Anyone try making pellets shorter?

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oldmountvernon

Minister of Fire
Oct 27, 2011
604
SE Mass
Thinking of trying this running a bag over with the truck ? would lay a tarp out bag should rip maybe not
 
I sat in front of the telly one night and picked thru a bag Of O Malleys. Took forever and was only to prove a point that it would gain some temp buy doing so. No way in heck would I do this for every bag though! There is a post here where a member made a screen to catch the long ones. He then broke them up and it seemed to work well. But still time consumiing IMHO.
 
I thought it was Jay that suggested dropping the bag a few times before loading into hopper.

Maybe I'm wrong?
 
smoke show said:
I thought it was Jay that suggested dropping the bag a few times before loading into hopper.

Maybe I'm wrong?

I heard it worked, But when I tried it. Not so much. I think screening out the big un's might be the ticket. But it's assuming, You know what happens there! ;-)
 
I will break any particularly long pellets I see when filling the hopper, but am not worried about it otherwise.

AFAIK, the Mt. Vernon isn't prone to problems with long pellets.
 
Last year I tried the Pellet Pig Shuffle on my Ton of AWF's that were 2"-3" long.


Didnt work and I looked like a Dumb-A$$ doing it. Wife got a chuckle out of it. So I broke as many as I could up and tried to take out the longest ones for pics to send back to AWF. Breaking them down will work in your advantage. Smaller pellets = more volume = more heat.

What brand are they? Taken me a few years to learn what I like and what the stove likes. But the shorter the better (in my book).

On a side note. Somersets are the shortest most consistent pellet around me. I just found a new contender. I met up with Forum member bigwalleye on Fri and we traded some Pellets. He had some Greene Golds (Greene Team). Very short like Somerset, dark like Presto-logs, but HOT... Very Hot. I have not got a true baseline on the temps yet. Im only running the Quad to test these. But the results so far are looking very good!!! This is the 14th brand I have tried/tested now and the only other one that has my full attention. I have heard pretty good things about GT's. Never knew they were around me.
 
DexterDay said:
Last year I tried the Pellet Pig Shuffle on my Ton of AWF's that were 2"-3" long.


Didnt work and I looked like a Dumb-A$$ doing it. Wife got a chuckle out of it. So I broke as many as I could up and tried to take out the longest ones for pics to send back to AWF. Breaking them down will work in your advantage. Smaller pellets = more volume = more heat.

What brand are they? Taken me a few years to learn what I like and what the stove likes. But the shorter the better (in my book).

On a side note. Somersets are the shortest most consistent pellet around me. I just found a new contender. I met up with Forum member bigwalleye on Fri and we traded some Pellets. He had some Greene Golds (Greene Team). Very short like Somerset, dark like Presto-logs, but HOT... Very Hot. I have not got a true baseline on the temps yet. Im only running the Quad to test these. But the results so far are looking very good!!! This is the 14th brand I have tried/tested now and the only other one that has my full attention. I have heard pretty good things about GT's. Never knew they were around me.

I have been burning only Greene Teams (regular bag) since the end of November. I like them a lot but don't have a lot to compare to either. I did pick up 3 bags of Greene Team Platinums and I just opened one a couple hours ago and they seemed REAL dusty and very short compared to the regular bags that I have been burning. Don't know if it was because they were punched with the forklift forks. I only got them because they were half price because they were damaged bags. I pulled out a few handfuls before purchasing to make sure the pellets themselves were not damaged.
 
A few pellets over 1.5 inch long cause pellet bridging every time in my hopper and stop the pellets from dropping to the auger. It doesn't take many and appears it indicates the average length of most of the pellets are long. The fire in the pellet burner goes out.

I have a 4x10 inch thin aluminum sheet to break them up. After dumping a bag in the hopper I plunge the narrow edge of the aluminum sheet down into the pellets many times and it breaks them up. I stay at it until I don't see any long ones. Usually stops the bridging problem. I have several tons of long pellets from a new mill. Seems like the new pellet mills are the ones who put out the long pellets. I guess they have not gotten their mill dialed in yet.
 
chrisasst said:
why would you do this?

gets more pellets into the burn pot resulting in more heat.
I lost the battle today just gave in at 6pm turning the heat on upstairs its not overly cold been holding 66 and 60 in the master bedroom but with the cold flowing down the stairs Figured i would give the stove some help. down stairs is 72 and running full tilt never shutting down unless Autoclen kicks in
 
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