I am hoping some of my questions about my stove may be answered here. I have a Magnum Countryside 3500P (about 2001) . Purchased it used about 4 years ago and have been burning corn. I am now forced to burn wood pellets this season due to the cost of corn. This has been a real trying time for me. First the heat factor is less with wood pellets, it would seem, and second my stove is unpredictable on the amount of pellets it goes through. I have read some comments on the fresh air, I removed my duct from the back of the stove (it is vented to the basement) only to find a metal plate over the fresh air intake tube. My question is, should that be there? In all these years I have never checked that with corn and got along fine. Should it be removed or should it be open. I have always enjoyed my stove, not much work, basically filling, removing clinker, and cleaning. Now it has become a job. I put the fuel stirrer back in and that seemed to help with the pellets. My stove has an elbow bend at back then a straight pipe through the wall of house with a cap on the end of the pipe. (it sits in a corner of the room). Any suggestions or directions ,comments would be appreciated. Update: it is actually warmer outside than it is in my house. I am so frustrated.

You can remove the flapper. It was put in to
reduce the amount of smoke that could get in the house
if the fresh air was not vented to the outside.
I had mine freeze up and caused varying problems.
I made a steel clip to hold it open.
Make sure all is clean behind the brick board.
Make sure your exhaust fan is lubed and running
free and up to speed.
You should be able to burn pellets just about
the same as corn. Our customers tell us that
the glass does not stay as clean and the feed rate
can vary slightly depending on the pellets purchased.
Hope this helps!!
olf20 / Bob

My stove (about 10 years old) does not have the metal plate over the combustion air intake. I assume it is a "damper" and closes when the exhaust fan is not operating. It should pivot open and then adjust to the amount of air you adjust by opening or closing the draft control on the exhaust. It should operate with the lightest touch.
If the wood pellets you are using are produced too long in length they could "bridge" over the auger throat and cause uneven feeding. Wood pellets should be fairly uniform in length and closer to the size lengthwise of a kernal of corn.
I'm going to say that pound for pound corn and wood pellets should be not as much different in heat as you are experiencing. Corn is denser so you have to burn more volume of pellets to equal the same weight in corn. If your pellets aren't feeding as well as they should that could reduce the amount of heat as well.
If you have a choice of pellet brands try several different brands. Compare them visually for differences in length and hardness, dust, etc. Then burn and compare. A wood stove thermometer mounted in front of a heat exchanger outlet so that it is always at the same location can show the difference in how each brand performs.
Give us updates.