I went to get my switchgrass pellets today

[jtakeman]

jtakeman: I love it when they ignore the costumer.

Did you send the email to [email protected] ?

I had in the past directly communicated with a lady named "Kari" and she was very nice, prompt to reply, and helpful.

I just shot off an email to that address. The other email i sent was a contact from there site.

Lets hope they reply

i think your pellets are partially sgrass . cornell study on sgrass pellets resulted in massive clinkers & unuseable in most pstoves. silica in sgrass is the reason

Seems I was burning in the wrong mode, I will try again after I burn 5 bags of corn. I will post the findings. If they burn a little cleaner I'd burn them. The clinkers weren't that bad. My only complaint was black soot on the glass and inside the stove. A dirty burn!

jay

 

[jtakeman]

I finished my corn test with decent results. But I need to build or buy a cleaner before I'd burn anymore. So I tidied up the stove and Back to trying the Phoenix pellets again.

This time in Multifuel mode 3-3 setting with more air. My mag was reading .14½ and I brought it up to .15. That is about as high as I'd go. I've got dancing pellets in the burn pot! (not sure what music they like???)

So far the burn is cleaner nothing on the glass yet. I only dumped in a half bag. If they still burn dirty I'll mix them 50/50 with a hardwood pellet I have.

We shall see.

just fyi
jay

 

[jtakeman]

some like country cause it reminds them of home, others like rock&roll;cause thats how theyre dancing.

Must be rock, Moving to fast to be country. I'll play some country to see if they slow down a little. HEE HEE!

jay

 

[jtakeman]

Update

Stove is running much better in multifuel mode. Glass is just starting to get a little med brown haze on the top. So far its seems cleaner than the corn I was burning.

Heat is a little lower than when it was in Pellet mode. Not bad though. Wish I could find a battery for my IR so I could get a temp from the heat exchanger.

I am going to try the 3-4 setting to see if I can get a little more heat from it. Or drop the draft back to .14½.
It is exceptable now. Not much of a mess, Compared to before much better!

flamegrabber, You might want to try these puppies

jay

 

[jtakeman]

Temperature on the left heat tube Avg.(used 3 readings for avg. Heat setting on the stove was at 3 medium.) Temps are rounded to nearest degree!

Premier Hardwood heat Pellets Temp= 265°
Turmans 100% Oak Pellets Temp= 270°
Hamer HotOnes Pellets Temp= 275°

Phoenix Wood Pellets Temp= 278° in Pellet mode
Phoenix Wood Pellets Temp= 250° in Multifuel mode

I got the battery for my IR temp gun and it confirmed my heat being lower in the multifuel mode. I have it running on 3-5 and the damper was set back to .14½ on the magnehelic gauge. Over all burning pretty clean and no clinkers in the burn pot. I think the multifuel mod could feed them a little more. they seem to burn faster than the stove is feeding them. I will try the pellet mod again with a higher damper setting. So back to pellet mode at 3-3 and draft at .15 on the magnehelic. Or maybe 3-1 and damper at .14½

Final note: I hope they become readily available. I think they burn cleaner than corn and are a nice alternative to wood pellets. But until then who know's, I hope the pellet mills would make then more available!(probably wont happen soon Because they make so much with the wood pellets!) Thanks to everyone that chimmed in, With your help and info I have them burning very close to woodpellets. Just about the same heat output. With the Omega the ash is no bug deal Thanks guys

Just fyi if you all are still interested. If not I'll stop posting.
jay

 

[Gweeper64]

So, I haven't seen answer to what some others asked ; are they really switchgrass when the bag says "wood product" ?? Who said they were switchgrass?

 

[jtakeman]

So, I haven't seen answer to what some others asked ; are they really switchgrass when the bag says "wood product" ?? Who said they were switchgrass?

Sorry, I can't answer that for sure. Energex never responded to my 3 emails. But the Pellet house were I purchased them said that they did contain a certain amout. Also contains bark too! Wish I had more info for you!

Also wish there were other places to purchase these. Could only find 3 places. Range from $225 to $255/ ton. Just as well burn wood pellets for the slight extra cost.

Jay

 

[jtakeman]

So, I haven't seen answer to what some others asked ; are they really switchgrass when the bag says "wood product" ?? Who said they were switchgrass?

Well I finally got there answer the switch grass question, Yes they contain switchgrass

Here is there reply:

Dear Jay,

I sincerely apologize for the delay in responding to your email. This has been an extremely busy season, and we are doing our best to answer every request we get this time of year.

Yes, the latest blend of our Phoenix pellets contain switch grass. We will develop a new bag in the future. Thanks for your inquiry.

Sincerely,
Kari

Just FYI
jay

 

[crausch]

Wow...I find some content in their response to be a little discouraging. This is not the first case I have heard where a manufacturer is so busy and scrambling to put out a product, that they are placing a product in their packaging (bags) that is not representative of what the bag states on it. If the consumer is not told up front what they are purchasing, this could lead to problems.

 

[gcugg]

Got a chance to buy 25 bags of Phoenix pellets @ $1/bag. Have a Harman XXV. Do you think it will foul up the stove?? I don't have multi-fuel like some of you guys do.

 

[Lousyweather]

Got a chance to buy 25 bags of Phoenix pellets @ $1/bag. Have a Harman XXV. Do you think it will foul up the stove?? I don't have multi-fuel like some of you guys do.

well, the XXV can burn up to 50% corn, unmodified........the Harman's are pretty good at burning a wide variety of qualities of pellets......and a buck a bag?! cant go wrong!

 

[tinkabranc]

Got a chance to buy 25 bags of Phoenix pellets @ $1/bag. Have a Harman XXV. Do you think it will foul up the stove?? I don't have multi-fuel like some of you guys do.

If I could get em for a buck a bag, I would definitely try them out.
If you or you stove don't like them you can always sell them on CL.

 

[jtakeman]

A buck a bag! Wow that's a deal and a half!

You should be OK. With them. I burn mine in Normal and Multi fuel mode. They burn cleaner than corn but Messy compared to pellets. Lots of ash. Small clinkers. Ash is very gritty like sand. You will probably have to clean and scrape more often. But for a buck a bag, How could you go wrong. Worst case would be mixing with wood pellets to keep the ash down to a minimum.

Let us know what ya think and how they burn! We'd like to know

jay

 

[jtakeman]

what % of pellet is switchgrass?

Czarcar.

Sorry, I never asked. The price of them has steered my away. Cheapest I can get them is $255.00/ton. I'm going to gear up for corn or corn pellet mix. Unless the guy I got mine from decides to sell them out, Cause they aren't selling them!

Free popcorn at my house next winter! jk
jay

 

[rowerwet]

I wish switch grass pellets were available up here, I will be going down to PA next weekend, should see my wifes cousins for easter, I will try to find out what he tried in his PC-45. He was going to try switchgrass, and even possibly a pellet made out of cardboard and wax to see how they worked.

 

[jtakeman]

look 4 cgrass [canabis] pellets & then u can disconnect chimney & get high efficiency :-/

I'm sure they would be very expensive! Way to rich for my blood.

From what I gather they were switch grass with a percentage of bark mixed in. % was not given. Think they used the bark to assist the burn!

I'm still searching for the cheapest pellets to burn. Straw pellets-anyone try them? (I think there available at feed stores for animal bedding.)

I wish switch grass pellets were available up here, I will be going down to PA next weekend, should see my wifes cousins for easter, I will try to find out what he tried in his PC-45. He was going to try switchgrass, and even possibly a pellet made out of cardboard and wax to see how they worked.

I have a friend that tried them. Wasn't pleased. He is sampling pellets made from old news paper, I am waiting to hear his findings. The guy he is getting them from is also making pellets from leaves! I want to go an check this guy out and see whats up. Has pellet mills for sale too!

jay

 

[burn baby burn]

i bought some of these recently cheap and tried them out in a 5 year old harman P61 manual ignition. i maintain my stove in perfect condition and find these phoenix pellets to burn with equal or better heat out put as any of the premium brands i have used.

the harman burns this fuel same as the premium. the only difference is the large amount of granular rock like ash it produces.

my settting for the P61 are:

feed rate: 3.........medium
temp: set for "room temp" not stove and set for 72
blower: motor on max

absolutely no difference in burn quality, dirty glass between this and the premium that i used this past winter which was New Bio Energie.......no longer made and the best fuel i have ever seen or used with ash levels of 0.22% and 8000+ btu's.

 

[jtakeman]

i bought some of these recently cheap and tried them out in a 5 year old harman P61 manual ignition. i maintain my stove in perfect condition and find these phoenix pellets to burn with equal or better heat out put as any of the premium brands i have used.

the harman burns this fuel same as the premium. the only difference is the large amount of granular rock like ash it produces.

my settting for the P61 are:

feed rate: 3.........medium
temp: set for "room temp" not stove and set for 72
blower: motor on max

absolutely no difference in burn quality, dirty glass between this and the premium that i used this past winter which was New Bio Energie.......no longer made and the best fuel i have ever seen or used with ash levels of 0.22% and 8000+ btu's.

Could you tell me How much you paid and where you got them?

I rather liked them too! Just cant find a reasonable price around here!

Thanks
jay

 

[burn baby burn]

sorry jay,

i bought them from a chap near my home who could not or did not want to use them in his top feed stove. i paid him 165 for a ton.

no one around here sells these industrial grade energex made pellets.

i use to get them from heartline stove shop in jaffrey nh but as of a day or so ago they said they were not handling furnace grade material this year as the pri8ce was too similar to the premium so why bother.

 

[jtakeman]

burn baby burn,

Thanks for the info, I will have to keep looking and maybe these will get more popular as the wood get scarce.

jay