weighing bagged coal

just wondering,do they weigh the coal and then wet it down to bag it or do they weigh it wet?

my guess is they weigh it wet. i think another member once said they weighed their bags and they were a pound or two short. probably because the water had dried out.

I believe the water in my bags of coal is minimal and for keeping dust down when they bag.

I know for a fact that Blashak has absolutely no water in the bags, in the coal or anywhere in the production line. They utilize huge air blowers as the product passes several points and there is NO WATER even near the process. I have the same bitch as everyone else, I hate the black drool all over my front whenever I carry bags. I can't say about other bagged coal, but I have been at Blashak, seen the process, watched the 'robot' do his thing and there isn't even a drop of water on the floors!

I think the pallets are stored outside without any additional cover at dealers and the water from normal rain creeps into the bags. Yes, there are holes in the plastic bags....how else would the air escape when the bag is injected with 50 lbs of coal.

The coal companies subtract the weight of the bagging material when filling, and that is checked by the Bureau of Weights and Measures. There is no hocus-pokus going on, so be careful who you accuse of tilting the scale in their favor. Don't automatically assume that everyone is a crook, I think you will find quite the opposite!

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Yeah, huge difference in moisture content with Blashak, compared to Kimmels bagged. With Kimmels, I not only got black drool, but a rust-colored drool that WILL NOT wash out of your light colored clothes, no matter how many chemicals you toss in!

My Blashak coal is damp, but nowhere near the sopping wet of the Kimmels ...... but then again, Kimmels woven bags will let rain seep in, whereas the Blashak bags are sealed plastic with a few air holes punched in. I think all the moisture in the Blashak is just due to the weather around here ...

If they weigh it wet you can be sure it weighs more than it is supposed to. They will account for the water because if they ever got caught selling under weight bags they would be in a world of *censored*!!!

whistlenut wrote:I know for a fact that Blashak has absolutely no water in the bags, in the coal or anywhere in the production line. They utilize huge air blowers as the product passes several points and there is NO WATER even near the process. I have the same bitch as everyone else, I hate the black drool all over my front whenever I carry bags. I can't say about other bagged coal, but I have been at Blashak, seen the process, watched the 'robot' do his thing and there isn't even a drop of water on the floors!

I gotta disagree with you. This years coal from blaschak is very wet. When I picked it up my dealer even said it was wet, be careful. But, I will say years this coal is better than last years. Last years ash from Blaschak was red in color and the temp was lower. This wet coal has a white ash and is burning hotter at the min setting. About 20 degrees hotter according to the IR thermometer. The ash amount seems less also. I had a ton left over from last year and bought another 4 this year. I will pull out a bag of the old and compare ash color and temp readings.

I noticed the same when comparing to the last 4 seasons of burning Kimmels. Very white, powdery ash, TONS of heat at settings that would have went out on Kimmels, plus I'm getting 24+ hour burns without shaking in between! I've never been able to do that in 4 seasons!

Good stuff ... I hope it stays this good!

k9 Bara wrote:
I gotta disagree with you. This years coal from blaschak is very wet. When I picked it up my dealer even said it was wet, be careful.

My dealer said the same thing to me this year and not only was the mat in the back of my truck needed to be drained from water it had to be brought inside the house to dry it out. This last time I didn't get to take it out and the mat was frozen. I got an oil like substance almost like a cooking oil all over my floor that had to be hand scraped up. Their coal and it's bags have been very messy this year.

I too was able to tour the Blaschak bagging plant.. and I concure with Wistlenut: The bagged coal when it is bagged is dry. Not a drop of water anywhere on the floor around the bagging machine, the pallet stacking robot, or under the hundreds of pallets of coal inside the warehouse..

Not a drop. I even took photos.. but can't find them right now..

I believe that even though the pallets of bags are wrapped in plastic, they get a lot of water 'injected' into the bags when the flatbed trucks drive through rainstorms at 70-80 mph.. that and the opened [unwrapped] pallets sitting out in the rain.

I've had lots of water in bagged coal too, and used to think it was bagged that way.. but not now. I've see the plant. and the process, the coal is bagged DRY.

Greg L