Maine Wood Pellets? are they worth it?

[strangemainer]

ok, back to the original topic...

I really want to keep my money in Maine and buying MWP would do that.
What I need to find out is if the pellets I saw at this place were from the "bad batch" or not.

Is there anyway of telling other than accually burning a bag or 3 ??
Thanks

 

[summit]

ok, back to the original topic...

I really want to keep my money in Maine and buying MWP would do that.
What I need to find out is if the pellets I saw at this place were from the "bad batch" or not.

Is there anyway of telling other than accually burning a bag or 3 ??
Thanks

yea, the bad ones were very brown, short and crumbly.. they also have not produced a batch like that since january, and took most back, so its highly unlikely you would get some. the new batch is lighter in color, all about 3/4" lons, and hard.

 

[sparkydog00]

ok, back to the original topic...

I really want to keep my money in Maine and buying MWP would do that.
What I need to find out is if the pellets I saw at this place were from the "bad batch" or not.

Is there anyway of telling other than accually burning a bag or 3 ??
Thanks

I will not dog this company any more...for that just read all the other posts...
The only true way to tell how a pellet is going to perform is to burn them when it is cold outside.
And more than 1 or 2 bags....

 

[rowerwet]

I've got six tons of these, ask me what they're like once the heating season starts, which won't be long the way our summer has been so far. We had better weather in may than all of june.

 

[sparkydog00]

ok, back to the original topic...

I really want to keep my money in Maine and buying MWP would do that.
What I need to find out is if the pellets I saw at this place were from the "bad batch" or not.

Is there anyway of telling other than accually burning a bag or 3 ??
Thanks

Yes taste them...if they taste like honey then they are good...if they taste like wood...they are better...
If they taste terrible...stop putting wood pellets in your mouth.
The only way to tell if a pellet is good is to actually burn a few bags in your particular stove.

 

[Skier76]

Interesting thread. There's a place just over the boarder in New Hampshire selling these for $258 a ton...delivered. I was there buying some lumber this weekend. The guy said they were Maine pellets: 80% hardwood, 20% softwood. Same things you guys are talking about? I'm a pellet newb and I'm trying to figure out which pellets to get this year.

 

[rowerwet]

from everything I have read here, the bad pellets are dark and crumbly, the better pellets are longer, light colored, and not crumbly, open a bag and grab a handfull.

 

[summit]

Interesting thread. There's a place just over the boarder in New Hampshire selling these for $258 a ton...delivered. I was there buying some lumber this weekend. The guy said they were Maine pellets: 80% hardwood, 20% softwood. Same things you guys are talking about? I'm a pellet newb and I'm trying to figure out which pellets to get this year.

80 to 20 is the mix that maine woods in athens does, so probably the same thing

 

[Skier76]

Thanks guys. I'll see if I can get them to open a bag for me...or if they have a sample.

I wasn't really able to look at any of the bags. We were there for lumber and I took a quick look at the pallets they had outside. They were all buttoned up pretty tight. The bag looked like it had an outline of Maine on it.

 

[Wood Nugget]

If you would like to keep your money local, try maine's choice pellets. I got mine from southern maine renewable fuels www.woodpellets4me.com. I bought energex from them last year and they were good. they delivered 2 bags of the "new" maine woods to try, and i didn't like them at all, even tho they were supposed to be new and improved. I also burned pennington in my stove which weren't great compared to the energex. I bought 5 bags of the maine choice to try, and they were the best of any of the previous pellets mentioned. high heat, low ash. Plus, the people at Southern Maine Renewable Fuels are great to deal with.

 

[peterpski666]

We burned 4 tons in our Lopi last year, the first 2 tons were crap, but they changed us out and the latter 2 tons burned fine and hot but we had a lot of ash. I think. Lot of ash is subjective, I think at the 235 a ton I would do it again, all this screwing around with good vs evil in the pellet bin really boils down to how much a woodstove would suck in comparison. I prefer to buy USA, Maine products, as that keeps the buck in my world one way or another. I want Maine Woods to succeed, I live nowhere near them but I'm sure those Mainers have families to feed.

 

[Skier76]

We were at the store this weekend picking up a few things. They had a bag open so I took a few pics. I took the pics with my BlackBerry, so it's not digi-cam quality. Are these the decent ones?

 

[strangemainer]

I'm not gonna chance it. I just placed my order with pelletsales.
3 tons of LG's are on the way.
Maybe next year?

I will probably try a bag of MWP here or there just to see if there any better.
GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!

 

[Gweeper64]

The local Big Y supermarket here in Central MA had these outside last night... $250/pallet (ton) or I think $6.99/bag. The $250/ton is attractive when most others are anywhere between $275 and $300 + delivery... of coarse, I would have to get these home myself which would require many trips back and forth (probably at least 3 trips per ton so I don't overload my vehicle too much).

I've got a Mt Vernon AE insert. The only pellet I have burned in my half season experience so far is the NEWP hardwood "premium" (in the tan colored bags). How do you think these Maine Wood Pellets would compare? The NEWP had more ash than I was expecting, but like I said, I have nothing to compare to.

Maybe I'll buy 10 bags to experiment with. Won't use them until at least October though.

 

[mjbrown]

We were at the store this weekend picking up a few things. They had a bag open so I took a few pics. I took the pics with my BlackBerry, so it's not digi-cam quality. Are these the decent ones?

skier76,
yes these are the decent ones. i burned these last year (6ton). the worst of them were the first of production, that i bought in oct. when i went back in dec. for 2 more ton, the quality was better.lighter in color and held together making a more uniform pellet. the ash content is high but not a problem for me as i clean every week regardless of my ash box. feb i went for another 2 ton and the quality was as good if not a little better. that said, i will go with mwp again this year. i would like to go to cubex but cant afford 300 per ton.

hope this helps,

mike

 

[stoveguy2esw]

hey BTU? are you guys going to ship stock to stores as far south as VA? i wouldnt mind running some of your stuff myself, especially after the reviews in here.

BTW bias is ok in here when you make the product IMHO, as long as its good natured good to have you around

 

[stoveguy2esw]

stoveguy2esw... I always try and keep it good natured.. ;-) .. I would like to get down as far as VA, but first things first. I have to find a reliable reload (that knows what they are doing) making sure I can get a competitive rate from the railroad (that may take some volume) and then I have to figure out where the market is and can I still make a couple of bucks without being to high over the market. I am coming closer to some pretty good mills, so I may run into a freight disadvantage right away. It just may be too far south for us, but I really don't know. If you can recommend a strong dealer or two that you think might be interested, please PM me and I will contact them and start doing my homework.

I would also like to expand some dealers in NY, MD and Long Island

PS.. I am a tad bias..guilty!!....but I KNOW we have the goods.... :cheese:

hey ,if you werent biased, i wouldnt be interested bro, i'll look around for ya but i dont know that you would have enough buisness this far south in va , maybe up closer to northern va though. be a tough road though folks down here love their lignetics (me included) though i do like experimenting as well. if i come across anything i'll let ya know

 

[CFFuts23]

I purchased 4 tons of the Maine Pellets for the 2009-2010 season. I hate them.....3-4x as much ash and 1/2 the heat....

My dealer had them on 'discount' and now I know why. Back to the Energex for the next year.

 

[Bigjim13]

I purchased 4 tons of the Maine Pellets for the 2009-2010 season. I hate them.....3-4x as much ash and 1/2 the heat....

My dealer had them on 'discount' and now I know why. Back to the Energex for the next year.

Same situation here, got them for $229/ton which at the time was about $30-$60 less per ton than any other pellets I could find. I agree, there does seem to be more ash with them and the heat is ok. Next season I will look around a bit more.

 

[slls]

You should be..Lignetics are a very good pellet. Probably one of the very best hardwood pellets on the market today, which is why I have to choose my battles carefully (so to speak) when trying to break into a new market..Thanks for the kind words about our pellet.

Do you have any dealers in the Bangor Maine area.

 

[scooter24]

I BOUGHT 4 TONS OF THESE MAINE WOODS PELLETS,VERY GOOD HEAT OUTPUT BUT MORE ASH.NO BIG DEAL THOUGH.WILL BUY AGAIN NEXT YEAR

 

[slls]

Evergreen Home Solutions
Ellsworth ME
207.667.4122

They just got a new load in Monday..!!

[/quote]

Kind of far for me, 40 miles, can only take 25 bags in my Sonoma anyways. That names sounds familiar, I think they opened a place in Brewer, next to Bangor.

 

[CFFuts23]

I complained to my dealer and he suggested that I change the setting from 'utility' to 'softwood'. I've run the stove for 24 hours on the new setting and their is definitely a lot less ash, but there is a lot more black soot. On the utility setting, I get white ash buildup on the glass and plate along with a ton of ash in the floor. On the 'softwood' setting it's all black ash and a lot less ash in the floor....

I'm going to do some research and try to figure out what the stove does differently with the settings. Anyone know offhand?