Pellet Chute for basement

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fnolteiii

Member
Jan 17, 2011
28
Bangor, Pennsylvania
Greetings all:
I have a Quadrafire, Mt. Vernon Pellet stove in my basement that heats the basement and ground level of my home, quite nicely I might add. My issue is that due to recent health issues, I can no longer safely move 2-3 pallets of pellets into the basement from the garage where they are delivered and stored. I am trying to improvise a "pellet chute" into the basement, from the back of the house. I do not have an outside entrance to the basement and in the past, I have just carried the bags of pellets down, 1 at a time, until I had a small reserve available. I also use whole corn that I mix with the pellets for increased warmth, so I need to get those bags into the basement as well. I've read some of the articles for wood chutes but think those are a bit on the overkill side. My basement isn't very high above grade and I have a window well located just on the side of the stove that I was hoping to modify somehow without loosing too much heat or allowing too much of the elements inside. I have a nice woodshop and am quite handy so I would appreciate any tips, tricks, designs, posts, basically whatever you can send me to help ease the transition. Many thanks for your time & responses and hope I can get this done ASAP. The wife has already informed me that she will not be humping 3 pallets of pellets into the basement this winter... funny how she didn't complain when I was hauling them for the past 8 years.... oh well, that's my headache, not yours... Thanks again for any help that you might offer.
Regards,
fnolteiii
 
Could you recruit a couple of High School kids to shuttle the bags to the basement?

Pay them 10 bucks an hour or something?

Would the flimsy pellet bags survive the ride down the shoot?

If a few of them rip, that could be a pain.
 
Thanks for the reply unfortunately, high school kids these days are all skilled labor and want more than it's worth & I have a hard time with their attitude. I also live in a rural community & prefer it that way, except when it comes to hiring locals. I have 3 children myself, 1 married, 2 in college (1 out of state & 1 out of Country). I don't intend on dropping the whole bag down the chute, rather from a fixed table outside with a 6" or 8" diameter whole, with PVC piped through the whole, through the window that will have a 3/4" plywood cover, then continuing on to the pellet stove which is 6" from the window. I also am considering a Rubbermaid plastic container of sorts that will have a lid to keep out things, when the chute is not in use. I will also have end caps on both ends for extra protection against would be critters, as that is definitely a concern where I reside. Will keep sketching until I come up with a design that will be both functional and easy to build. Thanks again for the suggestion!

fnolteiii
 
fnolteiii said:
Greetings all:
I have a Quadrafire, Mt. Vernon Pellet stove in my basement that heats the basement and ground level of my home, quite nicely I might add. My issue is that due to recent health issues, I can no longer safely move 2-3 pallets of pellets into the basement from the garage where they are delivered and stored. I am trying to improvise a "pellet chute" into the basement, from the back of the house. I do not have an outside entrance to the basement and in the past, I have just carried the bags of pellets down, 1 at a time, until I had a small reserve available. I also use whole corn that I mix with the pellets for increased warmth, so I need to get those bags into the basement as well. I've read some of the articles for wood chutes but think those are a bit on the overkill side. My basement isn't very high above grade and I have a window well located just on the side of the stove that I was hoping to modify somehow without loosing too much heat or allowing too much of the elements inside. I have a nice woodshop and am quite handy so I would appreciate any tips, tricks, designs, posts, basically whatever you can send me to help ease the transition. Many thanks for your time & responses and hope I can get this done ASAP. The wife has already informed me that she will not be humping 3 pallets of pellets into the basement this winter... funny how she didn't complain when I was hauling them for the past 8 years.... oh well, that's my headache, not yours... Thanks again for any help that you might offer.
Regards,
fnolteiii
Click to expand...
I think you would break up the pellets by dumping them down a chute. My mother had a ramp and a hand truck that could also be used as a cart. The hand truck/cart was hooked up to a pulley that would bring it up or down the ramp. She used this set up to move furniture from one floor to another in her antique shop. With a power winch, I think you could use this set up to move 4 or 5 bags at a time.
 
I put two 2x8s in the window and are long enough to make about a 30 degree incline and spaced about 4 inches apart. Three bags hold the end down. The gap in boards seem to keep the bags aligned. Can get about 8 bags on the ramp at a time. Saves a lot of those trips.
 
I currently lay a 2" x 10" on my basement stairs in the bulkhead and slide the bags down. An old rug remnant at the bottom keeps the bags from tearing on the concrete floor. I realize this doesn't help you because you don't have an outside entrance. However, I've recently been giving some thought to modifying my solution by cutting an 18" dia sonotube in half lengthwise and using it as a chute. A friend of mine recently did this for a concrete delivery because the truck couldn't quite reach the location of the pour and it worked quite well.
 
I do sort of the same, I made a slide from two old door slabs.. That and two college-aged nephews and we had 3 tons into the basement in about one hour. Eliminating the stairs from the task is HUGE.
 
We used to use a kids slide to get pellet bags into the basement, which might work if your window is large enough. Having 2 people, 1 to slide the bags down and one to stack, helps. I always found our kids would disappear when we got the pellets home. Good luck.
 
How I do it .......... bottom of the slide sits on a table so I don't hafta pick 'em up off the floor ...... about 35 minutes to put in a ton by myself and I'm 63

DSCF6783.JPG DSCF6785.JPG
 
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that's pretty much how i do it as well. i have a hatch instead of a window in one of my basement window openings.
i use a piece of carpet pinched behind the top of the ramp that flips out to cover the ledge so i don't tear bags.
i place some full pellet bags on the floor at the bottom to give the first sliders a soft landing. i'll get momentum enough to have several bags do a rollover and end up on top of previous bags. 15 bags at a time is about average.
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