Clinckers. Is this normal? Or should I worry?

[Markus38]

Hello All,
I am a new pellet user. Because I am a new user I bought a "high quality" brand and then I tried every pellet that the big box stores in my area had (Green Supreme, North American, Maine's choice, Inferno, and Fireside Ultra). Whatever bad words that may be said about the big box stores, the pellets were all usable. Some were easier to use and some required a lot more cleaning. Most times you get what you pay for, so I did not complain about the extra work.
I saved my “high quality” pellets for the last. I had gone through about a ton and a half. During my weekly cleaning, I found these bits in my ash pan except large stone (and quarter (for reference only)). The large stone I found in the pellets prior to filling the hopper.
My question is: How much do I have to worry about these nails and stones? Is the auger designed to pass these nails without much issue? Or should scrap the 2-1/2 ton of pellets ($625) I have?
thank you

 

[whlago]

You found all those nails in your ash pan? I would be concerned, yes. Could it do damage to your auger? I'm no expert but I think quite possibly. Can you identify which brand of pellet these came from? Looks like you've been using quite a few in the course of a week so it might be difficult. If you could identify I would definately go back to the dealer with this news. I know people find different things in pellets....a nail here and there, twigs, charcoal....six plus nails seems a little excessive to me.

 

[Harmanizer]

That is in no way normal.Do you know what you were burning that produced those artifacts?I'm going to guess Inferno's.

 

[imacman]

All the pellet brands you mentioned are on the mediocre to very poor list, with the exception of the Fireside Ultra...they have been pretty good this year.

As for the nails and the stone, do you remember what brand they were in? The terrible Infernos are made from discarded construction waste and old pallets.

BTW, these things are not what are considered "clinkers"....clinkers are formed by pellets that have very high silica content. This stuff is just garbage from a plant that has terrible quality control.

 

[Markus38]

I know exactly which pellets these came from. I have been using the same pellets for more than a month. These nails have to be coming from the “high quality” pellets, that I have not named.

 

[Markus38]

These nails did not come from the Green Supreme, North American, Maine's choice, Inferno, or Fireside Ultra.

 

[imacman]

I know exactly which pellets these came from. I have been using the same pellets for more than a month. These nails have to be coming from the “high quality” pellets, that I have not named.

Name them!! That's what this forum is for, to help other members avoid things that will cause poor burning or damage to our expensive machines.

 

[Markus38]

Great American wood pellets

 

[imacman]

Great American wood pellets

You didn't mention those in your 1st post.

 

[moey]

Make some phone calls and complain, see how far it gets you. If you found that many there are most likely some more, unless someone sabotaged a bag of them.

I would not burn anymore of them, without some quality control on your part. Maybe dump them out on something flat and look through them, but that would get old real fast.

 

[Markus38]

You didn't mention those in your 1st post.

Correct

 

[subsailor]

Great American wood pellets

They aren't sold up here as far as I know, but looking at that, I'm sure glad they aren't.

 

[Markus38]

Make some phone calls and complain, see how far it gets you. If you found that many there are most likely some more, unless someone sabotaged a bag of them.

I would not burn anymore of them, without some quality control on your part. Maybe dump them out on something flat and look through them, but that would get old real fast.

I emailed the distributor and the company yesterday but no answer yet.
I could use a magnet but that will do nothing for the stones..

 

[whlago]

So Markus....I re-read your original post and I see now you burned 11/2 tons of these AWP's prior to this occurring, right? Did you like them until this happened? I would be very adamant about having the dealer picking up the remaining 21/2 tons and refunding that much at least, unless you have some real affinity to these pellets otherwise. In my opinion it's a risk to burn these at this point.

I have no experience with American Wood Pellets brand, but from what I gather from a search on this site...they're not all that.

EDIT: Apparantly AWP stands for another pellet brand.

 

[moey]

No matter how lousy or cheap a pellet is theres no excuse for a nail. Someone was sleeping on the job.

 

[imacman]

No matter how lousy or cheap a pellet is theres no excuse for a nail. Someone was sleeping on the job.

Yep, it's a tough job turning the switch on for the electromagnet that removes ferrous items.

Not sure what you can do about the stones......maybe they need a "de-rocker" like they use on "Gold Rush". LOL

 

[brack86svo]

A guy that works for me found a piece of a drill bit jammed in his stove. Called the manufacturer of the pellets, and they gave him a free ton.

 

[newf lover]

If the dealer won't take the 2 1/2 tons back, I would sift through the pellets using a colander before just throwing them out. That will catch stones and nails....

 

[whlago]

Newf what kind of colander is going to let pellets through? You must really have some thick spaghetti

 

[imacman]

Newf what kind of colander is going to let pellets through? You must really have some thick spaghetti

LOL

 

[mralias]

What ya complaining about...you made 25 cents on the deal.

 

[glenc0322]

I have used a ton of Great American Pellets and have not found any problem with the ones I have Do the bags have a batch number on them? Ill look at my bags and see if there is anything on the bag. But I agree I would not run them through my stove. If they dont take them back i would try sifting them I know its alot of work but would rather do that then throw them out or take a chance running them through the stove

Just checked the only thing on the bag is the bar code

 

[will711]

Great American wood pellets

Markus,

Keep us posted on this one because Great Americans are made a few miles from me. I've burned them with no issues never found nails in the ash bin hope this is a few isolated bags, and not starting a trend.

 

[Lake Girl]

Pellets made from scrap wood or sabatoge? I would be identifying this with both the dealer you got them from and the manufacturer. Amazed no damage to your auger!

I was using the pellet vacuum I built but it got transformed into a stray cat shelter (he finally decided he likes inside better and a detante has been called with 2 other cats). Started using a barbeque basket that is supposed to be used for veggies. Additional handling but keeps fines and dust down and did catch one small stone. Slower than the pellet vacuum but not that bad... Usually screen 4-5 bags to store in buckets inside, about 15 minutes.

 

[newf lover]

Newf what kind of colander is going to let pellets through? You must really have some thick spaghetti

And I'm not even drunk! I was thinking when I had some pellets that had a lot of fines, I used to scoop a little into the colander and shake it around and the fines would fall through, not the pellets. That's what I was thinking. The nails won't fall through, but you could see if there were any nails in them. It sounded good to me when I typed this, now not so much!