the stove has been nice and clean, I throw in a bag of "cleanfire" and suddenly my stove looks filthy, and I have a very yellowish, dirty flame.

Mark
 
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"
 
For some reason, on my stove the Penningtons burn very clean. I can't change the amount of air on my stove unless I turn up the combustion fan to draw more. For that, I think I need a flow meter or something.

The stove burns cleanly with Penningtons, Lignetics, Hamer Hot ones, Southern States Statesman, Stove Chow, Freedom Fuel, etc. All of this on feed rate 4.

The only pellets that burn dirty for me are Cleanfire Supremes, and Appling County Pellets (ACP) I don't know if I want to buy a meter to adjust combustion fan speed for just one pellet brand.

In the past(all last year), I have tried turning the feedrate down to no avail. I really played with the feed rate all year last year to try and get a clean burn. This year, once I am out of the 41 bags of Cleanfires, the problem will be gone.

I hate to keep harping on this, but I had to say something when I saw the difference.
 
Pellet-King said:
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"

With number 2, and 3 I am assuming that is your pellet feed rate, am I correct?

So on your stove, is 2 a lower feed rate than 3, as it would be on my stove?
 
mark d fellows said:
This year, once I am out of the 41 bags of Cleanfires, the problem will be gone.

Why wait until their gone and be unhappy the whole time....mix them 25%/75% Cleanfire/other better brand until their gone.
 
imacman said:
mark d fellows said:
This year, once I am out of the 41 bags of Cleanfires, the problem will be gone.

Why wait until their gone and be unhappy the whole time....mix them 25%/75% Cleanfire/other better brand until their gone.

Yeah, I thought of that, but then I thought, maybe I want to try and adjust the stove so they don't burn so dirty. It didn't work last year, but maybe some how this year...

Maybe I will just mix them, but I found that even mixing them with other pellets makes a dirty burn.

they do burn, and they aren't as bad as ACP, but they are just a very dirty burning and fine ridden pellet.


Mark :)
 
Generally the Harman stove owners say there Harmans will burn just about anything. There not supposed to be pellet picky in other words. You sure yours is all clean and tidy? I'll use kroosers line here. 80% of stove issues are caused by dirty stoves. :)

I have burned the NEWPs in my Omega and found them to be slightly better than the pennies as far as ash and heat output. The NEWPs are the makers of the cleanfire hardwoods. NEWP also bags the WarmFronts.
 
Some pellets do burn way dirtier than others. Are these the damaged bags you had?

IMO- give the stove a good cleaning then mix the CleanFires in with another brand till they are gone.
If I was closer, I would take them off your hands... ;-)
 
j-takeman said:
Generally the Harman stove owners say there Harmans will burn just about anything. There not supposed to be pellet picky in other words. You sure yours is all clean and tidy? I'll use kroosers line here. 80% of stove issues are caused by dirty stoves. :)

I have burned the NEWPs in my Omega and found them to be slightly better than the pennies as far as ash and heat output. The NEWPs are the makers of the cleanfire hardwoods. NEWP also bags the WarmFronts.

I guarantee my stove is clean. I clean it very well. It isn't an issue with cleanliness when one brand burns cleanly one night, and the next you switch to another brand, and suddenly you have a dirty burn.

The stove does burn fine, it is just a dirty burn.

Mark :)
 
tinkabranc said:
Some pellets do burn way dirtier than others. Are these the damaged bags you had?

IMO- give the stove a good cleaning then mix the CleanFires in with another brand till they are gone.
If I was closer, I would take them off your hands... ;-)

...and I would love to let you take them off my hands.
 
mark d fellows said:
Pellet-King said:
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"

With number 2, and 3 I am assuming that is your pellet feed rate, am I correct?

So on your stove, is 2 a lower feed rate than 3, as it would be on my stove?

Mark more than the feed rate varies on Pellet-Kings stove when he changes his setting from 2 to 3.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
mark d fellows said:
Pellet-King said:
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"

With number 2, and 3 I am assuming that is your pellet feed rate, am I correct?

So on your stove, is 2 a lower feed rate than 3, as it would be on my stove?

Mark more than the feed rate varies on Pellet-Kings stove when he changes his setting from 2 to 3.

I know, or at least I got that impression. The only thing I can play with is the pellet feed. Right after posting that, I though he might be talking about some combustion motor speed or something.

I wish I had that. I would just crank up the oxygen by turning up the combustion motor for a leaner burn.

Mark :)
 
mark d fellows said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
mark d fellows said:
Pellet-King said:
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"

With number 2, and 3 I am assuming that is your pellet feed rate, am I correct?

So on your stove, is 2 a lower feed rate than 3, as it would be on my stove?

Mark more than the feed rate varies on Pellet-Kings stove when he changes his setting from 2 to 3.

I know, or at least I got that impression. The only thing I can play with is the pellet feed. Right after posting that, I though he might be talking about some combustion motor speed or something.

I wish I had that. I would just crank up the oxygen by turning up the combustion motor for a leaner burn.

Mark :)

Your stove has a maximum feed rate setting after that the sensor (ESP) in the exhaust path along with the control board determines how to handle the combustion process.

Your stove also has a set of adjustments that can be used to properly set the combustion process for differences in voltage and altitude, etc ....

Your stove may actually need a bit of minor adjustments, especially if it was self installed or if installed at a different location sold and moved.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
mark d fellows said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
mark d fellows said:
Pellet-King said:
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"

With number 2, and 3 I am assuming that is your pellet feed rate, am I correct?

So on your stove, is 2 a lower feed rate than 3, as it would be on my stove?

Mark more than the feed rate varies on Pellet-Kings stove when he changes his setting from 2 to 3.

I know, or at least I got that impression. The only thing I can play with is the pellet feed. Right after posting that, I though he might be talking about some combustion motor speed or something.

I wish I had that. I would just crank up the oxygen by turning up the combustion motor for a leaner burn.

Mark :)

Your stove has a maximum feed rate setting after that the sensor (ESP) in the exhaust path along with the control board determines how to handle the combustion process.

Your stove also has a set of adjustments that can be used to properly set the combustion process for differences in voltage and altitude, etc ....

Your stove may actually need a bit of minor adjustments, especially if it was self installed or if installed at a different location sold and moved.

Sorry didn't mean to be a know it all. I have read as much as I could about the stove before I bought it and did ask the installer if they set the draft setting after installing like the manual said, and they said no, because they had found over the years that it was never a problem.

So, even though they installed it, they did not set the the draft setting as a function of voltage. However, I do have a good 120 volts out of the wall, so hopefully, that is the same as the factory from which it was built.

If I had the tools, I might tinker with it, but since it burns clean with all other pellets, I am pretty sure it is the pellets, not the draft setting that is causing a dirty burn.

I was however curios as to the feed rate actually doing anything in Room Temp mode. I couldn't figure how that would come into play unless it is a feed auger SPEED setting, instead of just a feed auger TIMING setting.

I didn't know which it was.

perhaps if I set the stove in STOVE TEMP mode, I would have more control, but I will just wait until the pellets are gone. After this hopper, I don't plan on burning them until the middle of the winter, and then after they are gone, I will switch to the other ton of Penningtons.

If you look at my title, you can see I have tried a lot of different brands of pellets.

I have burned hardwood, softwood, and a mix. The Cleanfire's are one of the three worst pellets I have burned.

I have tried to list the pellets in my signature according to rating of best to worst.

Thanks for the help, and I know that people (including myself) just can't help but try to offer solutions and help, but I am just being a whiner right now.

Thanks for the info!

Mark :)
 
Hi Mark.

I spent too much time in the same situation. Poor pellets just aren't worth it at any price. When I first bought
my P-68, I used Cubex. They worked well but there wasn't a local dealer. I tried Energex the next year and
they were very ashy, requiring daily burn pot cleaning. The next year I loaded up with NEWP Green Supreme.
They were awesome. Good heat, low ash. The year after I tried "Cleanfire" only to discover they weren't. LG
worked pretty well so last year I bought a few tons of what was supposed to be "the same thing". Wrong again.
It was like being back with Energex. This year I found a comparison chart that rated the major pellet brands
available. I saw that up at the top, along with Cubex, was a brand called Okanagan. According to the data, they
produced high heat and little ash. So I tried them. Bro, this is like being back on NEWP Green Supremes. The
ash, even after 3 or 4 days, is insignificant. Flame is still bright and active. Now it may not matter on some pellet
stoves, but on my P-68 the right pellet means everything. And I'm relieved I have finally landed on a pellet that
lives up to the marketing hype. I haven't cranked up the PB 105 yet, but I'm confident the Okies will burn as
well there as in the P-68. If anyone out there wants to see just how well these burn (and you're local to Wilmot),
let me know and I'll give you directions. You really have to see it to appreciate how well they burn.

Best regards,

Mike
 
Pellet-ier said:
Hi Mark.

I spent too much time in the same situation. Poor pellets just aren't worth it at any price. When I first bought
my P-68, I used Cubex. They worked well but there wasn't a local dealer. I tried Energex the next year and
they were very ashy, requiring daily burn pot cleaning. The next year I loaded up with NEWP Green Supreme.
They were awesome. Good heat, low ash. The year after I tried "Cleanfire" only to discover they weren't. LG
worked pretty well so last year I bought a few tons of what was supposed to be "the same thing". Wrong again.
It was like being back with Energex. This year I found a comparison chart that rated the major pellet brands
available. I saw that up at the top, along with Cubex, was a brand called Okanagan. According to the data, they
produced high heat and little ash. So I tried them. Bro, this is like being back on NEWP Green Supremes. The
ash, even after 3 or 4 days, is insignificant. Flame is still bright and active. Now it may not matter on some pellet
stoves, but on my P-68 the right pellet means everything. And I'm relieved I have finally landed on a pellet that
lives up to the marketing hype. I haven't cranked up the PB 105 yet, but I'm confident the Okies will burn as
well there as in the P-68. If anyone out there wants to see just how well these burn (and you're local to Wilmot),
let me know and I'll give you directions. You really have to see it to appreciate how well they burn.

Best regards,

Mike

I have heard lots of really good things about those Okanagan's. If they were near me, I would be sure to snatch some up!

Mark :)
 
mark d fellows said:
Pellet-King said:
Penningtons dirty too, overnight burn on #2 glass clouded over, Unless i burn on #3 glass is crap in a 1/2 day anyway.
Sounds like you need more air, my friend has a Breckwell P23 and he's always fooling with the damper on a daily basis, i never move my "rod"

With number 2, and 3 I am assuming that is your pellet feed rate, am I correct?

So on your stove, is 2 a lower feed rate than 3, as it would be on my stove?


Correct on my whitfield i can adjust the auger or heat settings seperate of the fan speeds, so I have 5 heat/auger speeds and 5 fan/blower speeds.
 
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