Pellet stoves

[TROY COOK]

This is our first year with a pellet stove, I think pellet stoves are a lot more work that people are aware of. I am still happy we bought a pellet stove. There is just a lot of tinkering around to do with it! burning air flow,feed rate , pellet type, cleaning, clinging pellets in the hopper. All the time I spend on this thing I could be out cutting firewood for my wood stove. So far I think a good wood stove is hard to beat! Not to mention a nice wood pile looks much better than big pallets of pellets Anyway I love this site! I wonder how people got by before the internet?

 

[tjnamtiw]

Sure sounds like you bought the wrong stove or you still haven't read the user manual. :cheese:
I spend 5 minutes a day cleaning my Quadrafire and once a week, whether it needs it or not, I spend 10 minutes doing a thorough cleaning. Empty the ashes about every 3 or 4 days. That's it. No clinkers, no clinging pellets, etc. I did adjust the feedrate (the only adjustment on the Quads) to get a little more heat and get the flame height correct. Maybe your 'premium' pellets aren't so 'premium'....
Hang in there and soon you won't miss the wood cutting, splitting, hauling, bugs, dirt, getting up twice a night to feed the 'beast'. Of course, having to buy the darn pellets is NOT the part that I miss when I have oak woods behind my house.

 

[TROY COOK]

I sure read the manual! and got info from this forum as well as talking to England stove works service reps. I am getting used to this pellet stove thing. my point was just going into it I wasn't aware of all the details of pellet burning,As I'm sure other people are in the dark as well! ~ Thanks for the reply, and nice looking stove you got!

 

[tjnamtiw]

Thanks. All in jest! ) I know it's a whole new ball game. I've had wood burners for 20 years and now have two pellet stoves to feed. I banked on the fact that Obama and his Cap and Trade is going to totally screw our electric rates and make the pellet stoves competitive to my heat pumps. This is a great forum for info, as you already know. The biggest factor I have read so far is the range of pellet quality that you find. This is my first year also.

I have found a few hand made tools like gun bore brushes that make cleaning easier.

Oh,, and I sure like the way you stacked your wood

 

[hossthehermit]

Well. I spend about a half hour with mine every day, usually an hour on Sunday. Daily routine is, after I get home from work, tend to any odd jobs that have cropped up around the house while I was gone, (wife lets me know what those are). mix myself a libation, grab a cigar outta the humidor, mosey down into the cellar. Have a couple sips, fire the stogie. Have a sip, and a couple whiffs. Pull the scraper on the heat exchanger a few times (5 seconds). Have a sip, and a couple whiffs. Turn on ESPN, have a couple whiffs, couple sips. Open the door, wipe the glass, close the door (3 seconds).Have a few whiffs, few sips, catch up on sports news, who's doin' what. Few more whiffs, few more sips. Rip open a bag of pellets, dump 'em in the hopper. If that don't fill it up, rip an' dump again.
Now, Sunday is a whole 'nother thing, that's cleanin' day. Shut 'er down in the mornin' , once the sun gets up. Take wife grocery shoppin. Get home, carry in groceries, mix libation, grab cigar, head to cellar, turn on ESPN. At this point, stove has been down 2+ hours. Stick hand in ash pan, burnpot, every other place imaginable. If I don't feel anything warm, anywhere, go ahead, vac, dump pan, pull ash trap covers, vac in there, scrape baffle, tidy up 20 minutes, consume libation, smoke cigar. Grew up burning wood, pellets are easy, good thing, 'cuz I'm old, feeble, and under the influentz

 

[hearthtools]

How much truble depends on the stove you buy
you can buy low budget stove and have to tinker all the time or buy a Higher dollar stove and spend less time
I open the door on my stove to clean in Sept and Dec and burn 3.5 ton a year
All I have to do is keep the 3 bag hopper full

 

[Excell]

Well. I spend about a half hour with mine every day, usually an hour on Sunday. Daily routine is, after I get home from work, tend to any odd jobs that have cropped up around the house while I was gone, (wife lets me know what those are). mix myself a libation, grab a cigar outta the humidor, mosey down into the cellar. Have a couple sips, fire the stogie. Have a sip, and a couple whiffs. Pull the scraper on the heat exchanger a few times (5 seconds). Have a sip, and a couple whiffs. Turn on ESPN, have a couple whiffs, couple sips. Open the door, wipe the glass, close the door (3 seconds).Have a few whiffs, few sips, catch up on sports news, who's doin' what. Few more whiffs, few more sips. Rip open a bag of pellets, dump 'em in the hopper. If that don't fill it up, rip an' dump again.
Now, Sunday is a whole 'nother thing, that's cleanin' day. Shut 'er down in the mornin' , once the sun gets up. Take wife grocery shoppin. Get home, carry in groceries, mix libation, grab cigar, head to cellar, turn on ESPN. At this point, stove has been down 2+ hours. Stick hand in ash pan, burnpot, every other place imaginable. If I don't feel anything warm, anywhere, go ahead, vac, dump pan, pull ash trap covers, vac in there, scrape baffle, tidy up 20 minutes, consume libation, smoke cigar. Grew up burning wood, pellets are easy, good thing, 'cuz I'm old, feeble, and under the influentz

Sounds more like a hobbie than work ,to me ?

 

[krooser]

I emptied my stove's ashpan on Wednesday... I'll probably do the same Sunday... shut it down, clean the window, do a 1 minute vacuum and fire it back up... Usually I wait a week but I've been burning more pellets with the sub-zero temps we had this week.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I emptied my stove's ashpan on Wednesday... I'll probably do the same Sunday... shut it down, clean the window, do a 1 minute vacuum and fire it back up... Usually I wait a week but I've been burning more pellets with the sub-zero temps we had this week.

I did a full clean out on December 3 and took a good look at what was in my burn pot on December 8 when I installed a replacement convection blower and factory modification for the convection system. Looks like other than a few pulls on the heat exchanger scrapper it'll be at least another week before I might have to push some ash into the pan. If outside temperatures are decent before then I might shut it down earlier, other than that, I'm letting the stove run.

 

[rowerwet]

love my OPB feed it and clean it once a week other wise ignore it, and it heats my whole house.

 

[Bkins]

love my OPB feed it and clean it once a week other wise ignore it, and it heats my whole house.

I burned wood for 25 years and I can tell you first hand that twood stoves are a lot of work also. Depending on the stove the learning curve can take awhile also. I'll take the pellet stove with it being able to maintain constant heat, not to mention the lake of wood debris.

Bkins

 

[hossthehermit]

Well. I spend about a half hour with mine every day, usually an hour on Sunday. Daily routine is, after I get home from work, tend to any odd jobs that have cropped up around the house while I was gone, (wife lets me know what those are). mix myself a libation, grab a cigar outta the humidor, mosey down into the cellar. Have a couple sips, fire the stogie. Have a sip, and a couple whiffs. Pull the scraper on the heat exchanger a few times (5 seconds). Have a sip, and a couple whiffs. Turn on ESPN, have a couple whiffs, couple sips. Open the door, wipe the glass, close the door (3 seconds).Have a few whiffs, few sips, catch up on sports news, who's doin' what. Few more whiffs, few more sips. Rip open a bag of pellets, dump 'em in the hopper. If that don't fill it up, rip an' dump again.
Now, Sunday is a whole 'nother thing, that's cleanin' day. Shut 'er down in the mornin' , once the sun gets up. Take wife grocery shoppin. Get home, carry in groceries, mix libation, grab cigar, head to cellar, turn on ESPN. At this point, stove has been down 2+ hours. Stick hand in ash pan, burnpot, every other place imaginable. If I don't feel anything warm, anywhere, go ahead, vac, dump pan, pull ash trap covers, vac in there, scrape baffle, tidy up 20 minutes, consume libation, smoke cigar. Grew up burning wood, pellets are easy, good thing, 'cuz I'm old, feeble, and under the influentz

Sounds more like a hobbie than work ,to me ?

Pretty much.

 

[defield]

Hoss,

I enjoyed reading your detailed description of your pellet stove maintenance program.

Had you thought of technical writing as a profession?

Your first publication could be "The Mainers' Official Guide to Pellet Stove Maintenance".

Regards,

Ranger

 

[defield]

Ramsay,

Like some others who responded to your post, I have burned wood for many years in fireplaces, stoves, and wood boilers.

Also, have cut the trees down, bucked to length, hauled out of the woods, transported to the house, cut to stove length, split, stacked to dry ( love your wood pile), hauled to the basement, and restacked for winter burning.

Much easier to handle clean, easily stacked, 40# bags of pellets.

I still use our wood boiler, and once the wood is stacked in the basement, I need to split kindling, as well as three sizes of wood for efficient burning under various fire conditions, as well as feed the boiler every few hours, worry about creosote, and handle large amounts of ash, as well as daily cleaning of wood debris from the basement floor.

Much easier to pour clean, uniform pellets into the stove's hopper once a day, let the auto ignition start the fire, and the programmable thermostat control the burn.

Cleaning the wood boiler is all kinds of fun. Daily ash shoveling, weekly ash bucket dumping, and monthly removing of boiler panels and scraping the crusty accumulation.

Much easier to do a 3 minute daily vac of the pellet stove and a weekly 15 minute cleaning.

Adjusting the burn on the wood boiler is kind of a constant thing depending on weather conditions and fuel load.

Much easier with the pellet stove which has not needed any tweaking since the initial start up adjustments last year.

Anyway, I plan to keep using BOTH pellets and wood and enjoying the benefits and labor of both.

Ranger

 

[TROY COOK]

All good replies and some interesting cleaning regimen's. We have a very old home, it was first built as the town hall of our town. The basement were the pellet stove is a insulator's nightmare! I'm always finding new places to insulate. I am getting better results from the stove as I improve the insulation. There is an old parlour type wood stove down there, the previous owner did use this stove from time to time, he said it heated the basement good. So I thought the pellet stove would work as well.........So I'm learning a lot about convection heat vs. radiant heat. Is anyone out there using a pellet stove with good results in an old poor insulated house..

 

[rowerwet]

love my OPB feed it and clean it once a week other wise ignore it, and it heats my whole house.

I burned wood for 25 years and I can tell you first hand that twood stoves are a lot of work also. Depending on the stove the learning curve can take awhile also. I'll take the pellet stove with it being able to maintain constant heat, not to mention the lake of wood debris.

Bkins

Check my sig. it is an outdoor Pellet Boiler, no wood hassles, 11 bag hopper runs for about 9 days, but I refill and clean once a week since I don't know if I may be away longer at work (lots of travel all over the north east)

 

[hossthehermit]

Hoss,

I enjoyed reading your detailed description of your pellet stove maintenance program.

Had you thought of technical writing as a profession?

Your first publication could be "The Mainers' Official Guide to Pellet Stove Maintenance".

Regards,

Ranger

Unfortunately, I'm sure it would have a very small market. I think my method would only be practical for those with basement install. I know if mine was in the settin' room, my routine would be vastly different.

 

[krooser]

If you wanted to be warm and cold free all day long on winter seasons but worried about the bills and expenses it might incur on you, wood pellets and pellet stoves are the ultimate answer to your vital needs. Wood pellets are like petroleum products, they can give you heat and energy but on a safer and more affordable way. If before we only use gasoline to heat up an engine and run it efficiently, wood pellets also do the same. They can activate that engine or they can be used as wood fuels to give heat and warm sensation during the cold days of the year. The big difference is that they don’t give much residue in terms of its ash content compared to petroleum base products as well as they contain less moisture meaning high quality of heat and fuel is what you can have. Also, they are more practical to use because of its affordability compared to monopolized petroleum and electric products.

On the other hand, pellet stoves are being used same as with fireplaces and wooden stoves but more efficient and practical. If from fireplaces and wooden stoves you still need to have separate and well made infrastructures to support its vertical length, not anymore with pellet stoves. They consume only one third of the size of fireplaces making it very light and compact perfect for small houses. They are also easier to maintain and clean compared to traditional wooden stoves and fireplaces that still needs to be serviced to maintain its shine and gleam. When used both, wood pellets and pellet stoves can give you warm and cozy environment perfect during winter days being free from shivering nights and cold studded moments.

 

[AndrewChurchill]

I spend about 3 minutes a day loading my PB105 pellet boiler and about 15 minutes once a month cleaning the ash pan and burn pot. In the Spring it takes me about two hours to do a thorough cleaning including taking apart the stove pipe.

My pellets are blown into my basement so I don't have to lug tons of pellets downstairs anymore!

I'm glad I went with pellets over wood.

 

[CanadaClinker]

If you wanted to be warm and cold free all day long on winter seasons but worried about the bills and expenses it might incur on you, wood pellets and pellet stoves are the ultimate answer to your vital needs. Wood pellets are like petroleum products, they can give you heat and energy but on a safer and more affordable way. If before we only use gasoline to heat up an engine and run it efficiently, wood pellets also do the same. They can activate that engine or they can be used as wood fuels to give heat and warm sensation during the cold days of the year. The big difference is that they don’t give much residue in terms of its ash content compared to petroleum base products as well as they contain less moisture meaning high quality of heat and fuel is what you can have. Also, they are more practical to use because of its affordability compared to monopolized petroleum and electric products.

On the other hand, pellet stoves are being used same as with fireplaces and wooden stoves but more efficient and practical. If from fireplaces and wooden stoves you still need to have separate and well made infrastructures to support its vertical length, not anymore with pellet stoves. They consume only one third of the size of fireplaces making it very light and compact perfect for small houses. They are also easier to maintain and clean compared to traditional wooden stoves and fireplaces that still needs to be serviced to maintain its shine and gleam. When used both, wood pellets and pellet stoves can give you warm and cozy environment perfect during winter days being free from shivering nights and cold studded moments.

.........say nay, nay to spam.... :lol:

 

[stephenmoore]

Hey Andrew, can you send me some info on your bulk pellet supplier ? I have a pretty good system using a scaffolding plank, some tyvek and my garage window, but bulk sounds easier , on the head and back.

 

[www_godzilla]

I don't own a wood stove. I own a nice Quadrafire Sante Fe. That stove is so easy. I scrape the burn pot out and vacuum the hopper and the burn area after every bag. Then I clean my glass. This takes approximately 5 minutes TOP. I do this while watching sports center or the news. I can do this in my sleep,I've done it so many times. A good pellet stove is worth the extra $$$.