Help with burning thru pellets too quickly

[lightyear]

Hi everyone. Been on here for many years, don' post too often. I have a Harman xxx and it' been going strong since 2010. I did a thorough cleaning this fall and found 2 decent sized new hives in my fresh air intake. I'm my first fire up in November it ran beautiflly. However, it seems to be burning through pellets really fast. I am burning o'malley (first time) and I am going through at least 2bags a day. Settings are in room temp, manual (I switch over after fire up) and feed rate is at 3ish. I know it is cold out now, but regardless, I was going through more bags than usual. Last year I burned 3 tons, 2 of greenway and 1 of prestologs.

I also feel the o'malley are not burning completely...am I getting too much air coming in? Looking for some advice and help in saving some pellets.

 

[bags]

It could be the pellets. Greenways like you burned last year have always been good here. Very similar to Somersets and Pro Pellets. I have a sub par ton of Somersets right now that seem to be burning faster and ashy as all get out. Terrible ash.

The Sets have always been great but the ton I'm into now is not normal. I'm not the only one as I have seen some other similar complaints and a good friend who lives close by is experiencing the same. We actually bought our Sets at the same place. I think I'm burning more for two reasons. 1) The pellets are smaller 2) They are not oak but some other wood and lighter in color than normal and less dense. Even if I slow down the feed rate they seem to be burning quicker than normal or what I've been used to.

On really cold 24 hour periods I will burn 2 bags of the good stuff so that is not unheard of. This sub par ton of Sets I've gone thru 3 bags in 24 hours which is unordinary here.

Are your rope gaskets in good shape? My P68 is due now for a fire door gasket and I installed it new in October 2014. Mainly because where the ends butt together it is falling apart. Plus it is just getting worn and tired.

 

[lightyear]

It could be the pellets. Greenways like you burned last year have always been good here. Very similar to Somersets and Pro Pellets. I have a sub par ton of Somersets right now that seem to be burning faster and ashy as all get out. Terrible ash.

The Sets have always been great but the ton I'm into now is not normal. I'm not the only one as I have seen some other similar complaints and a good friend who lives close by is experiencing the same. We actually bought our Sets at the same place. I think I'm burning more for two reasons. 1) The pellets are smaller 2) They are not oak but some other wood and lighter in color than normal and less dense. Even if I slow down the feed rate they seem to be burning quicker than normal or what I've been used to.

On really cold 24 hour periods I will burn 2 bags of the good stuff so that is not unheard of. This sub par ton of Sets I've gone thru 3 bags in 24 hours which is unordinary here.

Are your rope gaskets in good shape? My P68 is due now for a fire door gasket and I installed it new in October 2014. Mainly because where the ends butt together it is falling apart. Plus it is just getting worn and tired.

Thanks...i hope that it is just the pellets. I haven't used the good ones for an extended period of time yet. I will throw them in the next round to see if they hold up any longer.

I'l keep you and others posted.

 

[bags]

Thanks...i hope that it is just the pellets. I haven't used the good ones for an extended period of time yet. I will throw them in the next round to see if they hold up any longer.

I'l keep you and others posted.

Right now I am actually into a ton of Somersets which are burning quicker than usual and producing a bunch of ash. This hasn't ever happened with Sets here and I've used a bunch of them. Mostly Sets that has been ran thru my stoves from the beginning so it does happen. I started mixing 40-50% corn in with these not so great Sets to help.

I couldn't really relate to others here when they were jacked out of shape about tons of ash. I get that now for sure. Guess I was fortunate and spoiled for years so far. Good Luck and it very well could be the run of pellets you have now for sure.

 

[alternativeheat]

I filled my ash pan in one week on my P61 in this cold weather burning two bags a day of TSC pellets. It's cold out, they usually make it two weeks, are ashy pellets but good heat. I have my oil heat set to come on if the house falls to 71 and switched my stove to Stove Temp mode to play the stove against the oil heat, I only do that when we get single numbers or less. We're going to hit negative deg this morning it's already +2 and it's not dawn yet. I lit my kerosene heater in the basement, though it's not bad down there actually but still I have a wood shop down there and I like it warm enough to not fog up my face shield or freeze some outer pipe that runs by a leaky sill plate somewhere, so I'll give that a couple of hours to catch things up. It's cold out and if your pellets are so so as well it shows quickly, I always say you can burn any pellet in shoulder season, it doesn't matter then but they will show their true worth as will the stove and your house insulation when it actually gets cold out ! And here we have had a steady wind of 10-16MPH 24/7 as well. That plays hell in this old house but at least it's not 40mph like some years, not yet anyway.

If you want to test your pellets just go out and buy a few bags of something you trust and see how they do.

This is probably my last season on the main door gasket ( 5th heating season on the original), I notice while it's still sealing so far, it's latching looser than it ever did before. No big deal, if it makes it till spring I'll change it out for next season..

 

[GeHmTS]

I'm my first fire up in November it ran beautiflly. However, it seems to be burning through pellets really fast. I am burning o'malley (first time) and I am going through at least 2bags a day. Settings are in room temp, manual (I switch over after fire up) and feed rate is at 3ish.

Hello lightyear I'm just curious, what we're you burning back in November when all was well? I believe those are the ones you're going to try next, right.

 

[lightyear]

I was burning o'malley. I didn' use many bags, just when it dipped to around 35 or lower. I have forced air hear from heat pump. Just trying to offset the electric bill a bit. It will be 5 tonight here in MD and with wind, feel like -10. Gonna run a good bag or 2 the next few days and see if there is a difference. I did slow the down the feed rate to under 3 and that seems to be helping.