So-Called Premium Pellets?

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debbiels1979

New Member
Hearth Supporter
To start, I have a Mount Vernon pellet stove which was installed December of 2005 (it is not an AE). Anyway, the weekend before New Year's the stove stopped dropping pellets and I posted about my problem and everyone gave their advice but to no avail and so on New Year's Eve, I called the dealer where we purchased our stove and they came out and it was an auger jam. The service man told me what to do if it ever happened again but he said it would be unlikely I would have anymore problems and it was just a fluke. Well believe it or not, at 5am this morning my stove went out and would not drop pellets again. I went through all the steps and sure enough, the auger was jammed. I freed the jammed pellets and now she is burning fine again. Now I know there are people who claim to never have had this problem in all the years they have had a pellet stove. I even changed pellets after the last fiasco and they burned great until this morning. I am just trying to figure out why this keeps happening. Perhaps my stove is more prone to jamming? Perhaps EVERYONE in my area is selling crap pellets? Perhaps I just have really rotten luck with this stove? I am paying top dollar for premium pellets and yet I am waking up at 5am with no heat. I keep my stove clean and other than this she runs fine. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas or suggestions?
 
How long are the pellets you have been getting? I had a batch that were long and hard to snap in half. They jammed my auger. I had a batch that were long but more brittle and they were fine. I don't pay attention to the premium on the bag...they all say that.
 
Just running my fingers through the pellets in the hopper they seem to be of average size and they seem to snap in half fairly easy. After switching brands, I am actually wondering if it isn't actually my stove. I can't see how all the pellets I am purchasing from two different dealers can all be bad.
 
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