Finally made the pellet fines vacuum
- Thread starter Tony K
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Yowzers..... :lol:
lbcynya
Feeling the Heat
lbcynya said:
I have been burning pellets for about 9 years now and this never crossed my mind until I found strange things in a pellet bag (see pic)! I posted this awhile back. This year I noticed more ash buildup than ever in my burnpot so between both issues mentioned, time consisting of less than one minute per bag, for now I will go this route. When I let the pellets empty out of the hopper I'm betting there was 6 glasses of fines just sitting there. Agree this is not an issue with all pellets but it is this year for me especially the strange things I found, auger jammers for sure....
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PAV1 said:
Some stoves handle fines better than others. But some stoves (Quadrafires included in this), have a hard time getting them up the chute.
Because Quadrafires have a Spring thats hollow, it can not bring the fines up the chute. So they sit at the bottom and build up inside the bottom of the hopper. Thereby reducing the area that the auger can pull up pellets, which reduces the overall feed rate (reduction).
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save$
Minister of Fire
The honest answer is, it depends. For some, the auger plugs up, for others, never an issue.; bag after bag. Might be the quality of the stove or of the pellets. I only sift brands of pellets I am not familiar with. There may be more to be concerned about in some bags. I.E metal, plastic and too long pellets.
stejus
Minister of Fire
ToddO
Member
I've noticed on my M55 that when I get a lot of fines in my hopper i get a squealing sound when the fines are running up the auger. I for one will have one of these put together before I fire up the stove for next winter.
I made one of these and then unmade it... It seemed to work OK but it wasn't getting as many as the fines that I would hope. I will probably try to make it again next year and see if I get better results.
If done correctly. It should obtain 99% of the fines. Having the Gutter gaurs mesh up top and then the 1/4" dowel rods in the bottom are a must have. IMO
That's what I did... what I found was the gutter mesh was clogging up with dust and sometimes pellets, and then the vacuum stop sucking up the fines because the mesh was clogged. I'm sure I just need to play with it - when I made it the hot weather was here and I figured I would try it again next year.
You need to drill holes in the top section. Just above the gutter gaurd to relieve some of the sucking pressure. There is no "Right amount" of holes. Keep drilling 1/4" holes until little pellets stop sticking to the mesh amd only fines get sucked (and very small pieces of pellets).
Uh huh. I think the holes I drilled were below the gutter guard. That may be the issue - I'll have to put it back together this weekend and see what happens.
They can be below it too.. You may need to drill a lot more holes. I have a 6.5 HP Shop vac hooked to mine! ! I have about 30 holes in mine 
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