CLEANFIRE WOOD PELLETS

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Robzheat

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Sep 30, 2006
66
Has anyone used Clean fire wood pellets? How is the quality?
 
I'm wondering the same. PelletSales.com seems to have them well-priced right now. I'd like to pull the trigger on a five ton purchase, but I can't find anything about them.
 
I'd like to know too.
We are new to this, having bought our Breckwell insert Dec 30th, we bought two tons of County Boy White Lightning at 254 ton plus 100 delivery from dealer.
picked up a few bags of "premium hardwood pellets" supposedly cherry? at Tractor Supply. WOW more than twice the amount of ash. and lot's of soot on the glass.
can't seem to find a good price on the Country Boy and don't want to buy several tons of Cleanfire if they are not decent.
 
For those of you near the RI/MA/CT border, you might want to check out PelletsDirect.com. You can pickup your pellets right of off 395 just over the boarder in MA, or they will deliver for an extra charge. I picked up a ton of the Barefoot Premium Plus pellets for $229 on Sunday and they burn about 30 degrees hotter than any other pellet I've purchased so far, and I've tried quite a few. I'm getting ready to order a tractor trailer load or two from them in the next couple of weeks.

As a reference I've tried Green Team, Premier Pellets, P.A. Pellets and Energex this year to know what to buy now for next year.
 
How many bags of pellets per day are you burning to require a tractor trailer load (22 tons)? What part of RI are you from?


Chris.
 
I'm only burning 3 tons per season, but quite a few of my family members have pellet stoves as well so to save $$$ we all go in and buy a trailer load. This year some family member's friends also want in, so it looks like we'll be ordering two trailer loads. I'm actually in the same town as yourself.
 
I've been buying from PelletsDirect.com for 4 years now. Good prices and good selection.

Comfort Hardwoods, Barefoots, and L&G;'s burn great in my Enviro Meridian. I don't PA Pellets, very ashy and low heat, possibly a bad batch. Anyone have any luck with them?
 
I don't think it was a bad batch of PA Pellets you had. I spoke with one of the guys from where I recently purchased pellets and he said they carried that brand last year or the year before, and folks complained about it. They had a hard time selling it, but it was their own fault for not trying it in their stoves first.

I think Barefoot is going to be the brand I go with for two simple reasons; they make their pellets from sawdust created from their hardwood floor manufacturing facility, and they burn hot. I guess it comes down to you know what you're going to get, hardwood pellets.
 
DFDureiko said:
I'd like to know too.
We are new to this, having bought our Breckwell insert Dec 30th, we bought two tons of County Boy White Lightning at 254 ton plus 100 delivery from dealer.
picked up a few bags of "premium hardwood pellets" supposedly cherry? at Tractor Supply. WOW more than twice the amount of ash. and lot's of soot on the glass.
can't seem to find a good price on the Country Boy and don't want to buy several tons of Cleanfire if they are not decent.

My advice is to never buy a ton of any pellets without trying a few bags first. If that ton of pellets you just bought doesn't produce the results you want, you're stuck with a whole ton of bad pellets. I made this mistake the first year I had my stove. I stupidly thought pellets were pellets, never realizing that there were good and bad brands.
 
rap69ri said:
For those of you near the RI/MA/CT border, you might want to check out PelletsDirect.com. You can pickup your pellets right of off 395 just over the boarder in MA, or they will deliver for an extra charge. I picked up a ton of the Barefoot Premium Plus pellets for $229 on Sunday and they burn about 30 degrees hotter than any other pellet I've purchased so far, and I've tried quite a few. I'm getting ready to order a tractor trailer load or two from them in the next couple of weeks.

As a reference I've tried Green Team, Premier Pellets, P.A. Pellets and Energex this year to know what to buy now for next year.

Just wondering how you measure the difference between pellets ( 30 degrees hotter)..?

chuck
 
This may seem simplistic, but I have a thermometer on the door of my pellet stove. I kept my fuel feed and air flow settings the same for all brands of pellets, and made sure to remove any residual dust or pellet pieces before changing brands. After refilling the stove with a new bag of pellets and getting it running, I'd come back every 30 minutes to check on the temp. When it stopped rising I'd make a note and complete the bag(s), and repeat the process with a different brand.

The way I look at it, if the temp at the door is 30 degrees warmer, then the temp of the air being moved must be warmer as well.
 
Robzheat said:
Has anyone used Clean fire wood pellets? How is the quality?

Have burnt about 12 bags so far and I actually like them better than the New England Wood Pellet (green lettering on bag) that I went through (3 tons) this year.

These are hardwood so I adjusted the setting on my stove and it seems like I get a fuller flame and there's even less dust than the New Englands. These were bought through (broken link removed) and I'll definitely be burning these next year if they are still around.

Stove: Quad Mount Vernon
Setting: Hardwood/Auto/Flame adjust @ 0
 
rap69ri said:
This may seem simplistic, but I have a thermometer on the door of my pellet stove. I kept my fuel feed and air flow settings the same for all brands of pellets, and made sure to remove any residual dust or pellet pieces before changing brands. After refilling the stove with a new bag of pellets and getting it running, I'd come back every 30 minutes to check on the temp. When it stopped rising I'd make a note and complete the bag(s), and repeat the process with a different brand.

The way I look at it, if the temp at the door is 30 degrees warmer, then the temp of the air being moved must be warmer as well.

Your method doesn't take into account that a smaller size pellet will feed more pellets and appear to burn hotter.
 
That would be true if the smaller pellets burned hotter, but they didn't. The Premier Pellets I had burned we're very small pieces, on average about 3/8", and they burned cooler than the Barefoot brand and about as hot as the Green Team and Energex. The Green Team and the Barefoot brand had pellets between 3/4" to 1" on average.
 
Despite never having tried the Cleanfire pellets, today I pulled
the trigger and ordered 3 tons from Pelletsales.com.
I know it's a gamble but I have heard all positive comments
about this brand. Plus my stove isn't picky. It burns anything
I throw at it pretty good.
 
Jabberwocky said:
Robzheat said:
Has anyone used Clean fire wood pellets? How is the quality?

Have burnt about 12 bags so far and I actually like them better than the New England Wood Pellet (green lettering on bag) that I went through (3 tons) this year.

These are hardwood so I adjusted the setting on my stove and it seems like I get a fuller flame and there's even less dust than the New Englands. These were bought through ww.pelletsale.com and I'll definitely be burning these next year if they are still around.

Stove: Quad Mount Vernon
Setting: Hardwood/Auto/Flame adjust @ 0
Cleanfire wood pellets are made by New England wood pellet from what I understand is when the pellets are produced they are tested if they don't meet cleanfire standards they are bagged in New England bags latter this summer PFI will have a new catergory called Super Premium and Cleanfire will fall in this catergory. I recieved this info from the webmaster of (broken link removed)
 
To anyone.....I'd be interested in joining anyone buying in bulk. I only use 3 tons per year and like everyone else, I like to get the best deal possible
 
I just broke into the first few bags of Cleanfire Pellets. I like the fact that they post their "Guaranteed" pellet analysis results on each bag. As for how they burn, I think the jury is still out. The first couple bags reminded me a little too much of Energex. The burn pot was full of ash within 24 hours. (To properly reference this comment, I had just finished burning my last "loose" bag of New England Wood Pellets. I cleaned the stove and loaded it up with Cleanfire so that I could make a reasonable comparison.) The manufacturer says they're "predominantly hardwood" although I could barely get three bags into my stove(with hopper extension). I can fit almost four bags of New England Wood Pellets or Cubex. They're also very dark as compared with those two brands. It's too early to make a judgment call, but I'll certainly report back after running them for a couple weeks. I hope they come through for me as I bought six tons. I'm running them in a Harman P-61. This weekend I'll be installing a PB 105 boiler. My hope is that if they don't work well in the P-61, they'll work better in the PB-105. Hope springs eternal, eh? I still have 6 pallets of assorted New England and Cubex stock to run in the P-61 if needed.
 
I understand that CleanFire bags as NE when they don’t meet their specs. I've tried the CleanFire Premium Wood Pellets and the New England. I would guess that all stoves burn different even from season to season. The New England burned quite nice although there was more ash, but the CleanFire Premium Wood Pellets are the worst I've ever used. Within 24 hours I needed to clean the glass or I couldn't see through it. I've tried the damper out 1/4", 1/3", 1/2", 2/3", 3/4", 1" & even all the way open, it makes no difference. I've burned the Cubex for one season with no problems also. I am therefore a firm believer that it's not the pellets but the stove that makes the difference, so don't go by what a few say about any one brand. It's what works best in your own stove. You just need to experiment. It's too bad that one brand doesn't produce the same pellets year after year. Just because they burned good last year, it doesn't mean they will burn the same this year, even with regular maintenance. Just my opinion.
 
I was disappointed with Cleanfire, too. I experimented with the feed control eventually getting
all the way down to "1" and the excessive ash/non combustible content was still unacceptable.
I swapped mine out for LG. They are a much cleaner burn in my P61 and PB105.
 
ConnecticutYankee said:
The New England burned quite nice although there was more ash, but the CleanFire Premium Wood Pellets are the worst I've ever used.

Interesting, I've had quite the opposite experience.
10 bags of Cleanfire through my stove so far this season.
Right away I noticed these provide more heat and noticeably less
ash than the NEWP (green letter bags) I had been using for the
past two season.

Since 2005, I've tried 9 brands of pellets and these are by far the
hottest and cleanest burning - in my stove anyway. Very happy I have three tons of them.
 
That's really amazing. I found the NEWP (Green Supreme) to be excellent. I went through
a ton of the Clean Fire and despite my best efforts at fine tuning the ash was excessive. I
wouldn't have thought the appliance would make such a difference. Very interesting. Thanks!
 
Best pellets to burn are (100% oak) Country Boy Pellets. This product leads all the competition. IF IT DOES NOT SAY 100% OAK THEN IT IS NOT A TRUE OAK PELLET. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY ADVERTISING SAYING THEIR PRODUCT HAS KILN DRIED OAK SAW DUST IN THEIR PRODUCT> Not all pellets are the same. The cheapest price always ends up costing more. In order for your stove to work as efficiently as advertised you need to burn a very good quality pellet. Anyone have feed back on country boy pellets please post a response on your thoughts. Most people i spoke to have nothing but rave reviews about this product. It is one of the most popular brands on Long Island. The response i get is the ash is so low compared to any other brand, the heat output is extremly hot, no odor or discoloration, stove cleaning during the season is very minimal, no black ash. The ash is almost like a very fine light grey powder. Awsome product worth the extra dollars.
 
Li Pellet man, reading your post, you sound very much like a retailer trying to hype your product....do you sell pellets? If so, you need to make full disclosure.
 
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