My saga continue... This is the e-mail that I sent this morning:
[email protected]
Gary Webster" <
[email protected]>
Michelle Shields" <
[email protected]>
[email protected]
Hello Everyone,
Can we please put our heads together and work on figuring out if there is a problem with Potomac Premium Wood Pellets, my Lopi Leyden Pellet Stove Serial Number 2105-000487, the user, or some combination of the above?
As some of you are aware my stove stopped functioning earlier in the winter after I had burned about 20 bags(maybe 30 bags – I did not count) of fuel. Most of this fuel had been the Potomac Premium Wood Pellets that I purchased from Lowes in Banner Elk, NC.
A repair that took two weeks to get completed was performed. The auger motor was replaced. There was saw dust in the auger. I personally do not know how to determine what is an acceptable and what is an unacceptable amount of saw dust. I have used pellets from three different manufacturers and each bag has had varying amounts of saw dust in the bottom of the bag. (Last year Lowes had a different supplier of pellets, I have picked up 10 bags of hardwood pellets at Sounthern States since this repair was performed.) I do believe that there has been more saw dust in the bottom of the Potomac pellet bags than the others, but I am not sure of this. I also believe that a fuse on the motor board was replaced as part of this repair.
Last Saturday I returned to my home and burned a bag of the hardwood pellets in my stove. This bag burned to completion. I then tried to burn a mix that was heavy on the hardwood pellets and had about 15 cups of the Potomac pellets that I had strained for saw dust in a spaghetti strainer. There was not any saw dust from the Potomac pellets in this mix. There was some saw dust from the hardwood pellets in this mix. The stove did not work at first. The auger did not deliver pellets. I removed about half the hopper full of pellets, restarted the stove, and it ran.
I burned the stove with a mix of hardwood and Potomac Pellets for a day and a half. Then the blower stopped working. Smoke was coming out of the stove because the blower was not working.(Not enough to really concern me, just enough to make me think it would be a good idea to unplug the stove) I turned the stove off and unplugged it. The next day I plugged the stove back in and none of the lights were working on the control panel.
The fuse in the back of the stove was replaced. The stove worked. I burned one hopper full of a mix of Potomac and hardwood pellets. It worked fine.
I reloaded the hoper before going bed- again with a mix of Potomac and hardwood pellets. It was a cold windy night in the mountains. I turned the stove on high.
When I woke up in the morning, the stove was off. There were still pellets in the hoper. I cleaned out the burn pot which was full of residue. It looked to me like the stove had likely stopped because the burn pot had residue over the igniter spot. Again I really do not know.
I cleaned out the stove and topped off the hoper. Again I was using a mix of about 2/3 hardwood pellets and 1/3 Potomac pellets. Every Potomac pellet that I put in the hoper had been sifted for saw dust. The pellets appeared to be in good shape, compact, etc.
When I attempted to turn the stove on, the pellets did not feed. I pulled the cleaner of the heat exchanger in and out a few time to loosen up the pellets. I also attempted to stir the pellets a little with a piece from my vacuum cleaner. The pellets still did not feed.
I have since removed about a third of the pellets from the hoper and the pellets still are not feeding. I was able to get some saw dust from where the pellets feed. I am not sure where this saw dust was generated from. To me it seemed like it came from the Potomac pellets. Again I am no expert. I think the saw dust was somehow created during the burn process.
The Potomac pellets carry a premium label and stamps indicating membership in both the Pellet Fuel Institute and the Hearth, Patio, and Barbeque Association. Based on my conversation with Chuck the owner of High Country Chimney who did my installation, these stamps should be an indication of high quality pellets.
After my first repair I spoke to Michelle at Potomac Pelllets. She was quite willing to help me. She was aware that there had been at least one other issue with their pellets from Lowes and that the problem likely came from how Lowes had stored the pellets. She indicated that she would have Lowes deliver 50 bags of fresh Potomac pellets to me and that she would have them deliver them to my door. I thought this was fantastic.
Because Chuck had mentioned to me that there were issues with softwood pellets, I double checked with the pellet stove institute about the Potomac Pellets. The representative that I spoke to at the Pellet stove institute indicated that he was familiar with the Potomac pellets and knew of no reason why I should not use them.
Some how in the translation with Lowes and Potomac Pellets. The delivery turned into delivering 25 bags of pellets from the same stock that I had gotten pellets from before. I already have a spare bedroom with 30 bags of Potomac pellets. I did speak with Michelle again and she indicated that if the pellets did not seem to be full of saw dust or clumpy that she though they were fine.
I choose not to have the pellets delivered.
As some of you also know, I am a 46 year old woman and there are 64 steps to my front door. Carrying down 30 bags of pellets it a daunting tasks to me. This is why I have wanted so hard to burn the pellets that I have. My hope has been to burn through the 30 bags of Potomac Pellets that I have.
I really wish that there was a way that I could figure out if my problems are related to the pellets or the stove(or the user, etc.).
I do have a full bag of the hardwood pellets in my house. I also have 4 bags of the hardwood pellets in my car which in below a hill step hill covered with 20 inches of snow and then up 64 steps. I am going to remove all the pellets from my stove and then try burning just hardwood pellets. I will let everyone know if this is successful.
A reason that I am sharing this information with everyone and will probably post it on the hearth.com website as well is that I understand that there are many new suppliers of pellets and
