Hopper HangUp - What is this weird stuff?

Hello

This Hudson River West Point pellet stove would not start. Only 2 pellets dropped into the burn pot during start-up so the stove went into shut down with the second heat level light blinking. I checked, and all the components were working fine. Then, I combed my fingers through the pellets in the hopper and found a big air pocket! A little more combing and I found the dark hard substance on the edge of the hopper in the pic below. At this point, I emptied the hopper and found more of this substance that created a bridge so the pellets would not drop into the auger chute at the bottom of the hopper. After removing this stuff, I put the same pellets back in and the stove fired and ran fine! We did catch it before any of this stuff got into the auger flight chute.

All the pieces came out of one bag of Home Depot pellets called Nation's Choice - Premium Hardwood Pellets! ! !
So has anyone seen this dark, hard stuff that may have gone into the bag of pellets during processing? What is it?

Looks like some kind of slag, maybe from the dryer at the factory. Hopefully you got the only bad bag. It is weird though.

Someone was hiding beef Jerky in the hopper again!

And to all that make fun of us and say we waste our time cleaning our pellets! But I have a _____stove and it burns anything I put into it.

In reference to another thread maybe its Asbestos

Don, Nations Choice are the sister pellet to Inferno's. Need I say any more?

Was there a smokey smell when you opened the hopper?

Yet another reason for sifting

Looks like they dropped a clinker in the hopper?

No need to say more! That explains everything! ! !

They say right on the bag that they are distributed by:
International Forestry Products
One Patriot Way
Foxboro Mass

The same place that was distributing wood pellets call "Infernos" Something fishy here!

No no smokey smell, I the hopper is sealed up quite well.

Well that cuts down on the time required to start clinkering.

Pretty bad when they come pre-clinkered already!

Don put that mess in the pot outdoors and apply a torch, see if it lights up. It looks like clinkers.

Hi Smokey

I put one piece on a cinder block outside and fired the torch on it. It glows red like a clinker.

What does that mean?

See pics below:

Well I'd say you got yourself a premade clinker and don't need to destroy a burn pot creating it.

But then I've been known to be wrong and it could be super secret pellet fuel.

Terrorist Pellet

Sell em as lava rocks and buy some better fuel!

Give nations pellets to friends as gifts for Christmas and get there stove when they go to sell it because it`s messed up GENIUS
Or sell`em new burn pots after? Caa ching $$

Last year my stove shut down do to what i thought was an empty hopper. When i opened it up, i found a 3/8 x 2" bolt. Must have come from a bag of awf.

You should take a piece pf that and put it to your bench grinder..see if it's metal. I'm burning nations choice as a shoulder pellet and I'm finding tiny pebbles, tiny chunks of copper and other metal in my burn pot. Some of certainly is the shape of nails, much like you may find in a pallet.

However.. that said they were cheap, are keeping my house warm and are recyling material. So I'm gonna continue to burn them until it gets cold.

Wow, 20 posts and no "Hoppa" comments???

"Copper"? "Pebbles"? "Other metal.....in the shape of nails"? How's that workin' out?

Actually they keep the house warm just fine. It just means I need to poke the material out of the grate holes each week. I burned though just about a ton so far, and have another ton to go.

The material was a bit of a concern at first, but all in all, for the price they do ok.

could they have dumped pellets from the burn pot back into the hopper?