Poor wood pellet supply

noodle

Registered User
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Hearing really negative reports about bulk wood pellet supply, can anyone recommend a supplier. (I'm located in the midlands)
 
Anyone using bulk pellets.....

Heard bad reports that they come damaged very dusty, damp - so they've been badly stored. Also that the companies that deliver blow them in at too high pressure so they get damaged on delivery!

Anyone with any positive/negative feedback on this?
 
I've got 2 bulk deliveries to date and yes the quality is poor.

To clarify, I've got a 4 tonne purpose built silo in my shed. It's an insulated block wall so there's no reason to believe the quality is due to poor storage on my part.

Got 3 tonnes from Balcas and there was a LOT of dust. Pellets also seemed to be more brittle than they should be, very easily snapping in half between my fingers. I had problems with my auger getting blocked. It also reduces the efficiency of the boiler.

Second delivery was from Timberpro. They promised me that there would be very little dust content because their specialised delivery truck sucked out excess dust as it was blown into the silo. What they failed to tell me was that I needed a special camlock fitting on the outlet vent that they could attach to and suck out dust. I didn't have one so as a result there is a LOT of dust. Pellet quality did seem better than Balcas (harder and more solid)

My next step is to put the required camlock on the outlet vent and try another supplier. ON the lookout for recommendations too...

[broken link removed]

SEI have some good publications. There is an interesting one about checking the quality of pellets here: [broken link removed]
 
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I've had three deliveries of three tonnes from Balcas, and haven't had any problems at all. Sure, there is a bit of dust each time they deliver, but I expected that.
Have a purpose built silo, nice & dry, inside my garage, and manually feed the hopper every week or so. I remove some of the dust when loading by using a wire basket to lift the pellets, and have never had any problems with the auger getting stuck or that.
Looking at getting my annual service done soon, but haven't had any breakdowns or bother since I started running the boiler (gerkros).
These boilers require a bit of TLC, and need to be cleaned out regular, and kept an eye on generally, but I don't mind that at all, gets me out of the house for a wee while. Its amazing when it needs to be done, usually around the times I don't want to be in the house, funny eh?
As for the pellets breaking easily in your fingers, I wouldn't be expecting them to be like bullets.
And in relation to the camlock fitting, as far as I was aware, Balcas require this on all of the silos they deliver to, as well as my boiler installer recommending it during the building of the silo. Very easy to install.
 
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