As a longtime SoloStove user, I feel like I am proficient with the larger fire pits and using hardwood to get them going and keep them going as long as necessary. However, after being gifted a Mesa and a bunch of pellets, I'm having a hard time getting a good technique down to keep a nice flame going for several hours. We love sitting outside around our bonfire for hours and hosting friends, which is something I was hoping we could do with the Mesa as well.
(I should note, I'm only using pellets with my Mesa because I'm using it on an open-aired porch with some fairly nice patio furniture and an outdoor rug, so I want to avoid any flying embers or sparks as I would likely get with actual wood pieces).
My experience thus far has been: load up the Mesa with pellets to the suggested fill height. I will maybe get 30-45 min of a nice consistent flame before it starts to die out. However, if I try to add pellets to the stove while the flame is still going (carefully and slowly as to not snuff it out), the flame will eventually get going again quickly, but it also quickly dies out - say, within 10 minutes. This plays out no matter how many pellets I add after the initial batch of pellets starts to die out. It's almost as if the initial spent pellets choke out the stove and keep additional pellets from burning efficiently.
Is there a technique to keep these going without having to constantly keep feeding small amounts of pellets every 5 min or so?
Videos
I've been struggling with the MESA and pellets. I know I'm not the only one. It goes great for 20 minutes or so but then it smolders and is hard to get going again. Last night I poured in some pellets after the first burn to try and relight and it I think I accidentally smothered it and basically turned it into a smoke bomb. Part of the problem is that so many of the half-burnt pellets just seem to build up meaning even if you do get it going again you can only add so much fuel. Maybe I am expecting too much, but I was hoping to adapt it for camp cooking but now I'm not sure. Does anyone have tips? What am I doing wrong? Should I use wood?
For people that use firewood, what method do you use to process it into tiny pieces?
I have a few ideas I want to test out:
Add new pellets sooner
Start with fewer pellets and ad steadily
Stir the pellets up regularly
Smaller/different pellet adapter?
Different pellets (using cherry smoking pellets now)
Wood