New Northern Warmth pellets

[porterpotty8]

One other thing Ive noticed too...and this seems completely NOT normal...The pellets are sticky...like they have sap on them still. I just buried my hands into the bag to take a picture of how pulverized these things are, and I got sap all over my hand...This cant be normal...Someone correct me if Im wrong.

 

[porterpotty8]

Here are a few pics. I will send a pic of the bag, too, to show how much saw dust is in these things. Also, youll notice in the ash pan, the clinkers...they are still pretty significant, considering the autoclean mechanism on my stove break them up. All of this ash is from one bag...Seems pretty significant. Look forward to some feedback.

 

[Tonyray]

are the pictures of the Pine pellets ?

where in bucks are you.

 

[porterpotty8]

Super Spruce pellets...Im in Washington Crossing.

 

[Tonyray]

Super Spruce pellets...Im in Washington Crossing.

Tullytown/Bristol here..

The Sap in the pellets is definitly not right.....

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

new to the forum...and unfortunately Im on here to report on these Northern Warmth Douglas Fir pellets....I, too, purchased from Bucks, and I just recently had to contact Heather bc of how crappy these pellets are...I wanted to wait until I was half way through a pallet to confirm my thoughts on them.

Couple of things...Im comparing these to the Le Crete that I burned last year and at the beginning of this year in my Quadrafire Mt. Vernon stove.

-They do not burn nearly as hot and my stove, which is a year old, is struggling to reach 69 degrees in a 700 square foot tightly sealed basement...
-they are producing a ton of ash...and the ash clearly has moisture signs in it...
-my stove is showing signs of rust in the pot and all around it...How often is this an issue with moisture??? This is a huge concern for me.
-They SMELL HORRIBLE...people have asked me if we have a sewage issue...the ash smells like dirty feet or worse...
-Im burning these pellets twice as fast as the Le Crete

Has any one else experienced similar issues? Any recommendations on what I should do?

Thanks!

First and foremost, your stove is ready for a cleaning, vacuuming and chip away any build up in the fire pot. Clean the fines box, and vacuum combustion fan. Clean heat sensor. If you didn't brush down all your venting/stack yet then do so. Rust in and around your firebox is not coming from your pellets, as the relative humidity in your firebox is at MAYBE 10%. Any rust in your firebox is more,than likely from the off season summer time when your not burning and humidity is high. Next year place a container of Damprid in the firebox after its end of season clean out. No rust. After a thorough cleaning try the remaining half of your pallet and see if it doesn't burn much hotter and cleaner. Good luck.

 

[Tonyray]

First and foremost, your stove is ready for a cleaning, vacuuming and chip away any build up in the fire pot. Clean the fines box, and vacuum combustion fan. Clean heat sensor. If you didn't brush down all your venting/stack yet then do so. Rust in and around your firebox is not coming from your pellets, as the relative humidity in your firebox is at MAYBE 10%. Any rust in your firebox is more,than likely from the off season summer time when your not burning and humidity is high. Next year place a container of Damprid in the firebox after its end of season clean out. No rust. After a thorough cleaning try the remaining half of your pallet and see if it doesn't burn much hotter and cleaner. Good luck.

all good advice there but the fact that he claims the pellets are very sticky with sap on them..
that shouldn't be...

 

[PelletGirl]

We used the Okie Plat last year and really liked them. Since they are no more, we bought the replacement Northern Warmth Super Spruce expecting them to be the same. They are no where near the same. We will not be buying these again. They do not burn as hot, they are leaving a sticky residue/creosote on the glass, the glass turns black around the edges after one burn, we do get some chunks in the ash box, and the strangest thing is the black coating on the inside of the firebox and on the glass. It literally peels off in flakes when we clean it - big flakes, like one or two inch squares. It's not ashy. Very strange.

We also bought some Barefoot this year and like those much better. Will probably try those again next year.

 

[olddawgsrule]

Thank you folks for the info here. Just went through my last ton of Okie DF's and just saw the switch to Northern Warmth.

I've always like my local guy and what he carries. Now I'm questioning his choice of these NW's...
I have no issue with Okie Golds, but in my stove the Cubex (for less money) burn the same..

 

[BurnNotice2020]

"Northern Warmth and Okanagan are separate brands, each owned by separate, unrelated entities." Here's a statement straight from the Okie website: (broken link removed to http://www.okanaganpellets.com/media/middleton_statement.pdf)

 

[doneill127]

My pellet supplier ran out of my pellets of choice so I took a ton of Northern Warmths Purely Pine because the research I did led me to believe they were southern yellow pine and made at the same mill as Okenagan golds in GA. then shipped to Upton MA. where they are cleaned and bagged. I've gone through a couple hundred pounds in my Harman Accentra and I'm getting a really thick hard crunchy ash cake that needs to be manually cleaned twice a day or it blocks off the air. Was wondering if anyone else was having issues with these pellets.

 

[batchman]

After 3 happy seasons as an Okie Plat burner, I did try the "gold" which is what they say has been replaced by the Purely Pine - found it to have sticky and clumpy ash.

Anyway the reason I jumped into this thread is to say I went with the Spruce, supposedly the replacement for the Platinums. They're not bad, but they're making noticeably more ash, fluffier (have to stir my ash bin to condense it), and a bag doesn't burn nearly as long as the "old" pellet.

I will miss my Okanagan Platinums - they made a great go-to pellet for my scene.

Best,
- Jeff