Pellet length

[Overfireinthehole]

Few things will wear an auger motor out faster than forcing your auger to deal with long pellets. Check before you buy. Your looking for an average of 1” or less.

 

[rickwai]

Harmans will not feed longs. What brand are these pellets?

 

[Tonyray]

wow.. that's not even a fair match for an auger...

 

[johnnh]

I have run into the same thing recently with Platinum pellets from Vanderhoof. The pellets are inconsistent in length and in some cases so long that they wouldn't fill the auger area. I had to take off the entire feed plate in the back and put the trim up to max to get them to load. On top of hearing the banging and cracking as they went inside the auger and they started their climb up. Never again. I even wrote them to tell them I would never buy their pellet again until they made a more consistent size pellet. I'm sure they don't care, though. Oh well. It's a shame too because they are extremely high quality. Ultimately they do throw out the heat, but it may cost me an auger motor.

I'll stick with the smaller, more consistent size pellets.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Harmans will not feed longs. What brand are these pellets?

Fiber Energy Ultra Premium. I’ve seen a lot of long pellets in the system this year. Harmans handle them better than most. I’ve had several customers with spring augers destroy their motor on these. No matter what type of auger you have, your motor isn’t going to appreciate having something this long forced into the shaft.

 

[tlc1976]

That was an issue for me with the Kirtlands. Some of them were over 2 1/4" long. Most of them were 1-2". I'd always hear the auger amping up and snapping them. Last year at this time I must have had a particularly bad load since I sheared 2 pins within a couple weeks. (And not one since.) The auger turned free and quiet so I knew it was the long pellets not the bushings.

So I would stand at the side of the stove with the door open (door switch is bypassed) and just dig and snap long pellets I'd find in half. It kind of got addicting. Kinda like digging for potatoes. The auger is WAY down there, no chance I'd ever come close to getting my finger in there without actually trying.

I find the occasional long pellet in the ProPellets, but they are overall shorter. They're also much slipperier and snappier, no problem when it does have to break one. And still, I walk up to it a couple times a day when I stir them down to see where the level is, and dig around a bit for long ones and snap them.

I have a new motor on hand for whenever the original goes, but so far so good.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

I knew an old guy who snapped two tons of them like peas. Said he didn’t have anything better to do and he couldn’t return them...

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Just had another one. Sheared theauger pinand burnt up the motor on a Big E.

 

[Manly]

Fiber Energy Ultra Premium. I’ve seen a lot of long pellets in the system this year. Harmans handle them better than most. I’ve had several customers with spring augers destroy their motor on these. No matter what type of auger you have, your motor isn’t going to appreciate having something this long forced into the shaft.

What is a spring auger? Thanks. Jim

 

[Overfireinthehole]

What is a spring auger? Thanks. Jim

Quads and heatilators both have a corkscrew or spring type auger instead of a solid shaft like a Harman, Breckwell, Englander or Whitfield. Look up a picture and you’ll see the difference.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Top one is a spring auger. Bottom is a solid auger...

 

[rickwai]

They dont hurt the Harman auger or motor. They just create a log jam on top of the slide plate and does not allow pellets to drop into the auger. Causes a random 6 status light. (incomplete combustion)

 

[Manly]

Quads and heatilators both have a corkscrew or spring type auger instead of a solid shaft like a Harman, Breckwell, Englander or Whitfield. Look up a picture and you’ll see the difference.

Thanks for the info and pictures. Always trying to learn. It's the manly thing to do

 

[Overfireinthehole]

They dont hurt the Harman auger or motor. They just create a log jam on top of the slide plate and does not allow pellets to drop into the auger. Causes a random 6 status light. (incomplete combustion)

Anything jamming up the auger mechanism for long enough can eventually wear out the auger motor

 

[Tonyray]

They dont hurt the Harman auger or motor. They just create a log jam on top of the slide plate and does not allow pellets to drop into the auger. Causes a random 6 status light. (incomplete combustion)

Good to own a harman when long pellets involved

 

[Oregun]

When I went to purchase my harman XXV they had loaded long pellets in for the demo. Tried to fire it up
and pellets wouldn't feed. Left and they worked on the problem and cleaned out the bin and bought a different brand
of pellets. Fixed the problem and I made the purchase. I buy bear mountain pellets which are about 1" or less and
never had a problem.

 

[lagger]

my lopi agp insert has a disc behind the auger with a cutter blade on it .. it turns, cuts the long pellets and then feeds them to the auger horizontally as far as I can tell ...the auger feeds them horizontally to the burn platform. a few years ago I had a couple of tons of timber heat pellets with a lot of long pellets, you could hear the blade cut them frequently before they got to the auger

 

[Overfireinthehole]

I like the feed system in the new Lopis but at the end of the day, Long pellets are still putting unnecessary wear and tear on the motor

 

[lagger]

I like the feed system in the new Lopis but at the end of the day, Long pellets are still putting unnecessary wear and tear on the motor

I reckon so .. one nice feature of the horizontal feed is that the cutting blade is replaceable