My first year with the stove so I shopped around for what I could find locally. Decided on one pallet of Lignetics and one pallet + 20 bags of Greenway (all they had left). Have a few bags each of Stove Chow, AWF hardwood and LaCrete to try them out. Have a feeling I'll need more before the end of winter but it's a start. Hoping to find what works best so I can stock up next winter.
My stash has arrived... bring on the cold!
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TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
Very true - just excited to feel toasty warm when it's cold instead of wearing my jacket indoors.
Pellet Girl. Lots of the pellet stove learning, as in life I guess, is often the experiential way. Ready......, Fire........., Aim. 
I got stuck my first pellet season with 4 tons of 'dirt in a bag' by not trial burning a few bags before I blindly took a Big Box store associates faux promise, "oh, yea these pellets burn hot and clean". Live and learn....... By you doing your pre-purchase homework and being an informed consumer, you are rounding off the octagon on the way to smoothly rolling down the pellet stove ownership road, as opposed to me, when I started with a square ..... Sometimes it still feels like I'm trying to clunk the square down the road!
Did your exhaust / vent off-gassing issue resolve OK? Your Quad is humming along warmly and happily ?
I got stuck my first pellet season with 4 tons of 'dirt in a bag' by not trial burning a few bags before I blindly took a Big Box store associates faux promise, "oh, yea these pellets burn hot and clean". Live and learn....... By you doing your pre-purchase homework and being an informed consumer, you are rounding off the octagon on the way to smoothly rolling down the pellet stove ownership road, as opposed to me, when I started with a square ..... Sometimes it still feels like I'm trying to clunk the square down the road!
Did your exhaust / vent off-gassing issue resolve OK? Your Quad is humming along warmly and happily ?
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We started with the Chows and they're ok - the glass seems to get very dirty very quickly though.
The installer is coming back this week to re-silicon the vent connections. Says it sounds like they didn't seal properly. Now we notice a small wisp of smoke when it starts up and an odor for a little while (not sure if it's the pellets burning that I smell or something else) so I hope the new silicon helps. If not - he'll be coming back here again!
The installer is coming back this week to re-silicon the vent connections. Says it sounds like they didn't seal properly. Now we notice a small wisp of smoke when it starts up and an odor for a little while (not sure if it's the pellets burning that I smell or something else) so I hope the new silicon helps. If not - he'll be coming back here again!
You and me brother. You and me. I do it for heat. Not entertainment. For entertainment there are the posts here.
Good on you Pellet Girl, insisting your installer 'make it right'. How does the saying go, "if you don't have the time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find the time to do it right the 2nd time?" (or 3rd --> or 4th.......)
Rapidly dirty stove glass could be too high of a pellet feed to air ratio (burning too 'rich'), or may be a result of running your stove mostly on low setting, which produces more ash and less stove air flow to remove it via the combustion blower. If yours is a floor demo model your door seal (called in the Quad parlance a 'tadpole' gasket) and the fire pot seal *should* be OK to prevent any rogue firebox air leaks, as that could also reduce your burn efficiency.
I struggled with poor pellet combustion in my Quad for 3 months before I realized the prior owner had at some point removed the fire pot, but didn't put in a new fire pot gasket when they re-installed it, so my combustion blower was pulling air in around, instead of through, the fire pot. So inspect your gasket between the fire pot and the bottom of the fire box, and do the 'dollar bill' resistance check around the door seal - the closed door should have good resistance to a dollar bill being pulled out round all the door edges - *just in case*.
Or your dirty glass issue could be just high ash content pellets. I've never burned Stove Chows, so can't advise on that.
I sealed the vent sections that are inside the house by wrapping the junctions with black high temp silicone tape I bought at my local stove shop, which matched the high temp black stove paint color that I had sprayed my vent sections with before I installed it. That may be a back-up option for you if you're still having issues with the internal silicone seal - not sure if it comes in any other colors.
Keep us posted on how things go.
Rapidly dirty stove glass could be too high of a pellet feed to air ratio (burning too 'rich'), or may be a result of running your stove mostly on low setting, which produces more ash and less stove air flow to remove it via the combustion blower. If yours is a floor demo model your door seal (called in the Quad parlance a 'tadpole' gasket) and the fire pot seal *should* be OK to prevent any rogue firebox air leaks, as that could also reduce your burn efficiency.
I struggled with poor pellet combustion in my Quad for 3 months before I realized the prior owner had at some point removed the fire pot, but didn't put in a new fire pot gasket when they re-installed it, so my combustion blower was pulling air in around, instead of through, the fire pot. So inspect your gasket between the fire pot and the bottom of the fire box, and do the 'dollar bill' resistance check around the door seal - the closed door should have good resistance to a dollar bill being pulled out round all the door edges - *just in case*.
Or your dirty glass issue could be just high ash content pellets. I've never burned Stove Chows, so can't advise on that.
I sealed the vent sections that are inside the house by wrapping the junctions with black high temp silicone tape I bought at my local stove shop, which matched the high temp black stove paint color that I had sprayed my vent sections with before I installed it. That may be a back-up option for you if you're still having issues with the internal silicone seal - not sure if it comes in any other colors.
Keep us posted on how things go.
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I think all our seals are good. We did have the stove pretty low for a while so that might be why we had the dirty glass so quickly. We adjusted the settings and will see how it goes this time (stove is off now as it was in the 60's here today but will be on overnight).
I do have a question about the flame - it seems to be higher on the right side of the firepot, mainly when the flame is lower. When the flame is higher it is more even. Is there an adjustment for that or something we are doing wrong?
Also, the autoclean for the firepot seems to operate every time the stove shuts down. Is this normal? Is this something we adjust or just how it operates? It isn't giving us a problem I was just wondering.
I do have a question about the flame - it seems to be higher on the right side of the firepot, mainly when the flame is lower. When the flame is higher it is more even. Is there an adjustment for that or something we are doing wrong?
Also, the autoclean for the firepot seems to operate every time the stove shuts down. Is this normal? Is this something we adjust or just how it operates? It isn't giving us a problem I was just wondering.
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