Pellet heads!! What's up today?

JAN 14, 2022 Shell run 3 in the books
Great day....A touch foggy on the trip down and back....But cleared off nice.
Today was a great day....Not quite as nice as Weds was....but dry....and not cold.

We already had the outfit buckled up ....so it was a GO

Got home with a full can by 10 am (Grabbed McD on the way down....YUMMY

A few pix I shot off the deck..
A shot of the last shells getting sucked out over the top of the can.

There is a 4" "Ditch gate" in the rear of the can....most of the materials can be drained/sucked out through the gate.

We got 9-1/3 barrels on this run ....the Weds run was 11 barrels....but the can was stuffed to overflowing......

Usually 9 or 10 barrels full per run.

Great stuff.....small size and straight off the plant......
I will not touch any damp stuff.....IT WILL MOLD....AND NOT BURN WELL EITHER

Had the job done and everything done by 2:30
Barrels stored
Outfit broke down
Tools cleaned up and stored
Big shop vac all cleaned out.

We use the 6-1/2 horse shop vac to provide the suction.

The barrel gets a special cover (Barrel Master) that has two large connections....Shells in.....Vacuum inlet. (Re-purposed household toilet jacks with PVC fittings glued in to connect the hoses)

The barrel collects the shells and the vacuum catches all the dust.

When the barrel is full the vacuum screams and that's the signal to shut off, swap barrels and go again....


Pretty easy task...

 

Nice. Yes, a few days ago I went and bought another ton of pellets,don't need them, but expect even higher prices next winter. No place to put them inside, so they can sit in the back of the spare truck for the winter.

 

I did the same thing for the P43, then let it take heating chores over again last night before turning in.

 

Ouch! Reminds me that I really don't miss the days of spending a house payment per month on propane to heat the main floor.

 

A balmy 1 degree here in Eastern Massachusetts this morning. Have the NG fireplace going but I miss my P61A……

 

Welp, she was, at 30*F, when tuned yesterday.

At 3am the burn pot was 7/8 full: and lazy flame, sigh. Temp. outside was -5* F at that time.

Pulled the FireEx panels, did a full interior cleaning / verified all stove passages were clear, and kicked the combustion fan up another 120 RPM to 1,980, that seems to have solved it for the moment. Stove needs to run for a full hour / to get to operating temp. to be sure though.

Our stove vents into a 9"x13" chimney, thru a stainless flue block plate (installed when we had the wood stove), then up a few feet, into the smoke shelf, with a chimney cap on top.

It's always been a challenge to run consistently: with the temps. & winds here on the mountain. Thinking it might be time to install a 4" liner -> 20' up the the top. Time to do some 'shopping' on CL and FB Marketplace this morning.

Having to adjust combustion fan settings depending on temp. isn't the 'end of the world' - but it's starting to get old. Like the owner, sigh.

Stay warm everyone.

 

-2 at 8:55 am, -20 wind chill. P43 running the doug firs keeping the house at 72 down, 70 up. Birds will have to wait a bit before I go outside to refill the feeders but they have some seed left in them.

sam

 

It was a balmy 12° here in the jersey pines this morning. Fired up the hastings and let er run on level 3 for a bit and got the living area up to about 70° then I went to pick up a ton of chows off a guy about 25mins south of me for $3.50 bag .

 

It was -3 this morning and with the sun is at 6* now.

NICE!

 

Like the Chows !! I don't see em here anymore, they were a HD staple. Anyone see Somersets anymore ? I stashed a few bags several years ago and burned them last year. I loved those little heat morsels

Doggy.

 

I still have the 2" OAK tube attached / setup, but not to outside, runs 15 ft. to the opposite corner of the living room, w/ the 'critter screen' still attached. * I checked to make sure the line was clear this morning w/ compressed air - all good.

I did briefly test w/ running outside air back in '15/'16, the stove did not perform well (had to crank combustion fan motor keep burn pot cleared) - so I just set it up inside, away from the stove, to ensure undisturbed air was going in.

My CL and FB Marketplace scouting did not go well, not unexpected since it's burning season. ... And honestly, the prospect of 'hopping on the roof' right now doesn't thrill me, at all.

I "might" try to find a liner kit install w/ a 6" diameter on-the-cheap, and try installing the top plate, w/ a 6" termination cap up on the top (sans the liner) - as an 'experiment' to see if that would temper the pull this "draft monster" of a chimney creates. ... Basically replace the current 9x13 chimney cap w/ a plate & 6" cap.

--
Yeah, it's Frackin burr here too! Betsy (who is genetically related to the Polar Bear) turned the heat up to 67 on the thermostat this morning. ... You would think, we were in the Sahara today.

--
Joey's grown up! And still catching bigger fish than you. Thanks for the pic. Hope all is good w/ you & yours JT.

 

Slacking today...

Still nice tomorrow....Will munch some shells and refill the barrels in the basement.
Had a lovely breakfast at the fav joint in town.
Going to seriously entertain an afternoon nap.....maybe start before noon ?????

 

+6 is all it got up to here today as well.

sam

 

Not bad here,almost 40, but overcast. Wind coming up so came back inside

 

Heat wave tomorrow here. Will be 27F. And rain on Monday which is fine by me.

 

All this talk of single digit temps make me want to go get more shells.......

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Single digits around here takes both Whitfields running balls to the bar 24/7
We had some 0F a few years ago...Had to crank up the Quad 1000 to help shoulder the load.

 

3 Am and it is -5* this morning (so far). Supposed to warm up as you said. Monday, being at the cusp of being in the Monadnock and Sunapee regions, I'm in that line between 4-8 and 6-12" - then possibly turning to rain.



ote that this map is from yesterday's news, so could be different by the time they update later this morning.

 

I did too Doggy....one of my go-to pellets. Always seemed to be consistently good burn, and ash was low.