[Sirrotica]

I have a multifuel pellet stove that came with my, new to me last year, country home (1900 built 2 story farmhouse). I've made some improvements in the stack outside over what was cobbled together by the previous owner, and have improved the efficiency quite a lot. I don't believe they ever cleaned the flue out since they installed the stove. The family room where we spend the majority of our time, is an addition that was added on in the rear of the home, and has only one heat run, and is the furthest room from the furnace, An extra heat source is needed in that room, and they chose a pellet stove.

I'm now experimenting with different pellet fuels, hardwood exclusively, mixed hard, and soft woods, different brands make a lot of difference so far in my experimentation. I just bought a bag of cherry pits to try, and I also want to try shelled corn in it. From reading on the net, it looks like hardwood is lowest in BTUs, followed by softwoods edge it out by a small amount, then shelled corn, followed by cherry pits. Of course ash deposits are also a concern.

Anyone else use a pellet multifuel stove in their home for heat that has experimented with different fuels? I would welcome actual input of what you've found on your own appliances. The furnace is propane, and as with most commercial heating fuel sources, it has went up in the current economy

Thanks in advance for any actual accounts on different fuel experimentation.

[misterp266]

I heat exclusively with a pellet stove. While it doesn’t really have enough output to heat the whole house, I live alone and I personally don’t have any issues with it. My primary heat is electric baseboard which is very inefficient and very expensive to run!
I think you’ll need to experiment to find what works best in your stove as each one works a bit differently. I have a Quadra Fire. I use Logik E softwood when I can get it. It burns hotter and cleaner than the hardwood. Demand was high this year and I ordered too late so this year I got hardwood. Still burns very clean in my stove.
Avoid anything from HD, Lowes, or Tractor Supply, their pellets are the worst.

[Sirrotica]

I think I found most of the bad pellets last winter in my neck of the woods. I just threw the cherry pits in about half an hour ago, we shall see if they really have the extra BTUs that is claimed on the net.

[Lemans64]

Another Pellet stove owner here, but use mine in the shop, set to 55* unless I know I will be going to do something out there.
It's a Enviro Maxx stove that is supposed to be good for 2700 sq ft. shop is 1200 so it works good. I have been using a few different brands and
have come use only Clean Burn made in Tacoma Washington. Most other stuff is dirty and you have to clean the ash pit out once every 2 weeks.
With Clean burn I clean out 2 times over the winter.ave never tried stuff like you are using or trying. 1 ton up here is $350 last me almost 2 winters in the shop.

[KSZR]

I used to run one. We burned corn when it was cheap. It burned ok but corn needed to be fairly dry, 11-13 % was good. Had to light on wood pellets then switch the fire to corn. Lots of ash with corn and stinks outside. Had to mix oyster shells in with the corn or a huge clinker would. build up in the fire pot.

Used hard wood pellets for several years. Burned without a lot of ash. Less heat. Easier.

[Half-Inch Stud]

I think the clinker indicates metals in the corn?
Been reading the Firefox hardback series. The Appalacian folks burned wood for winter heat.
Knots in wood were the best burn for heat but dunno how they collected them. Pine knots but we all know about pine soot.

Coal?

[KSZR]

Minerals.

[Sirrotica]

The cherry pits burned fine, but the ash buildup was much more than the hardwood pellets that I'm buying manufactured in Kentucky. The cherry pits are also $2 a bag higher in price, $5.99 for the wood pellets, as opposed to $7.99 for the cherry pits. The cherry pits are supposed to be higher BTUs, but I really didn't notice much, if any, heat output gain. The ash buildup, along with the extra cost, pretty much cinches me sticking with the wood pellets. There is a place within 50 miles of me, near Eldora Speedway that has bulk cherry pits at $260 a ton in bulk, but I don't believe saving $40 a ton savings over the wood pellets is worth all the extra ash I'd be dealing with. Plus the round trip of 100 miles kind of negates any savings with a truck that gets about 8 miles to a gallon of gas.

I live right in the part of Ohio that farms corn on a huge scale, but I have yet to find anyone that sells it at a price that is close to wood pellets. $7.00 dollars a bag is as cheap as I've seen it advertised, and that's rare, most times it's $8.00 to $10.00 dollars a bag. I might forego the corn experiment with the reports of the clinker buildup from KSZR. I also had someone message me that said the same thing about corn, and clinkers. They also said that the corn exhaust was rather unpleasant when you were outside around the flue. Wood also has no objectionable smell when burned.

[KSZR]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

The cherry pits burned fine, but the ash buildup was much more than the hardwood pellets that I'm buying manufactured in Kentucky. The cherry pits are also $2 a bag higher in price, $5.99 for the wood pellets, as opposed to $7.99 for the cherry pits. The cherry pits are supposed to be higher BTUs, but I really didn't notice much, if any, heat output gain. The ash buildup, along with the extra cost, pretty much cinches me sticking with the wood pellets. There is a place within 50 miles of me, near Eldora Speedway that has bulk cherry pits at $260 a ton in bulk, but I don't believe saving $40 a ton savings over the wood pellets is worth all the extra ash I'd be dealing with. Plus the round trip of 100 miles kind of negates any savings with a truck that gets about 8 miles to a gallon of gas.

I live right in the part of Ohio that farms corn on a huge scale, but I have yet to find anyone that sells it at a price that is close to wood pellets. $7.00 dollars a bag is as cheap as I've seen it advertised, and that's rare, most times it's $8.00 to $10.00 dollars a bag. I might forego the corn experiment with the reports of the clinker buildup from KSZR. I also had someone message me that said the same thing about corn, and clinkers. They also said that the corn exhaust was rather unpleasant when you were outside around the flue. Wood also has no objectionable smell when burned.

Wood pellets would easier as you stated.

If you wanted to do corn best thing would be to buy a 200bu gravity wagon and get it direct from a farmer. But not everyone would have corn as dry as you would want.

Running oyster shells mixed in the corn prevents clinkers. But the extra ash and stink and corn cost are negatives.

[67drake]

Maybe do a search here-

https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/forums/

Lots of the members have woodburner/ pellet stoves.