Everything you need to know to choose between Pellet or Firewood for your home.

This article is aimed at all customers, which are usually many, who have doubts about the type of machine they want to install in their home, from DYC Fireplaces we want to shed some light on these doubts and help you make this important decision and choose the best option. We will explain the general operation of each of them and if after reading this article you still have any questions, you can contact us without any commitment and we will gladly help you solve them. Well, the first thing to take into account is the availability of free time that the family group may have to devote to the ignition, cleaning, and maintenance of the heating method for which they are going to choose.

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE.

FIREWOOD:

On the one hand, we have the cassettes and wood stoves, their cleaning is a little more laborious than that of the pellet appliances because they create more waste, we must extract both from the combustion chamber and the ashtray drawer, said waste for proper operation. The glass according to the state of the fuel will be easier to clean or not because if we use wet firewood it will cost more than said fuel ignition and there will be an accumulation of smoke until the shot heats up and performs its function 100%, this accumulation of smoke together with other factors stains the glass, so always remember that we must use dry firewood.

That it is not freshly cut because it creates resin and dirties the combustion chamber and also the dry firewood will always be easier to ignite and will bring more heat to our home. The cleaning of the glass becomes much more comfortable and simple with the use of special glass cleaners for fireplaces, we must use them carefully, and never drop the product on other surfaces or on sensitive elements such as the adjustment and sealing cord of the door. Finally mention that we must perform the cleaning of the draft eventually since it is essential to have a safe and efficient chimney. The time between chimney sweep and chimney sweep depends on several factors, we can do them according to the amount of firewood burned, in which case we speak between 3ooo and 5000 kilos maximum. And if we want to be guided by the time of use of the fireplace it is advisable for fireplaces of abundant use to do it once a year and at most once every two seasons.

PELLET:

The cleaning of both pellet cassettes and stoves needs less time and dedication than wood stoves, we can say that it is one of the pros of this type of heating. We advise you to clean daily, since in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes if we have our vacuum cleaner it can be solved. We will open our door to access the combustion chamber and we will suck the ash from the ashtray drawer that we will extract, we will remove the basket or burner which is a fundamental part and must be clean for good operation, because in this piece is where the combustion will develop, that is, where we will see the flame.

The burner has some holes through which oxygen passes, usually in its lower part, we must give importance to cleaning of these holes. Once we have cleaned the ashtray drawer and the burner we only have to clean our glass with a damp cloth, because if we use a quality pellet it will only have ash adhered easily to remove. Some stoves have scrapers to clean the exchangers located in the upper area of the combustion chamber, if it were our case we would use them before cleaning any other element and then we would carry out the cleaning as we have explained. Finally, like wood fireplaces, pellet fireplaces need maintenance from time to time, this time is stipulated by each manufacturer (between 1200 and 1700 hours approximately). All have an internal counter of operating hours, when you reach zero and detect the machine that the regulatory hours have been met, it will warn you that it needs revision so you can call your technician to tune your Pellet machine.

OPERATION.

FIREWOOD

The cassettes and wood stoves are very efficient, the cassettes mostly have turbines or fans, through which the machine collects cold air through its lower area, this passes through its double chamber, located between the combustion chamber and the outer frame when contacting the body at high temperatures the air is heated and expelled by the upper grilles of the Cassette. In general, fuel consumption is given by the regulation of the primary air intake, this is the one that provides oxygen to combustion, the greater the oxygen intake, the greater the consumption and the larger the flame size. The amount of oxygen we provide is regulated by the ashtray drawer, according to the opening of the holes it has in its front part, it will let more or less oxygen pass. The diameter and path of the shot or smoke extraction duct also affect consumption, the greater the path and the greater the consumption. Many Cassettes have a draft regulator.

PELLET:

The pellet is undoubtedly the cleaner and safer method of the two. These machines are composed of a hopper or loading tank, this tank has a capacity that varies according to the brand, model, and power. Well, when you hit the power button, a loading screw (auger) is activated that is located at the bottom of this tank and drops the pellet to the burner or basket, where the combustion will take place. Depending on the power to which we put the machine will provide more or less amount of fuel, at the same time the smoke extractor engine is activated and the resistance that is located on one side, below or behind the basket, this resistance provides heat to the Pellet that helped by the entry of oxygen will make it turn on and get an automatic ignition.

Once we are at this point the flame will stabilize and when it reaches a certain degree the tangential fan will be activated, which is what brings the hot air to the house. The vast majority of machines are programmable for automatic on and off, we can thus order the machine to turn on and off at certain times of the day without having to be aware or take care of it ourselves. As for security, they have several electronic systems that detect jams in the smoke extraction duct, so the stove will not turn on if it detects this problem, they also have temperature probes in the smoke extractor and in the hopper to register any possible anomaly and offer us all the peace of mind we need. These are just some of the advances in safety and electronics that the Pellet gives us.

We hope that your doubts have been resolved and as we discussed at the beginning of this article if you have any questions you have us at your disposal. From DYC Chimeneas we send you a cordial greeting and we look forward to your visit.