Can you have too big of a stove?

[boosted3g]

Ever since the show your ash thread i have been keeping an eye on the color of my ash learning that the dark ash im getting now is a sign that im not getting everything i can out of the pellet. Temps have only been dropping into the 20s at night and the upper 40s during the day. During the day it is just on a maintenance burn and really only works a little bit at night. I thought i would try something new last night and turn the harman thermostat up a few degrees and see what happens. I checked out the ash this morning and the color is a little more gray like its ideally supposed to look like. With that being said my upstairs was 74 degrees so i dont want to lean only the stove any more for a more effecient burn because the house will be 80 degrees so is there a way to burn more effeciently at lower heat levels. My house is only 1800 square feet, built in 1994 and ive replaced all the windows with new Pellas, and blew an additional 10 inches of atticat for a total of 14 inches of insulation. Is this P61 too big or wait till the dead of winter and be glad i got it rather that a p38

 

[MCPO]

I don`t think any pellet stove burns as efficiently at low settings vs mid -higher settings either when being lab tested or in a home environment but you have to compromise somewhere.
Few of us are willing to burn more pellets to get more heat we don`t necessarily always need just for the sake of efficiency.
I burn my Harman on low much of the time but a couple hrs each day i will turn it up.Mine does not have an auto start so I have to run it on low continuously.
I think a stove with a thermostat significantly reduces the inefficiency issue as it can run at high and off cycles.

 

[P38X2]

IMO, I wouldn't worry about getting every single BTU out of your pellets. You're probably getting 99% of the energy out of them as is Your stove MAY be overkill for your application but winter's not here yet and your days of maintenance burning will come to an end soon.

As long as your stove isn't running funky I wouldn't worry too much. I'd imagine your situation is par for the course in most if not all stoves, particularly Harmans as the ash tends to get pushed out of the way of the burning point.

 

[mepellet]

Run it in room temp auto. Viola! Problem fixed!

 

[Bioburner]

Burning pellets in a pile with induced air is as good as it gets. My father was a boiler engineer and ran huge coal fired units and Harmans are almost a small knock offs of them. Bixby had titanium pots that run higher pot temps making for finer ash and were great at burning corn and other higher silicate items. Pellet quality has a lot to do with ash too. Too big of stove, of course when it takes such a big fire to get it to temp that it over shoots your set temp but a lot of that is negated by the technology in our room heaters. Whole house heaters and boilers yes. Like putting a 454 big block in a vw bug,you will burn more gas idling it, than the smaller 1500cc engine could run the car down the road. When you get a ugly cold stretch that lasts more that a couple of days you won't regret the little extra. Don 't worry, be warm.

 

[DirtyDave]

I've taken to just turning it off early morning and restarting it around 2 am and running on 2. better burn, more heat a hair more fuel.

 

[boosted3g]

Switched pellets and the ash looks perfect and the house is perfect. I can run these Somersets and it just simmers nice and clean. I guess the Cheat Rivers just dont like to be on low. When heat is demanded they can deliver but not so much on low burn.

 

[subsailor]

Nope.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Switched pellets and the ash looks perfect and the house is perfect. I can run these Somersets and it just simmers nice and clean. I guess the Cheat Rivers just dont like to be on low. When heat is demanded they can deliver but not so much on low burn.

Thats why I never understood using crappy pellets in the "shoulder season"...

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Switched pellets and the ash looks perfect and the house is perfect. I can run these Somersets and it just simmers nice and clean. I guess the Cheat Rivers just dont like to be on low. When heat is demanded they can deliver but not so much on low burn.

I was told Harmans can burn anything, sounds like they are picky on low just like any other stove .

 

[boosted3g]

I assume most guys are like me that if they get a good deal on them they will run them when it dont matter as much. I got over 20 bags for 1 dollar a peice at lowes and that has been what i was burning since the season started. I would probably do it again since they were so cheap but i really like the burn of Somersets and ive only burn burning them for a day.

 

[boosted3g]

Heat is not the problem, ive had my upstairs at 86 degrees when i fell lasleep with it in startup mode. Its being effecient when its just above an idle. I guess we could call it highway miles if it were a car.

 

[subsailor]

I was told Harmans can burn anything, sounds like they are picky on low just like any other stove .

I wouldn't say that. I've had no issues with MWP Blend with the stove in manual on maintenance burn quite a lot.

 

[mepellet]

I wouldn't say that. I've had no issues with MWP Blend with the stove in manual on maintenance burn quite a lot.

Same here....

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Same here....

You folks will note that the party with the issues was burning cheat river and that by definition if your stove burns fine on low means the stove is pellet picky.

A pellet picky stove is a stove that favors one pellet over another at any point in the stoves operation.

 

[jtakeman]

i am now a believer in different stoves i dont care what i put in my stove i get heat and no issues whatsoever low med high it burns well
If i require heat from a pellet that isnt producing enough , set it to sunflower setting even GS get hot

Um, Its a multifuel stove! Its not supposed to be pellet picky,

 

[subsailor]

Um, Its a multifuel stove! Its not supposed to be pellet picky,

The P61A is considered a multifuel stove?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The P61A is considered a multifuel stove?

No OMV's stove is, yours is sort of IIRC the P61 can also burn a pellet/corn mix as long as you have the correct venting.

 

[subsailor]

OK. I was a little numb there. I knew it could burn a corn mix but didn't think it was considered a multifuel stove.

 

[boosted3g]

The stove definantly perfers Somersets over Cheat River without a doubt. It has 1/10th the ash build up and heat beautifully and i have not touched a setting on the stove at all. I did do a little better cleaning that i normally do this weekend when i switched but i only have 20 something bags through a basically new stove and venting. I dont know if the Harman is multifuel or not but living near the Harman plant that is basically all you see around my neck of the woods and guys run anything and everything through them. I dont think that it wont burn it but some things it might just not burn well. If you met some of the coal crackers in the mid state you would wonder how on earth they are even allowed to play with fire. My neighbor has put scrap wood cuttings and rice coal through his and it didnt skip a beat. I think the p61a can take 50% corn but at 11.00 for 50lbs ill just burn pellets.

 

[DirtyDave]

I wish for dollar a bag ok pellet. My oldie dont care what brand pellet I have ran thru it... makes good heat on low.. run you out on high.. house well insulated also.Can you still get for that price? .Snowy proves whitfield are Multifuel , but I have never tried it

 

[boosted3g]

They are broken bag specials. Twice now they had a stacked pallet that the corner was scraped and i got 9 bags eash time. Normal price around me for pellets is 4.38 a bag or 209 a ton at the box stores which you rarely find anything good. I have one lowes thats a little further away that carries Somerset for the usual lowes prices. I got all my Turman at 250 a ton and that seems to be the going rate for it at a few stove shops around me. We have a lot of unheard of brands that are usually priced in the low 200 but for a few bucks more i just get the Turmans a little at a time all year long.