(-: 2010 Pellet review its that time again! :-)

[jtakeman]

at least your wifey keeps an eye looking out for you.....good job for the wife, give her the thanks from the gang here.......hehe

geek, she knows I am only funnin with her. She reads some on here(keeps me in line). BTW she loves your avatar! I told here it looks just like you too! hehe

 

[gbreda]

How true it is geek. Was at Lowes yesterday for something completely unrelated. Had to check the pellets. 209/ton for Greene Team or Maines Choice.

 

[jtakeman]

Dang, Jay. I thought you weren't pulling an all out test like last year. Slow down there buddy.

Take a deep breath and repeat after me:

God, Grant me the serenety to accept that they are just pellets
The ability to drive by a stove shop without stopping
And the wisdom to go fishing



Keep up the good work!

Nope! I am in denial! ;-P hehe Its always just one more isn't it! I promise to stop after one more. no really I will!

When I get the Heartlands that Gio has near him! Were gonna take a run up there in a few weeks. Pondarosa pine is another hot burning pellet! Promise!

 

[geek]

at least your wifey keeps an eye looking out for you.....good job for the wife, give her the thanks from the gang here.......hehe

geek, she knows I am only funnin with her. She reads some on here(keeps me in line). BTW she loves your avatar! I told here it looks just like you too! hehe

LOL......

..

 

[HarmonP35i]

I read about alot of people having issues with pennington pellets last year. Will you be testing those pellets at all? My gf works at lowes and they are selling them for 5.97 per bag or 5.37 if you buy 50 bags. so 268.50 per ton. Lowes does price match plus 10% and i found the same pellets in my town for 180 a ton at a general store and my gf is employee so take another 10% off. we also have 3 coupons for 10 off of 50 so thats another 30 dollars off. So i can get a ton of penningtons for a very cheap price for my first ton of pellets. But even if they are very cheap would it still be worth it to buy them?

 

[HarmonP35i]

also, what about the shelled corn. In my harman manual it says i can use 50/50 mix of shelled corn and pellets. If i mix the shelled corn with the junk pellets would it help?

 

[jtakeman]

I read about alot of people having issues with pennington pellets last year. Will you be testing those pellets at all? My gf works at lowes and they are selling them for 5.97 per bag or 5.37 if you buy 50 bags. so 268.50 per ton. Lowes does price match plus 10% and i found the same pellets in my town for 180 a ton at a general store and my gf is employee so take another 10% off. we also have 3 coupons for 10 off of 50 so thats another 30 dollars off. So i can get a ton of penningtons for a very cheap price for my first ton of pellets. But even if they are very cheap would it still be worth it to buy them?

I tested them last season here:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/42511/

I might add one more brand because I don't link 13(lame excuse)!. But that's it I am done! Probably will not be Penningtons. Maybe another tester???

also, what about the shelled corn. In my harman manual it says i can use 50/50 mix of shelled corn and pellets. If i mix the shelled corn with the junk pellets would it help?

Corn is high in ash all by itself. Somewhere around 1.2% where as the average pellet is around .6% about half the ash as corn. Corn takes longer to burn that a wood pellet too. Mixing gives a good benefit of both quick heat from the wood pellet and the longer lasting heat of corn(the fire doesn't burn up as quick). But you will see more ash. About .9% overall

 

[captkirk5858]

I read about alot of people having issues with pennington pellets last year. Will you be testing those pellets at all? My gf works at lowes and they are selling them for 5.97 per bag or 5.37 if you buy 50 bags. so 268.50 per ton. Lowes does price match plus 10% and i found the same pellets in my town for 180 a ton at a general store and my gf is employee so take another 10% off. we also have 3 coupons for 10 off of 50 so thats another 30 dollars off. So i can get a ton of penningtons for a very cheap price for my first ton of pellets. But even if they are very cheap would it still be worth it to buy them?

Try Before you Buy..... especially if you have a thought that people had issues with them last year.

Every Stove and USER burn a bit diferently...

 

[captkirk5858]

this is actually an addictive game, i don't need pellets at all but if i go to the home store i cannot help it and always go by the pellets to see what's going on..... %-P :sick:

The one thing I DIDN'T need was anther addition... Dammit!!

 

[jtakeman]

this is actually an addictive game, i don't need pellets at all but if i go to the home store i cannot help it and always go by the pellets to see what's going on..... %-P :sick:

The one thing I DIDN'T need was anther addition... Dammit!!

To late for you too! hehe

 

[captkirk5858]

Unfortunatly........ As i found myself today peaking in a hole of a pallet to see what Brand the NEW delivery was.........

 

[Turbojoey]

Ok, so I went to Lowes (Edwardsville, PA) today to see what they had. They had about 7 pallets of Somersets sitting outside. All they had inside as separates was "Wood Fiber Something" and no one knew anything about the Somersets except that they have been sitting outside for a long time.

Made my way to TSC (Hanover,PA) and found a nice stack of Hardwood Heat inside. Their stock pile is kept indoors, and run $225/ton. I picked up 2 bags to test myself, but looks like you may beat me to it!! Either way, I'm hoping they are better than the Energex I am burning now. I've only had the stove for 2 weeks but these Energex seem to pile ash up in the burn pot quite quickly.

I'll let you know what I think but I'm really hoping you find good results as I would love to pick up a ton of these.

 

[jayd65]

I used a ton of the Energex once, never again, like you the ash just piled up, real pain in the rear!

 

[jayd65]

I am using the New England premium, I go through about 7, and 1/2 tons per year this is forth year with pellet stove. Last year I thought I would save money, and used Maine pellets, the ones in the white bag, really lite ash just built up fast, and had to clean stove every 5 days. that sucked.

 

[jtakeman]

Ok, so I went to Lowes (Edwardsville, PA) today to see what they had. They had about 7 pallets of Somersets sitting outside. All they had inside as separates was "Wood Fiber Something" and no one knew anything about the Somersets except that they have been sitting outside for a long time.

Made my way to TSC (Hanover,PA) and found a nice stack of Hardwood Heat inside. Their stock pile is kept indoors, and run $225/ton. I picked up 2 bags to test myself, but looks like you may beat me to it!! Either way, I'm hoping they are better than the Energex I am burning now. I've only had the stove for 2 weeks but these Energex seem to pile ash up in the burn pot quite quickly.

I'll let you know what I think but I'm really hoping you find good results as I would love to pick up a ton of these.

I have a ways to go before I can burn them, So if you burn them first? Getting feedback from more than just my 2 cents is good. The more we get might be a good thing. I burned pellets I like and some friends had issue's with them. So the more stoves there tried in and and the feedback from the stove owners might show us a better bigger picture. One stove and owner isn't much to go by. Please post your results when you have burned these.

The results I expect are going to be similar to the Hamers I tested last season. Hamer is bagging these, Plus a few others too! But batch variance could show up. You never know.

 

[jtakeman]

Blazers=274ºF Holy Cow!

Why can't we get more Douglas Fir brands in New England??? Logistics. Errrr!

BTU, You there? What is the density of your Clean Burn doug fir pellets? The Blazers were only 42.45 LBS/CuFT and Look at the heat on them. They say the fiber doesn't matter. Hah! I want more Douglas Fir! Just aint fair I tell ya! :sick: >:-( :sick:

 

[Turbojoey]

Ok, so I started a bag of Hardwood Heat about 2 hours ago...after I scraped the crud off the inside of the stove from the Energex.

My initial observation is that the HH are smaller in diameter than Energex, and lighter in color. Upon pouring them into the hopper and spreading them around with my hand they made a nice, solid, clicking sound with each other, as opposed to the Energex who had a softer sound. (Hey, I've only been at this for 2 weeks, it's as technical as I can get!)

With stove temp on 3 (Harman P61), they are burning nicely and cleaner so far, with a temp just shy of 200ºF. The flame is smaller in comparison to the Energex, but seems to be an equivalent heat. (I wouldn't know for sure since I haven't measured temp of Energex). Even if they are putting out the same amount of heat, I will enjoy not having to scrape the ash mound from the burn pot every day!

I hope to have an update for everyone later, and if there is some other data that you would like to know let me know and I'll try my best.

 

[jtakeman]

Blazers=274ºF Holy Cow!

Why can't we get more Douglas Fir brands in New England??? Logistics. Errrr!

BTU, You there? What is the density of your Clean Burn doug fir pellets? The Blazers were only 42.45 LBS/CuFT and Look at the heat on them. They say the fiber doesn't matter. Hah! I want more Douglas Fir! Just aint fair I tell ya! :sick: >:-( :sick:

You simply can't get the Douglas Fir pellets from WA or OR back to NE and have a retailer be able to retail them under $300...($325-$350 is more realistic). Find me one or two other retailers that are willing (or their customers) that will pay these prices and I will get some back there. But too many people are only interested in what they can buy the cheapest at and as you can see, a Douglas Fir pellet won't fall into that category.

You have some excellent brands on the West Coast, Clean Burn, Bear Mtn., Atlas, Pinnacle Fir and that is just for starters, but until the railways will either lower their rates or truckers start working for free....don't expect to see these products anytime soon in any volume on the East Coast. Another thing to consider, is most of these mills aren't as large as some in the mid-west or back east and simply don't have the volumes to move. Their local markets support these pellets pretty well, so there just isn't the pressure to move this product to other markets like some other products.

Any mill that has access to shipping ports also is involved with export and that could also play a key role why they don't play in the retail market as much. Larger volumes, committed for a longer period of time and don't have the same hassle as bagging/palletizing and trucking/railing to another market, when they can ship bulk to a port much closer.

Know this isn't what you probably want to hear, but the facts are what they are. If you want a REALLY GREAT Douglas Fir pellets anywhere in NE, it will cost big time and with as many good pellets already available at probably much less cost, I don't see any sort of substainable market to support bringing in any real volume to satisfy this niche.

If some dealer or group of clients (working thru a dealer) want to buy some at these levels, I would be more than happy to help, but so far, my phone hasn't been ringing off the hook for me to supply DFir to NE at over $320 per ton.... :shut:

Well here you go with the yada yada. Sorry to ruffle your pretty little feathers brother. Getting the Doug fir rant wasn't directed at you and I should have separated the question that I did have for you. Which was only about the density of the pellet. The rest was just a slight rant I have had for many years and Again it was not directed to you. I see so many empty trucks heading back to the east coast and most of the other goods we get are from the west coast.

With your rant I have one thing to say. Blazer has some how managed to bring them to Mass. If you can't bring yours to CT or MA. Then I will look into getting Blazers or another brand stocked at a local dealer. I may only buy 1 ton per season but its better than nada. I might be able to get a few others interested in them?

Geez BTU, Step of the horse and relax! Your not the only Douglas Fir pellet maker! Wow, No wonder its so hot in AZ!

Could you answer the question on desity? That's all I was interested in really!

 

[jtakeman]

Blazers=274ºF Holy Cow!

Why can't we get more Douglas Fir brands in New England??? Logistics. Errrr!

BTU, You there? What is the density of your Clean Burn doug fir pellets? The Blazers were only 42.45 LBS/CuFT and Look at the heat on them. They say the fiber doesn't matter. Hah! I want more Douglas Fir! Just aint fair I tell ya! :sick: >:-( :sick:

You simply can't get the Douglas Fir pellets from WA or OR back to NE and have a retailer be able to retail them under $300...($325-$350 is more realistic). Find me one or two other retailers that are willing (or their customers) that will pay these prices and I will get some back there. But too many people are only interested in what they can buy the cheapest at and as you can see, a Douglas Fir pellet won't fall into that category.

You have some excellent brands on the West Coast, Clean Burn, Bear Mtn., Atlas, Pinnacle Fir and that is just for starters, but until the railways will either lower their rates or truckers start working for free....don't expect to see these products anytime soon in any volume on the East Coast. Another thing to consider, is most of these mills aren't as large as some in the mid-west or back east and simply don't have the volumes to move. Their local markets support these pellets pretty well, so there just isn't the pressure to move this product to other markets like some other products.

Any mill that has access to shipping ports also is involved with export and that could also play a key role why they don't play in the retail market as much. Larger volumes, committed for a longer period of time and don't have the same hassle as bagging/palletizing and trucking/railing to another market, when they can ship bulk to a port much closer.

Know this isn't what you probably want to hear, but the facts are what they are. If you want a REALLY GREAT Douglas Fir pellets anywhere in NE, it will cost big time and with as many good pellets already available at probably much less cost, I don't see any sort of substainable market to support bringing in any real volume to satisfy this niche.

If some dealer or group of clients (working thru a dealer) want to buy some at these levels, I would be more than happy to help, but so far, my phone hasn't been ringing off the hook for me to supply DFir to NE at over $320 per ton.... :shut:

Well here you go with the yada yada. Sorry to ruffle your pretty little feathers brother. Getting the Doug fir rant wasn't directed at you and I should have separated the question that I did have for you. Which was only about the density of the pellet. The rest was just a slight rant I have had for many years and Again it was not directed to you. I see so many empty trucks heading back to the east coast and most of the other goods we get are from the west coast.

With your rant I have one thing to say. Blazer has some how managed to bring them to Mass. If you can't bring yours to CT or MA. Then I will look into getting Blazers or another brand stocked at a local dealer. I may only buy 1 ton per season but its better than nada. I might be able to get a few others interested in them?

Geez BTU, Step of the horse and relax! Your not the only Douglas Fir pellet maker! Wow, No wonder its so hot in AZ!

Could you answer the question on desity? That's all I was interested in really!

What are you talking about....I don't even make a DFir pellet....LOL
But we do distribute them on the West Coast....and my feathers weren't ruffled at all...I was just stating FACTS. I would be curious as to how much product Robbins sells each season of the Blazers...my guess would be less than 2 truck loads, but this is only a guess and I just can't justify the cost to do that, for so little volume.

As far as the density is concerned, I have no idea, so will have to get back to you on that.
Very few truckers (if any) would go from one coast to the other without a load. you are talking about $1100 just in fuel costs to do that, so either they have one massively profitable head haul or they are just running empty to get another load (maybe a couple of hundred miles at most)....trucking is about as competitive a business as there is and I just can't see how any trucker can absorb costs like that and still keep his head above water for any length of time. Sometimes you will see truckers run longer stretches empty if they can make it up on the other side...an example would be in FL or CA with fruits and veggies that HAVE to get to market at a certain time...Xmas trees are another good example.

I also sent the density question to Bear Mountain, Armstrong, Atlas and WOW. Atlas sent me a link to there testing results And there density is 42.2 lbs/cu ft. and I attached the results. Honestly I was expecting much higher density. I didn't check it years ago and didn't know how to either. So either the Moisture content(yes moisture content effects BTU's rather badly) in the Blazers is super low or there is something within the fiber that gives them a boost. Gotta check the density on the Cubex. I should have bought the stinking moisture meter too! Well gives me a reason to test next season I guess! I'll save a pound of the Blazers for the moisture test in a sealed bag. Off to find a meter!

No problem on the pellets BTU our New England Oak is pretty close and its far cheaper than the Western fir. Guess I'll stay a hardheaded hardwoods guy. ;-P Or see if Vermont wood pellet can produce a local fir only pellet. I know there mixing in some fir!

 

[jtakeman]

No problem on the pellets BTU our New England Oak is pretty close and its far cheaper than the Western fir. Guess I'll stay a hardheaded hardwoods guy. ;-P Or see if Vermont wood pellet can produce a local fir only pellet. I know there mixing in some fir!

But it wouldn't be Douglas Fir and I think that might make the difference....good to find out...keep those test results coming Jay…excellent work

.

Your probably right! This stuff keeps it interesting for me. Doing the actual work is getting "OLD".

Edit:
Can't wait to try the Country Pine, Now knowing its an Atlas pellet should be a good one too!

 

[iron stove]

Blazers=274ºF Holy Cow!

Why can't we get more Douglas Fir brands in New England??? Logistics. Errrr!

274 a new RECORD

As for the fines and such, they did get a lot of handling before they got to your place

 

[jtakeman]

Blazers=274ºF Holy Cow!

Why can't we get more Douglas Fir brands in New England??? Logistics. Errrr!

274 a new RECORD

As for the fines and such, they did get a lot of handling before they got to your place

We gave them an extra durability test and they still passed spec of <.5% Same with the SIH that hitched a ride in a UPS truck and got dropped(literately) on my door step. They too passed!

It got really cold and windy last night. Pretty glad I had a good pellet in the stove. House was toasty this morning and the stove was off as the stat was made at 72ºF. Might take a bit to burn these!

 

[Turbojoey]

FWIW, as far as the Hardwood Heat pellets from TSC go I will be picking up 1 ton. I have been running the P61 on them since 10:00 Saturday AM (2 bags), and am very satisfied. Like I said earlier, I dont have much of a scientific review to give on them but from an Average Joe point of view, he heat is nice and they are MUCH cleaner that the Energex American. It seems like it takes less flame to produce the same heat as Energex. The biggest thing for me is the low amount of ash that is in the burn pot. The Energex "gunked" up the stove quite a bit.

I look forward to j-takeman's study on them.

 

[deprayb]

Really thinking about getting a trailor load of those SIH up here in Bloomfield, CT only problem is they don't have a truckers who will drive this far :/ maybe my guy will do it for me but the price on those pellets are very reasonable and from what your test say J they are a decent pellet. But a pellet that I can sell for $150/ton and is low ash with decent btu sounds pretty good to me

 

[geek]

for that price put me on the list...!!