Limestone and corn stoves

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Tom Pencil

Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 30, 2008
159
Tipp City, Ohio
Was at the feedmill this morning. Conversation of corn and pellet stoves the owner said he had a guy buy ground limestone and sprinkles a little on his corn in his corn stove. The guy said that it reduces his clinkers and stove is cleaner. Anyone do this or at least hear of this? This was the first time I had heard of this. I burn mostly pellets and occasionally mix in a little corn. Just curious.
 
I have heard of oyster shells ground up, First I have heard of limestone though.
Might work???

jay
 
i dunno on limestone , never heard that one , like mentioned already corn stove users add about 1/4th cup crushed oyster shell to 80 lbs corn for higher moisture >14% moisture this helps attenuate clinker buildup with corn , i am not sure with pellets , never tried it
 
I guess you are thinking of mixing the limestone in with corn, right? In which case I'll assume you have a multi-fuel stove?

If your stove is a straight pellet stove, I would be careful about doing this. Most of the limestone that I have seen is in a powder form. If your stove does not handle the pellet "fines" very well don't throw in a dry powder. Every mechanical part it touches will probably start squeling. My guess (since I don't burn corn) is that the oyster shells are ground up, but still in a coarse state.
 
Oyster Shell

Generic Name: calcium carbonate

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO3).
 
Oyster shell will not work in a pellet only stove. Some folks use oyster shells in their corn stoves/furnaces to soften up the klinkers. Pellets mixed with the corn will do the same thing.
 
The only limestone I use goes on the fields or sprinkled ine pens/stalls after cleaning. Did not consider using lime in my Harman Insert but I have put corn in 10-15% with no problems. Dealer that also works on the stoves said that he has tried up to 25% corn in same stove and with no problems other than being dirtier.

The limestone just got my attention cause the guy at the mill was talking about it.

Thanks for the responses.
 
I read elsewhere that limestone will work the same as oyster shell, although I have never used it. Both would work fine in my stove but I understand you have to be careful about larger chunks of either material as they could harm some augers and their sleeves.
 
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