Hamer's Hot Ones Users?

[BillM2]

Wondering since Hamer's has two plants, one in Elkins, W. VA and another in Mt. Hope, W. VA if that explains somewhat the difference in burn, clinkers, etc. The batch I'm using is from their Elkins plant which, according to their web site "...uses almost 100% Oak to make their pellets. These produce a heavy, gritty ash that performs best in a pellet appliance with a lot of air flow. The Elkins pellet is less that a half percent of ash year round - which some people refer to as a "ultra premium" pellet." I'm getting a clinker pile -- great heat, but a pile. Whereas their Mt. Hope plant uses "....a blend of different hardwoods to make a pellet that produces a light fluffy ash. Most of the ash easily blows out of the burn pot to help reduce clinkering."

So I guess my questions is, anyone using pellets from both plants and noticing a difference?

 

[Kadet40]

I have burned about 1.5 tons of Mt. Hope Hamers after finishing up last years O'Malleys. I would say that my experience with the Hamers is as you describe: light fluffy grey ash and no clinker issues. Heat is good, and comparable to the O'Malleys.

Also, I just pulled the combustion blower last week for the first full cleaning of the season after burning about 2 tons. I was surprised how little ash buildup there was back there.

We have a Quad Mt Vernon AE insert and are into our third full season. Burn mostly on the manual med-low setting.

 

[tsmith]

I too have the Mt. Vernon AE and I am burning Hamers from Elkins plant. I am getting bad clinkers sticking to the sides of the pot and not dropping out during auto clean. I have tried all different settings and found that I need to burn on utility pellet setting with high elevation to prevent this. I think I am going to burn Turmans next year, just as hot and very little ash and no problems. I had contacted Hamer and they told me the same thing about the two different plants and Elkins pellets needing alot of combustion air. seems a lot of people are having this problem this year.

 

[nannyscriv]

I am having the WORST luck with these pellets....at the end of a VERY long painful ton...they dont start up well, they need tons of air flow to keep them going ...we would need to burn them on high just to get the air flow going but then to many drop out and then dont start up and the next thing you have is overflow...like at 5:00am this morning UGHHHH!!...clinkers galore!!...its almost like burning plastic!! Where on the bag can you tell where in W.Va they are made?...cause I think I have the crap brand!...thinking of going to buy Barefoot now.......I do have to say though when you can get them to burn they do burn great nice and hot with not a lot of ash...but KEY words here are when you get them to burn...seems like one bags good 3 suck, two good four suck!...Im so done with these! We have a very clean Avalon Astoria...we love it!

 

[jtakeman]

No problems here with the Hamers. My stove "loves um". Great heat, ash is low, and dust-fines aren't bad. I am saving mine for the extreme cold, Where max heat is needed. One thing I found with them is they like to be burned "lean", Lots of air and reduced feed trim. I run most pellets at heat setting 3 with the feed trim set to 3. I had to drop the feed trim to 1 and boost the air with the damper. Before I tinkered I did get some clumping(not a hard clinker) in the burnpot. My pellets are from the Elkins, I was unable to find any from Mt. Hope plant locally.

 

[mike56]

I’m also having issues with Hamer’s, made in the Elkins plant getting huge clinkers i have to dump them at least twice a day,but they do give off some awesome heat so it is a toss up i still have over a ton, no use in complaining to PRIMO pellets they do not return phone calls.

 

[forya]

Same Problem here with the Elkins ones. I do like the heat, but I have to keep pulling the ash piles down as they are too heavy to just push off the edge of my burnpot.

 

[cantman]

Forya..Where did you buy your pellets from? I also live in "Bucks County" (Lower) and I have a ton of Hamer's waiting to be burned.
I bought mine from Ambler Fireplace & Patio in Colmar PA.

 

[BillM2]

I am having the WORST luck with these pellets....at the end of a VERY long painful ton...they dont start up well, they need tons of air flow to keep them going ...we would need to burn them on high just to get the air flow going but then to many drop out and then dont start up and the next thing you have is overflow...like at 5:00am this morning UGHHHH!!...clinkers galore!!...its almost like burning plastic!! Where on the bag can you tell where in W.Va they are made?...cause I think I have the crap brand!...thinking of going to buy Barefoot now.......I do have to say though when you can get them to burn they do burn great nice and hot with not a lot of ash...but KEY words here are when you get them to burn...seems like one bags good 3 suck, two good four suck!...Im so done with these! We have a very clean Avalon Astoria...we love it!

Where the pellets are made is provided under the state of W/ Virginia logo with the Hamer name over it.

 

[richkorn]

Im burning the Elkins Hamer's and they are the best I've burned so far. The Leyden has a big air intake so maybe that's why they are so good. Great heat, no clinkers, and hardly any ash buildup.