The quality of pellets is of great importance for the proper operation of the boiler. Low-quality pellets burn with many impurities that create deposits in the burner, directly affecting the boiler’s operation. Recognizing quality pellets is very difficult, and it is most important to buy products from reputable manufacturers.
Heating with pellets brings many advantages compared to other solid fuels. However, pellet quality, like any other product, can vary significantly. And the quality of pellets directly affects whether you will be well heated during the winter, or whether you will spend more time cleaning the boiler.
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As a rule, the wood from which pellets are made must be debarked and cleaned, so that the pellets themselves are made exclusively from wood mass. This is often not the case, so ground bark, soil, sand, and other impurities are found inside the pellets. As a result, combustion is inadequate, and impurities accumulate in the burner, affecting combustion quality.
A lot of impurities means a lot of cleaning of the burner during winter.
When impurities accumulate in the burner, new pellets then enter a dirty burner full of slag and unburned mass, instead of entering a clean burner. Little by little, if the pellet is very poor, the burner holes close within a few hours. Simply put, the pellet must burn so that only fine particles remain from it, which can be removed from the burner.
For combustion to be proper and to prevent slag from accumulating in the burner, the pellet must be of top quality. The higher the quality of the pellet, the less impurities there will be in the burner. For example, with pellets of medium and higher quality, it may happen that almost half an inch of slag remains at the bottom of the burner during the day.
And that’s not a big problem, but the next day there’s another half inch, and it slowly becomes a problem. Because when there’s half an inch of slag in the burner, you can still see holes for airflow, but the next day, new deposits make combustion difficult.
The question of all questions – how to recognize quality pellets?
The shortest answer is – very difficult. In principle, it is much easier to determine which pellet is bad, but it is harder to recognize quality. So, you can easily find out what not to buy, but it is not easy to determine with certainty what to buy.
It is inconvenient to say that the pellet should be of a certain color or structure, because all this is no guarantee. It is possible that darker pellets are good just like lighter ones, which are usually better. And the opposite situation can happen.
The basic thing is not to buy pellets that are small, full of dust at the bottom of the plastic packaging. In addition, it is most important to buy pellets at a point of sale where you will receive a receipt, so that the buyer has someone to complain to. And only pellets from reputable companies on the market should be purchased.
So, if the pellet is in a marked bag, with a declaration, if the manufacturer has a website, if you receive a receipt. The combination of buying pellets in unmarked bags at some depot and getting something cheaper, because the seller does not issue a fiscal receipt, is all a sure sign that you will have big problems with the boiler during the winter.
Those who buy larger quantities and heat a larger area can be sure in one way. Buy five bags of pellets at a depot, which can also be transported by car. Let the boiler run at full capaciy. After that, open the burner and check for deposits and impurities. If there are none, or if they are in an acceptable amount, that’s it.
In addition to purchasing pellets from verified manufacturers, this may be the only way to minimize the possibility of error.
In short, some basic guidelines for assessing at first glance could be:
- Certificate displayed on the packaging.
- When rolling pellets on your fingers, there should be no dust, and there should be as little dust as possible in the bag itself.
- Pellets must smell like wood, absolutely no chemical substances.
- Pellets in water should sink and swell after some time, but the water must not change color, crumbs will float in the glass, but the water must be clear.
Photo: LHT