Seattle-Box premium wood pellets thoughts? Good-Bad?

[Joel Craft]

I am looking at purchasing winters worth of wood pellets from Seattle- Box company out of Kent Washington. Any of you used them before and what are your thoughts? I just purchased a quadrafire classic bay 1200. I live in Nome, Alaska where heating fuel is running $6.24\gallon right now and only going up. Thanks for your input.

 

[ScotL]

I was going to mention that there's a pellet plant in North Pole Alaska but then I google-mapped it and it sure is a long ways from Nome Alaska. There's a saying in Maine that applies - "You can't get there from here".

 

[cletus]

I am looking at purchasing winters worth of wood pellets from Seattle- Box company out of Kent Washington. Any of you used them before and what are your thoughts? I just purchased a quadrafire classic bay 1200. I live in Nome, Alaska where heating fuel is running $6.24\gallon right now and only going up. Thanks for your input.

I think these are garbage, but that is my opinion only other's may think they are fine, If I was in your position of shipping these like you are I would make sure I was getting good ones, There are plenty of better pellet's availble in the seattle area that could be shipped up north.

 

[begreen]

Contact Thomas at NW Fuel to see if he can ship you a batch of good pellets;

(broken link removed to http://www.nwfuel.com/buy-north-idaho-wood-pellets.html)

Or have you thought of getting together with other local pellet stove owners and forming a non-profit coop buying club? You may be able to buy direct in quantity.

 

[Roadstar]

I am looking at purchasing winters worth of wood pellets from Seattle- Box company out of Kent Washington. Any of you used them before and what are your thoughts? I just purchased a quadrafire classic bay 1200. I live in Nome, Alaska where heating fuel is running $6.24\gallon right now and only going up. Thanks for your input.

I don’t know what brand of pellets the Seattle Box Company carries. I looked them up on the web but Symantic/Norton shows a gray symbol by their site so I didn’t go in. Green is go go, Gray is so so and Red is no no.

The best NW pellets I have used are:

Bear Mountain
http://www.bmfp.com/

You will probably pay a premium for these.
Stick with the Bear Mountain or the Golden Fire pellets (100% Douglas Fir)
I don’t think there is much if any difference between the two. I think it’s marketing.
I lucked out this year and was able to get these for $230/ton.
In previous years on sale they would go for $312/ton.

Pacific Pellets:
http://www.pacificpellet.com

These are comparable to Bear Mountain and don’t cost an arm and a leg.
Avoid the Juniper and stick with 100% Douglas Fir
Last year I was able to pick these up at $238/ton

Some folks like Clean Burn pellets but I don’t.
http://www.cleanburnfuel.com (This is a Norton Gray site)

They are a non standard size in diameter and are usually longer which could cause your auger to bind. Some say they have salt in them
They are made by the Manke Lumber Co. located in Tacoma, WA.


The coop idea sounds like a winner if you can join one or start one.

 

[begreen]

I burned Clean Burn for two seasons in a Quad 1200i. Not quite as good as Golden Fire or as clean as Idaho Lignetics, but they were not a problem pellet for that stove. I haven't tried the Northern Idaho pellets that Thomas sells. But their fire logs are great.

 

[Joel Craft]

I think there are a couple of other people in Nome who are thinking of getting a pellet stove this year or next year. If they do then we were talking that we needed to start a co-op to buy in bulk. I just bought a connex full of the pellets from Seattle-Box. I could not pass up the price for them so will try them out and see how they do. Than next summer get a bunch of us together to order some good pellets. Thanks for the input. I am sure I will be asking about installing stoves in the next month or so. We do not have a person in Nome who is qualified to install stoves. I will be doing it on my own. Great site by the way.

 

[Defiant]

Welcome aboard JC, what pellet brand stove you looking at?Duh my bad, Thanks BG

 

[begreen]

He just ordered a Quad Classic bay 1200. ^

 

[DexterDay]

He just ordered a Quad Classic bay 1200. ^

That is a Great heater and I have burned over a dozen different fuels through mine.

Some create more ash than others. Some create more heat than others. But they all burned and the stove did a great job with all of them. Even those that create more ash, do so outside the burn pot. The only time I had an ash problem in the pot, was when my Door gasket was shot. I had a "cake" around the back of the pot.

But other than that, the Classic Bay is a Monster!! Congrats. Keep is updated and make sure to post some pics.

 

[DirtyDave]

Home Depot and Lowes both have pellets shipped from Tacoma to Alaska by the truck load if that helps any

 

[Joel Craft]

I would do that but the only way to get things to Nome is by Barge or to fly it in. No roads going into Nome it is a tad remote.

 

[Joel Craft]

Since I bought 16 tons at once the owner gave me a rate of $145\ton. So I really hope they work cause I could not pass up on the price for them not to get a full connex. I hope they are not crap pellets only to find out they don't work too well in my stove. I know of only one other wood pellet stove in Nome, people are waiting to see how mine does before they order one this winter. Then we can start buying in big bulk to try to get a better rate for good pellets.

 

[DexterDay]

With a Classic Bay. It will burn any Pellet with ease. The burn inside them is quite nice. It gets lots of air and self cleans the pot... I doubt that it will have a problem burning them. The only difference is gonna be heat output and total ash content. As for heat..... Well, if you have nothing to compare to, then you may find these to be very nice!

Waiting for pics....

 

[smoke show]

Waiting for pics....

x2

 

[Joel Craft]

I will not get to install the stove until next month when I can con my dad to come up and visit. Than I can use other free labor to help instal it. Then I willl post pics of the install if it turns out ok.

 

[begreen]

Although it is pretty forgiving, the 1200 will not burn any pellet. I did get some bridging once in a while when there were long pellets (1.5"?) in the mix. I don't remember what brand they were, but a lot of the pellets in the bag were longer than usual. Fortunately I only had a few bags of them and did not buy more. It's a happy camper burning ~ 3/4" pellets.

Take some before pics of the location and venting location and post them or a sketch if you are uncertain about how or where to install.

 

[DexterDay]

Although it is pretty forgiving, the 1200 will not burn any pellet. I did get some bridging once in a while when there were long pellets (1.5"?) in the mix. I don't remember what brand they were, but a lot of the pellets in the bag were longer than usual. Fortunately I only had a few bags of them and did not buy more. It's a happy camper burning ~ 3/4" pellets.

Take some before pics of the location and venting location and post them or a sketch if you are uncertain about how or where to install.

I should have been more specific. Yes, BeGreen is correct. Long pellets are not good. I had some long pellet problems with mine. The average length on them were about 1.5". With the max around 3". Not Good

By burning any pellet, I was referring to just the burn characteristics of the Quad and how much air is delivered to the pot (for complete and efficient combustion).

Most stoves, prefer a shorter pellet. I like Somersets for the reason. The average length is about 5/8". With the longest being 1".