Cherry Pits

Does anyone in central PA burn cherry pits. i have a quad mt vernon AE...runs like a dream and heats even better. Was going to try and burn pits. We have local dealer here that sells them but wanted to get some more pricing. Gotta love competition.

Just curious - how much are the pits?

they are selling for 150.00 a ton. vs. 190.00 a ton for pellets. Pits come in one big 1 ton container though. need to store...vs. pellets in the standard 40 lb. bags.

Can anyone out there who are using Cherry Pits comment on the formation of clinkers - especially if they're using a Quadrafire Castile? Also - what is the BTU difference between Cherry Pits and wood pellets (I know they're about 8500- 9600BTUs). That seems to be a dynamite price if all factors are in the positive.

I would not burn cherry pits unless your stove is a biomass stove. if you do a search on filbert shells on the forum you should be able to find one that I posted a while back and mountainstoveguy responded about it.

edit - i did the search for the thread, http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/6697/

you CAN control feed rate to cumbustion air ratio on a Harmon stove.

Burning the latest and greatest Mt Vernon AE here.

Well....i picked up 1 ton of those cherry pits on thursday night. WOW...what a mistake that was. they burn like crap. they come in a large bag that you need to seperate them from and store. the bag was wet. the pits were a mix of wet and dry depending were they where in the bag. some have a moldy, musty smell to them. i am mixing them with pellets at about 80 pits/20 pellets. not putting off much heat though. going to pick up some pellets to mix a higher ratio i believe. any imput or thoughts on this matter.

did the dealer specify that these were for burning? if he did, get him to come pick them up & give you your money back. Just like if you bought wet pellets

Well here is the update. Waited a week and after very little dry out I took a small bag into the dealer. He gave me 35 bags of Wood Pellets. At 4.28 a bag that equals the price of the cherry pits. Makes me alittle happier. Almost 3/4 of a ton. I am not burning the pits and pellets at a 50/50 mix or close to it. Burning good now.

You are or are not mixing them in the pellets? Just curious

i am mixing them at this time. buring good but not like i would like.