Are there really bad pellets out there?

[Mr._Graybeard]

In the Upper Midwest we have some chains that operate on the farm/fleet model. They sell everything from animal feed to auto parts to blue jeans. They also sell fuel pellets, often EasyHeats and Marth hardwoods. The one exception is Tractor Supply, which tends to do better. At TSC, though, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what brands they're gonna have until you load them on the trailer.
Selections in this area are mostly hardwoods and hardwood blends, although we see some softies from South Dakota. And, the local TSC is currently selling softwoods from a brand called Timberland (Peak) that I've been burning lately. They claim 8400 BTU, but again, who knows. My one complaint is that the bags are loaded with fines. They're part of a lumber/millwork company called Woodgrain, with mills in the PNW and VA/NC.

 

[Tonyray]

back here in Pa same issue.. softwoods are by far the hottest and usually least ash but,
many brands have lot of fines in the bags,, the 1 downside.. fines burn up same as pellets.

 

[Dataman]

back here in Pa same issue.. softwoods are by far the hottest and usually least ash but,
many brands have lot of fines in the bags,, the 1 downside.. fines burn up same as pellets.

I agree, Fines Burn up just Fine. Go thru my Harmon XXV without any hickup or problems. Even the places where water got in the bag burn up just fine (Dryed Out of Course).

 

[bogieb]

compared to what the average person spends on take out, restaurants in a week and and it's gone in few hours... silly logic but true if u think about it..

I don't know who the average person is that you hang out with, but, I am way below average apparently

 

[johneh]

Like above I guess that I am so far below
average that as low as you can get is up
That take-out food, we might as well say what the ----- is that
Then again you know that the new year starts with WTF
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

 

[Tonyray]

yeah,, maybe average was wrong word ......
wife and I eat at home 99% of the time but so many we know just either don't want to cook or can;t and do the above many times ..
but, if we dwell on that part then we missed the point of pellets last longer or more bang for your buck.
this isn't facebook is it lol?

 

[Ricks]

I find the better question is what does my stove burn best. Depending on your stove the quality of the pellets may not matter. For example my Quest stove prefers a good high quality pellet line Douglass fur northern warmth. Harmons for example are known to burn just about anything.

It comes down to what your stove prefers, how much you want to clean your stove, how much heat you want, and how much you want to pay.

 

[Tonyray]

I find the better question is what does my stove burn best. Depending on your stove the quality of the pellets may not matter. For example my Quest stove prefers a good high quality pellet line Douglass fur northern warmth. Harmons for example are known to burn just about anything.

It comes down to what your stove prefers, how much you want to clean your stove, how much heat you want, and how much you want to pay.

my Harman will burn most anything but I prefer doug firs most times for the high btu and zilch ash. I cannot get that with low to mid grade hardwoods from most box stores.

 

[bogieb]

I find the better question is what does my stove burn best. Depending on your stove the quality of the pellets may not matter. For example my Quest stove prefers a good high quality pellet line Douglass fur northern warmth. Harmons for example are known to burn just about anything.

It comes down to what your stove prefers, how much you want to clean your stove, how much heat you want, and how much you want to pay.

I agree, and would add circumstances to the list... I do not care if there is ash, as long as it is within reason.

I cannot run most top tier pellets in my big stove because it will short cycle so badly that it makes a mess inside and in the exhaust. With mid grade pellets, it runs longer so has a chance to get everything hot so I never get anything except some fine ash that is easy to take care of, and rarely builds up.

The P43 runs any really good pellets that I score off of CL without that issue. At the same time, when it gets to the point I need to run that stove on constant burn, any hot burning pellets would drive the room temp too high for my liking. As it is, with middling pellets I only run the P43 on max feed rate of 1 (or less), to keep the house temp comfortable for me, until the outside temp is close to the negative teens (or it is super windy).

I'd just spend more $$ for high end pellets when my entire reason for installing pellet stoves was to save money. And that doesn't even account for still needing to buy middling pellets for the basement stove.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I agree, Fines Burn up just Fine. Go thru my Harmon XXV without any hickup or problems. Even the places where water got in the bag burn up just fine (Dryed Out of Course).

That's the benefit of Harman's bottom feed. Fines get pushed into the burnpot, not dropped from above.

 

[Yooperburner]

Brought a few bags of Easy Heats just to try them out. Seem to burn and put out some heat just fine. Hard to compare to other pellets with all variables being the same.

One thing I can say is the bag is not as strong as other brands.

As I was loading them up I mentioned to the person I was with that the bag wasn't as sturdy, then poof the bag ripped and hit the floor. You gotta hold them like they are a infant

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Brought a few bags of Easy Heats just to try them out. Seem to burn and put out some heat just fine. Hard to compare to other pellets with all variables being the same.

One thing I can say is the bag is not as strong as other brands.

As I was loading them up I mentioned to the person I was with that the bag wasn't as sturdy, then poof the bag ripped and hit the floor. You gotta hold them like they are a infant

Marths are like that too. Grab a bag and your fingers poke holes in the plastic. Better pellets usually have sturdier bags, IMO.

EasyHeats will burn, but ash content is high, and the percentage of material that's left behind as ash doesn't produce heat for you. That's why softwoods are preferred -- they contain a lot of resin that burns off and leaves nothing behind.

When I first started burning pellets, Indeck was just getting off the ground in Ladysmith. Their early pellet runs were very bad, did not burn well at all. They were the worst pellets I ever fed into my heater. I complained to the company in a respectful way, and they sent me a gift card for $50! After a year or two the pellets got a lot better.

 

[Yooperburner]

Marths are like that too. Grab a bag and your fingers poke holes in the plastic. Better pellets usually have sturdier bags, IMO.

EasyHeats will burn, but ash content is high, and the percentage of material that's left behind as ash doesn't produce heat for you. That's why softwoods are preferred -- they contain a lot of resin that burns off and leaves nothing behind.

When I first started burning pellets, Indeck was just getting off the ground in Ladysmith. Their early pellet runs were very bad, did not burn well at all. They were the worst pellets I ever fed into my heater. I complained to the company in a respectful way, and they sent me a gift card for $50! After a year or two the pellets got a lot better.

The Easyheats are hardwood?? It doesn't say on the bag. I definitely smell pine when handling them.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

They're made from shipping pallet scraps. I suppose you could call them a blend.

 

[Ricks]

One thing that separates a good pellet from a bad pellet is what it contains. By that is there bark, pine needles, leaves, etc.

 

[Dataman]

I find the Bad Pellets are the Escapee's. Ones that roll on the floor and you step on them. Ouch!

 

[Yooperburner]

They're made from shipping pallet scraps. I suppose you could call them a blend.

They seem to burn just fine and put out good heat in my stove.

 

[scajjr2]

We burn Vermont softwood mostly. Great heat, low ash. Finishing up some Wood & Sons we got a couple years ago. Almost as good as the Vermont but the 2 tons we got must have had a bad bag sealing run cause the top corners on almost every bag easily ripped and I had to tape them when restacking. Put me off on buying them again.

Have some Douglas Fir left from a couple tons I bought 3 years ago. I save them for super cold snaps. They burn the best but at $480-$530 a ton now I'll stick with the Vermont.

But just had a peak on Fallon's Home & Hearth site (N Hampton NH) and see they have a limited supply of Wood & Sons in 20lb bags. Didn't know W&S had them. May have to consider those when buying for 25-26 season.

sam

 

[LobsterParty]

Are there really bad brands of pellets out there. I suppose there is .

Maybe a pellet doesn't burn properly because of improper storage or handling, which I would guess is probably the case most of the time.

I've only had my stove burning for a month and only burned 2 brands so far, so I'm curious.

Is there a brand you would never buy?

It's all in your head. This topic has come up a million times. Many factors, ash being one big factor , doesn't bother everyone. Another factor is price. There are small differences in BTU output in a laboratory setting. Biggest differences are Douglas fur , or pine/softwood , it has little to no ash , but you pay $100 - $200 more per ton , and you get 10%-20% more BTU in a laboratory environment.

I burn pellets to save money, I have a amazing Kirby vacuum cleaner to clean out the ash in 5 seconds when it's cold. If I was rich I would burn Douglas fur all day. But I'm not rich.

Home depot pellets work great for everyone and you get normal ash that needs to be cleaned weekly or bi weekly.

One factor to consider , I bought a ton of pellets that created a super fine ash. That in my 42k harman. And 52k harman finds it's way into the burnpot holes ignitor area and prevent the airflow from running smooth every couple weeks. So I have to open it up and vacuum that out and brush it out.

Greene supreme that doesn't happen as much, just annual cleaning. But with a wood pellet that was softwood recycled lumber pallets , it burned with no ash, extremely hot, but incredible fines that clogged up the tiny holes.

So I stick with the cheapest pellets out there. Greene Supreme premium home depot stuff. And I have no issues.

Older folks with money swear by the Douglas fur. They claim they don't have to clean as much, and 1 bag can last 25% longer because of greater btu's etc.

Many say that a blended pellet is good too, like 60% hardwood 40% softwood blend. I tried 20 brands one year. From all the hardware stores.

It got to the point where I didn't even notice a difference.
I even burned deer food corn, lots of chunky ash. Apparently it has 30% more BTU, but there is many species of corn out there. Also the corn was dirty. Black soot on the glass. Instantly.

 

[LobsterParty]

I mixed 50% corn and 50% green supreme , I won't do it again. Unless it was free or much cheaper. It was funny tho. It worked. I felt it was dirty and the flame was inconsistent.
The whole time I wasn't sure if I was using the correct corn. I used cracked corn lol

 

[LobsterParty]

The majority of the ash you get is from the Bark of wood. Meaning low grade pellet, messy. Lots of ash.

Side note. I dream of manufacturing my own pellets, using leaves off the trees. Imagine if someone could make pellets out of leaves and grass clippings. And twigs / branches.

Wish there was a way. I love thinking about free heat

 

[Tonyray]

we have a 100 yr old not well insulated 2 story. I need the higher btu of good softwoods
to run 24/7 without any cool down.. willing to pay bit more for them.

 

[LobsterParty]

we have a 100 yr old not well insulated 2 story. I need the higher btu of good softwoods
to run 24/7 without any cool down.. willing to pay bit more for them.

I would suggest buying a 2nd pellet stove and running them each on low setting , that might really impress you.
If I had an empty wall, I would add a 2nd stove

 

[Ssyko]

The majority of the ash you get is from the Bark of wood. Meaning low grade pellet, messy. Lots of ash.

Side note. I dream of manufacturing my own pellets, using leaves off the trees. Imagine if someone could make pellets out of leaves and grass clippings. And twigs / branches.

Wish there was a way. I love thinking about free heat

Been there, done that, more work than cutting blocking splitting stacking wood. Sold the mill 👍