Hey all,
Anybody else burning North American Wood pellets and getting soot / creosote on the heat exchangers? This is my second season burning, and last year I had good luck buying rando-pellets from Home Depot (Heatrs). I didn't mind cleaning out the ash more often in order to save a few hundred bucks on pellets. Heat was good, and life was good.
This year I rolled the dice again and got a few tons of North American Pellets. After burning just a couple bags I noticed that my heat exchangers were all black! I only burn on the high setting, and the flame is lively and not sooty, so I don't think there's a lack of airflow. So I cleaned the heat exchangers with soap and water and then a couple bags later the tubes were black again! This is not good. I don't recall this happening with the Heatrs.
I've read some posts where people said that creosote necessarily means there's something wrong with the stove setup (not enough airflow). Other people have said that certain junk pellets produce creosote. My guess is, since the flame looks healthy, it's probably the pellets.
Should I just spray some liquid creosote remover in the firebox when I do my cleanings, as I make my way through all of these nasty pellets? I ordered some of this stuff, but I haven't tried it yet.
Also, is it possible that too much airflow could cause the creosote? When I had my stove apart for cleaning, I noticed that the flue adapter gasket was not the same shape or size as the flue adapter. The flue adapter has a long, rectangular hole, and the gasket has a circular hole. This seemed strange to me, even though the gasket was straight from Quadrafire. So I trimmed the gasket to match the flue adapter, in effect expanding the exhaust passage by removing the partial gasket blockage. Anyone think that this could somehow cause the creosote by increasing airflow? I should add that the flame looks totally normal - not like a blowtorch or, on the other extreme, lazy.
Anybody else burning North American Wood pellets and getting soot / creosote on the heat exchangers? This is my second season burning, and last year I had good luck buying rando-pellets from Home Depot (Heatrs). I didn't mind cleaning out the ash more often in order to save a few hundred bucks on pellets. Heat was good, and life was good.
This year I rolled the dice again and got a few tons of North American Pellets. After burning just a couple bags I noticed that my heat exchangers were all black! I only burn on the high setting, and the flame is lively and not sooty, so I don't think there's a lack of airflow. So I cleaned the heat exchangers with soap and water and then a couple bags later the tubes were black again! This is not good. I don't recall this happening with the Heatrs.
I've read some posts where people said that creosote necessarily means there's something wrong with the stove setup (not enough airflow). Other people have said that certain junk pellets produce creosote. My guess is, since the flame looks healthy, it's probably the pellets.
Should I just spray some liquid creosote remover in the firebox when I do my cleanings, as I make my way through all of these nasty pellets? I ordered some of this stuff, but I haven't tried it yet.
Also, is it possible that too much airflow could cause the creosote? When I had my stove apart for cleaning, I noticed that the flue adapter gasket was not the same shape or size as the flue adapter. The flue adapter has a long, rectangular hole, and the gasket has a circular hole. This seemed strange to me, even though the gasket was straight from Quadrafire. So I trimmed the gasket to match the flue adapter, in effect expanding the exhaust passage by removing the partial gasket blockage. Anyone think that this could somehow cause the creosote by increasing airflow? I should add that the flame looks totally normal - not like a blowtorch or, on the other extreme, lazy.
