Wood pellets in a wood stove

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Maple man

Burning Hunk
Can you throw a scoop or two of pellets in a wood stove to
Get it going hot or burn down the coals thank you
 
Yes you can and I have done it , they take off pretty fast on hot coals.

I use them in my homemade fire starters by making a little pile in the middle of 2 paper towels for double thick extra absorbency then pulling up the 4 corners into a tear drop shape and tape it closed. Then wet the bottom with left over cooking oil.
 
There was a thread last year with videos of a forum member burning pellets in his stove. Do a search for it. I think the key was having some sort of basket that held the pellets off the bottom of the firebox and contained the pellets in one small constricted area.
 
If you want to play around with the idea of Burning pellets Target and Walmart in the cooking sections have those stainless steel bowls with a bunch of holes in it for straining. They are like 10" bowls and will hold a good plenty of the pellets to try it out. They cost around $8

Then if you like the idea you can look at these:

http://www.thepelleteer.com/

People are inventing devices to put in a wood stove to make them a pellet burner.

http://www.google.com/patents/about/5941234_Combustion_cage_for_wood_pellet.html?id=5_IYAAAAEBAJ

or this one:

http://www.google.com/patents/US20100242941?dq=pellets+in+wood+stove&ei=uBUYT5OoLqGW2AXez4HyCw
 
I'm using them right now. I throw scoops right on the hot coals then put on the logs.
 
Have you found one brand to be better than others? I know the pellet burners seem to prefer certain brands over others.
 
Go to the pellet forum for more info than you can imagine about pellet brand comparisons.
 
BeGreen said:
Go to the pellet forum for more info than you can imagine about pellet brand comparisons.

Oh yeah, been there when we were thinking about a pellet stove. But seeing as how that's all specific to running them in pellet stoves I figured I'd ask about running them in wood stoves-thought there might be differences in how they act between the two, since the wood stoves aren't really made for them.
 
Remember that pellet stoves need air injection to make the pellets burn efficiently. You really can't burn pellets full time efficiently in a stove not designed for it.
 
When I want to get a nice, hot fire going . . . I burn some softwood or just some smaller split stuff for that quick, hot fire.

When I want to burn down the coals . . . I toss on a single small split and open up the air.

When I want to burn some wood pellets . . . I will buy a wood pellet stove. Just saying . . . you can do it . . . but it seems to me that there are better working alternatives.
 
I don't know that I'd do it often (or even at all), but you never know what could happen and it's always nice to have a backup-backup plan (my back up plan to my wood is ecobricks, so my back up backup plan might be pellets-since we have no furnace, I like to be over prepared). I mean, I don't know what could happen that I might need them, but...what if someone stole my wood and ecobricks?! Or even enough that we were short...scary and I doubt it would happen, but since the stove and VF fireplace are all we've got...I don't want to freeze my pipes (or myself for that matter, although we could always go back to the "old house")!
 
Remember, envi blocks and similar are just big pellets. If I was going to spend money on something other than firewood for the stove, I'd be buying blocks instead of pellets.

There was a fella this fall that experimented with them in a basket and had mediocre at best results if I remember.

This should be the link I was thinking about from this fall https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/80133/

pen
 
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