Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaos
I just bought a Harman pellet insert (P35I), not as decorative as the Accentra, but very efficient and about $1200 less. I've heard in the past "get quality pellets and stay away from the big store pellets". What is the badness that turns everyone against the lower cost pellets? is it the increased frequency of cleaning due to the higher crud content? Is it heat output?
I'm not trying to cheap out, we got the stove for a lot of reasons, one of course is to reduce the oil bill, just trying to understand what constitutes "bad".
thanks.
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Pellet stove brands/design range in ability to handle lower quality pellets and Harman has a reputation for having an excellent design. You should have no problem with what Lowe's has now, NEP Green Supreme and Greene Team.
As pellets are made from a variety of formally waste wood products such as sawdust and chips, some raw materials are cleaner than others. Some wood species (hardwood) have more minerals than others. So as you speculate it is the "crud" content, like the fused material called clinkers, that calls for more frequent cleaning. That is an issue with lower quality pellets.
Your Harman has bottom pellet feed so the ash and clinkers are pushed out of the way and should be very tolerant of varying pellet quality. Our Enviro is top feed and is only moderately tolerant, I clean the burn pot every day however it would make it two days. Some newer pellet stove designs include an agitator to periodically get rid of the crud. My brother-in-law got a low-end stove at Tractor Supply that has a very small top feed burn pot. It will only run about 8 hours and then the pot is full of crud.
As MAXUM has suggested, try a bag or two prior to getting a ton or more.