Pellet Bags/true or not..

[Tonyray]

just read this on another forum where someone asked why pellet bags have tiny
perforated holes in the bag...

The pin holes you mention are normal. They are in all of the bags I have this year (not just Okies). They let the bags breathe so they can compress and change shape for stacking and storage, rather than acting like rigid balloons that will just roll around, this way and that.
True? Not? sounds plausible to me......

 

[drz1050]

I think partly that, and also to limit condensation.

 

[funflyer]

My guess is they would have blowouts when they tried to stack them if the air couldn't escape.

 

[alternativeheat]

just read this on another forum where someone asked why pellet bags have tiny
perforated holes in the bag...

The pin holes you mention are normal. They are in all of the bags I have this year (not just Okies). They let the bags breathe so they can compress and change shape for stacking and storage, rather than acting like rigid balloons that will just roll around, this way and that.
True? Not? sounds plausible to me......

Different brands do it different ways. On the Energex you are burning right now. Look on the back of the bag near the the top right above the X on Energex and to the right of that little globe emblem or what ever it is. You should see a single little slit in each bag.

 

[TimfromMA]

My guess is they would have blowouts when they tried to stack them if the air couldn't escape.

That's what I think too.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Now, if they were vacuum packed like some coffee is, that would eliminate the air holes and/or slits and stabilize the moisture content too.

 

[funflyer]

Now, if they were vacuum packed like some coffee is

I love that first whiff when the seal comes off a new can of coffee. Pellets would be the same I suppose.

 

[alternativeheat]

I love that first whiff when the seal comes off a new can of coffee. Pellets would be the same I suppose.

Not unless they had coffee in the bags, LOL !!

 

[Tonyray]

Different brands do it different ways. On the Energex you are burning right now. Look on the back of the bag near the the top right above the X on Energex and to the right of that little globe emblem or what ever it is. You should see a single little slit in each bag.

good eye...
how'd ya find that...?
burned 2 tons last year and never noticed..

 

[SidecarFlip]

Not unless they had coffee in the bags, LOL !!

Think about it. No vent holes in the bags to let moisture in (rain or snow), easier stacking and easier to handle. Should be a no-brainer. Pellets in bags are sloshy when moved, vacuum packed eliminates that and eliminates them rubbing together and creating fines and sawdust too.

 

[Tonyray]

Think about it. No vent holes in the bags to let moisture in (rain or snow), easier stacking and easier to handle. Should be a no-brainer. Pellets in bags are sloshy when moved, vacuum packed eliminates that and eliminates them rubbing together and creating fines and sawdust too.

Don't know if they would stack easier.
like someone here said, would be like stacking balloons that would roll around..

 

[alternativeheat]

Think about it. No vent holes in the bags to let moisture in (rain or snow), easier stacking and easier to handle. Should be a no-brainer. Pellets in bags are sloshy when moved, vacuum packed eliminates that and eliminates them rubbing together and creating fines and sawdust too.

I know all that but it aint smellin like coffee unless there is coffee in the bags, LOL

 

[alternativeheat]

good eye...
how'd ya find that...?
burned 2 tons last year and never noticed..

I came eye to eye with one of the slits. From then on they all stick out like sore thumbs.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I came eye to eye with one of the slits. From then on they all stick out like sore thumbs.

That could be construed as kinky........

 

[alternativeheat]

That could be construed as kinky........

Listen..... with an e---, never mind. I'm not getting banned over this !!

 

[moey]

I suspect it was originally so they could be stacked easier. Since that point in time folks have tried to conjure up a conspiracy about why it was done.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Listen..... with an e---, never mind. I'm not getting banned over this !!

No issue there. Sometimes it's hard to resist a good one liner when it staring you right in the face. No offense meant or inuendo either.....

 

[SidecarFlip]

On thread, I would assume that ordering bags with perforations or slits would be more expensive that a plain plastic bag. I wonder if a vacuum setup would be cost equal to the perforated bags??

Like freezer meals but with pellets....

 

[Bioburner]

Maintaining a vacuum on large packages is a pain. Then there is the need to keep the sealer clean also to keep the seam sealed. Hard to find a soft vacuumed bag past a gallon without it being inside a larger hard container. Pumping a large vacuum is not that hard with a vane pump.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Don't have the knowledge candidly. Just throwing it out there for some input. I'm in the steel fabrication business, not plastic bags. I do know that Community Roast smells good when you release the vacuum and I do know (from first had experience) that handling pellet bags in volume is like handling soft jello, probably why I leave the skids full and wrapped and move them with a forklift. I feel for those who unstack a skid or skids and restack them.....

 

[TonyVideo]

I feel it too. Just did 3 tons each the past two weekends. Unstack and stack. No fun but now completely set for the winter.

 

[Bioburner]

Still easier than cord wood.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Anything is easier than cord wood, anything. Been there (when I lived in Ohio) and did that for 6 years but I was young then.

Tell you guys how I handle my pellets. The corn gets augered from the co-op truck right into a GSI (I have 2) so thats a no issue.

I pick up typically 5-6 ton of pellets (depending on how cold I think it's gonna get and my bank account) with my tandem axle gooseneck, on skids, shrink wrapped. Get them to the farm and offload them from the side with a fork truck and put them in one of the barns (the one with the best roof actually). When I need pellets, I take a farm tractor with a loader and bucket and load in typically 16 bags and trundle that to the back deck where I have 4-30 gallon rubbamaid garbage cans with snap on lids waiting for pellets. I dump 4 bags of pellets in each rubbamaid for 16 bags total. That way the wife can go get a bucket at a time.

When it gets real cold, I snitch a loader bucket full of shelled corn from the GSI and 8 bags and fill 4 cans with corn and pellets. 4 rubbamaid cans last about a week and a half and my wife likes that better than dumping bags and so do I.

 

[TonyVideo]

That a pretty good idea as the fines will find there way down at the bottom of the rubbermaids instead of being dumped into the stove.

 

[SidecarFlip]

That they do. We also have a prevailing wind from the southwest to the northeast and the deck where the rubbamaids sit is in that prevailing wind path so scooping the pellets out (with an empty plastic Hills Bros coffee can) and dumping them into a 5 gallon plastic pail, also allows the wind to blow off the sawdust. I never have fines in my hopper with pellets and with corn/pellets, I don't notice any fines either.

I can do a-bag-at-a-time myself but my wife prefers a bucket full ans it's easier on us, we aren't young anymore. I used to look at 65 year old's as over the hill codgers and now I'm one..............