Sawdust = Bad?

[pulke01]

Hi All,

Last month, under the advice of the pellet guru's, I tried ten bags of pellets before committing to a full ton.

My Quadra-Fire castile insert seemed to take well to them. (I'm still a rookie so I certainly won't bet the mortgage on my last sentence). I ended up with Maine Woods...these one's are a blend. The ten bags that I tried burned fairly well. I did not notice a lot of clinkers and cleaned the stove after day five.

So I ordered two tons. The ones I have now seem to have some sawdust at the bottom of each bag. Should I be concerned with the hopper getting too hot and igniting the sawdust? Does it build up at the bottom of the feed chute? Should I run the stove until it runs out and vacuum the bottom of the hopper. Without pulling the unit apart, this seems like quite a process.

The stove is my main source of heat for the house, and I do not want to have to worry about this when I am not home.

Granted that there are so many pellet manufacturers out there, it's tough to decide what is going to work for me. Or is it? A friend told me that he ordered the exact same brand two years in a row, with two VERY different results.

As always, I am very appreciative of all the feedback from you veterans of the pellet world.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

Hi All,

Last month, under the advice of the pellet guru's, I tried ten bags of pellets before committing to a full ton.

My Quadra-Fire castile insert seemed to take well to them. (I'm still a rookie so I certainly won't bet the mortgage on my last sentence). I ended up with Maine Woods...these one's are a blend. The ten bags that I tried burned fairly well. I did not notice a lot of clinkers and cleaned the stove after day five.

So I ordered two tons. The ones I have now seem to have some sawdust at the bottom of each bag. Should I be concerned with the hopper getting too hot and igniting the sawdust? Does it build up at the bottom of the feed chute? Should I run the stove until it runs out and vacuum the bottom of the hopper. Without pulling the unit apart, this seems like quite a process.

The stove is my main source of heat for the house, and I do not want to have to worry about this when I am not home.

Granted that there are so many pellet manufacturers out there, it's tough to decide what is going to work for me. Or is it? A friend told me that he ordered the exact same brand two years in a row, with two VERY different results.

As always, I am very appreciative of all the feedback from you veterans of the pellet world.

Thanks,

Keith

If it's just some dust, those are "fines" and most bags have them.

It will not ignite in the hopper from the radiant heat.

It can build up some in the bottom of the hopper. Some stoves just don't care and drop it in with the pellets and it gets burned. Some stoves need more cleaning of the fines to maintain good operation.

I am not familiar with your model. Mine just eats the fines no issues and they get burned.

Cleaning out the hopper when you clean the stove is good practice. I vac mine out when I do my cleaning (once or twice a month depending on pellet quality).

Mine is also my main heat source, so minimal downtime is key.

No pellet is the same year after year. Hell even different batches in the same year can be drastically different.

I follow the "buy a couple tons of each brand you know work" practice. I have a lot of options for pellets in my area and can do that. Some can't and just order the one brand they know is consistent. That's totally up to you.

As always, try before you buy.

 

[pulke01]

Thanks, Johnny.

This year, has been a year of a lot of expenses so when I tried the maine woods, the price was right. There are a lot of brands around me here in central Mass, but after buying my house last month, to say I have been bleeding money on everything from locks, to washer/dryer, etc. is an understatement.

The Maine's were $260/ton so when I tried them and didn't see any major issues, I went with them. I have seen some around here go for as cheap as 250 and as high as 400 per ton...nevermind the delivery fees. The supplier I went trough only charged $25 for delivery for the two tons, so that helped as well.

I'm hearing that when it comes to pellets (like anything), good pellets are more money. Next year, I hope to have a bigger pellet budget.

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

Also next year look for the early buy in options during the summer. You can lock in cheaper prices. Call around to your local dealers to ask if/when they do it. You can save up to $50 per ton sometimes.

 

[DMKNLD]

Over the past 4 burn seasons I've gone from burning MWP hardwood / softwood blend, to the MWP 100% softwood, to the 100% softwood Crabbe's, to the 100% softwood La Crete's that I'm burning this season. Each was a step up in cost of about 10 - 20 bucks per ton, but also a step up in increased heat output, reduced amount of ash produced, and the less amount of dust and fines that is, at the end of the day, worth it *for me*.

It comes down to a cost - benefit relationship that is an individual decision for each pellet consumer. Less cleaning and stove maintenance, thus potentially less breakdowns and parts replacement, along with more heat output comes at the higher cost of higher end pellets. If you can score a good deal on good pellets, then that is value added.

That said, what constitutes a 'good deal' as well as what are 'good pellets' IMO are more in the eye of the beholder and less in the branding hype of the pellet marketing forces, who seem compelled to up-sell the competition with 'premium', ultra-premium', 'platinum' ratings, which seem to be more of a marketing / PR / branding ploy than they are useful as a reliable pellet quality indicator.

As Johnny_Fiv3 said, 'Try before you buy' in large quantities, and burn what pellets work best *for you and your stove* would be, IMHO, the only absolutes of pellet burning.

RE sawdust / fines. Burning the pellet brands that had more fines and sawdust would eventually fill up the bottom of my Castile's hopper pellet chute, which would reduce the auger's ability to pick up the regular sized pellets and first reduce, then eventually prevent the pellets from feeding. Sawdust would also collect along the left edge of the pellet drop chute above the firebox, where it would scorch the bottom of the chute from the fire pot heat. That made me a bit paranoid of an auger fire if the vacuum switch were to crap out and the fire pot heat ignited the sawdust 'trail' up into the auger, before the stove had a chance to shut down.

So every 10 bags or so I would let the hopper run empty and vacuum out all the sawdust and fines, then gently wiggle the auger screw to get all the dust to slide down from the top end of the auger chute. Whenever I do a cold shut-down and vacuum out the fire box I stick the vacuum hose partially up the auger chute from the fire box end to remove the sawdust from the top of the pellet chute / top of the auger area.

With the low dust / low fines LaCrete's I'm burning, I only do the hopper / auger vacuum once every ton or so. As always, 'your results may vary'.