Quality pellets in MI

I haven't seen barefoot, blazer or hamer on the west side of the state. Best I've seen are Somerset and Uncle Jeds at my local stove shop. The box stores are hit and miss between AWF which are OK and various other sub-shoulder season brands.

pelletash said:

I haven't seen barefoot, blazer or hamer on the west side of the state. Best I've seen are Somerset and Uncle Jeds at my local stove shop. The box stores are hit and miss between AWF which are OK and various other sub-shoulder season brands.

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+1

Pro pellets are like ash factories compared to my Somerset's.

lbcynya said:

pelletash said:

I haven't seen barefoot, blazer or hamer on the west side of the state. Best I've seen are Somerset and Uncle Jeds at my local stove shop. The box stores are hit and miss between AWF which are OK and various other sub-shoulder season brands.

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+1

Pro pellets are like ash factories compared to my Somerset's.

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I haven't tried pro pellets yet, though the stove shop carries them. They are only $30 less a ton than somerset. I'll spend the extra 30 bucks for now.

If you want an ash factory, burn some Michigan pellets. One bag gets me darn near a full ash pan. I wish they were better because i'd love to buy locally made goods, but the sad face my stove put on when I dumped a second bag in the hopper made me think twice about buying more.

Smart Energy Solutions in Grant, MI. Haven't been there recently as I got my final load before Thanksgiving.

Which Michigan pellets have you been burning?I got the ones from Grayling in the multi color bags.They are much better than the ones from Holland in the plain white bag with green lettering.I can go 4-5 days longer between times to empty the ash.I don't have a lot of choice,I want to try the Kirtlands from Boyne City but haven't found any yet.Has any of you tried them yet?

mrbill said:

Which Michigan pellets have you been burning?I got the ones from Grayling in the multi color bags.They are much better than the ones from Holland in the plain white bag with green lettering.I can go 4-5 days longer between times to empty the ash.I don't have a lot of choice,I want to try the Kirtlands from Boyne City but haven't found any yet.Has any of you tried them yet?

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These are the white bag/green letter made in Holland. I bought 10 bags at Menards when they were $3.44 a bag. Heat is marginal, ash is high and forget about looking through the glass after a few hours.

I've never seen the other Michigan pellets around, nor the Isabella softwood pellets I read about now and then. I get up to Mt. Pleasant for work once in a while. Might have to poke around and see if I can find some Isabellas up there.

I've been told they are a different company,not too sure.The other ones are pretty decent,I live so far off the beaten path that it would cost more than it's worth to find other pellets.I am going to try to find other brands this summer.

TG3930 said:

.....I'm burning North American Pellets now......

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I bought some of those from Lowes last fall, but they are barely a shoulder season pellet, IMO.

I burned some of the Marth and AWF (both hardwood) last year, and was pretty pleased with them....they are the best of the ones you listed, IMO.

Hey TG3930, stay away from Maeder Brothers unless you want to clean your stove everyday and use a razor blade on your glass. Actually took a ton back to where I purchased them. They have way too much ash, I tried the Penneywise (not impressed) and tried Michigan Pellets with the green writing and they suck too. Now originally was turned onto the Somersets back a few years ago at a Lowes in Monroe. Later found them at Menards in Ohio for much better price. IMO would check your Menards in Jackson. Keep in mind that pellet prices are usually high this time of year so I usually stock up in early to late fall when Menards puts em on sale. Hope this helps.

mrbill said:

Which Michigan pellets have you been burning?I got the ones from Grayling in the multi color bags.They are much better than the ones from Holland in the plain white bag with green lettering.I can go 4-5 days longer between times to empty the ash.I don't have a lot of choice,I want to try the Kirtlands from Boyne City but haven't found any yet.Has any of you tried them yet?

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My brother works for Kirtland products. He gave me about 10 bags to burn. They burned good I didn't have much ash. I think he told me you can buy them right from the factory in Boyne City.

This has been the worst year I have had so far for finding good pellets at the box stores. Unfortunately, the box stores are stuffed with Michigan Wood Pellets and Wood fibres inc. I refuse to buy or burn either brand as they are both ash factories. I did find some Somerset about a month ago for $3.50 a bag. This was a good score. As far as quality pellets is concerned, Somerset are the best for the price. The Kirtland will be a very good pellet as soon as they can lower the ash content which they may have already done. Those Kirtland put out some mad heat, so I can deal with a little higher ash content. The company sure seems to have a lot of potential. If you are willing to pay, the Jed's are great but expensive at $259 a ton. I bought the Jed's I have during the spring buy for $229 a ton. I know my current stash is 70 bags of Jed's, 70 bags of Somerset, 55 bags of Black Hills Gold, and about 20 bags of random pellets from Heat'rs to Eureka. I feel my stash is too low!

Over here in Ludington area we can only get AWF which i am happy with. I clean my stove every 5 days (with aprox 8 bags burned), and there is about 1/4 inch of ash buildup. AWF is made is wisconson. There is a company out of Holland that I keep trying to get since I would rather buy local, but they cant keep up with demand around here. I am not sure of the Holland brand. I can check on Friday when I buy a ton. Other then that I know Baldwin has a pellet stove dealer and they cary all of the more expenseve brands.

i burn uncle jeds...i love em...

frizman86 said:

Over here in Ludington area we can only get AWF which i am happy with. I clean my stove every 5 days (with aprox 8 bags burned), and there is about 1/4 inch of ash buildup. AWF is made is wisconson. There is a company out of Holland that I keep trying to get since I would rather buy local, but they cant keep up with demand around here. I am not sure of the Holland brand. I can check on Friday when I buy a ton. Other then that I know Baldwin has a pellet stove dealer and they cary all of the more expenseve brands.

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The ones made in Holland are Michigan wood pellet, unless there is another manufacturer there I haven't heard of. I had hopes for them because they are local, but they are a high ash, marginal heat pellet, at least in my stove. I've only seen them at Menards. If they got down to $125/ton I might pick some up. I'd rather burn those than oil though.

I'm hoping they just had a bad year and will improve next season.

I tried the I will buy local thing with the Michigan Wood Pellets from Holland. I even called to complain about the high ash content to see what they would say a couple of years ago. The lady who answerd the phone told me if I didn't like them to not buy them. I took her advice.

Nice to see they take their customer feedback seriously.

As is often said, vote with your wallet. I guess the majority of my pellet dollars will continue to go to Kentucky.

Michigan Wood Pellet, Holland converts green wood to pellets. In other words, it's a tree on Monday and a pellet on Friday. Their wood lot is dirty (introduces inorganic materials). Everything is 100% dried with a rotary drum dryer which uses exhaust heat to fry the wood. This exhaust heat is from burning green wood, so a lot of the fly ash from the combustor ends up in the pellet. Most of the wood products plants in their area use engineered wood products, so it's unlikely they'll get some good, low ash kiln dried residuals from manufacturing....

This is why Somersets tend to be much better, all premium kiln dried wood dust from their hardwood flooring plant.

Have a bag of Jeds, but haven't burned it yet.

Pro Pellets is a mix of ground up pallets to wood residual from the Northern Indiana Cabinet makers and the RV Industry (lower quality woods). Pro Pellets are a definite shoulder pellet and the ash is crazy, but the heat is OK. Fines are tolerable as well.

I finally looked up their website. I've driven by there several times and never knew it. I didn't know they used raw wood for their pellets. I also didn't know they also manufactured North Country. I'll put that on my list of pellets to avoid.

Maybe we need a Michigan vs Inferno 'burn off'.

Well went to lowes this past Sat. in ludington, and they had summersets for $3.53 a bag. So i bought 2 tons of them. I thought for that price I could not go wrong. I guess from what they told me is they got 4 truck loads in. So they dont have AWF's anymore

divertim said:

mrbill said:

Which Michigan pellets have you been burning?I got the ones from Grayling in the multi color bags.They are much better than the ones from Holland in the plain white bag with green lettering.I can go 4-5 days longer between times to empty the ash.I don't have a lot of choice,I want to try the Kirtlands from Boyne City but haven't found any yet.Has any of you tried them yet?

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My brother works for Kirtland products. He gave me about 10 bags to burn. They burned good I didn't have much ash. I think he told me you can buy them right from the factory in Boyne City.

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i picked up a couple bags of kirtland in gladwin when i was delv. there last week. they burned so well and hot i drove up there sat. and bought 2 tons. they are a great pellet with hardly any ash. glad i am almost finished with my ton of natures fibers from menards, absolute junk pellets. bought a bag of nrg pellets made in fruitport and the bag had more fines in it than pellets,they burned alright though. picked up a bag of penningtons and a bag of greenways today to try out. have not tried mader brothers or isabella yet and i drive by their plants all the time. i delv. to mader brothers a few years ago and they gave me a bag to try but at the time i was burning corn and just mixed them in. anybody have any luck with the isabellas? i have tried awf and pro pellets they burn good but dirty. so far kirtland wins my vote hands down. they are the first softwood i have burned and i am happy by far.

frizman86 said:

Well went to lowes this past Sat. in ludington, and they had summersets for $3.53 a bag. So i bought 2 tons of them. I thought for that price I could not go wrong. I guess from what they told me is they got 4 truck loads in. So they dont have AWF's anymore

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Good price. Makes me wish I had a reason to go to Ludington.

Good Morning,

I live near the maeder bros. plant and have been burning them for two years. I thought I was supporting a local business so it made me feel good. It wasn't until I burned some of the isabella soft woods that I realized how crappy the maeder bros. were. I can go two weeks (with isabella's) in my p38 without the glass getting dirty. They seem to heat good but I haven't taken temp. readings so its just a gut feeling. I probabaly have ten tons of maeders that need to be used up. And don't get me started telling you guys about the six tons of penningtons I got a swinging deal on.
denny