my local stove shop sells a pellet cleaner

I refuse to clean pellets. If they are that dusty they are not good quality to me. Somersets and easyheat are clean.

This would be interesting to see ...however my opinion ...the move you move them to open a bag to pour them into to something to clean them and then remove them to pour them in the hopper ...hmmm the more dust and fines you could create

if I have to start sifting pellets
I'll fire the furnace back up

Most bottom feed pellet stoves do not seemed to be bothered by fines ...however the opposite in top feed units....so care is necessary and above all keep the faith in cleaning

2EZ said:

Most bottom feed pellet stoves do not seemed to be bothered by fines ...however the opposite in top feed units....so care is necessary and above all keep the faith in cleaning

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Seems the opposite to me.

I have both.

Run the hopper empty once in a while and vac out the fines.

I too have a top and bottom feed unit .... in the case of the top feed unit i find in my experiences both personally and out trouble shooting other units professionally that as the fines are pushed upward throught the auger shaft many times i have been subject to seeing the dust as it rises in the shaft to slip between the auger flights and the shaft only to fall backeard and this replaces the amount of pellet stock that actually fit between the auger flights ...thius causes concerns of less heat as the owner even increase the feed rate as this dust is in the way preventing solid fuel from being delivered to the burn pot. the bottom feed seems to push the dust and fuel along to the butn plate however too much dust can cause crusting on the burn plate

Not all augers are created equal.

PE - i do do agree

[x2quote author="rickwai" date="1323275128"]I refuse to clean pellets. If they are that dusty they are not good quality to me. Somersets and easyheat are clean.[/quote]

kykel said:

Run the hopper empty once in a while and vac out the fines.

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Cheap as free -- it's what I've been doing.

I just started sifting pellets after almost 19 years of just pouring bags into the hopper of our old Earth Stove Traditions TP40. I believe the benefit of less dust in our living room is worth the extra effort, even if our stove would not be bothered by the extra fines. Doesn't take more than a few minutes per 40lb bag to run through our sifter-vac. Oh, and I'm burning the "ultra-premium" Hamers brand but I can tell you that there's a growing pile of sawdust in the bottom of my shopvac already, and it's not even winter yet!

smoke show said:

Not all augers are created equal.

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+2, I believe the spring type augers don't transfer fines very well in a top feed stove. My M55 has a screw auger and I've not had any problems with fines, they seem to make their way up and into the burn pot.

flynfrfun said:

smoke show said:

Not all augers are created equal.

Click to expand...

+2, I believe the spring type augers don't transfer fines very well in a top feed stove. My M55 has a screw auger and I've not had any problems with fines, they seem to make their way up and into the burn pot.

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My quad has a spring type and I only clean the auger once after the season.

We do have damn good pellets here with hardly any fines.

The pellets I use are triple screened and bagged about 50 miles from my house, with minimal handling in between.

In my case, I usually need a 5 gallon bucket of pellets to refill my stoves for the night so I'm not about to lug a bag across my house, slit it open and pour PART of it into the hopper. Then stop the flow and cart it back out to the garage.
I wish I could say I invented this device but I got the idea two years ago from someone on here who posted a picture of a similar one. I just put the bag at the top, slit the bottom and let the pellets run down the chute and into the pail. Dirt simple, no dust, and less effort than doing the above. You can see that I only get the very fine particles separated. Last year, I got about a 5 gallon bucket of powder. Mix it with paraffin and you have 'starters' for camp fires or wood stoves.

The sifter you are referring to was a plastic one, I bet, that cost about $400. NFW

It's everyone's choice and belief as to whether to sift or not but, to me, it just makes sense to lift the bag one time with no balancing while pouring, no spilling pellets, and no dust in the house. To each his own.

flynfrfun said:

smoke show said:

Not all augers are created equal.

Click to expand...

+2, I believe the spring type augers don't transfer fines very well in a top feed stove. My M55 has a screw auger and I've not had any problems with fines, they seem to make their way up and into the burn pot.

Click to expand...

Never cleaner the auger and no problems yet. the fines do seem to come down the shoot. if they do accumulate up the auger, it seems the design would have them spill into the burn pot once they hit the drop opening.

looks like a lot of work to sift.

vinny11950 said:

Never cleaner the auger and no problems yet. the fines do seem to come down the shoot. if they do accumulate up the auger, it seems the design would have them spill into the burn pot once they hit the drop opening.

looks like a lot of work to sift.

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YET! No work at all the way I do it.

I wish I could say I invented this device but I got the idea two years ago from someone on here who posted a picture of a similar one

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Hey,tjnamtiw, what did you use for screen ?

gfreek said:

I wish I could say I invented this device but I got the idea two years ago from someone on here who posted a picture of a similar one

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Hey,tjnamtiw, what did you use for screen ?

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I first put a layer of 1/4" hardware cloth that I got from mcmaster.com but I was passing too many 'useable' pieces so I topped that with the widest aluminum window screening I could find.
It has a bottom in it to catch the fines and I sandwiched the hardware cloth with a strip of 3/4" square wood to either side but put a 'belly' in it. Had to add a couple of pieces of thin plywood that you see for deflectors but it works great now. I use three buckets, which equals one bag. Why even worry about fines in your stove? Easier this way plus no fines.