WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT PENNINGTON NATURES HEAT SOLD AT LOWES AND HOME DEPOT

Ok I did it.....I passed by a pallet of their Pellets....I didnt want to pass judgement on something I hadnt tried. So I bought a couple bags. I know these may or may not be out of the same batches that all have been talking about regarding bad pellets. But at least I can chime in and say what my experience was/is. Gonna burn the probably tonight and tomorrow...
Am very glad to see some of their (Penningtons) rep's posting.....thats a very good sign.

AwsumSS said:

Was it a check for the whole pellet purchase?

I still will not buy their product. I'll wait and see i if comments here and others have truly resulted in a fixed product.

Click to expand...

It was the whole amount.

I just loaded the stove with a bag of Penningtons.....LOTS of sawdust/fines.....will know on the heat in theo vernight if its strong heat or not....

I got home yesterday and found the stove had gone out. The burnpot was full of unburned pellets. These Penningtons are extremely long and must have somehow clogged. I mixed in my Natures Own pellets with the Penningtons still in the hopper and ran them through and they burned without shutting the stove off. I will burn off the second bag mixed with my other pellets to get rid of them. I am glad Pennington is reading these threads so they can improve the product. I also noticed a lot of ash and soot when burning the Pennigtons. Igot the two bags a Wal-Mart. paid 4.00 a bag.

I burned one bag almost since yesterday. Dirty/lots of fines....but more importantly, a lower heat than the Fireside Ultras I have been burning. At least a third less heat or more.

one thing I have noticed is I cant run my Whitfield on the lowest setting or it will go out with the pennington pellets. I only tried one other kind and they were given to me by the guy I bought the stove from and it was very cold so the lowest setting wasnt used.

I don't post much, in fact only created an account to voice my concern over these pellets. I will say this, Pennington seems to be stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing. It is very easy to make excuses and rely on selling tons of this stuff just due to shear volume and blowing off the 5-10 people on here that are griping. I will give them another shot, take one for the team, call it whatever you want. I am not going to send them empty bags, copies of receipts, or anything else simply because that is not what I want ! I want to be able to stop at the closest store possible, pick up a quality product, and not have to think about it once it is in my stove. In my opinion, if Pennington does what they say they are doing, I would have no problem giving them a second chance. If it weren't for second chances (or third or fouth), I would probably be divorced....LOL

.....Just my $0.02

kshew97 said:

I don't post much, in fact only created an account to voice my concern over these pellets. I will say this, Pennington seems to be stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing. It is very easy to make excuses and rely on selling tons of this stuff just due to shear volume and blowing off the 5-10 people on here that are griping. I will give them another shot, take one for the team, call it whatever you want. I am not going to send them empty bags, copies of receipts, or anything else simply because that is not what I want ! I want to be able to stop at the closest store possible, pick up a quality product, and not have to think about it once it is in my stove. In my opinion, if Pennington does what they say they are doing, I would have no problem giving them a second chance. If it weren't for second chances (or third or fouth), I would probably be divorced....LOL

.....Just my $0.02

Click to expand...

I agree. Its alot of carrying etc to get the product home not to mention cost. I expect it to be somewhat on the 100% side of being a quality product for the most part. I only burned one bag of these Pennington Pellets for the first time overnight....much lower heat than the Firesides or the Clean Energy's.....also lots of fines. I emptied the last of the bag into my sifter....I kid you not.....I got almost 2 cups of fine sawdust......thats not included what may have got into my hooper as I dont normally sift til I get down to the bottom part of the bag.

That's pretty much exactly the amount of sawdust I was getting per bag here in Cincinnati.

I dumped 25 bags into the crib yesterday, lots of fine and crumbled pellets, I'd guess about the same amount per bag as Awsum and El stated above. Lots of dust too. I filled the stove and yes they burn a bit dirtier and seem to throw less heat compared to the Green Way I was burning prior to these. I will say that I'm very impressed with the company posting here, you don't see that too often now days. In fact I emailed a more local company in WI about some problems, the first email was returned, then I never heard from them again, even though I was talking truck loads. Not too surprising, there was no sale on that one. As far as the price of the Pennington's, I paid $3.13 a bag so I won't complain too much!

GotzTheHotz said:

I dumped 25 bags into the crib yesterday, lots of fine and crumbled pellets, I'd guess about the same amount per bag as Awsum and El stated above. Lots of dust too. I filled the stove and yes they burn a bit dirtier and seem to throw less heat compared to the Green Way I was burning prior to these. I will say that I'm very impressed with the company posting here, you don't see that too often now days. In fact I emailed a more local company in WI about some problems, the first email was returned, then I never heard from them again, even though I was talking truck loads. Not too surprising, there was no sale on that one. As far as the price of the Pennington's, I paid $3.13 a bag so I won't complain too much!

Click to expand...

Gotz....u mentioned crib.....what are you using for a pellet crib?

The crib is a wooden shipping crate from where I work, basically a crate held together with clips so it can be taken apart easily for storage in the off season. It's around 4x3x4 foot, physics amazes me as it holds around 27 bshls of corn or 25 bags of pellets (5 gallon bucket from there to the stove). I like it as it doesn't take up much room, allows for mixing of corn and pellets, and doubles for camping/boating supply storage in the summer. It's nice if you have fines and such too, most of the small stuff sifts down to the bottom of the crate so that you don't have to worry about it until then, unlike dumping a 40lb bag into the stove fines and all. As mentioned in another thread, I can dump the used vege oil in and give her a stir with the canoe paddle too!

This is a reminder message that we are still actively viewing the posts here. Some may not want to have to read all the way through all of the posts so we've decided to repeat what we have said and PROMISE to stand by just as a reminder.

Issues have been brought up in this Blog about the quality of Pennington Wood Pellets. Concerns have ranged from how well they burn, the amount of ash and clinkers they produce, the presence of long pellets, and an excess of fines or dust in the bag. The fact that many of you have encountered problems with our pellets is very concerning to us and we would like to work with you to resolve them.

Some background - Pennington has five wood pellet plants in the East and Midwest of the US. The pellet mills in Missouri and Virginia have been in operation for many years and make an excellent product. In the last 12 months, three new pellet mills have been built to help alleviate the pellet shortages from previous years. We have experienced some quality problems from these plants as they were started up. Pennington Seed has high standards for all of their products, and we regularly test our wood pellets for ash, length, fines, and BTU. Despite these tests and our best efforts, it appears some sub-standard pellets from these new plants made it into the marketplace.

If you have recently purchased Pennington Wood Pellets and not satisfied with them, you can contact Customer Service at 1-800-658-0410 or email [email protected] or [email protected]. Please note the lot number on the bag (usually embossed near the top seal of the bag), where and when you bought them, and what the issues are with the product.

Below are some comments concerning other questions raised by several Bloggers:

Pellet storage - When possible, store wood pellets inside, out of the weather. If kept dry pellets can be stored from season to season. If this is not possible and you must store outside, keep product off the ground to prevent moisture from wicking from below, and cover with a tarp to protect from rain, snow and sun.

Small holes in bags - The small holes along the top seal are added to assist bagging and palletizing of the product during the manufacturing process. These holes allow air to escape after sealing. In the absence of these holes, the trapped air would blow-out the seals when product is stacked on a pallet.

Brands - Bio Plus and Nature’s Heat are both manufactured by Pennington. Nature’s Heat is a new brand launched in 2007 and is meant to replace the older Bio-Plus brand.

Wow. PSCS get's my vote, I'd buy again just based on the previous post, customer service is a dying art, and this company is IMHO doing a bang up job to address the issue. That said, and in every pellet company's interest, what do we as consumers expect in the pursuit of the perfect pellet? I'll start a new thread, let's keep the nuclear pellets that Hog has OT, he only sends those to a few of us (I still have one of his pellets burning from last fall, cool).

Yeah, like I said before, I'd buy Pennington pellets again, but I won't buy a ton straight away. I'll test burn a few bags first. But, based on Mike's comment's from Pennington, and the timeley responses I have received from Mike and his crew via email, I am confident that Pennington is going to correct whatever issues they have in these new mills. Imagine if you had the opportunity to be the pellet supplier for Lowes and HD, even if it's just a certain region... I would certainly be motivated to get things squared away! I'm not a pellet manufacturer, and don't really know what all goes into making pellets, but I would think that they'll be able to knock these issues out, as there was such a night and day difference between Pennington's and the other brand I am using.

Pennington Seed Customer Service said:

Issues have been brought up in this Blog about the quality of Pennington Wood Pellets. Concerns have ranged from how well they burn, the amount of ash and clinkers they produce, the presence of long pellets, and an excess of fines or dust in the bag. The fact that many of you have encountered problems with our pellets is very concerning to us and we would like to work with you to resolve them.

Customer Service – Pennington Seed

Click to expand...

I have had my stove, an Enviro Empress, for about 6 weeks & I have burned four brands of pellets. PA Pellet, Energex, Comfy Cozy & Pennington. Of the four, the Pennington definitely burn the cleanest & produce the least ash. The PA Pellets, which are a hardwood pellet, produce about 6 times as much ash as the penningtons. That said, both the energex & the Comfy Cozy had been stored outside on wrapped pallets, so I am not sure they are completely dry. I bought the Penningtons at BJ's in Portland Maine, but the last couple times I've been in, they haven't had them. Anyone know where I can get more (dry!) in southern maine?

It's nice that a Pennington rep. did post reasons for sub-standard pellets. But I don't think it's isolated to just "NEW" plants. The plant in Missouri I would assume supplies the Lowe's here in Missouri. That is were I bought my Pennington's. 1085J6 is my lot number and these have a tremendous amount of ash. I have to clean every day now. The first part on the ton or pallet was so so. But now if I don't shut down the stove the ash restricts the burning.

I was at one of the Lowes near by and noticed that they had these... so just out of curiosity thought I would try a couple of bags to find out if they were the dark or light ones and the price was @ $4.30 /bag, $179 /ton. Turned out they were the light ones. So figured I would just burn them up and set the stove to 9-9, but ran into a problem, the burn pot filled up and stove was running HOT. Stove is off at the moment till I get back to it and clean it out. I am going to start another post shortly with that problem. So I think it will be next season before I try these pellets again.

Not to jump on the bash Pennington band wagon, but tonight when I was cleaning the burn pot out I found a piece of wire in it. I have been burning the Penningtons for a few weeks now. I havent had any complaints they seem to burn fine in my Englander 25PDVC. As soon as its cool enough to handle I will get a picture of it. It was cherry red when I was scraping the ashes to side.

As promised here are a couple pics of the wire I found burned in my burn pot after using Penningtons

galen said:

It's nice that a Pennington rep. did post reasons for sub-standard pellets. But I don't think it's isolated to just "NEW" plants. The plant in Missouri I would assume supplies the Lowe's here in Missouri. That is were I bought my Pennington's. 1085J6 is my lot number and these have a tremendous amount of ash. I have to clean every day now. The first part on the ton or pallet was so so. But now if I don't shut down the stove the ash restricts the burning.

Click to expand...

Galen,

Please contact our Customer Service Department so we can talk to you or shoot us an e-mail. Thank you, B. Black

galen said:

It's nice that a Pennington rep. did post reasons for sub-standard pellets. But I don't think it's isolated to just "NEW" plants. The plant in Missouri I would assume supplies the Lowe's here in Missouri. That is were I bought my Pennington's. 1085J6 is my lot number and these have a tremendous amount of ash. I have to clean every day now. The first part on the ton or pallet was so so. But now if I don't shut down the stove the ash restricts the burning.

Click to expand...

Where do you find the lot number? And is there a way of knowing where they come from or when they were produced? The few bags I bought I yet to find any number on them except the bar code, and was thinking of keeping an eye open to see if the Lowes near by gets another shipment in.

Ridgefire said:

Not to jump on the bash Pennington band wagon, but tonight when I was cleaning the burn pot out I found a piece of wire in it. I have been burning the Penningtons for a few weeks now. I havent had any complaints they seem to burn fine in my Englander 25PDVC. As soon as its cool enough to handle I will get a picture of it. It was cherry red when I was scraping the ashes to side.

Click to expand...

Ridgefire,

Please contact the Pennington Seed Customer Service Deptartment so that we may discuss this issue further. Thank you, B. Black