Why are fines bad?

[notch]

I read a lot about the various pellets available from different manufacturers, and one of the common criteria that folks use to gauge pellet quality is the volume of fines and/or dust. Can anyone help me to understand why this is a factor in choosing a brand of pellets? Thanks for your insights!

 

[wilburg]

Your paying for product that produces no heat

 

[DAKSY]

Your paying for product that produces no heat

+1. Also, depnding on the auger configuration of your appliance, fines can cause issues in pellet feed to the burnpot.
The underfed units, like Harmans, are pretty immune from having issues caused by excess fines, but I've seen the angled auger, drop feed types exhibit a drop in pellet quantity getting thru the auger. The fines won't actually feed, but will simply slide on the screw & the pellets will sit on top of the fines...The only remedy is to clear the hopper & vacuum all the fines out. One solution is to sift the fines out before filling the hopper, but that's a PITA. For the most part you can save yourself some work by not dumping the entire bag of pellets into your hopper. The fines accumulate at the bottom of the bag & they'll be the last thing out. HTH...

 

[tjnamtiw]

Besides the obvious dust floating in the house, the fines result in a lot of sparks, which are immediately sucked out of the burn area. Like wilburg said, if they exit the area, they produce little heat. In actuality, IMO they make up a very small percentage of a 40 pound bad and are mostly just an annoyance. There are several methods being used by members to separate them prior to bringing them into the house. Others just dump the bag and say the heck with it. The sparks add character to the fire! For me I use a chute with a screened bottom. A search for fines separation should yield a lot of pictures and comments.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Fines are also extra dust getting into the air in your house when you fill the stove hopper. This can lead to interesting things especially if some one in the house is allergic to various woods or dust in general.

Now Bob, tell notch about the reason for the fines box and the need to clean it on those Harmans.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Fines are also extra dust getting into the air in your house when you fill the stove hopper. This can lead to interesting things especially if some one in the house is allergic to various woods or dust in general.

Now Bob, tell notch about the reason for the fines box and the need to clean it on those Harmans.

10-4 on the allergy problem! I make deer calls and a friend asked me to make him one out of an old cedar tree that died on his mom's place. The cedar dust had me itching for a month! I use a respirator, thank heavens so it was just skin contact. The rest of that tree will become heat in my cook stove!

 

[Cliff]

Besides the obvious dust floating in the house, the fines result in a lot of sparks, which are immediately sucked out of the burn area. Like wilburg said, if they exit the area, they produce little heat. In actuality, IMO they make up a very small percentage of a 40 pound bad and are mostly just an annoyance. There are several methods being used by members to separate them prior to bringing them into the house. Others just dump the bag and say the heck with it. The sparks add character to the fire! For me I use a chute with a screened bottom. A search for fines separation should yield a lot of pictures and comments.
View attachment 75842

Hello,

Any chance of you sending me the plans or measurements of that separator.

Would really appreciate it
Thx Cliff

 

[tjnamtiw]

Hello,

Any chance of you sending me the plans or measurements of that separator.

Would really appreciate it
Thx Cliff

I'll see if I still have them and email them to you.

 

[Hellfire]

Self explanatory repeat as needed

 

[Chain]

"Now Bob, tell notch about the reason for the fines box and the need to clean it on those Harmans"

Yes, do tell....I'm a new Harman owner and just cleaned my stove for the first time and was shocked at how many fines were in the fine box on my P61A after just a few burns. I would assume if you don't clean this fine box on a regular basis it could hamper the stove's ability to feed pellets into the firebox, correct?

 

[DAKSY]

"Now Bob, tell notch about the reason for the fines box and the need to clean it on those Harmans"

Yes, do tell....I'm a new Harman owner and just cleaned my stove for the first time and was shocked at how many fines were in the fine box on my P61A after just a few burns. I would assume if you don't clean this fine box on a regular basis it could hamper the stove's ability to feed pellets into the firebox, correct?

Yep. The slide plate (at the bottom of the hopper & above the auger) gets all "Mung" (another technical term) & can jam up, or even become "screechy" once the collection box gets too full. You wanna make sure that's one of your monthly cleaning areas, but to be honest, I clean it generally three X a season - AFTER my initial pre-season prep - so every two months. I've never found it to be more than 1/4 full burning the Cleanfires & making sure I don't dump a lot of fines in the hopper...

 

[Cliff]

Another Great Idea!

Thx Cliff

 

[Brianxman]

I have a large rubbermaid trash can that can hold 6 bags, I just fill it up, when I need to bring pellets into the house I just scoop them into the bucket to carry them inside, all of the dust and fines settle to the bottom of the trash can and the dust from dumping the bag stays in the garage.

 

[DexterDay]

Search Sifter or Pellet sifter. Some of us have Sifters hooked up to Shop Vacs with HEPA filters. Turn on Vac, Open bag, pour down the funnel, and no more fines

 

[sinnian]

My auger set up in my boiler actually uses the fines as a sort of lubricant ~ squeaks more wiithout or low fines. Of course the boiler is in the basement, so I don't worry about the "dust".

 

[The Village Idiot]

Besides the obvious dust floating in the house, the fines result in a lot of sparks, which are immediately sucked out of the burn area. Like wilburg said, if they exit the area, they produce little heat. In actuality, IMO they make up a very small percentage of a 40 pound bad and are mostly just an annoyance. There are several methods being used by members to separate them prior to bringing them into the house. Others just dump the bag and say the heck with it. The sparks add character to the fire! For me I use a chute with a screened bottom. A search for fines separation should yield a lot of pictures and comments.
View attachment 75842

Would you happen to have any measurements on this neat sifter, Chief? I'd appreciate it!