Rutland VT / Lebanon NH Area... hypothetical question re pellet purchases

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Fadelight

Fadelight

Member
Oct 9, 2014
25
Bridgewater, VT
I'm not sure where to start with this post, so youll have to forgive me if it seems a bit scatter-brained.

At the beginning of the season, the HD in Lebanon carried Blazer pellets. (Douglas fir). Needless to say, I fell in love with them. Unfortunately, they ran out fairly early on.

I've been in contact with West Oregon Wood Products, and they are actually looking for a distributor in this area. The guy I spoke with says they have had a lot of people calling them because of the pellets that HD sold, but he doesn't think HD will be purchasing pellets from them again. He also passed on a spreadsheet with shipping costs + pellet pricing if I were to purchase directly from them.

So here is my hypothetical...

1) We have a local hardware store that is always trying to find a decent pellet source. I don't know how much extra they would charge over the pellet pricing, but the availability would be there.

2) Group buy. cheapest rates are for 100 ton, which would put the price (shipping included) at about $289 per ton.


I am just curious if enough people in our area would be interested to make either of these options worth pursuing.
 
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$289/ton and then the store marks them up?

What's so special about them? What did HD charge for them? Rutland did not, to my knowledge, carry Blazers. I got FSU's and was happy to get those.
 
Home depot in Rutland carried them at the beginning of the year. The one in Lebanon carried them until about December. When they had them, they were $219 a ton and then $249 a ton when HD increased the price.

What's so special about them is just that I can't find a place that sells any other type of Douglas fir pellet for under $349 a ton around here.
 
I don't think too many people will be running to get them at $289 + markup, when the big box stores sells pellets at @$220.

Tom
 
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silverfox103 said:
I don't think too many people will be running to get them at $289 + markup, when the big box stores sells pellets at @$220.

Tom
Click to expand...
Was thinking exactly that.

I can get Northerns, Lacretes and Cubex for cheaper. Never burned the Blazers, but have burned the ones above and they are good.

Shoot, at $300/ton I'd consider shutting down the stove anyway.
 
My stove runs like total crap with firesides, north american, and all the other low cost pellets you can get around here. I have to shut it down and fully clean it every 2 day. The blazers are the only ones I've found that burn well. And this stove is my only heat source.
 
Fadelight said:
My stove runs like total crap with firesides, north american, and all the other low cost pellets you can get around here. I have to shut it down and fully clean it every 2 day. The blazers are the only ones I've found that burn well. And this stove is my only heat source.
Click to expand...
I've had good luck with the FSU's. North Americans are not my preferred but I have burned them. We use ours as primary too. What type of stove is it? Have you had luck with any other brands?
 
Its a Harman advance. North Americans I have to fully disassemble and clean my stove and dump the ash pan every other day, and they wont burn very hot. I get 450 degrees at the cent with them. Energex were a little better but the aubuchon in Rutland closed in January so I can't get them anymore. Firesides are tolerable but the best they will output is 550 degrees at the vent and are pretty ashy... And I can't even get those anymore. Northern Max are less ashy but only burn at about 420 degrees at the vent.

The Blazers would burn about 700 degrees at the vent and I had to dump the ash pan once every ton.
 
Fadelight said:
I'm not sure where to start with this post, so youll have to forgive me if it seems a bit scatter-brained.

At the beginning of the season, the HD in Lebanon carried Blazer pellets. (Douglas fir). Needless to say, I fell in love with them. Unfortunately, they ran out fairly early on.

I've been in contact with West Oregon Wood Products, and they are actually looking for a distributor in this area. The guy I spoke with says they have had a lot of people calling them because of the pellets that HD sold, but he doesn't think HD will be purchasing pellets from them again. He also passed on a spreadsheet with shipping costs + pellet pricing if I were to purchase directly from them.

So here is my hypothetical...

1) We have a local hardware store that is always trying to find a decent pellet source. I don't know how much extra they would charge over the pellet pricing, but the availability would be there.

2) Group buy. cheapest rates are for 100 ton, which would put the price (shipping included) at about $289 per ton.


I am just curious if enough people in our area would be interested to make either of these options worth pursuing.
Click to expand...
I will sell some to you $345 ton I bought 10 tons of the Blazers
 
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Hmmm... I'm burning North Americans right now. I have to clean my stove every 2 days regardless, so not much difference to me. Guess I'll know more tomorrow night when it's time to clean the stove again. I'm surprised these pellets don't work well for you. Everything I've read about Harmans is that they chew through everything.
 
Fadelight said:
I'm not sure where to start with this post, so youll have to forgive me if it seems a bit scatter-brained.

At the beginning of the season, the HD in Lebanon carried Blazer pellets. (Douglas fir). Needless to say, I fell in love with them. Unfortunately, they ran out fairly early on.

I've been in contact with West Oregon Wood Products, and they are actually looking for a distributor in this area. The guy I spoke with says they have had a lot of people calling them because of the pellets that HD sold, but he doesn't think HD will be purchasing pellets from them again. He also passed on a spreadsheet with shipping costs + pellet pricing if I were to purchase directly from them.

So here is my hypothetical...

1) We have a local hardware store that is always trying to find a decent pellet source. I don't know how much extra they would charge over the pellet pricing, but the availability would be there.

2) Group buy. cheapest rates are for 100 ton, which would put the price (shipping included) at about $289 per ton.


I am just curious if enough people in our area would be interested to make either of these options worth pursuing.
Click to expand...
Fadelight said:
I'm not sure where to start with this post, so youll have to forgive me if it seems a bit scatter-brained.

At the beginning of the season, the HD in Lebanon carried Blazer pellets. (Douglas fir). Needless to say, I fell in love with them. Unfortunately, they ran out fairly early on.

I've been in contact with West Oregon Wood Products, and they are actually looking for a distributor in this area. The guy I spoke with says they have had a lot of people calling them because of the pellets that HD sold, but he doesn't think HD will be purchasing pellets from them again. He also passed on a spreadsheet with shipping costs + pellet pricing if I were to purchase directly from them.

So here is my hypothetical...

1) We have a local hardware store that is always trying to find a decent pellet source. I don't know how much extra they would charge over the pellet pricing, but the availability would be there.

2) Group buy. cheapest rates are for 100 ton, which would put the price (shipping included) at about $289 per ton.


I am just curious if enough people in our area would be interested to make either of these options worth pursuing.
Click to expand...
 
The p series will. My father has a p43 and my grandmother has a p68. The advance is a bit umm... Special. It has heat sinks I'm the back as well as the top and access panels to remove so you can clean it. The ash plugs up the closed channels very quickly so low ash is an absolute must. Once it builds up, you lose your heat output fast. In two days the north american pellets drop from 450 degrees to 300 degrees. It takes about 45 minutes to clean it... After its cooled off enough to work in. Shutting down your only heat source at -15 for an hour or more to clean it is horrible.
 
Good luck ponying up $30k for 100 ton .. Never mind where are u going to store them .. Should do what i do buy a lot more in the summer time and when when supply gets tight resell them for about 75 percent increase
 
dlavigne7324 said:
Good luck ponying up $30k for 100 ton .. Never mind where are u going to store them .. Should do what i do buy a lot more in the summer time and when when supply gets tight resell them for about 75 percent increase
Click to expand...
Meh. If there's no interest then there's no interest. Wasn't really looking to spend 30k on 10 years worth of pellets for myself or trying to start some sort of debate. I just figured people seem to love Okie's and these would be a bit cheaper. But oh well.
 
Fadelight said:
Meh. If there's no interest then there's no interest. Wasn't really looking to spend 30k on 10 years worth of pellets for myself or trying to start some sort of debate. I just figured people seem to love Okie's and these would be a bit cheaper. But oh well.
Click to expand...
Stove Depot in Rutland has Energex, or at least they did last week. Slim Pickens this time of year. I have yet to try Okies, haven't found a supplier around here although haven't looked that hard either.
 
Fadelight said:
Stove depot had northern max the last time I was there. Might have to check again. Were they soft or hard wood?
Click to expand...
It was the blend of Energex. They were out of Northerns-that's what I wanted. They had Energex, fusions (never heard of but also a blend) and Lacretes that were 100% softwood. I bought 10 bags of those @ $6 per. Not bad, low ash I'd say and decent beat over this last cold week.
 
Fadelight said:
Nice. I'll have to give those a try.
Click to expand...
They weren't bad. I still have a ton of FSU's, but was getting worried with low temps so I grabbed 10 to try. May go back for more unless this weather breaks.
 
Fadelight said:
This is supposed to be the last cold week for the foreseeable future. Next week is supposed to be in the 30s and 40s luckily.
Click to expand...
I sure hope so. It's wearing me down.
 
Its wearing everyone down. Last night was -26 here. I woke up to a 55 degree house this morning and it wouldn't start climbing until about 3pm when it was warmer. Its getting old.
 
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Fadelight said:
Its wearing everyone down. Last night was -26 here. I woke up to a 55 degree house this morning and it wouldn't start climbing until about 3pm when it was warmer. Its getting old.
Click to expand...
Wow! Lowest here so far was -21, this morning was -12.
 
There must be some Advance owners that can chime in with what pellets they have been using. I've read sometimes settings have to be adjusted for different brands of pellets. I'm not familiar with your stove but something doesn't seem right if you can only use one type of pellet.
 
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I have learned to adjust my EP to the pellet , by raiseing LBA and or LFF i can burn most any brand and get the max heat +or-
 
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