Edchad
Well-known member
After reading so much about dust and small broken particles etc in our pellets I broke down today and took a little look see.
I have in my hopper a mix of PB Charcoal and Kingsford Hickory. I was down quite a bit in the hopper so I decided to check it out. Now I think I already posted somewhere I had my sifters on order. A 1/4” mesh and 1/8” mesh. Had them several days still nice and new in their plastic. Anyway I dumped my pellets out in this neat rubbery pan with two handles I got from Tractor Supply. I think it’s just a portable feed or water pan. What I like is I can close up like right and left and make a spout to pour the pellets in a storage bag if needed.
And ive done that a couple of times when testing pellets but honestly didn’t pay attention to what was way down in there. Man I was almost in shock. And I’m not kidding. Took my handy pocket light and shined down in there after I got almost all the pellets out and my auger was standing in about 1/2 of itself in dust and crap. Also the inside of the bin was covered in dust. I took my shop vac and was able to reach down and vac out from the top. Then removed the fire pot and was able to look straight on into the auger where it dumps the pellets and vac that out as well. Now I’m no expert obviously by any means. I’m as green as they get with the pellet game. But seems to me a little moisture could certainly create a sludge down in there. Also I have to wonder. And I mean purely wonder. If a fire hazard could exist because of all the fine dust??
Any rate after vacuuming everything I could possibly see I went and poured them in a bucket. Crap it looked awful. Really nasty. Then I took and sifted and separated the good pellets. Below is a couple of pictures. I know you’ll probably bust a few up dumping them in etc but from now on I’ll make sure at least they’re good going in and will check if I decide to change them out. Kind of an eye opener.
thanks to everybody posting about this. I saw first hand it is a problem.
I have in my hopper a mix of PB Charcoal and Kingsford Hickory. I was down quite a bit in the hopper so I decided to check it out. Now I think I already posted somewhere I had my sifters on order. A 1/4” mesh and 1/8” mesh. Had them several days still nice and new in their plastic. Anyway I dumped my pellets out in this neat rubbery pan with two handles I got from Tractor Supply. I think it’s just a portable feed or water pan. What I like is I can close up like right and left and make a spout to pour the pellets in a storage bag if needed.
And ive done that a couple of times when testing pellets but honestly didn’t pay attention to what was way down in there. Man I was almost in shock. And I’m not kidding. Took my handy pocket light and shined down in there after I got almost all the pellets out and my auger was standing in about 1/2 of itself in dust and crap. Also the inside of the bin was covered in dust. I took my shop vac and was able to reach down and vac out from the top. Then removed the fire pot and was able to look straight on into the auger where it dumps the pellets and vac that out as well. Now I’m no expert obviously by any means. I’m as green as they get with the pellet game. But seems to me a little moisture could certainly create a sludge down in there. Also I have to wonder. And I mean purely wonder. If a fire hazard could exist because of all the fine dust??
Any rate after vacuuming everything I could possibly see I went and poured them in a bucket. Crap it looked awful. Really nasty. Then I took and sifted and separated the good pellets. Below is a couple of pictures. I know you’ll probably bust a few up dumping them in etc but from now on I’ll make sure at least they’re good going in and will check if I decide to change them out. Kind of an eye opener.
thanks to everybody posting about this. I saw first hand it is a problem.
