Barefoots -- lots of dark ash

[mrjohneel]

I've had my stove -- Harman P35i -- since mid January and have burned about a bag a day of almost exclusively Barefoots. All in all I'm happy with the stove, the heat I'm getting, and the experimentation I've been performing with small fans to move heat around my house. But here's the thing: the Barefoots produce a lot of ash. By that I mean I get a lot of black ash in my firepot (which I brush off a few times a day) and after a week I have to empty my ash pan. Now the cleaning doesn't bother me; I've been kind of fanatical about it. But should I be concerned about the dark, clumpy black ash? The other pellets I've burned (see signature) produced a lighter ash and, I think, less ash even though they're all considered inferior to Barefoots.

I should also note that I have an OAK and get a strong bright flame when I burn (not the dreaded lazy orange flame). Again, I'm not complaining, but for all the favorable talk of Barefoots, I think they're kind of expensive for the dirty-glass, clumpy and voluminous amount of ash they produce.

 

[fmsm]

I've tried many different pellets in my p35i this year. I find they all dirty the glass very quickly, Softwoods (Oakies, McFeeters etc) produce a lighter fluffier ash than the hardwoods (Barefoot, Logik-E, Cubix, etc) do. All of the "super premium" pellets produce similar heat and amount of ash (Oakies a little less ash but not much). I scrape, vac, and clean my stove weekly and my ashpan after a week is maybe 1/3rd full. I could easily go 2 or three weeks if I wanted. I have been burning primarily Barefoot pellets the past 5 or 6 weeks.

 

[Andy P.]

ive burned alot of different stuff in my advance this year as well. other than newp, everything has been top shelf stuff. i have burned a whole ton of barefoots. as the above poster said, there isnt a whole lot of difference between them as far as ash and making the glass dirty. newp do produce noticably more ash though. i have a feeling the warm spell in the next few days will signal the end of winter which is too bad, i wanted to try vermonts and cubex before my early season pellet purchase in a few months.