So last weekend I decide to change my door gasket as it was starting too show a little wear on the one corner so off to ace hardware get a new gasket and install it, That evening I fire up the stove and go to bed, get up the next morning and my glass is unusually black and alot of black ash in the stove and not getting the heat I'm used to.I was burning AWF softwoods so my first thought was is the new gasket is leaking so off to ace hardware again for another new gasket but went with a 1/4 thicker gasket this time (can't do the dollar bill test with the way the door seals) So I replace the gasket again fire the stove that evening and wake up to the same thing the next morning, so now I'm getting pizzed and about ready to rip out the francesca and install the Serenity but I thought let me try a different pellet, so my boss at work had given me 2 bags of easy blaze to try so that's what I put in the stove, fire it up that evening get up the next morning to the same exact thing, now I'm realy poed so I come up with the idea to put foil tape over the door gasket and close the door to see if I can find a leak and sure enough the the gasket is sealed tight all the way around. Ok the gasket isn't leaking so I clean out the hopper and refill with AWF hardwoods fire the stove that evening get up the next morning and what do you know my glass is clean stove is cranking heat and very little light gray ash. When I installed the stove I dialed it in with hardwoods, I'm sure I could have made adjustments to the stove too eliminate the black ash had I known at the time that it was the pellets and not the gasket.Needless to say I'm done with softwoods.
I will take the softies off your hands and dispose of the at the Northampton Pellet Recycling Facility......free of charge of course
Honestly not even worth changing stove settings since softwoods are not available around me, The AWF pines I picked up at a lowes away from home 2 yrs. ago and the easy blaze where given to me from my boss who lives 45 mins. away and he picked those up at a stove shop near him. So it's not pellets I would normally buy either way.
Oh I can burn the softwoods straight no problem just never had the black ash before which led me to think I had an air leak ( moral of the story )But yeah I will probably just mix the pines with hardwoods to get rid of them, luckily I only have a few bags that I bought too see what the softwood hype was all about.
The point is if you had a Harman you could burn either and not touch the stove, it will do it for you.
Did burn either no problem and didn't change the stove but the difference is my stove gets more ash from the softwoods . Harman don't make a stove that would work for my installation either way nor would I pay their prices for a pellet stove when I could install a new furnace for the same amount of money. So like I said nope natta no thank you.
