I did an overnight test burn of corn in the Baby last night with good results. (yes I was lucky enough to still have a good amount of corn at good prices so I burn both corn and pellets)
I have the corn firepot and haven't permanently modified it for pellets so I "unmodded" it and filled the hopper up about 1/3 of the way with corn. I moved the jumper back over to the factory setting on pins 3-4. The Baby didn't do so good as it seemed like I just couldn't get it enough fuel so I moved the pins back to 1-2 and tried again.
At first I think I was trying to bring temps up way too fast as my burn pot was filling quickly. I tried more air, but would get the #2 blinky vacuum switch error.
After finding the sweet spot for the damper and letting the pot burn itself down (and a couple of manual stirs) I went ahead and switched her over to the t-stat. When calling for heat, I had it feeding at heat level 3. The corn would appear to really build up, but when watching it closely I'd notice a hole in the center starting to form. Soon the "pile" would settle and fall back down and look just fine. When the t-stat reached temp and she went down to pilot (still burning with auger trim on low), my fire maintained nicely and the corn was burning down very well.
I filled the hopper with corn and let her go for the night....just went out and she was still burning well with a surprisingly low coal bed in the firepot. I shut it down because I don't really need the heat in the garage right now as it's supposed to be in the 40's here for several days. When it cools down I'll see what kind of klinker formed and what it's like to remove. I suspect it won't be bad for the short burn time...about 16hrs total.
So fellas with the Baby...don't be afraid to try other fuel sources. A little tweaking of the air was all it took to burn the corn well. I think it's a simple yet versatile little stove.
I have the corn firepot and haven't permanently modified it for pellets so I "unmodded" it and filled the hopper up about 1/3 of the way with corn. I moved the jumper back over to the factory setting on pins 3-4. The Baby didn't do so good as it seemed like I just couldn't get it enough fuel so I moved the pins back to 1-2 and tried again.
At first I think I was trying to bring temps up way too fast as my burn pot was filling quickly. I tried more air, but would get the #2 blinky vacuum switch error.
After finding the sweet spot for the damper and letting the pot burn itself down (and a couple of manual stirs) I went ahead and switched her over to the t-stat. When calling for heat, I had it feeding at heat level 3. The corn would appear to really build up, but when watching it closely I'd notice a hole in the center starting to form. Soon the "pile" would settle and fall back down and look just fine. When the t-stat reached temp and she went down to pilot (still burning with auger trim on low), my fire maintained nicely and the corn was burning down very well.
I filled the hopper with corn and let her go for the night....just went out and she was still burning well with a surprisingly low coal bed in the firepot. I shut it down because I don't really need the heat in the garage right now as it's supposed to be in the 40's here for several days. When it cools down I'll see what kind of klinker formed and what it's like to remove. I suspect it won't be bad for the short burn time...about 16hrs total.
So fellas with the Baby...don't be afraid to try other fuel sources. A little tweaking of the air was all it took to burn the corn well. I think it's a simple yet versatile little stove.
