New to the Pellet scene and just got my stove installed last week and have been working through different brands of pellets and trying to learn as much as possible. i shut it down Sunday and did my first cleaning (only ran 5 days so far) and I forgot to take pictures.
First off I have been running the stove on manual mode for now and leaving it all default settings for feed/combustion which is #3 for both. My stove has different settings for fuel type as well and last week I ran it on Low Grade/Multi Fuel setting mainly because I forgot to change it. It ran for 4 days straight before shutting it down. I've run it on Heat level 3 in the evening and during the day Sat/Sun when home. Keeps the lower flower at a super warm 70. At night I've tried level 2 and level 1. At level two the temp was 68 and at level 1 64. Considering when I run my furnace it is at 65 overnight so I can't complain. The upstairs is colder, but it was also colder with my furnace (single zone forced air). My son was impressed at how warm his room was and it is at the top of the steps which are located on the opposite side of the house as the stove. Our room was a little chilly and is on the same side as the stove and farthest from the steps. I've experimented with running the fan on my forced air as well and it seems to help a little. each bedroom upstairs has ceiling fans and we didn't have them running at all but I'm guessing that might help pull air as well.
Being my first clean out I'm still not sure what to really look for and forgot to take pictures. The stove dis-assembly was very easy and made for complete access to everything I needed. The glass was ashy and dark near the top but cleaned right up and I noticed that happening when I ran the Heatr's from HD last week. There was a good build up of ash on the slanted sides and edges even with the fireport and not as much as I expected in the ash pan itself. I have a AWP 4 gal ash vac that worked great as well. I did scrap off a few chunks of build up from the firepot but overall it was pretty clean and an easy task.
I am averaging about 18 hours on a 40lb bag of pellets and here is what I test burned so far.
Fireside - open bag from HD, lots of fines, great heat and a few unburned pellets in the ash pan, but seemed to burn clean. On startup I ended up with lots of pellets in the pot before ignition so they were pushing up the sides which might have caused them to hit the ashpan
Heatr's HD - These seemed to dirty up my window considerable but in fairness I didn't start clean I burned these after the fireside.
TSC - According to barcode lookup these are Lignetics. Seemed cleaner then the Heatr's and good heat. A little more sparks flying when burning. Again I didn't start with a clean stove just burned these after the Heatr's.
Now I have two bags of Lacrete that I am test buring, but one in last night with a clean stove. From what I saw this morning, very clean and great heat. The stove was set to 3 yesterday evening as outside temps were heading for low 30s and I was uncomfortable. The wife wanted it higher. Too funny.
I still have 2 bags of Green Supreme to try, 2 bags of North American Pellets, and 2 bags of somersets (@7.99 a bag and no bulk discount I doubt I will be burning these much).
I found a local guy that has some lecretes and right now he is selling them buy the bag and 10 bags at a time to his customers. He is charging the same bag price as in bulk if you buy 10 which is $6. He should be getting some in and I have ordered a ton of these but after what I have seen I might order another for the dead of winter. He is also getting Trebio and North Country so I might have to try them as well. Thinking about running the TSC brand for shoulder pellets right now $260 ton and they are available. I found some Energex Granules in stock (299 ton) that i want to try as well. At this point the stove handled every brand and heat was consistent (left settings at default), burn times for a bag was pretty consistent as well. Ash and fines obviously were not.
Starting to research programmable T-Stats now as well as UPC or battery backup. I have a generator that I use when the power is out - had to use it for 12 days during the past few years big storms. 7 days straight and 5 on another.
One disappointment is the owners manual. Info is thin and not much detail. Being a newby I would like to have more detail on why, how and what but I guess I can get that here anyway.
Sorry for rambling on. Always open to suggestions and more info.
First off I have been running the stove on manual mode for now and leaving it all default settings for feed/combustion which is #3 for both. My stove has different settings for fuel type as well and last week I ran it on Low Grade/Multi Fuel setting mainly because I forgot to change it. It ran for 4 days straight before shutting it down. I've run it on Heat level 3 in the evening and during the day Sat/Sun when home. Keeps the lower flower at a super warm 70. At night I've tried level 2 and level 1. At level two the temp was 68 and at level 1 64. Considering when I run my furnace it is at 65 overnight so I can't complain. The upstairs is colder, but it was also colder with my furnace (single zone forced air). My son was impressed at how warm his room was and it is at the top of the steps which are located on the opposite side of the house as the stove. Our room was a little chilly and is on the same side as the stove and farthest from the steps. I've experimented with running the fan on my forced air as well and it seems to help a little. each bedroom upstairs has ceiling fans and we didn't have them running at all but I'm guessing that might help pull air as well.
Being my first clean out I'm still not sure what to really look for and forgot to take pictures. The stove dis-assembly was very easy and made for complete access to everything I needed. The glass was ashy and dark near the top but cleaned right up and I noticed that happening when I ran the Heatr's from HD last week. There was a good build up of ash on the slanted sides and edges even with the fireport and not as much as I expected in the ash pan itself. I have a AWP 4 gal ash vac that worked great as well. I did scrap off a few chunks of build up from the firepot but overall it was pretty clean and an easy task.
I am averaging about 18 hours on a 40lb bag of pellets and here is what I test burned so far.
Fireside - open bag from HD, lots of fines, great heat and a few unburned pellets in the ash pan, but seemed to burn clean. On startup I ended up with lots of pellets in the pot before ignition so they were pushing up the sides which might have caused them to hit the ashpan
Heatr's HD - These seemed to dirty up my window considerable but in fairness I didn't start clean I burned these after the fireside.
TSC - According to barcode lookup these are Lignetics. Seemed cleaner then the Heatr's and good heat. A little more sparks flying when burning. Again I didn't start with a clean stove just burned these after the Heatr's.
Now I have two bags of Lacrete that I am test buring, but one in last night with a clean stove. From what I saw this morning, very clean and great heat. The stove was set to 3 yesterday evening as outside temps were heading for low 30s and I was uncomfortable. The wife wanted it higher. Too funny.
I still have 2 bags of Green Supreme to try, 2 bags of North American Pellets, and 2 bags of somersets (@7.99 a bag and no bulk discount I doubt I will be burning these much).
I found a local guy that has some lecretes and right now he is selling them buy the bag and 10 bags at a time to his customers. He is charging the same bag price as in bulk if you buy 10 which is $6. He should be getting some in and I have ordered a ton of these but after what I have seen I might order another for the dead of winter. He is also getting Trebio and North Country so I might have to try them as well. Thinking about running the TSC brand for shoulder pellets right now $260 ton and they are available. I found some Energex Granules in stock (299 ton) that i want to try as well. At this point the stove handled every brand and heat was consistent (left settings at default), burn times for a bag was pretty consistent as well. Ash and fines obviously were not.
Starting to research programmable T-Stats now as well as UPC or battery backup. I have a generator that I use when the power is out - had to use it for 12 days during the past few years big storms. 7 days straight and 5 on another.
One disappointment is the owners manual. Info is thin and not much detail. Being a newby I would like to have more detail on why, how and what but I guess I can get that here anyway.
Sorry for rambling on. Always open to suggestions and more info.
You'll likely find one pellet you prefer but sometimes you have to burn what you can get. 
