Pellet Stove Hard vs Soft Wood?

If you stay with a brand name stove like Quadra Fire or Harmon you will be much better off then buying a stove at a big box store.

 

I find the same thing. I bought Maine Woods pellets for a few years and they are a blend like the New England pellets. They're a decent pellet, much better than the cheap big box store brands.

Last year I bought Vermont Pellets which I believe are softwood. They burned super clean, I could go over a week without even needing to empty the burn pot. I don't think they were quite as hot as the Maine ones, but not needing to clean much is worth the tradeoff. RK Miles had the Vermont pellets for $299/ton last year and I'll probably go with them again. The only pellets that burned cleaner for me were 802/Green Mountain, but those don't seem to exist anymore.

My stove is a Quadrafire 1200i (insert).

 

I don't know the brand of the stove, it comes with the house. I am supposed to close on Monday.

I was always happy with a pellet stove growing up, but we used it mostly as supplemental heat.
In 1 of my house rentals I had a few yrs ago there were 2 pellet stoves. 1 I ran 24/7 as the main heat, the other was in a not used often part of the house and I used sparingly. I burned very little oil that winter and most of it was used for hot water.

 

Agree
Before I got my Harmon I was looking at a big box store. I asked an employee who fixes the stoves they sell. He didn't really know.

 

Yep. And everyone knows a pound of lead weighs more than a pound of feathers too.

But my question is when will the climate scientists weigh in (pun intended) and start efforts to put a stop to all types of wood burning pollution, deforestation to support it, etc etc.

You know it's going to happen.

 

Just saw this today.


https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/07/us/american-south-biomass-energy-invs/

 

I've tried both hardwood and softwood portable pellet stove, and I honestly can't tell much of a difference. I think that any type of pellet is better than no pellet, especially if you're on a budget.

 

Could you explain that?

 

X2

 

Drop a 5 pound hammer on one foot and 5 pound bag of feathers on the other and tell me which one weighs more.

 

Hardwood burns slow. Soft wood faster, but hotter.

An old formula (or maybe I just figgered it out) was to build the coals on soft woods like fir and pine then throw oak logs on it, it would burn all night. So it's really a matter of what you want, more heat or long burn. I'd suggest both, soft to warm it up, hard at the end of the night (but I've never owned a pellet stove, just lots of wood stoves.)

 

Switch to coal best move ever.

 

The house I bought actually has 2 55 gallon drums in the shed, that in believe are filled with coal. No idea what to do with it though as I only have a oil furnace, and a pellet stove.

 

It is probably not worth more than 20 bucks if someone has to get it out of the drums. You can't really burn it unless you are set up to since the exhaust is corrosive. I would just put an add in the classified and give it to somebody

 

I'm a pellet pellet pragmatist! I'll use whatever is available and affordable. I've had good experiences with both hardwood and softwood camping pellet stove, and I don't think the differences are significant enough to make a fuss about. As long as my pellet stove is pumping out heat, I'm happy!

 

I start with Pine (Soft Wood ) in the beginning part of the season, November/December. When January/February time comes around I am into the Fir and Oak mix. ( Soft/Hard ) It does burn hotter and slower