Which types of pellets are the best?

Most here would recommend buying a few bags of each and see which ones you like the best. What pellet brands do you have available to you?

Pellets can be regional available. What is available here is not there. As Zues says, buy a few bags of what is available and try burning.

Cant agree more with the advice on buying a few bags and trying them. I went through a bunch with my first stove - Penningtons, Lignetics...few others. Honestly i liked the penningtons, i thought the lignetics were a bit ashes and loved the hamers.

In general, a super clean light compressed wood pellet is ideal. The real low end ones can be grayish brown in color, greenish in color, or somewhere in between. No fillers, no bark, 100% wood, and low moisture will make up a quality pellet. A few brands that have been around a long time from popular pellet mills, are usually pretty consistant and deliver a quaintly product.

I think most will agree that Douglas Fir are probably the absolute best pellets you can get but they are also quite expensive.

TimfromMA said:

I think most will agree that Douglas Fir are probably the absolute best pellets you can get but they are also quite expensive.

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Oh I'm sure... I'm burning black Spruce and Grey Pine LG's. They are so clean and hot. I can't imagine pure Douglas Fir!!

Buy a few bags from local stove shops, and different brands from home centers. There can be some difference in quality, but what you really want is experience burning 3-5 bags of as many brands as possible. When you find a brand that seems to burn well with acceptable amounts of ash (as little as possible), and a fair price, buy much more. Regional variation /availability is a very big factor, with western states burning more softwood, eastern more hardwood. Ignore the advice that lighter is better. Color depends on wood species more than how much bark got into the pellets.

You will learn more from Dec through Feb simply because your stove will be chewing through pellets and you will be able to see how much ash is produced per bag, which in my opinion is the biggest factor in determining the quality of a pellet, with somewhat minor but measurable differences in heat output. Keep in mind that in some areas, home centers will stop carrying pellets reliably by sometime in January, so you may want enough on hand to get through the rest of the season by then, or pay much more per bag at places that still have inventory.

Personally, time is a big factor for me so I tend to buy a pellet that requires me to do a quick vacuum of the stove once per week, a more thorough cleaning once per month, and a full clean out of the vents and teardown (motors off) once per year, burning about six tons per year across two stoves. Hamer's Hot Ones do it for me after trying many varieties but a few others may accomplish that as well. I do pay about $50 more per ton for those, but the time savings in cleaning and the fact that they are guaranteed to be sustainably produced (good forestry practices) are my my reasons for that. If those were not my concern, I might buy a cheaper pellet. Good luck, and keep us posted.

Best type of pellets for this year are those left stacked in your garage! With heating oil prices where it is, you will have a hard time making a cost effective case for burning this year.

There is no best pellet. They all produce heat and they all produce ash. Much depends on your stove. Interestingly enough, if you read the opinions on pellets here, you'll find some folks praising a particular pellet while others say that they had a bad experience wi that same pellet.

i don't mind that my MWPs make a fair bit of fly ash, since they are vastly cheaper per ton than these nearly ashless pellets people love.
i've never had a clinker with them, and i've never been cold even down to -20 outside.

i've vacuumed and cleaned the glass once in the first three weeks of burning.
i just scoop out the fly ash between full cleanings. i spend very little time cleaning the stove.
i can't see spending so much more because of a little ash.
no way in hell i'll recoup that in actual heat.

Peterfield said:

There is no best pellet. They all produce heat and they all produce ash. Much depends on your stove. Interestingly enough, if you read the opinions on pellets here, you'll find some folks praising a particular pellet while others say that they had a bad experience wi that same pellet.

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Very true. Most people I've talked to say Harman' s will burn anything. That's one reason I bought one this year. I think like you said, depends on how much you're willing to clean, and spend. When I bought my stove this summer, I asked the folks at the stove shop what they liked. That's what I recommend, assuming you bought your stove new.

St_Earl said:

i don't mind that my MWPs make a fair bit of fly ash, since they are vastly cheaper per ton than these nearly ashless pellets people love.
i've never had a clinker with them, and i've never been cold even down to -20 outside.

i've vacuumed and cleaned the glass once in the first three weeks of burning.
i just scoop out the fly ash between full cleanings. i spend very little time cleaning the stove.
i can't see spending so much more because of a little ash.
no way in hell i'll recoup that in actual heat.

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St Earl where are you getting your pellets...York's.?????

Eeps24 said:

Just bought a Harmon accentra 52i.. First time pellet user.

1. There are so many brands my head is spinning, what are the best brands and which to stay away from?

2. Are lighter color pellets better than darker color pellets?

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Okie Douglas Fir. I have burned tons of them (and others) and hands down the best pellet. You will not hear a bad comment. With that said...you'll pay a premium.

bigruckus said:

St Earl where are you getting your pellets...York's.?????

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i have steve from SiB deliver 6 tons up from jay every spring. (my surplus is slowly growing)
$75 flat rate delivery right to my basement pellet hatch

i called yorks when we first got the stove, but they were too expensive.
nicatou's in medway across from stanley's has decent prices, but their delivery is too expensive and i think two tons was the limit of the truck per run, and it was a bag by bag offload. maybe they've upgraded since then, but i don't know.

nicatou's spray paints prices on some of the covered pallets, so i see them when i drive by. and they seem reasonable if you can pick up yourself.

when pine tree mill over in mattawamkeag gets production going, i'm hoping to buy from them.

Peterfield said:

There is no best pellet. They all produce heat and they all produce ash.

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True to a degree.
If you have, for example, 20 reviews and 18 love brand x, and 2 hate them,
chances are good they are a 'great' pellet.
On the other hand, if 18 hate them, and 2 love them,
chances are they may not be the best choice for you either.

As for the best, I think most will say that the DF's are the best.
However.... they may not be the best "value"...
That is all subject to the individual, and his definition of 'best'.

But it's on the money, in that there can be substantial differences
in people's stoves, too...

So as others have mentioned, and we suggest this as well,
get a few brands and test them under like conditions.
Personally, I think it's tough to make any real judgments,
until everything is generally cold.
Not fair to burn DF's now, and then compare them to a store brand in January.
But that's just me.

Dan

Turmans.
5 years, never a bad batch.

Redbarn said:

Turmans.
5 years, never a bad batch.

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Nearest seller of Turmans wants $8.75 a bag. Always seems to have a good supply on hand. Wonder why.

Eeps24 said:

8.75 is $$$$... Also can't tell if your being sarcastic or not lol.

When you say "always seem to have a good supply on hand, wonder why"

Good supply on hand because they are good or because no one is buying because of the price [emoji4]

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The latter. Their other pellets are over-priced as well. I believe they were selling Maine Wood Pellets for $7.50 a bag.

Eeps24 said:

Lowes has Greene team platinum 6.39 a bag = 319 a ton. is that brand good and is that over kill on price?

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Good pellet. The price is higher than a few weeks ago but not sure if say overkill. There are good pellets around for less than $300 a ton but you have to look around.

To the OP, how is the stove running? Are you getting the snap crackle pop from the aluminum heat sinks? This is my 2nd Harman stove, first insert and find the loud clings from the heat sinks quite annoying. Also, unlike my last stove, the temperature swing is unacceptable...

The problem with pellets is twofold. First, quality varies within a brand from year to year and mill to mill. Second, the availability of various pellets.

Buying a few bags to try is a good idea but the possibility exists that the supplier, especially if they are a big box store, will be out of what you found to be a good match for your stove and your house.

There is also the hardwood vs softwood argument. Softwood generally throws more heat but burns faster.

We have been using lignetics for 3 years now. We get them from a local hardware store and by early for a bit of a discount. We are happy with the heat, the ash generation, and the availability. That said, your Harmon will burn anything pretty happily. Most of the fun is experimentation but when you get down to throwing heat the fun kind of takes a backseat to having product available.

As a new owner of the Harman Accentra 52i as of last January 2015. I found this forum very helpful. What I mainly did/do is search pellet reviews from owners who have the SAME model stove that I have.

And then if that brand is available at a reasonable price I'll purchase. I do like Lignetic's and TSC Equine Bedding pellets. Also, like many have said the placement of your ESP is very important, my installer's had my probe curled under my stove and I couldn't understand why the stove never turned off.

Also, I know NG prices are down and that's a good thing! But, the heat that radiates out of a pellet stove is constant and feels so wonderful. I heated my entire (rancher) home last winter without ever turning on my gas heater.