{"id":99,"date":"2008-04-29T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T19:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/?p=58"},"modified":"2008-04-29T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T19:21:08","slug":"manke-clean-burn-wood-pellets-shorter-pellet-stove-firepot-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/04\/29\/manke-clean-burn-wood-pellets-shorter-pellet-stove-firepot-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Manke Clean Burn Wood Pellets = Shorter Pellet Stove Firepot Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rusty
\nI just replaced the firepot on my pellet stove last week. $300.<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve heated my home with wood pellets for the last five years. I have a Quadrafire Santa Fe stove.
\nIn a typical year, we\u2019ll use about two tons of pellets in the heating season. When I got the stove, that\u2019d cost about $300, which is a helluva<\/em> good deal.
\nLast year, I spent just over $500 \u2013 which is still really inexpensive compared to any other form of heat.
\nFor most of that five-year period, I\u2019ve used Manke Clean Burn<\/em> Pellets, which are produced here locally in Tacoma. They burn really hot, and produce almost no ash. The ash from two tons easily fit into the ash drawer on my stove.
\nI was cleaning the stove one morning last week and punched a hole in the side of the firepot \u2013 it had rusted through in the area by where the starter element was welded on to the pot (area circled in red on photo).
\nAlso, I noted the white deposits on the air holes (arrows). I wet the tip of my finger and touched the white area, then tasted it \u2013 it tastes salty.<\/em>
\nWhen I went to the dealer to get the new firepot, I described the damage to the parts guy \u2013 who used to work as a repairman. He asked how old the firepot was \u2013 I told him four years (it was replaced under warranty when the stove was one year old).
\nThen the guy asked, \u201cYou use Clean Burn, huh?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n


\nHe said when he was working as a repairman, he\u2019d found that if the people used Clean Burn<\/em> pellets, the average life of the firepots went between 4-5 years. Almost every time. But if they burned any other type of pellets, the pots would generally last 7-8 years.
\nThe difference is salt.<\/em>
\nManke gets a significant portion of their raw lumber in the form of log rafts \u2013 logs floating in a raft in salt water. And some of the trees look like they may have been in the water for a long, long time.
\nI know that because I\u2019m a longshoreman and in years past, I used to work at the Weyerhaeuser Log Export yard right across the Hylebos waterway from Manke. As we\u2019d be loading a ship with logs bound for Japan, the Manke guys would be pulling logs out of the water for their mill. And it was easy to tell some of those logs had been in the water for quite a long time.
\nOne time, I got a bag of their pellets that must have been all <\/em>from saltwater damaged wood. The day after burning part of the bag, there was a white powder all around the rim of the firepot \u2013 which tasted salty. I took the bag back to the place I got it and traded it for a different one.
\nI never had another bag that was as bad.
\nLater, maybe a couple years ago, I heard that Manke had supposedly corrected the salt problems and had stopped using wood soaked in saltwater. And in fact their guaranteed analysis states that chlorides are now less than 250 PPM. But I guess that\u2019s not the case. Or not \u2013 maybe the main damage was done 2-3 years ago before they excluded wood from log rafts.
\nWhatever.
\nI plan to contact the company and ask for an explanation. Unless I hear something good, me and Manke are going to part company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just replaced the firepot on my pellet stove last week. $300. I\u2019ve heated my home with wood pellets for the last five years. I have a Quadrafire Santa Fe stove. In a typical year, we\u2019ll use about two tons of pellets in the heating season. When I got the stove, that\u2019d cost about $300, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28,38,43],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","tag-firepots","tag-manke","tag-pellet-stoves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}