Interesting article on the subject: https://www.a1pellet.com/resources/Old-Habits-Die-Hard---Softwood-vs.-Hardwood.pdf
Here the only reasonable priced pellets are all softwood. Of the two I've used, huge difference between them though both are softwood. (near the end of page 2)
Agree about softwood differences... burned a ton of Oakie platinums last winter before burning ezblaze super premos. lot more ash with the oakies and although hot, not as hot as the blaze.. to be fair also, the blaze had lot more fines but my harman burns them up along with the pellets.
should also mention that i cleaned my outside exhaust and only had a powdery coating on the inner walls. could have skipped it..
I have limited experience with softwoods do to availability in my area but my experience has been hardwood or softwood it's a matter of what a particular stove burns best. My Ravelli loved hardwoods but didn't do the best with the softwoods I have tried, My Allure is totally opposite loves softwoods but don't do the best with hardwoods I have tried.I say this meaning either stove has burned anything I have thrown in them but a matter of how much ash was produced and heat output and clinkers or speedbumps.
funny you should mention that sub.. i have same stove and haven't had problems with hardwoods.. i am referring to decent hardwood brands, not the box store crap that some sell. although some hardwoods leave gobs of ash or hard speedbumps..
It is interesting how different stoves burn differently when although there are a lot of factors involved cleanliness, exhaust, and combustible air intake they otherwise are the exact same stoves. My Stoves both seem to burn exceptionally well with quality Hardwood pellets, well what i consider quality as I have not burned any other than Northern Max and Ambiance for 100% Hardwood pellets. The Ambiance created a bit more ash but the Northern's created very little ash and burned exceptionally hot matching all but maybe a couple of softies but still very very close and it may be in my head but seemed that they burned longer meaning I had to load the stove less. (Running the stove on constant burn) Both are 100% hardwood and both are created from direct sawdust from furniture and or wood flooring milling which may have an effect on the quality . Like all pellets they vary in quality(hardwood or softwood) as we all know but seems that both of my stoves are less effective while burning blends and certainly there is a lot more cleaning required resulting in less efficient burning stove if you are not cleaning your stove daily . Weird stuff as the P43 seems to burn blends better than the P68 go figure but either prefer 100% hard wood or quality softwood over blends.
