Pellet stove in Maine

How many pellets do you burn ? This is a pretty common question from people. The answer? During the Fall and Spring, maybe a bag every two or three days. During the coldest days of Winter, close to two bags a day.

It's too much work to burn pellets ! Yep, compared to twisting the thermostat, and burning oil, it is more effort to burn pellets. Not as much as burning wood, but yes, there are chores to do.

Everyday I get to open a forty pound bag of pellets, sometimes two, and pour the pellets into the hopper on the back of the stove. Sometimes the wife does this, but usually I do it. Hard to do? Nope, and some days, when my shoulder is acting up, I simply use a little scoop, and empty the bag that way. Takes a little longer, but no big chore.

Everyday, I get to open the front door of the stove, and scrape back the few ashes in the front of a little burn area. Necessary ? Usually not, but it allows the stove to burn better, and takes all of 10-20 seconds.

Once a week, I scrape down that same burn area, with the metal scrape the company supplied, or sometimes with an old wood chisel. The book will have you turn down the stove, let it cool. But, once the door is open, the fire basically dies right down, and it isn't really hot. Time spent? Oh, maybe 30 seconds.

Once every 50 bags of pellets, or when the urge strikes me during a weekend day, I let the stove cool for 10-15 minutes, use Windex to clean the windows, empty out the ash pan, and vacuum up the ashes on the sides and bottom. Time spent ? After it cools , about 3 minutes, and a couple minutes to carry the ashes out to the back yard. I mix them with some compost in the Sping, and it works well. Do I always let it cool ? Nope, usually not, I have one of those white high temp cooking gloves, and I use that. Now there is almost no cooling time.