Well, I thought I would add to this dismal report. I squared away the soot issue and found settings for my best burn rate for these pellets. After two cycles of burning six bags each time, mostly on three bars (of ten) I have formed an opinion and have a report. Each time after burning six bags, I cleaned and found: Four and a half days had passed. My ash pan was over filled. I had high carbon build up in the burn tray, almost 5/8's of an inch high almost across the entire width of the tray. Pretty much like a speed bump. The shortness of the pellet may have a partial cause. I have heavy ash in the heat exchangers, at the clean out below, and in the stack. I have ordered a leaf blower as I know my pipe is dusty. I had figured that I had to clean more but not this much.
Somebody that may have started out with them may not had known that there were differences between brands and may have thought it was normal. Or maybe blamed it on their stove or all pellet stoves in general. Gary
