MWP has some long pellets that jam stove!

jaudet71 said:

I am on my fourth year with my Harman XXV and am using MWP for the first time. Last night I heard the fan going on and off in the middle of the night. The stove was going out. On inspection I realized the pellets were not dropping. I thrust my hand trough the pellets and they started dropping. The stove started back up and no more trouble so far. That was the very first bag.
I then noticed that there were a small percentage of really long pellets in the hopper. Some were nearly two inches long. The long pellets caught just right and dammed up so no pellets reached the auger. Bought the Maine Wood Pellets from Tractor Supply and they seem nice besides this concern. Anybody else run into this problem? Photo attached.

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Nope, a certain percentage of long pellets is allowed by the standard, and just so you understand I'm on bag #19 of a ton of this spring's MWP.

Friend of mine just started using these in her XXV last week. No problems and loves them. I picked up 20 bags myself this morning to use in the shoulder months. Will get more when I can.

I thought I was done with pellets this year. Ah, the pellet addiction never stops does it................

I have burned over 3 tons, mine look more like dog kibble, but they burn just fine! That company usually will go good on any bad pellets you may encounter.

jaudet71 said:

Like I said so far so good since then ..... But it is not confidence inspiring. Got three tons due to reviews on this forum. Used eight tons of Clean Energy from Lowe's before this and liked them.

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In total I've burned 469 bags of MWP from 4 different purchases over 3 heating seasons. Never had a jam from them due to over length pellets.

Are these the blend or the softwood pellets?

jaudet71 said:

They were advertised as hardwood. Not much info on the bag.

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That's the blend which is what I've been burning.

The standard allows up to 1% of the pellets to exceed 1.5 inches in length.

BTW, I've never seen MWP advertise their pellets to be hardwood pellets, I have however seen some others advertise them that way.

If Scott Linkletter doesn't jump in here or contact you via PM I'll be surprised, he is also a member here.

i'm only 8 bags into my first ton of those.
today i saw my first long one.
i'd have to say i'm happy with them so far.
i can only judge about the fines from reading here since these are basically all i've ever burned. they seem well within an acceptable
range on that count.
here's hoping you found one or a few bags with more long pellets than the norm.

i will be burning these all winter.
i don't have a truck and we don't have a hd, lowes or tsc anywhere close.
so getting these delivered for $219 per ton, it was an easy choice to make.
i'll be sure to speak up if i run into any problems.

in the off season i hope to get a few ton of their softies too.

I've burned a dozen bags of them this fall. I thought they were on the short side. They seem to be an average big box store pellet. Nothing to holler about either way. I'll pick up
a couple of tons to burn the rest of this shoulder, then April.

I just got off the phone with Scott from MWP. I found a bunch of long ones and pulled them out for him. He is going to swing by my place and pick them up so they can check them out.

We were jamming 2-3 times a day. Long pellets were clogging the drop tube between the upper and lower augers. It was pretty easy to free up but then one day we got a monster jam that took me about an hour to free up. That same day, I talked to both Englander (thanks Mike) and MWP (thanks Scott) and both companies were very patient and helpful. The only thing I have changed since then is I throw the bag on the concrete floor in the basement a couple times before I open it up, in an effort to break up some of the bigger ones.

Ever since that one big jam, we haven't jammed again yet in a week whereas before we were jamming multiple times a day...so I think my problems are mostly solved at the moment. I am thinking that either the drop tube was partially clogged and it finally came undone, my beating up the bag actually helps or there were manufacturing burrs in the tube that got worked off. Or a combination of all 3.

Mine (both softwood and blend) are all small pieces, but a LOT darker than pictured here.

I'm seeing quite a few around 1 3/4" in mine this year, hasn't caused any problem yet, I don't think my Revolution cares, but, yes they are longer this year. Haven't tried any of the softwoods, yet, saving them for winter.

Its called bridging. Seems like Harmans are more succetable to bthis than other stoves.

Yup Cincinnati Kid, that is what it is called and according to the manual for the stove the OP has, that stove can not handle pellets longer than 1.5 inches, unfortunately PFI premium standards allow up to 1% of the pellets to exceed 1.5 inches. So if a long pellet presents just right all kinds of not so fun things happen.

I've been burning the maine softwoods & i love 'em. I never thought i would buy their pellets again even after they came over & picked up the 4 ton i had 2 years ago. My stove hasn't been burning this good ever. I have tried 4 different brands . Knock on wood cause my stove kinda acts like a computer. Never know whats gonna happen.

Last year I burned 2 tons of MWP and tons of Greene Team. I thought both burned well. Greene team burned slightly cooler and a little cleaner. The MWPs burned hotter yet a little more ash. I am going to buy4 tons of the MWP this week. I want to support his business. Steve took a risk with this business and I want to thank him for a good all around wood pellet for a good price and very fair delivery charges. I thank him by buying his products and encouraging others to do the same. Lowe's,Tractor Supply or Home Depot cares about your local economy. THERE ! LOL

Just to follow up on this, it appears that I got a bad ton. I bought 4 tons of MWP this fall. I've sampled several bags off of 3 of the tons and had no problems with pellet length. The 4th ton is loaded with bags that have 2-3 inch long pellets in them. My stove has a really hard time with these. It is a dual-auger stove and the long ones get stuck in the drop chute between the two augers and it ultimately results in an upper auger jam because it gets backed up at the drop.

They have been very accommodating to my problem. At first, I'm not even sure that they believed me when I said I was finding pellets over 2 inches long. They said that I was the first and only person to contact them about the issue. But, I saved some and gave them to them so the proof was in the pudding at that point. Obviously, if other people are posting the same thing on this forum then it is not just me.

The pellets are kind of dirty and definitely not the hottest, but the price was right and they are hot enough to keep the house "warm enough" so that is really all that matters. They have been very helpful is addressing the problem and offering to swap out any defective bags that I find. Kudos for customer service.

Glad to hear you have a resolution. I can understand how maddening it would be to find your stove shut down numerous times due to something that seems so trivial.

Apparently, bad batches can go both ways...

I got my stove and started burning about 3 weeks ago. I now can see my initial batch of bags were from a bad batch or leftover from last year, or messed up for some other reason. They were horrible. ALOT of tines, most pellets were small (1/4 to 1/2 inch), and I was cleaning the stove every 2 days because I had over an inch of ash buildup in the pan around the burnpot. Being a newb, I didn't have any basis for comparison. I got a bag of pellets that were a different brand from my neighbor and they seemed better.

Two weeks later, I went back to my dealer when it was time pick up more and told them I wanted the other brand. The guy told me they were out and asked why I wanted to change. When I told him, he looked at me like I was crazy and reiterated that the ones I was burning were the better brand. I already paid for them so I had little choice. I loaded up 40 bags.

It was like buying a different brand. The 2nd batch was so different. 90% of the pellets were 1 to 1.5 inches long, and there were some shorter ones and some longer (up to 2 inches) mixed in. Also, there were hardly any fines.

I've since picked up 2 more loads to round out my 3-tons that I purchased. I tried bags from each, and they are good - not like my original batch. I haven't cleaned my stove in a week and it looks better than it did after 2 days with the original crappy batch. The bad pellets are gone and both my stove and I are happy.

www_godzilla said:

Last year I burned 2 tons of MWP and tons of Greene Team. I thought both burned well. Greene team burned slightly cooler and a little cleaner. The MWPs burned hotter yet a little more ash. I am going to buy4 tons of the MWP this week. I want to support his business. Steve took a risk with this business and I want to thank him for a good all around wood pellet for a good price and very fair delivery charges. I thank him by buying his products and encouraging others to do the same. Lowe's,Tractor Supply or Home Depot cares about your local economy. THERE ! LOL

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My MWP's are all short with various colors. They have nowhere near the heat of Greene Team and twice the ash in my stove.

It goes back to what Jay has said over and over. Same brand, batches vary, stoves very and on and on. However, that being said, I have had my best experiences with MWP. Yes, the ash looks just like a pile of pepper. But there is never any left in the burn pot and the heat is good enough to heat my two level 2100 sq ft. home except in extreme cold. And now for the best part, they cost a heck of a lot less than the 100% soft wood high grade pellets that give less ash and about 10 degrees more heat from what I have been reading here.

save$ said:

It goes back to what Jay has said over and over. Same brand, batches vary, stoves very and on and on. However, that being said, I have had my best experiences with MWP. Yes, the ash looks just like a pile of pepper. But there is never any left in the burn pot and the heat is good enough to heat my two level 2100 sq ft. home except in extreme cold. And now for the best part, they cost a heck of a lot less than the 100% soft wood high grade pellets that give less ash and about 10 degrees more heat from what I have been reading here.

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the weather report calls for -16 saturday night.

i ain't skurred!

(this message brought to you by 925 sq. feet of single story home)

Down this way Sunday night is going to be colder than Sat. night.