Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: K Frame on November 07, 2019, 09:56:56 AM
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I know there are a couple of you other than me, I just can't remember who....
What pellets are you using? Are they hardwood or softwood?
I'm VERY limited on my pellet selection in DC metro. Basically, Lowe's is it. Last year they had Cheat River pellets, which I found to be excellent. This year they're selling both Lignetics Green Supreme Blue Ridge blend (locally made) and Virginia Golden Softwood pellets, which I've not been able to find out much about.
I ended up buying 3 bags of each as testers. I'll get to use them this coming weekend as it's going to get a lot colder and windier here.
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I may be getting one soon. From what I've read, softwood burns hotter, but also faster. About the same energy in both.
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I have one.
I use hardwood pellets from VT or Canada, eh. I try to avoid softwood because that seems to make more ash and soot.
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Revdisk has one IIRC.
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Rev's not been online in going on 2 years.
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Rev's not been online in going on 2 years.
He is active on FB.
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They're becoming more popular in California.
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They're fairly popular around here as well. I know a few people that are relying on them for primary heat. They do a fine job, very efficient, good heat. A couple of folks I know are having trouble getting pellets in bulk though. They are buying in bulk on contract but are having trouble getting stock from their supplier (regional feed store outfit).
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Got rid of mine a couple yrs ago. Good heat but don't really think mine was installed right. I had to clean every 5-7 days, neighbor cleaned about every 3 wks w/ a bigger stove. I liked the Cheat River pellets, second was any "premium hardwood" pellets. Not sure what's available this season.
Good luck.
Bob
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I've got one. Absolutely love it. Hardwood pellets are available for smokers but prohibitively expensive to use for heat. I use Lignetics whenever they're available. Lowes here carries a brand called "GreenTree" which are nearly as good. Home Depot & Ace Hardware carry "HEAT" brand pellets, usable not great. There a few others sold locally but the key is how well they're compressed. If you can crumble a few in your hand fairly easily, don't buy them.
Of the softwood pellets the Lignetics burn cleanest w/ the most heat output. They all list about 8000 Btu's per pound but I can run Lignetics a little lower on the feed screw.
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Saturday was the first solid test of the stove this season. The temp when I got up at 5 a.m. was 25, and the temp inside was 61-63.
An hour after I turned the stove on the temp in the house was around 67 and rising before I turned it off and left for the day.
When I got home around 4:30 I kicked back on low and let it run for about 6 hours. Kept the house VERY comfortable. At some point during that run the Cheat River pellets ran out and the Green Supremes started feeding. I've not noticed any different in performance. When this bag runs down I'll put in the Virginia Goldens and see how they burn.
I'm going to get another 10 bags of pellets this morning. Since I know that the Green Supremes burn well, I'll buy 10 bags of those. If the VGs burn well, also, then I'll just buy whatever going forward.
Tomorrow the temp is supposed to bottom out again.
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I finally got around to programming my stove so that it automatically starts, runs, then shuts off.
I want it to come on at 4 a.m. so that the house is getting warm for when I get up at 5 a.m.
Fairly simple interface to program, but I missed the last step needed to "arm" the stove so it didn't come on the first morning (and it was COLD in the house, 61!) Got that sorted, and the next morning the stove fired right up, ran for its two hours, and then shut down as I was getting ready to walk out the door. Perfect.
I need to play with it a bit, though, to fine tune it for temperature and time.
All in all, still incredibly happy with this stove!