Sifting Pellets????

[BadDad320]

Has anyone sifted their pellets before using them in order to remove the fines??? My dealer mentioned doing this procedure to keep down dust and to help keep the stove cleaner.

 

[mkmh]

If you buy good pellets this should be an optional step (IMO). Having said that, I do take care to vacuum out any fines in the auger at least onces per month. Typically there is very little build-up in there, but it is good piece of mine to run down the pellets and completely clear the chute.

I believe sifting is much more important if you are burning corn.

 

[Xena]

Yeah I have and I won't do it again. PITA!
Got some Bio plus by pennington seed (at walmart)
that had about 1/4 of the bags filled with fines.
I emailed PS and they said they would
compensate me if I sent them the lot #'s..
Needless to say there were no freakin lot
numbers on the skid or on the bags.

Hardly any fines in the pellets I get from pelletsales.com.

 

[Czech]

Zeta, the lots numbers on the penningtons were stamped (not written) on the flaps on the bags, it took me a while to find them, but they were there in my case at least. They did refund in full also. As far as sifting, I agree if you have a good quality pellet it is not needed. Also, I agree that it is a good idea to vacuum out the hopper every so often depending on usage. If you load the stove by the bag, stand the bag on end and give it a shake or two, then dump it in and ease up at the last cup or two, most of the fines will be there on the bottom. Personally, I use a 'crib' and mix used waste vege oil in the pellets to keep the dust down, 5 gal bucket to the stove from there. Not sure about warranty and vege oil, be careful there, I've never had a problem and have been doing this for years.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

im with Gotz and MK, run the unit empty periodically ( i usually do every 2 weeks when i do my weekly cleaning) let it run dry and shut down , then while doing the rest of your periodic cleaning , take an extra few seconds and vac out the fines , i use a "cup brush" attachment for my vac to get the fines off the walls of the hopper and the cone attachment to suck emn out of the auger tube. take almost no time at all and beats the begeebers outta sifting (which sux)

it should be noted that pellets will produce fines while being dumped into the hopper as well as some while being fed anyway so sifting doesnt completely eliminate the issue anyway , just takes longer to build em up , running dry and hitting with the opld shopvac makes much more sense to me. by the way zeta , on the bio plus pellets, did you ever get anywhere with pennington? they seemed to be so focused on getting folks taken care of who had bad pellets they sold last year. i didnt realise that the bio plus pellets were giving them trouble , the "natures own" were and they acknowledged that. i really do think they will be on par with the industry this season though anyway.

 

[Xena]

i by the way zeta,
on the bio plus pellets, did you ever get anywhere with pennington?

Nope. They weren't interested unless I had lot numbers.

gotzthehotz I still have a couple bags on my porch and just checked
and no stamped numbers on the bags anywhere including
the flaps.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

i by the way zeta,
on the bio plus pellets, did you ever get anywhere with pennington?

Nope. They weren't interested unless I had lot numbers.

gotzthehotz I still have a couple bags on my porch and just checked
and no stamped numbers on the bags anywhere including
the flaps.

interesting, lemme see if i can dig up a contact at work , i'll see what i can find out. was the walmart in "south shore"? or what town? might help.

 

[Czech]

Zeta, my correction, the ones I had were natures own, not biopellets, I figured they are both made by pennington and would be stamped the same. I guess not? The numbers on the natures were difficult to locate, it took me some time to find them. I kept looking for printed numbers, these were heat stamped on the flap or bag and hard to see.

 

[Xena]

Mike I bought them at the Walmart in Avon, MA.
I only have 5 bags left even though the entire ton
pretty much was loaded with way too many fines,
I tossed all the bags after I couldn't get any help
from them. I bought them two years ago and the
receipt got tossed a long time ago also so I'm not
expecting anything at this point.

Gotz I understand about the heat imprinted lot numbers and
I checked the flaps with a magnifying glass just
in case I missed them but there's nothing. Oh well. No biggy.
Like I said, most of the bags are long gone.