Bought poor pellets, now what do I do?

[Monte87]

I pre bought 2 tons of Timber Heat pellets to burn in my Harmon P55? stove (size up from the P45 to heat a 1400sqft house). Last year these burned ok in the stove. This year they are not burning well. Main issue is that they take a long time to light. The burn pot is on the verge of overflowing when it finally lights. Lots of additional ash also. To test the theory it was the pellets ran a bag from a different brand and 0 issues. They burned just like prior years.

What can I do now that I am stuck with these inferior pellets? They do burn but not vary efficiently. I have attempted to adjust the stove but with no luck. I have burned several bags and at least they are consistent. I have always believed in doing extra cleanings so that schedule has not changed. The cleanouts have just contained allot more ash than before.

Anyone else have experience with this brand? It is like they changed their formula since last year.

 

[Shank]

I pre bought 2 tons of Timber Heat pellets to burn in my Harmon P55? stove (size up from the P45 to heat a 1400sqft house). Last year these burned ok in the stove. This year they are not burning well. Main issue is that they take a long time to light. The burn pot is on the verge of overflowing when it finally lights. Lots of additional ash also. To test the theory it was the pellets ran a bag from a different brand and 0 issues. They burned just like prior years.

What can I do now that I am stuck with these inferior pellets? They do burn but not vary efficiently. I have attempted to adjust the stove but with no luck. I have burned several bags and at least they are consistent. I have always believed in doing extra cleanings so that schedule has not changed. The cleanouts have just contained allot more ash than before.

Anyone else have experience with this brand? It is like they changed their formula since last year.

I am in a somewhat similar (but doesn't sound as bad as you) situation.

I have 2 tons of fairly poor performing pellets. My plan is to pretty much burn through them and clean more often. It's fairly annoying.

Perhaps your pellets were exposed to moisture?

 

[Monte87]

I bought on a free storage program. They store them in the indoor warehouse they use for their spring goods. I just have to pick them all up by March 1st. Was a good deal when the pellets were good. They take them from the truck and place them indoors. Every bag looks ok visually. Each one burns the same.

At least the Harmon stoves are known to be tolerant of poor pellets. Guess I may have to just burn them and next year go with something else.

 

[ABusWrench]

Buy some bags of "better" pellets and mix them when you fill the stove. Just continue adding "better" pellets till your ignition problem goes away. I too have bought/tried different pellets and wished I hadn't. Good luck.

 

[VintageGal]

I had the same experience recently. Bought two tons of North Idaho and the company admitted to having to shut that plant down because their fines vacuum was broken. My pellet dealer swapped them out bad for good. But I do like the idea of mixing the good with the bad together.

 

[Tonyray]

I pre bought 2 tons of Timber Heat pellets to burn in my Harmon P55? stove (size up from the P45 to heat a 1400sqft house). Last year these burned ok in the stove. This year they are not burning well. Main issue is that they take a long time to light. The burn pot is on the verge of overflowing when it finally lights. Lots of additional ash also. To test the theory it was the pellets ran a bag from a different brand and 0 issues. They burned just like prior years.

What can I do now that I am stuck with these inferior pellets? They do burn but not vary efficiently. I have attempted to adjust the stove but with no luck. I have burned several bags and at least they are consistent. I have always believed in doing extra cleanings so that schedule has not changed. The cleanouts have just contained allot more ash than before.

Anyone else have experience with this brand? It is like they changed their formula since last year.

Mix with better pellets. A quick fix is to lower your feed rate when u start the stove. Put it on #2. This way they have more time to get fired up without hitting the overflow situation.

 

[Monte87]

I already have the feed rate at three, will try going to 2. Will that effect how it fires if I go to low? Keeping the house at 68, when it gets real cold I need to crank to temp on the stove up to keep the rest of the house warm as there is a drop of a few degrees from one end to the other.

 

[Tonyray]

I already have the feed rate at three, will try going to 2. Will that effect how it fires if I go to low? Keeping the house at 68, when it gets real cold I need to crank to temp on the stove up to keep the rest of the house warm as there is a drop of a few degrees from one end to the other.

No. The pellets will ignite. You can up the feed after. I know lot of burners who use feed 4 but set it at 2 just to get a fire going quicker.

 

[Monte87]

Ran it at 2 last night. Stove ignited without issue. The fire did not seem to ever get to the same size as with the higher feed rate and it appeared to burn for a longer period of time before shutting down. I suspect leaving it at a feed rate of 2 is just not allowing the fire the fuel to get as large.

Since we are using this for all of our heat starting it at 2 and turning it up once going is not an option unless we set it to constant burn. If it gets to cold out may have to go to constant burn. This stuff burns it is getting it ignited that is the issue,

 

[Tonyray]

Ran it at 2 last night. Stove ignited without issue. The fire did not seem to ever get to the same size as with the higher feed rate and it appeared to burn for a longer period of time before shutting down. I suspect leaving it at a feed rate of 2 is just not allowing the fire the fuel to get as large.

Since we are using this for all of our heat starting it at 2 and turning it up once going is not an option unless we set it to constant burn. If it gets to cold out may have to go to constant burn. This stuff burns it is getting it ignited that is the issue,

Understand. My doug firs allow me to get by with the lower feed rate of 2.. but we are talking 9000btu. My Matra softies come in around 8800... box store stuff most times come in at very low 8K btu.

 

[scajjr2]

Ran it at 2 last night. Stove ignited without issue. The fire did not seem to ever get to the same size as with the higher feed rate and it appeared to burn for a longer period of time before shutting down. I suspect leaving it at a feed rate of 2 is just not allowing the fire the fuel to get as large.

Since we are using this for all of our heat starting it at 2 and turning it up once going is not an option unless we set it to constant burn. If it gets to cold out may have to go to constant burn. This stuff burns it is getting it ignited that is the issue,

Run it in room temp/manual it'll go into a maintenance burn (low fire) between the thermostat calling for heat. That way there is always a little warmth coming from the stove and when the thermostat calls for heat it'll just ramp up the existing fire and you get heat quickly.

sam