Maine Woods Pellets Athens Maine

I agree with "burn em if you can,return em if you can, and move on."

and I agree that there was a pretty serious pellet shortage at the time, lucky for MWP.

I don't agree with your statement that they necessitated just a "little extra maintenence". My ash vac was used daily for these pellets, sometimes TWICE daily. And I lost handfuls and handfuls and handfuls of unburned pellets bouncing off that big daily clinker into my ash pan.

True, no one ever said they were great, no one ever said they were good either.

In fact the large majority said they were CRAP. Long way between great and crap.

So let's not understate the low quality of these garbage pellets and call a spade a spade.

I would try a bag of them in my new Omega though just as an experiment to see how it handles very crappy pellets.

FG.

ugenetoo said:

SparkyDog said:

ugenetoo said:

i sold 52 tons of these pellets here in my area. first time selling pellets so i tried to make sure my customers were happy as i tend to take the long view when it comes to business practices. most of the people i sold to hadnt used pellets before, so they really had no experience to compare these with and were happy with their purchase. one older widowed lady has been burning pellets for 6-7 years. i made a special effort to make sure that she was happy and made a visit to her house. i told her that there were some people that were allegedly having problems and she said that she did see a difference in the amount of ash, but that at the time she bought these pellets, there wasnt anything else available and overall, she was happy.
im wondering what all the people who have had problems would be burning now if not mwp pellets?
i have to add that these pellets that i sold were manufactured in july and august.

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I for one am burning NEWP and Cubex. Both these pellets are great pellets. They produce very little ash...and feed correctly in my hopper. MWP are great for use as bedding for animals and for traction on icy walkways...that is about it.
Anybody that thinks MW pellets are great should put down the ash vac for a few minutes and try another truly quality pellet.

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i dont think anyone said they were great. what im saying is that at the time there was nothing else available. in july, august and
september, as i recall, newp was down for a major fire, corinth was down for installation of new pellet mills, all the canadian suppliers were sold out a year ahead, the ashland mill had sold all their output until january. and all the pellet pigs were out foraging. mwp was the only game in town. without them, there would have been a number of customers that would have had no choice but to burn $4 oil. most that i have talked to were very greatful for the mwp pellets, even though they had to perform a little extra maintenance. as i said before "burn em if you can,return em if you can, and move on."

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I hate to say it but i have burnt a half of a ton in my mt vernon, and have had no real problems, yes there is more ash than lignetics, but no real clinker issues and not a ton of fines, i did notice that the bags are bigger and the pellets are "less dense" but i also paid like 269 a ton in feb when everyting else was 325. Would i buy them again, yeah if the price were good enough.

flamegrabber said:

I would try a bag of them in my new Omega though just as an experiment to see how it handles very crappy pellets.

FG.

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It would burn them no problem!

Nothing could be as bad as these Phoenix pellets I got. And it burns them with no issues. Except the dirty burn, Black soot. Which was my fault. I will try them with multi fuel mode again.

Might have to burn them in the multi mode if there real bad.

Might also have to start a service burning junk pellets for peeps without multifuel stoves.(jk)

jay

"Might also have to start a service burning junk pellets for peeps without multifuel stoves.(jk)"


lol!

jtakeman said:

flamegrabber said:

I would try a bag of them in my new Omega though just as an experiment to see how it handles very crappy pellets.

FG.

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It would burn them no problem!

Nothing could be as bad as these Phoenix pellets I got. And it burns them with no issues. Except the dirty burn, Black soot. Which was my fault. I will try them with multi fuel mode again.

Might have to burn them in the multi mode if there real bad.

Might also have to start a service burning junk pellets for peeps without multifuel stoves.(jk)

jay

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flamegrabber said:

"Might also have to start a service burning junk pellets for peeps without multifuel stoves.(jk)"


lol!

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OK, So I'll try to buy them from them cheap. I tried

you dont know what dirty fuel is until you try burning the grains that i use in my harmon pc45s. in all honesty, the first year i used these stoves , i couldnt get them to work right. i cleaned on a biweekly basis and they just wouldnt stay going after the cleaning. finally, i just let them run and now as long as the ash isnt up to the draft fan intake, they will burn almost flawlessly
i realize that burning grains and corn isnt for everybody, but i do have to chuckle when i see the price of pellets climbing to over $300. especially when i paid $125/ton for the barley that ive been using.
i guess thats why i dont see mwp pellets as being all that bad. i suspect that some peoples expectations about the convenience of pellets are a little high. there is more to it than going to the wall and turning up the thermostat.

i guess thats why i dont see mwp pellets as being all that bad. i suspect that some peoples expectations about the convenience of pellets are a little high. there is more to it than going to the wall and turning up the thermostat

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My expectation was to get heat and clean the stove twice a week. Couldnt do either with MWP, had to clean everyday and didnt get much heat. Ive tried a lot of pellets this being my first year and Ive had some where I can go twice a week to a week before I have to vacuum the ash and get good heat. I now know what pellets my stove likes.
The MWP are in a class by themselves.

ugenetoo said:

you dont know what dirty fuel is until you try burning the grains that i use in my harmon pc45s. in all honesty, the first year i used these stoves , i couldnt get them to work right. i cleaned on a biweekly basis and they just wouldnt stay going after the cleaning. finally, i just let them run and now as long as the ash isnt up to the draft fan intake, they will burn almost flawlessly
i realize that burning grains and corn isnt for everybody, but i do have to chuckle when i see the price of pellets climbing to over $300. especially when i paid $125/ton for the barley that ive been using.
i guess thats why i dont see mwp pellets as being all that bad. i suspect that some peoples expectations about the convenience of pellets are a little high. there is more to it than going to the wall and turning up the thermostat.

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The Phoenix pellets I am refering to are switch grass pellets. The also contain bark. They burn pretty dirty if you try to burn in pellet mode. I will retry them in the multi fuel mode. I am also going to try corn today. Looking for a local co-op to find other grains.

Some day I might need assisance with these other grains, I hope you'll jump in with your knowlage. Wheat and barley are next on my list. I have heard good things about the wheat though.

jay

One of the pellet houses near me has the for $259 a ton(early buy). I'm tempted to get a ton to try them out.

Anyboby know the claimed BTU/LB rating on these???
jay

jtakeman said:

ugenetoo said:

you dont know what dirty fuel is until you try burning the grains that i use in my harmon pc45s. in all honesty, the first year i used these stoves , i couldnt get them to work right. i cleaned on a biweekly basis and they just wouldnt stay going after the cleaning. finally, i just let them run and now as long as the ash isnt up to the draft fan intake, they will burn almost flawlessly
i realize that burning grains and corn isnt for everybody, but i do have to chuckle when i see the price of pellets climbing to over $300. especially when i paid $125/ton for the barley that ive been using.
i guess thats why i dont see mwp pellets as being all that bad. i suspect that some peoples expectations about the convenience of pellets are a little high. there is more to it than going to the wall and turning up the thermostat.

Click to expand...

The Phoenix pellets I am refering to are switch grass pellets. The also contain bark. They burn pretty dirty if you try to burn in pellet mode. I will retry them in the multi fuel mode. I am also going to try corn today. Looking for a local co-op to find other grains.

Some day I might need assisance with these other grains, I hope you'll jump in with your knowlage. Wheat and barley are next on my list. I have heard good things about the wheat though.

jay

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wheat is better because there is no hull on it like barley. that makes it feed better and produces a lot less fly ash. only problem is that wheat has been expensive the last couple of years. corn is very expensive in the northeast also, so i have only burned a couple 50#bags. i have 20 acres of winter rye that i plan to harvest in late july. rye has been the best all around fuel for me.

ugenetoo said:

wheat is better because there is no hull on it like barley. that makes it feed better and produces a lot less fly ash. only problem is that wheat has been expensive the last couple of years. corn is very expensive in the northeast also, so i have only burned a couple 50#bags. i have 20 acres of winter rye that i plan to harvest in late july. rye has been the best all around fuel for me.

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My biggest problem is finding the fuel. Pellets are everywhere! Corn is available But I only have 2 sources. I am not having any luck finding a co-op. So I'm still digging around for info and resources.

OK, So I should skip the Barley. Wheat is good but pricey. Rye is cheaper But you haven't said what the price is?

How does it burn?

Any clues to purchasing these grains would be great and I'd owe you one. PM me if you have any info.

Jay

if you are going to get a good deal on agrifuel, your going to have to look around your area for farmers that are growing grains, i dont know where exactky in nw conn you live, but i suspect you might look in ny for someone to sell to you. the key to savings is to be able to burn what they have without any further cleaning or drying straight from the combine. if you can befriend a grain producer. you may be able to get them to sell some of the fuel that comes from the field a little cleaner and/or drier.
first place to check is the county extension office. they work with the farmers in that area.
remember that agrifuels are going to be higher in moisture (11-15%) than wood pellets (3-5%) so the efficiency will not be as good. one ton of grain at 14% mc will have 280# water or 35 gallons. one ton of 4% wood pellets wil have 80 pounds or 10 gallons. also, stove efficiency decreases as moisture content rises due to the heat required to boil off the moisture. my general rule of thumb is to multiply the cost of a ton of grain by 1.25 to get a rough cost comparison to wood pellets.
one ton barley at $125x1.25=156.25 so.. this barley that i bought at $125 should compare to a ton of wood pellets at $156.25.

Thank for the tips I will try to use wisely. The corn I am trying now has a moisture content of about 9%. The farmer has a dryer and dries before storing in the silo.

I am about 40 miles from the NY border. So NY is where I will start my search.

jay