Soft wood pellets better for running stoves at low setting?

[hockeypuck]

I have a Environ Mini in a small section of my home. Last year.. set my thermostat it would idle for much of the day. Do soft wood pellets burn better if your stove runs on low?

 

[Don2222]

I have a Environ Mini in a small section of my home. Last year.. set my thermostat it would idle for much of the day. Do soft wood pellets burn better if your stove runs on low?

Hello hockeypuck

I hear they make the Thelin Gnome stove run better. They may help the mini some.

However as far as the Enviro Mini goes, if you have the ash pan latch and a new ash pan gasket, then I would go with an upgraded exhaust blower.
See pics of what I did here. > > https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...h-can-you-say-titanium-step-drill-bit.129231/

Does your stove look like this on heat level 2 with Maine's Choice hardwoods? Can you make a video of your stove on heat level 2 so we can see?

 

[Mt Bob]

BTU's are by weight,therefore they both produce the same heat.I have heard soft produce less ash/clinker,but have seen otherwise with porrly made pellets.Buy the best you can afford,you will never regret it.Will leave you some links to read up on. http://www.wowpellets.com/index.php/hardwood-vs-softwood http://www.woodpellets.com/heating-fuels/hardwood-softwood.aspx

 

[briansol]

Stoves are very inefficient on low and it also creates more ash/soot. You are better off with an on/off style thermostat running on medium/low, provided it doesn't cycle too often. Some fine tuning of a swing setting may help here

 

[alternativeheat]

I have a Environ Mini in a small section of my home. Last year.. set my thermostat it would idle for much of the day. Do soft wood pellets burn better if your stove runs on low?

In my experience good softwood pellets light off a little easier than hardwood, so if the stove is cycling on and off like my P61a does in shoulder season then there is faster ignition on the relight. NOt a lot of difference in operation of that stove otherwise. I may notice a little lower flame for a given condition with hardwood. The key really is just good pellets. There are crap pellets out there with fillers and more resins which can produce funky ash results, gunk etc. And if you go into a true low burn vs on off burn this will show as various forms of residue. Mid heating season I run the P61a in manual mode so it doesn't relight ever except for cleanings, it goes all winter. In the shoulder season the igniter gets more of a work out.

 

[Bioburner]

Depending on the stove whether you will have problems with a product having more pitch-rosin. Stoves that can monitor the exhaust temp and can vary the feed rate try to keep themselves warmer seem to stay a bit cleaner. A fixed feed rate stove that cant meet optimum internal stove temps has issues with extended low burns. Several fixed feed rate stoves recommend a daily high fire. A extreme example is a garage fixed feed rate stove being fired on low setting to keep things from freezing, builds up and plugs up very fast because it cant keep the internals warm enough. Remember a key component of combustion is water.