# Burning Wood Chips in a Wood Pellet Stove!



## Don2222 (Jul 5, 2011)

Hello

I know it was mentioned, but here is a proven step by step way to do it! Does anyone else do it?
http://bobsbits.net/hireabob/sphpblog/index.php?m=09&y=08&entry=entry080924-212410

Quote from link above
I do burn wood chips that are not pellets in my pellet stove. I have a US Stove ( American Harvest). It has the extra agitating arm in the pot.

Itâ€™s bit of a process to get the right chip.

(1.) I go to my local sawmill and fill my pick-up with the 52â€ saw blade sawdust / chips. Iâ€™ve found getting the sawdust from a large circular saw blade is better because it leaves a larger chip than the band saw blades do.It cost me $10.00 for a pick-up load or its $2.00 a yard if Iâ€™d get a grain wagon. Make sure and have a tarp or youâ€™ll create a major dust storm behind you.

(2.) Then I screen off the large pieces using a Â¼ â€œ screen. This leaves a chip about the size of a pea. I tried using Â½ â€œ screen but it leaves behind pieces that the feeding auger on the pellet stoves doesnâ€™t like.

(3.) Then I built a dryer using a cement mixer. Itâ€™s set at the horizontal position â€“ then I attached a heavy duty screen â€“ 4 â€˜ long to the cement mixer. It be should large enough and stiff enough to support itself â€“ then I use a screen door screen on the inside to allow only the fines stuff to go though. Bear in mind, the fine stuff wonâ€™t go though the screen door screen until the sawdust becomes dry.

The open end of the screen is cover with plywood and supported with roller wheels.
There is a 6 â€œ filler opening at the top and a 6 â€œ opening at the bottom to discharge the dried material.

There is another opening in the middle that hot forced air is blown in. The air tube in the middle - is a 6 â€œ screened tube by 4 â€˜ long that runs down the center where the air is blown into and forced outward through the chips / sawdust.

(4.) Once the chips /sawdust is dried and extracted from the dryer â€“ its ready to burn. I use a heavy duty lawn paper bag at .$.42 cent each â€“ it holds 50 lbs of product. I also use 55 gal. heavy duty plastic bags at $.28 cents each and can get 80 lbs in it. But its difficult to lift and pour with.

(5.) There is one more thing you must do is add a bridge breaker to your stove hopper. I built mine out of Â½â€ plywood that is about 4â€ in diameter that has (8) points that looks like a star. There is a 3/16â€ bolt that goes through the center of the bridge breaker that is held in place in the hopper with (2) clips at either end. The points will rotate as the auger is moving. So, its mechanical driven.

I had considered going on a large scale and sell these wood chips - but just last week the sawmill changed over from the circular blade to the bandsaw blade.
I am bumbed out.
Bandsaw chips are just to fine.
They will burn - but they have a tendency to blow all over inside the pellet stove.

===============

Last fall, my brother and I actually built a rotating chip burning stove. It uses the chips that all these tree chippers have.
We used a 30 gal barrel that is horizontal and rotates (very slowly)on (4) steel wheels that are powered by a motor.
The 23â€ barrel is filled with refractor cement leaving a 12â€ opening through the center.
Both ends are also made using refractor cement.
It is hydraulic feed from one end with the chips. It has enough power to cut off a 2x4 using the hydraulics. It has a 2" x 6" opening.

The heat exchanger is built into the 8â€ stack. A 9â€™ feet long x 6â€ water filled stainless tube inside a 8â€ metal bestus tube. The hot air goes around the 6â€ tube.
We couldn't check the inside temperate of the barrel - but the outside of the barrel was at 400 deg and ran about 700 deg coming out of the stack.
We used this to heat a 8000 sq ft shop.

We are currently working on building another chip burning stove and a larger chip dryer.
We are also considering regrinding the larger chips from the chippers down to Â¼â€ or 3/8â€ chips - thus it will probably be the rights size for pellet stoves.
I wished I had a million bags of these chips, Iâ€™d be a millionaire.

It all cost - lots of time and money.
Well, now you know all my secrets.

hope you could make some sense of what I wrote you.
I have read of others that burn wood chips in their pellet stove.

I've found it takes about 3 times the volume of wood chips then the pellets to get the same heat. So a bigger hopper was needed.
To get the flame in the stove at the same height - I use the # 3 setting for pellets and # 9 for wood chips.
Also when I weighed the chip and pellets on a scale the pellets are 3 times heavier.

I also checked the temperature of the exhaust and for pellets it varies between 220 and 245 deg.
For wood chips the temp. is between 170 and 190 deg. It's lower because it burns differently and it's drawing more air. With chips you might get more of a flash and then dies down a bit before the next auger turn.

I also hooked a heat exchanger up to my exhaust on the pellet stove, so it temps my hot water for my furnace. I am trying to grab every bit of heat I can out of the stove.


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## Wood Heat Stoves (Jul 5, 2011)

I've never heard of anyone trying this, but I would not burn anything in the stove that it wasn't designed to burn. Pellet stoves are designed and set up to burn a material of a particular density and I wouldn't expect anything else to burn properly in it.


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## Czech (Jul 5, 2011)

Too late...


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## woodchip (Jul 5, 2011)

Please don't burn woodchip in pellet stoves, it hurts


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## DexterDay (Jul 5, 2011)

woodchip said:
			
		

> Please don't burn woodchip in pellet stoves, it hurts



LOL


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## Countryboymo (Jul 5, 2011)

Czech said:
			
		

> Too late...




Is that kibbles and bits or just Old Roy?

I bet that smells nice at the vent!


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## Don2222 (Jul 5, 2011)

Wood Heat Stoves said:
			
		

> I've never heard of anyone trying this, but I would not burn anything in the stove that it wasn't designed to burn. Pellet stoves are designed and set up to burn a material of a particular density and I wouldn't expect anything else to burn properly in it.



Well, don't forget we have a member that burns Hazel Nut Shells in a Whitfield. It works well.

Also I have a multi-fuel burn pot that I can do a 50/50 corn/pellet mix but I cannot get corn cheap around here!

Some mult-fuel pellet stoves can burn Cherry pits, corn,  and quite a few other items.

We also know some one that burns dried Acorns quite well!!

See acorn thread
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/75229/


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