Energex Softwoods?
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jtakeman
Minister of Fire
My old review is on here still. I think they did OK. FSU are pretty much the same pellet and They did pretty decent for me last fall. They aren't a true softwood. I think they are a bleand of both. I wanna say 60/40. 60% being softwoods.
CT Pellet
Minister of Fire
Actually, the history of this pellet is somewhat scattered. They were making them fairly regularly at their Canadian plant until the spring of 2010, and then the mill shut down for "unknown reasons." In the late fall of that year, they came back up online, but were not really making any pellets. They were buying west coast fuel and bagging it in their Energex Canadian bag. I am not revealing any "secret" company information here, as Energex was very candid about this. It wasn't until bout two months ago that I learned through a conversation with Energex Corporate that they were back to making their own fuel and putting it in their own bags. They are a decent pellet, but I do not believe any pellet can be consistantly blended at 60/40.
This is possibly worthy of a new thread, but I am pressed for time. I have seen other manufacturers claim this "blend" crap too. Some will say 80/20 some say 60/40 or whatever. In reality, it may be true that over the course of a year, all sawdust that they bring in will total 60% hardwood and 40% softwood....but to claim that every bag is a consistand 60/40 blend????? It would be nearly impossible to achieve. These companies are buying sawdust from many different places. Some have hardwood and some have softwood. What happens if 20 or 30 trailers fo hardwood sawdust come in and there is no softwood dust scheduled to come in for another 3 days...do you just shut down and wait until you have the softwood to blend??? Of course not.....But this inconsistency of hardwood and softwood blend does not mean that the end product will be bad either. It's just very difficult to consistantly achieve any type of blend on a consistant basis. Overall, energex Canadian is a decent pellet.
jtakeman
Minister of Fire
I am glad they do at least let you know that there is some soft or hard wood in the pellet. Does it make a difference? Prolly not. Whats more important is its clean fiber with the least amount of bark and crap as possible.
CT Pellet
Minister of Fire
It's not impossible to achieve at all. The key is to have a large and reliable supply. From there it's very simple.
I'm going to try to explain how we do it without "tooting my own horn" as they say. I'm sure other mills do the same so please don't think I'm trying to say I'm doing anything special that nobody else does. For example, I read there's a tour scheduled for Vermont Wood Pellets. Any of the folks going to that will notice a tight control on raw material. Any mill that's serious about making a superior product will have good control over their raw material.
If you have enough supply, it's not difficult to precisely control the blend. What we do is keep the hardwood and softwood separate and put them in their own input hoppers so we can precisely control the hardwood to softwood ratio by setting the speeds of these hoppers - 24% speed on the softwood hopper and 36% speed on the hardwood hopper gives 40% softwood and 60% hardwood. One of the more critical details to operating a pellet mill is training your woodyard operators so that you can have a steady and consistent blend. The loader operator training comes into play with the formula to make the softwood mix and the formula to make the hardwood mix that goes into those hoppers.
It's funny that you mentioned "do you just shut down and wait until you have the softwood to blend?" because last Sunday night, for the first time in almost 2 years, at about 2am we ran out of screened hardwood chips for our hardwood mix. We had to shutdown Sunday night and begin maintenance ahead of schedule. We generally try to avoid that and we're bringing in extra wood right now to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Another reason to make sure your blend is consistent is you just can't make hardwood pellets with softwood dies or softwood pellets with hardwood dies. Our softwood dies have a 2 3/4" effective length. If you allow hardwood to get into your softwood mix with a 2 3/4" die, you will be breaking the shear pins on your pellet machines if your lucky. Much worse if you're not lucky. Our 60/40 hardwood/softwood dies are 1 3/4" or 2" effective, depending on the rpm of that particular pellet machine. If you put pure softwood into that shorter die you won't be able to make a pellet.
I'm going to try to explain how we do it without "tooting my own horn" as they say. I'm sure other mills do the same so please don't think I'm trying to say I'm doing anything special that nobody else does. For example, I read there's a tour scheduled for Vermont Wood Pellets. Any of the folks going to that will notice a tight control on raw material. Any mill that's serious about making a superior product will have good control over their raw material.
If you have enough supply, it's not difficult to precisely control the blend. What we do is keep the hardwood and softwood separate and put them in their own input hoppers so we can precisely control the hardwood to softwood ratio by setting the speeds of these hoppers - 24% speed on the softwood hopper and 36% speed on the hardwood hopper gives 40% softwood and 60% hardwood. One of the more critical details to operating a pellet mill is training your woodyard operators so that you can have a steady and consistent blend. The loader operator training comes into play with the formula to make the softwood mix and the formula to make the hardwood mix that goes into those hoppers.
It's funny that you mentioned "do you just shut down and wait until you have the softwood to blend?" because last Sunday night, for the first time in almost 2 years, at about 2am we ran out of screened hardwood chips for our hardwood mix. We had to shutdown Sunday night and begin maintenance ahead of schedule. We generally try to avoid that and we're bringing in extra wood right now to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Another reason to make sure your blend is consistent is you just can't make hardwood pellets with softwood dies or softwood pellets with hardwood dies. Our softwood dies have a 2 3/4" effective length. If you allow hardwood to get into your softwood mix with a 2 3/4" die, you will be breaking the shear pins on your pellet machines if your lucky. Much worse if you're not lucky. Our 60/40 hardwood/softwood dies are 1 3/4" or 2" effective, depending on the rpm of that particular pellet machine. If you put pure softwood into that shorter die you won't be able to make a pellet.
jtakeman
Minister of Fire
Very informative info and we always appreciate what you share with the group. Thank you very much.
Pellet-King
Minister of Fire
Who's saying whats even in pellet's?, do they ever show there operation?, could be leaves made into pellet's for all we know!
Justin M
Feeling the Heat
I am almost done burning a ton of Energex Canadian (blend). This is my first year burning pellets so I don't have much of a basis for comparison other than the 10 bags of crappy Appling Country Pellets that I got for free. They seemed to burn well but produced a bit more ash than I had expected as I had to empty the ash pan 4 times in 1 ton. I will have a better idea once I switch to the Hamers next week.
CT Pellet
Minister of Fire
Those have not been made for the "bagged retail" market for about three years now. I sold those back in 2008 and it was probably my only experience that was more agrivating than selling the cherry pits. Where in hell did you find those?
Justin M
Feeling the Heat
My parents gave them to me because they moved out of state. They got them a couple years ago from their local dealer. I had to clean the whole stove after 10 bags. I actually had to start mixing them with Energexs because they were so bad.
Harman p-68a
Member
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
Ever burn Energex's best pellets?I love the energex 100% softwood!!
golden pellets/0.5 ash.....
my dealer get's them every year// one delivery. Kiln dried pellets..
Energex American plant here in Pa only manufactures them once a year and Only sell to handfull of dealers...like seasonal beers//
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