No more Hardwood Heat for my Quad...

[DobieMom]

Not even thru 2 bags and took out 6 clinkers about the size of a 50 cent piece, and the ash is horrible! I took the rest of the 2nd bag out of the hopper tonight and dumped in the Wood Pellet Co pellets I had been using. I think the WP Co also gives better heat. Called HD today and they have Stove Chow at $3 something a bag/$187 ton so am going to try those next. My brother has a County Flame so I gave him the Hardwood Heat to try in his stove...he saw the clinkers and ash but said his is due for a cleaning anyway :lol: Was a nice trade since he brought over his Cricket vac and did my stove! :coolsmile:

Deb

 

[richkorn]

Strange.

Hardwood Heat is supposed to be rebagged Hamer's.

 

[richardpuerto]

Haven't used Hardwood Heat pellets but I just tried 3 bags of Stove Chow from HD at $3.74 a bag and it burned pretty good. Very little dust in the bags, low amount of ash, and the heat output was good as well. I am getting ready to try 7 bags of Nations Choice which is suppose to be ultra low ash also sold at HD. I already went through 1 ton of Country Boy which was excellent but run about $5.40 a bag, so I am looking for alternatives.

 

[dw06]

I've been waiting on the new shipment at TSC to pick up 3-4 bags of the Hardwood Heat just to try. I got enough in shed right now to last till mid march, but may get another ton of something and wanted to try these out first. I'll let you know how they do for me.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Not even thru 2 bags and took out 6 clinkers about the size of a 50 cent piece, and the ash is horrible! I took the rest of the 2nd bag out of the hopper tonight and dumped in the Wood Pellet Co pellets I had been using. I think the WP Co also gives better heat. Called HD today and they have Stove Chow at $3 something a bag/$187 ton so am going to try those next. My brother has a County Flame so I gave him the Hardwood Heat to try in his stove...he saw the clinkers and ash but said his is due for a cleaning anyway :lol: Was a nice trade since he brought over his Cricket vac and did my stove! :coolsmile:

Deb

You might have tried backing the feed down first.

If those pellets are dense or small you may be providing too much fuel for the combustion air to handle.

 

[FordMastertech]

Haven't used Hardwood Heat pellets but I just tried 3 bags of Stove Chow from HD at $3.74 a bag and it burned pretty good. Very little dust in the bags, low amount of ash, and the heat output was good as well. I am getting ready to try 7 bags of Nations Choice which is suppose to be ultra low ash also sold at HD. I already went through 1 ton of Country Boy which was excellent but run about $5.40 a bag, so I am looking for alternatives.

Stove Chow is a good pellet and provides good heat, not the hottest but good enough for what I need in the Quad AE. I tried Nations Choice the other day and it is way below the heat output of the Stove Chow and a lot dirtier burn, no real clinkers but just more ash almost like Inferno's.

 

[DobieMom]

richkorn-I thought it was strange too considering all the good reviews I've read on them...that's why I bought 3 bags to try.

rpuerto and FordMastertech - thanks for the input on SC - will be trying them soon, probably over the weekend and will report in!

dw06 - yes, please let me know how you fair with the TSC pellets.

SmokeyTheBear...my feed rate is as low as it can go.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

...
SmokeyTheBear...my feed rate is as low as it can go.

Including the setting in the controller?

Quad has a control box that has multiple setting on it for some of their stoves. Sometimes they are set to feed more pellets than the standard default for the model.

ETA: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/765948/

 

[DobieMom]

...
SmokeyTheBear...my feed rate is as low as it can go.

Including the setting in the controller?

Quad has a control box that has multiple setting on it for some of their stoves. Sometimes they are set to feed more pellets than the standard default for the model.

ETA: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/765948/

Smokey - that box is off limits to me...manual says "Do NOT open the control box. This will void the warranty..."

 

[richg]

Quad pellet stoves are notorious for clinker development due to their top feed design. I would get clinkers the size of oranges if I did not shut my Quad 1200 down 2x per day for cleaning. hardwood pellets produced teh worst clinkers.....the softwood pellets bagged as Fireside Ultra are Energex softwood pellets and they were much better.

 

[NotMyJob]

Hardwood Heat – Never Again

We have 2-stoves a Quad and a Breckwell. We tried a few bags last fall and thought they were ok, then we bought 3- tons …wow..the first few bags were nothing like this … worst pellets we have ever burned …, here are a couple pics, We emailed Hammer with no response. Glad were down to the last ton !

 

[DobieMom]

richg - Not been burning long or too many bags yet BUT the Wood Pellets I've been burning have not resulted in ANY clinkers (keeping paws crossed ), pretty low on ash, lots of heat and a small amount of fines.

NotMyJob - YUCK!! I had bad fines in my HH too, pellets were very light in color and in a bit better shape than the ones in your pic. Maybe they've just gotten some bad batches. Either way, I'm moving on Will check out Stove Chow this weekend from HD.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

...
SmokeyTheBear...my feed rate is as low as it can go.

Including the setting in the controller?

Quad has a control box that has multiple setting on it for some of their stoves. Sometimes they are set to feed more pellets than the standard default for the model.

ETA: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/765948/

Smokey - that box is off limits to me...manual says "Do NOT open the control box. This will void the warranty..."

Get the dealer to check it.

 

[richkorn]

Those look nothing like the Hamer's Hot Ones that I have.

 

[Turbo-Quad]

Thats what the last load of Somersets I bought looked like. It turns out the pallet was the bottom one with other pallets stacked on top of it. It was crushed. I bet thats what you have also. So far I've been able to burn them but the stove is starting to grunt.

 

[dw06]

DobieMom- I will let you know, plan on picking them up sat to burn over the weekend.

NotMyJob- I may be wrong, but those bags of pellets look more to me like they have gotten wet at some point. Someone that knows more than I will come along and let you know. At any rate, I would contact where you bought them and have them returned for replacement.

 

[NotMyJob]

TSC did offer to exchange them but they were hand carried into our basement and no way was I going to go through that again, just to much work!

Really don’t think that they had gotten wet, but very well could have been bottom pallets and were crushed.

Also never new what clinker was until we started burning these Hardwood Heats …but the good news is there almost gone ….

 

[schoondog]

My stove loves the hardwood heats. Good heat, ok in all other respects. The problem with the bigboxes is they break up pallets and move the bags way too much which contributes to all those fines. I recently bought several bags of Hammers from our local Lowes and they had opened up all the tons (10-15 of them) and spread them between the outdoor nursury area, front of the store and near the stoves. I asked for a wrapped ton and 2 off the clerks said management made them open all the pellets and break them up. Those Hammers had quite alot of fines. Makes no sense to me. Sure open a few tons at a time for individual bag sales, keep the rest covered up.

Schoondog

 

[Turbo-Quad]

I unloaded mine too and that's why I kept them. I didn't feel like loading them back up and driving 20 miles to exchange them. They burn ok, I just had to make a feed adjustment to accomodate the much smaller pellet size. The next time I have them bring a pallet down out of the pallet rack I will look at the top and see if there is an imprint of a pallet on it. If there is I'm going to make them bring me another...etc. If they all have pallet imprints I guess I'll get one anyway. There aren't alot of alternatives around here unless you want to buy Lignetics for $330 a ton.

 

[Meneillys]

I made a new plate for inside the hopper on my little Quad that way I can adjust the feed and not open the box untill the warrenty is over.