I bought a corn burning furnace last winter for my house, and in general I am satisfied with it, but do have problems with it going out occasionally. Wondered if anybody had any experience to share that might save me some headaches in the future. How about wood pellets vs. corn for heat output and cost considerations???

 

I used to sell, install, and repair, wood and pellet stoves. I have ran corn in several stoves, but mostly in a large furnace we used to heat the store.

Corn will burn hotter than pellets, usually with less ash. The corn ash will be different looking, and can sometimes clump into a hard ball.

The firepot in our furnace was a rotating drum using a drop pellet system.

The corn is much harder to light, and I usually had to start it on pellets, and then switch to corn, or I would fill the firepot with corn, then soak it with lighter fluid or kerosene,(NOT RECOMMENDED) if I was in a hurry.

It takes more air to burn corn, and if you turn the heat rate down very much it will go out.

I have seen the firepot and walls of the furnace cherry red using corn. That is, until it melted the rod that turned the firepot for about the third time, and we finally stopped using the stove.

If you can find a good, low moisture content, tightly packed, low dust, hardwood pellet, then you will have fairly good results. I am sure that you have noticed the huge differences between pellet brands in quality and burnability.

In my first sentence I said I used to "sell" pellet stoves. In reality I only installed and serviced. I would not sell any myself, I left that to the others who thought that pellet stoves were the next great thing. I can not, and will not, sell a product that I do not have trust and faith in.

Our store was selling the pellet stoves in the mid 80's and early 90's when they were just starting out. I hope today's stoves are much better than what we had back then.

When the pellet furnace burnt out, I installed 2 Monitor heaters in the building, and never looked back. We were the warmest we had ever been, no more hassle and dust, and much cheaper to run than pellets. Kerosene is plentiful in my area, it may not be in yours.

Now the Monitor, that is something I can believe in. I have also sold a few thousand of them.

 

I have Americas Heat. 14 Bushel bin and it augers in like the old stoker stoves. Let me know what brand stove you have.

To keep the fire going you need to adjust the air and off timer. Too much draft is not good, I run 2 automatic draft controllers. Let me know what you have, I am glad to see a fellow corn burner.

 

I'm in Iowa so corn is readily available for me- I was thinking about trying wood pellets in mine, but if they put out less heat than corn and the pellets cost more too thenthat wouldnt be good. Mine is made by LDJ mfg. in Pella Iowa, Seems as if my biggest issues are with the quality of the corn I get- have to make changes in my timers to accomodate different batches I get.

 

For some reason I thought this thread would be about ethanol.

Never heard of burning corn.....

 

I got one and I only burn pellets because I don't want the hassle of dealing with corn. The pellets aren't that expensive if you aren't using it all the time ($3-4 for 50 lbs). It is important that the corn be dry enough or you won't be able to burn it at all. I bought some that I could not get to burn at all... ended up feeding it to the chickens.

 

Americas Heat (LMF) and LDJ are sister companies. I love mine since I have plenty of corn here. The corn I burn is around 15% of moisture which has been no problem. Just learn your off timer, to long and the fire goes out, along with the amount of air you force draft.

 

So where do you all buy your corn at? Elevator? feed store? Local farmer? Grow your own?

How is it sold bulk, bag or bring your own container?

What about insects and rodents? any problems with those?

Did I read corn stoves can be vented with class B chimney? Is that the same as double wall for gas furnaces?

 

Shaggymane

I farm so I have corn here, my neighbor has a 5,000 bushel bin that is full, so you can buy direct from a local farmer or elevator. The handling of corn would be more of a problem for someone living in town that does not have the resources. Last year I ran the unit all season and used 240 bushels of corn. To put things in a visual for you I use 2 five gallon buckets a day on average up to 4 buckets on really cold days when the weather goes below -0 degrees.

The system is covered so rodent and bug problems are not an issue and single wall stove pipe an be used due to the low flue temps, no creasote build up only a dust build up will occur.

Other fuels can used, wood pellets, cherry pits, ect. Here is a link http://www.americasheat.com/ or http://www.cornheat.com/

Hope this helps, and I like the alternative with Biomass heating instead of Dino.

 

Before I got my corn burner, it wasnt unusual for me to pay out $300-350 a month on propane!!! Granted, theres more work for me to burn corn, but for the money I'm saving, I'ts definitely worth it!!! I get my corn from a neighbor, but the first batch I got this year had a lot of "trash" in it, so when I empty my wagon this week I will try the co-op in town for my next batch.

 

Most farm bins unload from the top down, not always, and with the stirators bringing the light stalks or trash to the top it is wise to wait until one load has been removed. My Co-op had a good run in the bin and I bought corn back from them this year.

 

My problem this year is that the furnace will run fine for days with minimal attention- empty ashes, pick "clinkers" out of burn pot and keep corn in it, but then it would just go out!!! I'm guessing that the augers are getting plugged with stalks and such, then get themselves unplugged, but by then it was too late- fire was too far gone or too low in pot to regain itself- turning my "off" timer from 6 min to 4 seems to help and I've opened up my draft controll to not supply so much air (slow down combustion). It just happened this morning- fire was going, but was so low in pot that the exchangers werent getting any useable heat, fire would have gone out eventually too- but I managed to put some corn in on top in a couple of stages to prevent smothering fire out. It,s now burning at top of pot and putting out lots of heat. Am I wrong in my theories??? When I bought mine last year, I picked it up right at the factory and the guy told me the #1 problem people had with them was trash in their corn supply.

 

Just my experience on a Corn Fired Stove: Saw them in operation but never went as far as buying one. The Cost facter was far to great to use a corn stove. From reading other threads on the topic 10-4 to problems. Yes if you have connections ie: a Silo connected to the house or a Corn field in the back 40. John Q Homeowner goes to the Co-op to price Corn well the High grade quality corn The Farmer has first dibs on it , you would get a lower grade quality of corn which I was told a lot more corn would have to burn to give you the heat you require. But just like a Wood pellet or Corn fired Stove you need electricity to run the auger to feed the fire pot. The whole exercise is to find an alternate heat source isn't it???

 

No one has first dibs on corn from the elevator...so that is false. Quality (trash free) corn burns better..true. The elctricity required is very small and compared to heating with fuel oil or propane it is an alternative.

 

wyldstallyn73

Open your force draft all the way open, the blower on the side. Keep the trash, large pieces of stalk or cob, out of your corn. Finding a cleaner source is going to help. Clean your pot once a day only knocking off the larger pieces from the top ring and do not disturb the actual burner, you may be taking your source of fire away if you keep your fire pot clean of clinkers. When filling your bin put some graphite in on occasion to lube the feed tube, stop by John Deere for a good source, the graphite is used in the seed planters and is cheap insurance.

For the flue draft you want a .04 water column draw, you may be over drafting, add a mechanical draft controller if you do not have one. My timer is 7 minutes off....4 minutes on when no heat is being called for.

Hope this helps. My second year and no problems so far, it is 7 degrees outside today and the house is nice and warm.