Anybody had pellets jam up in the hopper?

[freebird77]

Burning these crappy Pa. Pellets this year. Lot of ash and poor heat, in my opinion. But Ive had several times where the auger will still puke out a pellet or two, and the stove keeps running, but not enough to satisfy the temp. setting. If I dig around in the hopper down at the chute opening, and break the pellets up, its ok. Has anyone else experienced this? Just curious.
Also, anyone else burning these Pa. Pellets?

 

[JFUNN]

Yes we have. My dealer in Binghamton told me that pa pellets was having a problem with the breaker so the pellets were very long.I have been told the problem has been fixed. As for low heat output I think they are fine but the ash is kind of a pain. Jeff

 

[stoveguy13]

i have seen alot more issues with this this year then in the past the pellet quality seems to have been sub par this year my only guess for this is that it has been caused by the higher demand fro the past year try pushing down on the pellets after you fill the stove it may help.

 

[wil lanfear]

Burning these crappy Pa. Pellets this year. Lot of ash and poor heat, in my opinion. But Ive had several times where the auger will still puke out a pellet or two, and the stove keeps running, but not enough to satisfy the temp. setting. If I dig around in the hopper down at the chute opening, and break the pellets up, its ok. Has anyone else experienced this? Just curious.
Also, anyone else burning these Pa. Pellets?

I've been burning PA pellets since March 08 in my Harman PB105 boiler, had it fired all last summer, burnt around 8 ton so far without an issue. These may be "crappy" pellets but the price was right at $199.00 per ton, this being my first year burning pellets,I can't imagine how many ton I would burned if I would have used a better pellet. Actually, I'm quite happy with the amount of heat produced and quality of PA pellets that I've burned so far.

 

[freebird77]

JFUNN, Thats where I got my stove also. And, yes the price wasnt bad, but I only have the previous years pellets to compare them to so far, and they are not as good as the Armstrongs.

 

[exoilburner]

I got a couple tons of Atlas pellets from a new plant in Washington State. A few pellets were 1.5-2" long. They are correcting the problem.

Had one jam in my furnace with them. It was at the bottom of the hopper at top of the slide plate. Had to empty the hopper and dig out the pellets above the slide plate. That cleared the jam and it hasn't happened since.

 

[jtakeman]

I have been burning Premier hardwood pellets in my Omega, I had the stove shut down, With the 3 light flashing. No fuel. But there was 3/4 full hopper.

My stove has a baffle in the hopper, Seems there are some very long pellets in this batch. It bridged the hopper. Had to stir the pellets and restart the stove.

I let the pellets almost run out and removed the baffle and I haven't had a problem since. Some of these pellets were almost 4" long.

jay

 

[mjbrown]

i have seen alot more issues with this this year then in the past the pellet quality seems to have been sub par this year my only guess for this is that it has been caused by the higher demand fro the past year try pushing down on the pellets after you fill the stove it may help.

just for the record...my experiance with pushing down on the pellets once i loaded the stove caused them to pack , and not allow pellets to drop into the chute( almost like forcing a bridge affect or dam if you will). what i have done if the pellets are to long , is to pour some into a pail and break them up a bit with a hammer ( without pulverizing them).

just my .02, trying to offer some help.

mike

 

[weatherguy]

just for the record...my experiance with pushing down on the pellets once i loaded the stove caused them to pack , and not allow pellets to drop into the chute( almost like forcing a bridge affect or dam if you will). what i have done if the pellets are to long , is to pour some into a pail and break them up a bit with a hammer ( without pulverizing them).

just my .02, trying to offer some help

Thats happened to me a couple times so I stopped trying to pack em in too tight.
I also had what the original poster's talking about but I dont remember the brand of pellet I used when that happened. This is my first year burning and Ive tried 5-6 different brands.

 

[www_godzilla]

I literally fan through the pellets in the hopper. I look for long pellets and break them up. I have a Quadrafire,which is a top feeder hopper. The Harmons are a bottom feeder hopper,that might be more of a pain in the ass.