Any brand you would not buy?

Infernos, ACP, Treecycle

Infernos, Bayou, New England. I dont think ACP (Appling County Pellets are in business anymore)

hammer hot ones and okies, at least not in my stove.

Pennington's- Nature's Choice. By far the worst pellet I have burned. Very little ash, But even LESS HEAT. Almost froze to death that night. Glad it was only a 4 bag "Test Burn".
Pennington makes an "All Oak" pellet also. Never tried them. If there anything like Nature's Worst, then there doomed

I had zero issues with Pennington's Nature's Heat, not the hottest pellet but a clean-burner, though the later batch I purchased in February was much higher quality than the batch I purchased in December (a lot of fines in the December batch, the February batch had almost NO fines at all). Pennington recently brought a new state-of-the-art pellet mill online a few months ago, so look for them to be a solid pellet choice next season.

The only pellet I would avoid in the future is Freedom Fuel, it was an outright dirty pellet, lots of ash to clean out after burning a couple bags, which was fortunately all I bought.

Carolina Wood Pellets > absolutely no quality control of pellet length and density.

johnnycomelately said:

I dont think ACP (Appling County Pellets are in business anymore)

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They still have a website that lists one of their products as wood pellets.

I don't know that I have used any pellets that I would not use again if the price is right. Here is what I have used and my thoughts:

Premier (from TSC): this was my first pellet experience and they were pretty good, I would grab them again if I could find them.

Marketing & MFG Ltd: these I would probably not buy again, a local hardware store had them about 3 yrs ago and havent seen them since. VERY ashy.

MWP: I burned these last year and was worried after bought them and read some negative reviews. They were dirty but kept my house warm, from what I have read they have improved and I would burn them again.

VT Woods: very good pellet, good heat and low ash, they seem to burn fast in my stove though. Getting pricy though and while I want to support locals I think they are pricing themselves out of them T market. There is also talk now of another plant coming in, a biomass plant that will produce electricity and pellets.

Northerns: I really like these, good heat, decent amount of ash and reasonably priced.

NEWP: ashy, more carbon buildup but good heat. I would burn again.

IHATEPROPANE said:

Everything is relative but was wondering if there were any pellets people would not buy regardless of price?
I have sampled many brands since I bought my stove this January and 2 brands are on my do not buy list:

Inferno-very low heat,clinkers
Lignetics-for some reason my auger hated them. Not sure why

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My stove loves the Liggies, but they seem to be larger diameter than any other pellets than any other pellets that I have used. I wonder if that was the issue with your auger??

Utilitrack said:

IHATEPROPANE said:

Everything is relative but was wondering if there were any pellets people would not buy regardless of price?
I have sampled many brands since I bought my stove this January and 2 brands are on my do not buy list:

Inferno-very low heat,clinkers
Lignetics-for some reason my auger hated them. Not sure why

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My stove loves the Liggies, but they seem to be larger diameter than any other pellets than any other pellets that I have used. I wonder if that was the issue with your auger??

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Mine love the Lig's too. The Green label's and the Presto-Logs. I like them because there short and large in diameter. Burn Hot too.

Dexter, my experience has been the opposite. Got Presto Logs this winter at HD; they are good - nice heat, but long. Unlike your experience the AWFs have been good to me - rare to get a long pellet and nothing close! to those in the photo you posted. I've burnt 10+ tons of them, so suspect you were "lucky". Just got a bag of CleanBurn from Menards.

All the following worked well for my stove: AWFs, Hamers, Somersets, Pennywise, PrestoLogs, Rocky Mts. Got green label ligs last year and was glad to see them go - little heat.

DexterDay said:

Pennington's- Nature's Choice. By far the worst pellet I have burned. Very little ash, But even LESS HEAT. Almost froze to death that night. Glad it was only a 4 bag "Test Burn".
Pennington makes an "All Oak" pellet also. Never tried them. If there anything like Nature's Worst, then there doomed

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I really like the Pennington Nature's Heat. They have far less ash than the Pennington Oak pellets. The Nature's Heat also has less clinkers than the Hamer Hot Ones that I also burned.

I would not buy any bags of pellets that look like a full bag of popcorn....when I picked up this last 2.5 tons of Prest to logs(4 trips) they had 8 tons sitting open...some sun bleached,some torn,taped up,some expanded so much from moisture to be obvious.I took the best bags I could find this time, wish Id have payed more attention when I picked up last years stuff.I'm very thank full for all the great advice,and information I got from this forum this year.,Education is the key to understanding your stove and pellet buying trends.Hope everyone has a great summer.

Just buy what is the most dense drypellet you can find..Open a bag and crack them....should feel a snap...not a mush..If they really sux they will fall apart easily

It is all on what your stove likes!
I am glad to hear the 2-3 above posters like Natures Heat. I myself will never buy another bag of them. 1 1/2 bags screwed up my stove for 3 days right at the end of Nov.
I will stick with Stove Chow and Ligs.

90% of pellet problems is moisture. Do not buy pellets that were stored outside.

Eric

TreeCycle...... Gave away about 2+ tons..... Yup.... Gave away...

kinsman stoves said:

90% of pellet problems is moisture. Do not buy pellets that were stored outside.

Eric

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agree x 2! Also trial your pellets before you buy any large amount. My stove doesn't like Energex, (Canadian). I get a big clump of crumbling ash that impairs the burn after 2 days. Good heat, but what a mess. I burned them for two years before I smartened up and tried some other brands. Still have 3.5 tons of them in my garage. No put down on Energex, just not among the right pellets for my stove.

Hate
Pennington Natures Heats. Not worth the bag they come in.
Inferno. Not worth the printing on the bag. About the only use I can see for these things is to sop up oil spills. And I'm not sure they would do that either.
Bayou. Ash, Low heat, dirty

Like
NEWP from Jaffery plant (tan bags red lettering)
Premier (Appalachian Hardwood)

Love
Vermont Wood Pellets
Okanagan
The old Green Supreme (Think they are different now)

YMMV,

---Nailer---

Like Nailer, out of all the brands I have tried over the years, so far the ones I disliked the most
were Pennington & Inferno. Glorified mulch IMO. Supposedly Inferno's quality improved this
year, but did not bother trying again to find out.


My favorites to date:
NEWP Green Supreme (no longer available)
Spruce Pointe
Dragon Mountain
Okanagans
Barefoot

The only pellet I wouldn't waste my time with was Inferno's. :sick: From what I gather Nature Choice are made by the same Co. I haven't bothered to burn the 2 bags I have. I'll wait until the cold is almost gone first!

Favorite box store brands
Somerset
Hardwood Heat
Greene Team/Lignetics
Stove Chow/Premier
AWF

Favorite Pellet house brands

Cubex
Hamer Hot One
Barefoots
Okanagan/Spruce Pointe
Turman

Hello

Infernos have such a nice hot name and great colors on the bag. Bob Kraft who owns the Patriots is also is affiliated with International Forestry Products (IFP) who is the sales agent for Infornos, and their sales office is located at 1 Patriot Way Foxboro MA! Their sexy Patriot's cheerleader advertising is really cool. The Infernos I got from Lowe's in Salem NH burned OK, not alot of heat though!!. See pics below.

However since Infernos processing plant in Rumford Rhode Island uses recycled construction materials in their wood pellets, they do smell funny in the bag. It is too bad, just not a good way of making wood pellets. Lowe's never got anymore in after that one truckload!

kinsman stoves said:

90% of pellet problems is moisture. Do not buy pellets that were stored outside.

Eric

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I agree 100% - the more moisture the pellets absorb, the lower their heat output. That's why I don't put too much stock in those BTU ratings that some pellet companies have started to use - I store my pellets in a (humid) basement all summer, and I have no clue where they were stored before that. I figure by the time they go into my stove, their moisture content has gone way up, and their BTU output is down at least 10%