pellets in water

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chrisasst

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Aug 13, 2008
1,289
cortland ny
I believe I saw somewhere on here that would could tell how good or bad your pellets are by letting them soak in water. Well I attached a picture of a hand full of pellets that have been soaking for 20 minutes. So what can you tell, good or bad..
 

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They're wet...
 
Well they are no good NOW
 
seems to me they prolly got binders in em, mine fell apart right away when I did that.
 
all I know they are crap for burning.
 
Czarcar has it right, it's the microwave trick. Wow! What's wrong with those pellets? All the ones I've seen get wet swell up and start falling apart with only a small amount of moisture added. Those still look to be dry! What kind of pellets are they?
 
I am not sure what this water test is supposed to prove anyway. The goal is to keep your pellets dry. So, it seems to me all you prove with the water is how well your pellets will hold up once they get wet. I would think that a compressed hardwood pellet would resist water much longer than some of softer pellets that I have had. My hardwood pellets are hard to break and have a shiny finish to them. They almost look water proof, Yet these pellets have burned excellent for me.

If you take a piece of newspaper and light it, it will burn very quick. Now roll up that newspaper real tight and lite it. It takes much longer to burn. It will also take longer to deteriate when wet. It seems to me that the same goes for a pellet. I am just not sure that this test holds any true merit other than you get to see what would happen if your pellets get wet.
 
Since the test is to qualify the quality of the pellets, and a pellet's job is to burn, wouldn't it make more sense to pour them in your stove and see if they produce heat....???

Sounds like a test devised by a pellet salesman who used to sell snake oil....lmao !!!
 
i'm inclined to agree with codebum and moorehaven... what' the litmus test with water?

Why am I supposed to believe that pellets that disintegrate in water produce less heat/more ash? Is there anything that backs this up?

Listen, if that's a viable, fast and easy way to determine crap pellets, I'm all for it. But show me the data that backs it up!
 
chrisasst said:
I believe I saw somewhere on here that would could tell how good or bad your pellets are by letting them soak in water. Well I attached a picture of a hand full of pellets that have been soaking for 20 minutes. So what can you tell, good or bad..

Let them soak till they fall apart. They should fall apart and not have large chunks of debris looking stuff. The Maine Wood pellets I had had big black chunks in them. They burned nasty.
 
I agree with kimeric. I've used about 5 different brands of hardwood pellets and have seen some loose ones in contact with water outside. In that much water, any of them would have swelled up fat and look like soggy sawdust within 20 minutes.
 
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