Athens Wood Pellets intial review

[Panhandler]

After about 25 bags I decided to emplty the pan on my Harmon Advance and take a look at the ash. I was pleasantly suprised that the ash pan was only 3/4 full and I would estimate about 6-8 pounds of ash. Not too bad The ash pan was not sooty and the ash had a granular quality. I believe this may be caused by the higher mineral content of hard wood chips in any case My hands were still remarkably clean so i decided to do some more observations. I should tell you I don't use a vacumm or gloves or any of that stuff when I clean the stove and I normally spend more of my time washing my hands and cleaning up soot than cleaning the stove.
First i found only a small amount of fines in the fire pot. No clinkers. ( I usually brush off the firepot with the tool once a week or so (never any clinkers). The glass only had a small amount of fogging and dust and cleaned up with warm water on a cloth (This was the first glass cleaning this season) In general the inside of the stove looked clean, dusty and had the ash on surfaces but clean. I actually brushed the ash from the surfaces with my hand and only got dusty no soot. I checked the heat exchangers and found them to be pretty clean they were lightly and evenly coated they didn't need cleaning nor would I usually expect them to at this time. I believe that the quality of the ash makes it more apparent in the visible areas of the stove but your heat exchanger and flue etc may stay cleaner.

After I was finished I went to the sink to cleanup and my wife came over to get the dish soap out (this was the only thing that would normally get the soot off my hands). Not only did I not need it but I only needed warm water and a small amount of hand soap.

I wish everyone was having the same experience with these pellets as me.
I tend to agree there must have been some QC issues on some earlier shipments during their startup and ramp up times and this could account for some of the radicly different experinces. Also I believe that stove adjustments are key and uncombusted product ( poor combustion) could appear as ash and would certainly soot up the works. Don't forget pellets are combusted not burned and need an efficient fuel air mixture. Most of the owners manuals have these instructions as well as proper cleaning procedures. You people new to pellet burning remember there isn't any substitute for regular cleaning and learn to think about the money you are saving and the environment when you are doing it. Don't be afraid to experiment until you get the results you want.

What works for one may not necessary work for you. Just don't give up. Call the stove suppier,manufacturer, and pellet manufacturer. No one wants you to be unhappy and they are all trying to do the right thing.

Didn't even need soap. Looking forward to more of your posts.

 

[Panhandler]

'they're all trying to do the right thing." OK I new that.

 

[BJN644]

"I found something that looked very much like a nail in my first bag. "

This is the second time I have heard of this. The first time the guys auger jammed becuase of a nail in the bag. These pellets are awful

Here is some food for thought.

If you are familiar with the Athens area then you know that the owners of the mill tried unsuccessfully to start up a biomass plant that would burn construction demolition debris. The locals vehemently opposed this plan and won.

Could it be that the owners have found a use for this demolition debris in pellet manufacturing?

 

[pellet0708]

Pelletusers experience was pretty miraculous with ANY brand of pellet. Not to get dirty cleaning your stove?
Glad you have a positive experience. All I know is that penningtons, which most people dislike are much better in my stove than the Athens.
Now I'm worried what exactly is in the Athens and could it be harmful debris?

 

[Noreasta]

Here is some food for thought.

If you are familiar with the Athens area then you know that the owners of the mill tried unsuccessfully to start up a biomass plant that would burn construction demolition debris. The locals vehemently opposed this plan and won.

Could it be that the owners have found a use for this demolition debris in pellet manufacturing?

I'm not familiar with the Athens area but after some hours reading up on what is acceptable in industrial grade pellets and what comprises "Premium Wood Pellets" I came to the same conclusion. The nail I actually found while I was looking over that first bag of pellets in the hopper thinking "Gee, these sure don't look like the sample they had on display and on the web page." Very glad the nail didn't go through my stove, I had only had it for 3 weeks and had just run out of my Cubex pellets which burned wonderfully by the way. I will definately be using them next year if I can find them.

For this year though, how do you guys feel about Lignetics or Corinth pellets? I've been borrowing Corinth pellets from family until I can find my own, they seem to burn well but I might only be able to get the Lignetics before cold weather hits.

 

[pelletuser]

I haven't used the Corinth pellets this year but used them last year with good success. Not familiar with the other brand.

 

[pellet0708]

Lignetics are being sold right now through Walmart under the name Forest Pride. (Googled it) Have burned a few bags and they are great, burn real hot and not a speck of dust in the bags.

 

[richkorn]

Yea, Lignetics are excellent. I'm picking up another ton tomorrow.

 

[gw2kpro]

I've burned 35 bags of Athens this year so far in my 2 stoves. I haven't found them to be better or worse than the Energex, Somersets, or Penningtons I burned last year.

I think all manufacturers of pellets likely struggle to produce a consistent product as they don't typically have a consistent raw material input.

 

[sydney1963]

I was so hoping that the Maine based business of pellet making would be a wonderful opportunity for our state. On the other hand it seems like there are a lot of different opinions on this forum also. I hope if it's something Athens can fix and they can get their s__t together and produce a quality product, Maine needs the jobs.

 

[pellet0708]

You are so right. I will try a couple of bags next year to give them a chance before we buy elsewhere

 

[sparkydog00]

You are so right. I will try a couple of bags next year to give them a chance before we buy elsewhere

This company will never get my buisness again.
They sold Industrial grade pellets at premium prices. The only thing premium about these pellets are the bags they come in.
i feel hoodwinked!
That said...
I now have about 2.5 tons of these crappy pellets. The ash is not of the fine lightweight "fly" ash variety that all other pellets have produced to date. This is more of a sand texture...and much more weight. The glass starts to haze over after the first bag...burn pot needs constant attention to keep clear of ash.
This morning the crappy pellets finally binded up my auger causing the stove to shut down.
Have burnt many brand of pellets and these are the worse to date. Like i stated before...if you have a top loading stove these pellets will not burn due to the high ash content.
These pellets stink!

 

[orudiskt]

We just ordered a few tons of *Premium* Maine Woods pellets, and I think they must be having issues with their quality control. I had been burning Pennington, which I know a lot of people don't like, but they were much cleaner than the pellets from Athens.

The Pennington pellets burned hotter with much less ash than the Athens brand. Plus there is a lot of junk in the pellets that I have to clean out for the burn pot two to three times per day. Literally hardened clumps of *crap* form in the burn pot. I had to do that at most once weekly with the Pennington brand, and nothing like this. These pellets have smothered the fire once, which never has happened before with other pellets. I'm not promoting Pennington as I'm sure there a lot of other truly premium pellet brands, I'm just saying that after about 20 bags of these Athens pellets I am very disappointed.

______________
Breckwell P4000

 

[slls]

I burned 3 bags of Pennington to try, I would buy them again, good heat, a little dirtier than Energex.

 

[pellet0708]

Now that it has gotten a lot colder it is obvious the heat difference between the Athens and all the other brands I have tried. Very little heat with the Athens. I think this is mostly because they are so broken up they burn up fast. Plus you have all the hard particles in them that don't burn at all!

 

[sparkydog00]

May as well turn up the burn rate on these pellets.
I have burned a little over a 1/2 ton of these pellets.
The ash content is unbelievable. It is almost like you get 40 lbs of ash for every bag. I know I am aggerating...butstill. To give you an idea...it is the middle of November and I had to empty my ash vac today. It was full. Usually only do this once a season...not once a month. Am worried that these pellets might be causing damage to my stove.
They say they are 8-% hardwood 20 % softwood.
I would venture to guess they are 80% wood 20 % filler...and sometimes that filler isn't even flammable.
These pellets stink...will never purchase any other products from this crackpot operation!

 

[jtpack123]

The only real issue is the TREMENDOUS amount of ash. Our Ash pan fills up every couple of days. I have not had any jams yet but did have one fire smother out on the low setting. That could have been a temporary jam or just some very bad pellets. I will not buy these again. I have about 1.5 tons left to suffer through.

 

[Sue. Quadrafire]

This is our first year with a quadrafire and I bought a bag of green team pellets to see how they would burn and they were great. But they sold out so fast - it was amazing. So I ended up buying 5 tons of pellets from Maine woods Pellet company. What a mistake. I clean my stove every day ... and every day it is full of ash with clinckers in the ash pan - the stove has an auto clean feature. The heat output isn't as good as the green team brand from Lowe's. I have to burn 5 tons of these things. Does anyone know who delivers a quality pellet in the central maine area?

 

[pellet0708]

Have better luck mixing these pellets. Been buying some bags of penningtons at Walmart and mixing in 1/4 bag with a bag of Athens. Does not help the ash problems but at least the fire burns better, brighter and much hotter.

 

[j00fek]

cleaned the stove after 5 day burn, 5 bags burnt

ash pan was 3/4 full, nice clickers in there this time. took me 20m to clean the glass with ceramic cleaner what a bit*h... i actually had one bag of good looking pellets then i kept burning to find what was the norm, small dusty pellets.
had 2 cups of fines in the 1 bag i used lastnight

 

[maineteech]

I have 3 tons of the Athens pellets, too. Basicall was stuck with them when I couldn't get the Corinth brand (apparently, many people had the same problem). The heat output seems fine, but my glass gets sooty very quickly, and there is a lot of ash. I am constantly stirring the burn pot to get a better flame. Seems to clog up a lot with ash and huge clinkers. I am also cleaning the stove a lot more than I was when I burned Energex. Oh well...I am just thankful I could get pellets in this crazy year. I will try another brand next year, assuming the hoarding and panic doesn't set in again.

 

[akakii]

Now that I finally have my stove running full time I have a better sense of how these pellets burn. Unfortunately, my impressions haven't changed a bit since I burned the first couple of bags in October. If anything, I dislike them even more.

I have pretty much all of the same problems as everyone else (though I have yet to find a nail). While I can live with higher ash output and dirty glass, what I'm really pissed about is the lousy heat output. Heat is the reason we burn these things, right? While I have no way to gauge it, I'd guess I'm getting about 75% of the heat out of these that I have with other pellets. Thank god oil prices are down since I'm going to be using it more as backup.

As for those suggesting that we give the company the benefit of the doubt while they work through their startup issues, you're far more charitable than I am. It's not like they advertised that they are new to the premium pellet business and they certainly didn't offer us a price break while they work out the kinks in their production. They filled the vacuum in the market. While it may have provided nice short term profit to them, it's going to hurt them in the long run. While those of us in this forum are only a tiny sliver of the pellet market, bad news travels fast and I'm not going to hesitate to spread it. Once I've run four tons of these things through my stove I'll never buy another bag again. I, like others here, broke my rule of trying a few bags before buying a large quantity. My bad.

For those that are happy with these pellets, I'd be happy to sell you mine at a very reasonable price.

 

[jimcooncat]

As far as the people behind the operation, we've only got praise for them. We were a bit frantic this season in that we had the stove hooked up and had only two bags of pellets on hand to test with, then we couldn't find any for sale. We called Maine Woods to find out that we could get on a waiting list for $215 a ton, and that they recently delivered to Spring Brook in Waterville. We called up Spring Brook, and picked up a ton there for $265. Nice people at Spring Brook, but they have a very congested area for loading the trailer.

Maine Woods called us to say they had a ton ready for us; we can only haul one at a time with our little pickup and trailer. The office help was extremely nice, and set us up for another ton in December. The guy who loaded our trailer was extremely helpful, and pitched in to throw the top ten bags off the pallet into the truck. So I can't be happier with the customer service. The product, though, is low on the quality side, although the packaging is superb.

I'd like to clear up some misconceptions in this thread. I had a good look around the plant, which had changed a lot since it was a "stick mill" that I had worked at for a short time in the eighties. I thought they were making pellets out of scraps from the wood processing operations, and maybe in the beginning they were. But it seems it's switched over to just a pellet manufacturing operation.

As I drove around the plant, there were no piles of construction debris or post-consumer biomass. Also, I could see no sawdust receiving area. Instead, there were huge piles of fresh wood chips on concrete and tar unloading areas. It seemed to me that they were making at least most of the pellets directly out of chipped trees.

I guess that the high ash content is probably from not debarking trees before chipping, and that a small amount of dirt is in the pellets as well. As far as nails and other foreign stuff in them, I haven't seen any; but I would guess that they would come from trees along a fenceline that someone nailed into. Possible that bits of barbed wire fence would make their way into such a product as well.

I'll be experimenting with other brands, but I'm probably going to try my best to make these work for us, because they're easy to deal with, low price, and a short drive from our house.

 

[ajwoodman]

I can understand that you were pretty pleased with their customer service but their product really stinks. I have burned a few other brands and let me tell you, to go from Athens pellets (cleaning a really dirty window and cleaning the stove daily with ten times as much ash) to a nice clean window for days and a much, I mean much, hotter fire and cleaning once a week situation there is no comparison. I don't know about you but I work 40 hours a week and it isn't in the daily chores to be thoroughly cleaning a stove and putting up with having to use oil also just because the pellets don't throw off much heat. I am blessed with three tons of these babies and am not very happy. If they didn't represent so much money I think I would not even burn them. Too bad that Athens couldn't even respond to the many phone calls and posts. I think that really hurts their reputation more than anything else. It is like they just don't care. (maybe they don't)!As you can see, I am very dissatisfied with the product. I wonder what burning that crap is going to do to everyones stoves!!

 

[maineteech]

I was told that the Athens plant was making pellets out of the trrees cut from the side of I-95 up here in northern Maine. Don't know if it's true or if it makes any difference. From doing a little research, I found that the high ash content is usually due to a high bark content in the pellets. That would probably explain the dark color, too. But I'm still a novice at this whole pellet thing.