South Shore Wood Pellets MA

It's just not economical to buy pellets right now. Pellet prices have spiked over the last couple of years while oil prices have crashed. Most decent pellets cost northward of $300 per ton while heating oil is down around $1.50 per gallon. This has got to be putting the brakes on pellet sales. I love my pellet stove but I will not be buying pellets while oil is so much cheaper.

So far Blazer is gone, South Shore is gone and earlier in the winter a plant or two in Maine were cutting back help to a skeleton crew. All over lower oil prices. It will be interesting to see who is left if oil stays low as people figure out the best way to heat their houses. Only people who are seemingly stuck with pellet heat, for now anyway, would even consider paying $6 a bag for them. Funny how people will pay $2000-$4000 to supposedly save money by buying and using a pellet stove but are reluctant to do the same with an oil furnace ! It seems like in terms of cost of heating these day, one way is no more stable than the other.

TimfromMA said:

It's just not economical to buy pellets right now. Pellet prices have spiked over the last couple of years while oil prices have crashed. Most decent pellets cost northward of $300 per ton while heating oil is down around $1.50 per gallon. This has got to be putting the brakes on pellet sales. I love my pellet stove but I will not be buying pellets while oil is so much cheaper.

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Tim,
There have been some $200/ton sales recently at the Big Box Stores. Lowes was even selling fore $100/ton a week ago.
Some of the regular people on this form and the other forum of the same subject, were able to purchase several tons at $100/ton.

Orson_Yancey said:

Tim,
There have been some $200/ton sales recently at the Big Box Stores. Lowes was even selling fore $100/ton a week ago.
Some of the regular people on this form and the the forum of the same subject, were able to purchase several tons at $100/ton.

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I said decent pellets. For the most part, bix box pellets tend to rank low in the quality department.

I'm burning some LG's right now ( softwood), really good heat and the ash is pretty low thus far. Nothing like North Americans anyway, those were ashy. The LG's aren't Douglas Fir clean but they are pretty clean compared with the low grade pellets like Nations Choice and NA's and such. I've burned LG before and in a low burn got some deposits on the burn pot but not with this years.

A clean stove is a happy and efficient stove so I have no problem cleaning my stove a time or two more a week to save $70 - $80 on a ton of pellets nor do I have many places locally that sell the better pellets,to date I have never paid more then $240 a ton for pellets.

I buy my pellets a season in advance. If I were to buy pellets this spring, they would be fore the 2017 - 2018 winter season. Due to the mild winter we've had here in the northeast, I still have enough pellets to last the next 1 1/2 seasons at least.

I just bought 200 gallons of oil for only $300. That's the cheapest tank of oil that I have ever personally purchased.

rich2500 said:

A clean stove is a happy and efficient stove so I have no problem cleaning my stove a time or two more a week to save $70 - $80 on a ton of pellets nor do I have many places locally that sell the better pellets,to date I have never paid more then $240 a ton for pellets.

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My house is an old rather loose cape and in the real cold weather some of the cheap pellets don't quite cut it on heat or the stove chews so many you just eat up the savings. Harman's boost their consumption to try and make the heat grade requested LOL ! So in the coldest weather I do like the better pellets regardless of the cleaning situation ( though it is nice not to have to stay right on top of it). This winter was mild, oil was affordable and I didn't mind mixing fuels to heat the house in mid winter and used no pellets in the fall shoulder season 2015. We burned a couple dozen bags each of crap pellets in the last couple of months, it's nice to treat ourselves to some quality pellets I must admit. We noticed increased heat for a lower flame right away, since I had let the stove basically purge itself of the lower heat ashy pellets ( fine for spring time though but well anyway). I'm hoping the dealer has a decent price on the LG's for next season. I don't expect $3.99, have to be realistic. But around $5 would be nice and I would buy some for the mid seasons coldest weather.

You were lucky to not have to pay more than $240 a ton though, here in the height of the oil hike there weren't any pellets around for much under $300 to even $325 and good ones closer to $375 or even $400. You just did not find pellets for under $290 or so even for junk.

TimfromMA said:

I buy my pellets a season in advance. If I were to buy pellets this spring, they would be fore the 2017 - 2018 winter season. Due to the mild winter we've had here in the northeast, I still have enough pellets to last the next 1 1/2 seasons at least.

I just bought 200 gallons of oil for only $300. That's the cheapest tank of oil that I have ever personally purchased.

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I don't know, I consider current oil prices affordable is all. Not great, but then when we bought this house oil was $.39 a gallon. I consider anything over $1 a gallon unnecessary greed, only because I know the price can be that low and the rich still stay rich.

alternativeheat said:

I don't know, I consider current oil prices affordable is all. Not great, but then when we bought this house oil was $.39 a gallon. I consider anything over $1 a gallon unnecessary greed, only because I know the price can be that low and the rich still stay rich.

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I bought my house back in 2008. Before that it was apartments.

SSWP still has some stoves for sale on Craigslist. Clearing out inventory I guess. That's too bad.