http://pellethead.com/images/HardwoodorSoftwood.pdf http://pellethead.com/pages/Wood-Pellet-BTU's.html
Sounds like this dealer is in the heart of hardwoods land and has issues selling softies. Our pellet houses have no issues selling softies, But the box stores still don't have a clue and neither do most burners. Its hardwoods in my town Softies will wreck your stove and you'll have chimney fires if you burn them is the common answer if ya ask them. Pure Fire used to be softies when they were made by Dry Creek. Since they were sold to PA pellet(Biomax). I'm not sure if they are all softwood these days. I haven't opened the 2 bags I scored yet.
Nope. I just snapped a picture, chuckled to myself, and left. After I grabbed a couple bags of the pure fires that is. Threw first bag in last night. Mediocre heat, too much ash. More details and pics later.
Just did a quick mid-week "vac and clean" and decided to throw a bag of the pure fire pellets in for a test burn. Watch out for these if your stove is Long pellet challenged!!
Does anyone have a picture of a clinker? I pulled coal clinkers from the old stove before, but have never seen a pellet clinker.
That's funny. My Pure Fire's don't look like that. Good old batch variance strikes again! I will post a pic of mine in the next couple of days. Right now I'm burning the PTL softies on account of this cold snap we are in. Supposed to warm up a little early next week though.
Thanks for asking that question. After > 6 years burning pellets I'm still not 100% clear what a clinker is either. I'm starting to wonder if it's something that just doesn't affect Harman stoves as much as others, like maybe it's primarily a top-feeder thing? Somewhere along the line I read that they were a mass of un-burned or not fully burned pellets which remain in the pot, but I can't recall ever seeing that happen in my stove and I'm not really sure that's accurate anyway. There are only two things I have seen that I think *could* be a clinker. One is the classic Harman speedbump and the other is that giant hardened creosote monster the FSUs left in my burnpot. Are either or both of these considered clinkers, or am I way off base here?
I don't think you need to worry much with the western brands. Maybe some of the cheaper hardwoods might? He's a small one from pellet I have burned and some clinkers from a grass pellet made locally. SmokeyTheBear post a pic of the one you produced please!!
Ok thanks Jay. Based on that, the FSUs did make a clinker for me and it seems like the pictures Spock posted of those Okie Gold Nuggets were clinkers too?
Mine are just wee babies. This stove has an agitator that break's em up for me. My Quad used to produce monsta's(size of potatoe's).
I just bought 4 ton of the softwood pellets by Curran. They seem to be burning okay. I had an auger jam twice, but I think that may have been because I had the stove on 7-7 for a while. We were down there on a cold weekend and I wanted the heat. I now have it sitting on 4-4 and seems okay. I need to clean the stove again. Anyone want to buy, or know anyone who wants to buy a nice Pellet stove and the chimney to go with? I'll give you a great price and I'll bring my PE Super 27 down to the camp and burn cord wood.
Thinking about it. They can be convenient in that I can let the stove go for two days at a time. But I do not like all the cleaning you have to do. With a cord wood stove like my PE Super 27, you take the Ashes out. That's it. The stove is designed to keep the glass clean itself, so you can watch the fire as well. And not have to clean the glass all the time. I also have a lot of timber for firewood. So financially it would help to not have to buy pellets.
