Harmon, Quadra, Country Stoves, St. Croix pellet stoves?

Call me crazy but I just don't see all these headaches burning corn and as I have said I burn both. Corn can get wet and it dries out and burns ok, pellets will give you a bag of sawdust. I know as Ihave one right here now that I toss some in to help start the thing sometimes. As for rodents I leave mine sitting in the garage with the door open most of the time or in the back of the pickup, I never saw a mous around but I do have a few cats, not that that stops them. I live in a hay field so there are plenty around. Also in my experience I find that mice will go after the pellets rather than the corn. Again its not such a big deal as if they ate their fill all winter how much would it represent? You should have Decon out no matter where you live or what you heat with anyways to keep them from causing trouble with your wiring. Lastly if you think you can keep them out by sealing up the house my hat is off to you cause it's not goint to happen. I do clean the stove about once a month in the busy burn season and clean out in the back of the flue area where it builds up. No big deal and from what I heaf that is something of a Countryside issue. If you waant animal issues try racoons. They do make a mess but again will do it to your garbabe in as quick a time and make just as much mess. I just exported 7 of them in the last week to a big forrested areax a few miles away.
I use standard pellet vent with mine all $200 of it an in 2 years its still in good shape. To change that out is all of a half hour's work tops so its a minor consideration. About the most corrosion I have is some light staining from 2 years useage. Mine does call for simple p vent per the manual. Mine will only wirk with a White Rogers setback stat as I found out the hard way. Another thing with mine is that if it goes out you have to relight it which I don't mind. Shutdown is nice yea but most of the heating season that low setting is needed to keep from freezing anyways so just let it run like a diesel truck. To start mine I found the best way is a fist full of pellets and a turbo brazing torch ( propane). That fires it up quick with no gels or other expensive hassles. It costs me about 1 handheld bottle of propane for the season which is peanuts
FWIW I see that they are selling those countrysides via internet sales again which they haven't in some time. Check the ads at the top of the page on the iburncorn forum section, I think its Zooger or something like that. Sells for $2100 and they were going for $2600 aroound here last year. Not hard to install either I might add. Anyways got to run to an appointment. Good luck, don't wait till Fall or get out your wallet.

liv said:

Since we need a big stove the Harman P68 seems to be "the one" for us. We haven't seen anything else that is that size in corn or pellets except a basement-type furnace. We can burn some corn if we need to, and if available. Around here in MA I haven't found many people selling corn fuel. Pellets are the norm. Yes, we definitely would BUY EARLY! If we go through with the purchase, we would do it in the next few weeks, and pre-purchase at least 4 tons of pellets, stuffing them into every nook and cranny in the garage. ;-) Hmmm...do wood pellets attract carpenter ants and termites?

Now, how does one know which brand of pellet will burn best in this particular stove?? It would be very bad to buy 4 tons of pellets and then find out they don't burn well in the P68. Cleaning the unit won't be an issue because we are pretty good about maintenance in general, and especially with something that could be a fire hazard.

Has anyone ever seen this unit ordered in a color other than black? I wonder how the paint holds up.

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yup.....seen the P68 in many colors....some seem to "hold up" better than others...worst one Ive seen is Mojave red, its darkens a fair amount with heat. The others...FOrest Green, Charcoal Black, Goldenfire Brown, Honeyglow, Patriot Blue.....all hold up well, and most stove outfits also sell the Stove Bright paint which matches....due to scratching of an old cast iron pot my wife uses on top of my Forest Green P61, I repaint the top every year...comes out fine.
4 tons is a good place to start...I burn 5 tons/year, but it also supplies all my heat....early is important.....early is now or soon....not August. Ive not seen ants or termites attracted to pellets...yet.
I have checked around quite abit for corn in my area, in bulk its not easily attainable, unless Im willing to travel abt 50 miles one way, then shovel it into bins at the house. When I was younger, I worked in a feed store. We sold pretty good amounts of corn then, bagged. Rodents? Yeah....big as cats....I lived in fear that one would jump on me from one of the overhead beams. Its really not a matter of if, but when they find it...and when they do............

As for pellets, the p68 will burn anything from Premium hardwoods to premium softwoods, to standard grade pellets, to industrial pellets! Not very many stoves will do that. Thats one plug for bottom-feed stoves...they are less finicky about that they burn. Id reccommend starting out with a Premium hardwood pellet....see what your store reccommends....they usually wont sell a pellet that doesnt burn well in their stoves.

Im thinking of trying some corn in my stove this winter, but im worried with my arthritis, that ill have a hard time opening all those cans!

Liv, you are going to find all kinds of folks who profess their fuel/stove of choice is the best/greenest/cheapest, etc., including us pellet folks. I suppose there are folks burning dried cow dung, like the Native Americans used to burn buffalo dung, and theyd likely tell you its the finest, cheapest, greenest, hottest fuel available. Some arguments are quite valid, such as the wood scroungers here, who get their fuel for free, minus their sweat equity. Just do what your gut tells you, and you should be fine. As for me, Id be real curious after a year, to see how you are doing! Good luck!

liv said:

HarryBack said:

yup.....seen the P68 in many colors....some seem to "hold up" better than others...worst one Ive seen is Mojave red, its darkens a fair amount with heat.

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Ever seen the metallic blue? The stove is quite utilitarian in appearance that I thought it might look a little better in another color. I am sure black is the most functional though. Perhaps the blue would darken?

HarryBack said:

I burn 5 tons/year, but it also supplies all my heat.

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How much square footage are you heating with this?

HarryBack said:

As for me, Id be real curious after a year, to see how you are doing!

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Yes, me too! Thanks.

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No, never seen metallic blue.....as for functionality, color is irrelevant anyways.Im heating about 2000 square feet with mine (P61).
Again, good luck!

Mine will burn about anything as well but remember one thing, price means nothing with pellets. Some of the best I found are from WALLYWORLD and the absolute worst ( as well as the most expensive) came from AGWAY. Those Agway pellets were "premium hardwood" too and they sold for over $5. The ones from Wallyworld and Sams Club were always best though they were hard to get in quantity and stocked only from Nov on very sporadicly. I had trouble getting enough just to get me by until I could go get a truck load of corn.
If you have a pickup or fairly sturdy trailer you can haul your own pellets quite easilty,. Just be aware that while a 1/2 to Chevy with booster springs ( like mine) will easily haul a ton the pallets these days are 1.5 tons. I assume that its so they can get more in the truck as they can't double stack them. You will have to break the load down and spread it around the bed of the truck to load. A ton of wood pellets or corn due to its low center of gravity and distribution doesn't seem to affect the vehicle at all besides braking distance.
If you get interested in burning corn in that Harmon take a look in the iburncorn archives and you will see just what to do, where to look and how much corn your stove will handle. At just about half the cost you will find that its something to seriously consider. BTW another corn trick is to pour and stirr in a cup of cheapo vegetable oil if it has trouble running on low settings. Don't ask me to explain it I just know it works like a charm and harms nothing. When you hook yours up don't settle for a dumb thermostat, get a setback. Otherwise if you have wimmin running around the house they will be running for the oil burners thermostat unless you break all their arms. Those stoves, all of em, just don't work fast enough to bring up heat in a cold house, ya gotta start early and make them wimmin put some long johns on...........................................................

Driz said:

BTW another corn trick is to pour and stirr in a cup of cheapo vegetable oil if it has trouble running on low settings. .

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Wouldn't this cause popcorn to come flying out the chimney????? :lol: