Curran Softies Yuck!!!

[Phil Do's fire.]

After burning through a bag and a half, woke up this morning to the furnace kicking on. Hmmm..pellet stove not working. Active alarm on stove, no ignition. After a stove reset, pellets were not feeding. Star wheel feed motor sounded very weird. Removed pellets from hopper and found fines completely bound up feed system. See pic. Stove and vent was completely cleaned before the test. In the 1700 + hours I have had this stove, this never happened.

The Curran pellets are very small, gave out comparable heat to the LG Granules with slightly more ash. As you can see, my stove hated them!

 

[scajjr2]

Getting a free pallet of Curran's with our new Harman P43 on Fri. Hopefully they burn OK.

Sam

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

Harmans burn everything. I really think the very small size of the pellet and the very sharp star wheel feed system in my stove, pulverized the pellets into sawdust.

 

[Oilhater]

Getting a free pallet of Curran's with our new Harman P43 on Fri. Hopefully they burn OK.

Sam

You'll be fine. I'm burning them now in my XXV. Average to slightly above avg, in my stove.

 

[Nick Sterner]

Just burned two bags of Curran's blend. So far they are the best that I have burned. I'm going to pick up a ton later today.

 

[Lake Girl]

Phil - sorry you had a mess. Large amount of fines in the bags or just crushed up by the feed wheel?

 

[krooser]

Geez… my two stoves burn everything, too...

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

Phil - sorry you had a mess. Large amount of fines in the bags or just crushed up by the feed wheel?

Crushed up by the feed wheel. I also found in the bags pellets that looked almost black and very hard. These pellets almost impossible to snap in half with my fingers. My stove is now broken, waiting for a new star wheel motor. I truly believe these pellets fried the motor

 

[chico]

Hmmmm iv'e never had a problem with the curan softies . they've always burned very good for me .I hav a ton in the garage I will be starting soon . sure hope there isn't a problem with them this year . my EF3 can be picky some times

 

[Lake Girl]

Crushed up by the feed wheel. I also found in the bags pellets that looked almost black and very hard. These pellets almost impossible to snap in half with my fingers.My stove is now broken, waiting for a new star wheel motor. I truly believe these pellets fried the motor

Send some of those pellets to Curran along with bag bar code to let them know of your situation so they know they have a bad lot. Do pellet manufacturers ever do recalls? Softies should be easier to snap than hardwoods ...

How long a wait for the motor and what kind of price tag? What other stoves use the star wheel feed?

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

Already alerted the supplier, who apologized and reported it to Curran. I am sending a portion of the hard black pellets to him. They look like large charred pieces of bark. Feed motor is a couple of days away, about $100 bucks. Stoves with traditional augers probably wouldn't have an issue. The precise feed quantity of the star wheel is one of the reasons for the stoves high efficiency but, ended up being the achilles heel this time. Italian and European stoves not yet available here use this system.

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

Hmmmm iv'e never had a problem with the curan softies . they've always burned very good for me .I hav a ton in the garage I will be starting soon . sure hope there isn't a problem with them this year . my EF3 can be picky some times

you may not have a problem with a traditional auger set up. See reply to lake girl this thread

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

Decided to remove feed motor and removed convection blower for cleaning , I tripped over the dog, blower went flying and motor crashed and broke at the housing base. Now I need a blower too. Here is a testament not to buy cheaper pellets, not worth it. Blower is almost $200 w/ shipping! Time to fire up the dining room wood stove. the dog was fine.

 

[midfielder]

I got a ton of Curran softies on the cheap from a dealer - they about seem the same as the ton I burned year before last, maybe a little better. High percentage of pine, a little sticky but not as much as Vts, hotter than FSU, not as hot as VTs but not by much. Pretty solid softwood pellet IMHO. Much, much better than the blend sold as NA at HD.