Service issues aside I've always felt that Breckwell was one of the least picky stoves when it came to its food. They seem to "breath" very well. I've dealt with many pellet stove brands over the years and from my observation Breckwells had the least change in performance per pellet brand.
moralleper, I don't think you will notice as much of an extreme difference with your stove as your FIL does. Depending on the age and model of his stove Whitfields can be very picky, but thats a whole different issue.
But keep this in mind-
To be a Premium grade pellet and pellet stove acceptable the pellet, when burnt, must leave behind less than 1% of its original volume as ash. Suprisingly, there is still a big difference in ash content of premium grade pellets. I've heard manufacturers claim theirs are as high as .7% to a low of .3%. Now, neither is "alot of ash" normally but this is the pellet burning world were talking about and .7 is more than twice that of .3.
Now as I touched on above, the Breckwell will probably do well with almost any pellet you burn but the ash content of the pellet is going to be the biggest factor in your stoves performance. This is because the more ash the quicker the air passages start to narrow and how often you will need to clean it. The more ash the worse the stove "breath" which directly effects performance.
There are a lot of brands out there, mostly good brands. I do not have any real preference for one or the other and don't have experience with most. The only thing I can tell you is that the big box stores aren't carrying the highest quality pellets, most likely you local hearth shop is. If you have a few hearth shops in your area ask them about their pellets, I'm sure they'll have something to say.
Really the only way to find the best pellet for you is to try a few brands. This is probably not the easiest thing to do since I'm sure that you want to get your pellet supply for the year so I suggest this: Stock up with a brand that you are comfortable with and as the year progresses pick up 2 bags of a few other brands in your travels. Every now and then let the hopper run out and give the stove a good cleaning. Use the two bags and observe. You'll probably end up with a preffered brand and a good back up brand.
I don't currently carry pellets at the shop I'm at now but when I was service manager for another I often had customers call me with complaints of to much ash, dirty window, needs cleaning to often, or other none mechanical complaints. I would always ask them what pellets they were using. If there answer was "big box store brand" I would tell them that they needed to change brand of pellet and I would prove it to them. I would ask them to give their stove a good cleaning and stop by the store for two free bags of pellets and to call me if the problem persisted with a better quality pellet. The next time I would here from them would be to order "the good pellets" because even at 2 bags the difference was noticable.
Also, check out this link.
www.pelletheat.org
