Hi there. I have a whitfield quest that I have only had installed for a week. The only pellets I have tried so far are the Canwick hardwood pellets from Canadian tire. I find that I get a lot of ash from these pellets which I have seen other people say the same thing, but they do produce a good amount of heat. today I left home for about three hours and when I came home the flame was really lazy and pellets were sitting on a bed of coals. I shut down the stove and cleaned out the pot, which seemed to be plugged with ash. The stove was set just below medium on both feed and air dials. does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent this or what settings work well on this stove or possibly which pellets work best in it
Canwick Pellets in a whitfield quest
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Bioburner
Moderator
I will have to look around to see what is available in my area. when I went into town tonight kents was closed, Im not sure what brand they carry, and I have not seen pellets at our walmart, possibly something you have to ask them for, so my only option was Canadian tire.
Bioburner
Moderator
when I open the air enough for the pellets to dance I get a lot of sparks flying around when pellets drop in, is this normal? I know I have not mastered matching my feed rate with my air because my flame will go from high to low then when pellets drop in it will flare up again, still need some practice on my end
Bioburner
Moderator
Yes. Sparks are normal after an auger feed of pellets into the fire. May have some fire abatement after a feed for awhile too and flames will rebuild.
ok thanks for the info. I guess if I was not at home and the burn pot plugged up the fire would suffocate itself and the stove would shutdown after it cooled off
Bioburner
Moderator
![[Hearth.com] Canwick Pellets in a whitfield quest](/talk/data/attachments/151/151612-5b5031cd9d50f70d1feaa46ffe4cfbde.jpg?hash=etgN4O2Qnq)
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
Agree with all Bioburner's comments. Also, I find that even when absolutely clean and burning very high quality pellets, I can't really let my draft go below about the line between Med and High. I now run my Quest with draft set just a hair above that almost all the time, and just vary the feed rate to control temp. After about 8-12 hours of burning I will sometimes turn the feed rate all the way down and open draft all the way, and run at that for 2-3 minutes, just to clean out the burn grate with lots of air and heat. Seems to cut down on need to open door and stir the pot. Then again, pot rarely clogs within 24 hours unless feed rate set to high.
The burn grate on the Whits is sketchy.
Our Prodigy needs a pot stir 2 -3 times a day.
Just the way it is.
The Big Whit is better, but still needs some attention.
I have a stainless plate with rows of small air holes laid over the grate to keep the shells from falling through the grate bars, and over the course of hours (Depends on many things) the fire needs to be shut off, the clinker flipped out, some coals left, and then go again.
The Whitfield grate is just not ideal, but good enough.
Our Prodigy needs a pot stir 2 -3 times a day.
Just the way it is.
The Big Whit is better, but still needs some attention.
I have a stainless plate with rows of small air holes laid over the grate to keep the shells from falling through the grate bars, and over the course of hours (Depends on many things) the fire needs to be shut off, the clinker flipped out, some coals left, and then go again.
The Whitfield grate is just not ideal, but good enough.
Thanks for this info I will definitely give this a try. My only question is if I am burning at a lower feed rate with the air flow set high, will I be losing a lot of heat out the flu pipe?
I have noticed that I get the most build up in the front edge of the burn pot. I thought that maybe a few more holes in the bottom of the front edge of the burn pot may help this, but im not sure
Bioburner
Moderator
Hopefully the exchanger can grab most of the heat as your creating less heat for it to remove. Run the room fan a bit higher. Be surprised if you could take exhaust temps at how well the design extracts the heat. Another reason to have a outside air kit(OAK) installed so your not using heated room air to feed the fire and exhaust it.
I do not have an OAK installed but it is something I should look into. I notice that the port on the rear of the stove does not directly connect to anything inside the casing, does the kit rectify this? If not it will just allow the stove to draw air in through the vents on the sides. Also I know the flu pipe does get hot but that's expected, what temp should a flu pipe be at ?
Bioburner
Moderator
The Whits don't have a true OAKable system like Quads and a few others.
Flue temp minimum on that stove is 140F. Venting max is 600F. What your getting can be changed by incoming air temp , fuel used etc
Flue temp minimum on that stove is 140F. Venting max is 600F. What your getting can be changed by incoming air temp , fuel used etc
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
I have been running the stove the last two days using your method and it seems to be working well so far.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Were you able to find other pellets in your area?
Viridis Energy Inc. Scotia Atlantic Biomass Co. Inc. made Middle Musquodoboit NS
Viridis Energy Inc. Scotia Atlantic Biomass Co. Inc. made Middle Musquodoboit NS
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
Excellent. Hope it continues to work. They're a great little stove, once you figure them out a bit.
Absolutely true, this indicates proper "breath" in the exhaust path ( clean stove ). This way the burn pot should be kept clean by the air stream.
Another detail I've noticed through the years is that the thicker 8 mm pellets hit the burn pot a little harder than the 6 mm pellets. This harder impact also contributes to keeping the pot cleaner, so Quest79, if you have a choice in pellet diameter, I suggest you to choose the 8 mm.
6 mm is equal to 1/4'' and 8 mm is equal to 0.31496063 inches.
Here in Europe the different pellet brands are usually available in both 6 mm and 8 mm. I don't know if this is the case in North America as well?
I know that there are other pellets available im just not sure on the brands. I am limited for storage space so I am waiting for my supply to get down a bit before I go searching.
Lake Girl
Moderator
(broken link removed to http://www.viridisenergy.ca/products/scotia_atlantic/) Looks like the pellets from your area are headed for Sweden but there might be some local retail. These are the makers of Okanagan pellets. Webpage contains email address at the bottom for contact ... Good luck in the hunt 
Edit: Maybe the Nova Scotian made pellets are what Stovensen is burning in Denmark
Edit: Maybe the Nova Scotian made pellets are what Stovensen is burning in Denmark
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