Wood pellet brands and quality

interesting read about pellet standards....

http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5930/making-the-grade

Due to transportation costs, pellets can be very regional. The cost of transportation can vary, but I know for a fact around here that price can be anywhere from $20.00 to $50.00 a ton. Of course the further the trip the higher the cost per ton.

Off the top of my head I can think of 5 pellet mills within 300 air miles of my place. I am sure there are more. Seems like I am hearing about a new "to me" mill once or twice a month now.

Lignetics is the only manufacturer (That I personally know of) with multiple plants around the country(3 at last count). I am sure there are others. I would not surprise me if some of the players contract out with smaller mills around the country.

One thing that does surprise me is the Okanagan Pellets. They are made in Kelowna BC. But I have never seem them here in the NW. Eagle Valley on the other hand is made in Princeton BC and I can think of two or three places I have not only seen them, but purchased them.

I think "Clean Burn" is a great pellet. I have been burning them for years. It's nice to support a local business "Manke Lumber" who has been a fixture in the timber business for as long as I can remember. Heck I even hauled logs into their mills back in the day. The last time I looked into it, Manke hauled all thier own pellets to the retail outlets. Most of the time it's done on a "MAXI" truck, so as opposed to a 22 ton load, they are delivering 30 to 32 tons per load. This gives them an advantage in the cost of transportation department.

DneprDave said:

Is there an industry standards organization that, kind of like Good House Keeping, Underwriter's Laboratories or Consumer Reports that rates the quality of wood pellets? Or is it a hit or miss, trial and error kind of thing when purchasing quality wood pellets?

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The industry standard is PFI (Pellet Fuels Institute). But the worst pellet ever made (Inferno) is a member. So take it with a grain of salt.

http://pelletheat.org/

Best bet is to buy a few test bags and try them out.

On this note, I have never see standard or ultra premium quality pellets for sale. Around here premium is all you will get.

Personally, I don't put a whole lotta stock in the PFI business. I think this forum has been dead on with pellet reviews. I pretty much use middle of the road pellets and find they're quite OK in my Harman, I've used Maine's Choice, LGs, CleanFire-Hardwood, also NEWP, which is the same as CleanFire, Logik-e and found them to all be decent burning pellets. Next year I will get to the CleanFire Pacifics (softwood). I have friends using them now who say it's like an oven if you have a well insulated home.

As said here, try B4 you buy!

FYI only;

The only standard grade I have seen available to the public is LumberJack. But I haven't seen them on the east coast.

http://www.glrepellets.com/Products.html

An Ultra premium I see on a regular basis is Hamer Hot Ones. But they may have dropped that since PFI only has a premium grade now. Some other brands may have also dropped the Super premuim from there bags as well? I haven't been hunting much to say this is the case, But assume it could be.

A manufacturer can put any grade they want on a bag. Or call them anything for that matter. Super, ultra, and platinum to name a few. But PFI has now changed things to only include a premium grade for the general public. Why they dropped the Super premium grade????

I purchased Eagle valley pellets recently, I can tell you that between "eagle valley", and "clean burn",.the "clean burn" pellets leave less ash on my stove..but the only way to really know which is best, is to sample each bag, and notice ash build up on your stove..

GrahamInVa said:

DneprDave said:

Is there an industry standards organization that, kind of like Good House Keeping, Underwriter's Laboratories or Consumer Reports that rates the quality of wood pellets? Or is it a hit or miss, trial and error kind of thing when purchasing quality wood pellets?

Click to expand...

The industry standard is PFI (Pellet Fuels Institute). But the worst pellet ever made (Inferno) is a member. So take it with a grain of salt.

http://pelletheat.org/

Best bet is to buy a few test bags and try them out.

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I have come to learn that the P.F.I. is a non-profit organization who's mission is to promote the pellet industry. Their main source of revenue is through membership dues. Therefore, the more dues collected, the more money there is for employee payroll for this "Non Profit". Inferno wood pellet pays thousands of dollars a year in dues. Then Inferno is allowed to put the P.F.I. label on their bag. See what I am saying? I put about as much faith in the P.F.I. as I do in the tooth fairy. One long miserable season with garbage pellets labeled and certified as premium by the P.F.I. is all it took for me to decide for myself what is good and what is bad. Now, I do Turmans. (Ahhhhhh) I pay a little more per ton, but New England Wood Pellet and Narragansett Pellets in 2007 is a sad and distant memory. Fool me once shame on you!
And as for trying before you buy- X2

you forgot western oregon wood 2 plants priducibg Blazer premi's then there is the company at hood river, and another company in shelton. cant remeber thier brands tho sorry

DneprDave said:

The Shelton WA pellet company is called Olympus. I bought a ton of those from Costco, they are very clean burning.

Dave

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How much per ton?

DneprDave said:

$200/ton

I called my local Costco yesterday and they didn't have them anymore.

Dave

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Thanks, that's what I am paying for Clean Burns. Got a couple bags of Natures Fuel from a plant in Prineville, Or to test out. We hauled them to Del's farm supply stores.

a guy in Yelm has the Mankes for 190 a ton, posted on craigslist
HD has the blazers for 195 a ton
Olympus could not supply enough for costco so it was a one time purchase as a trial market run for next season... allready the lower your trucking fees are being talked about

The maximum ash content for a pellet to be considered Premium is .99%, or “less than
1%.†When the ash concentration is less than .5% it is deemed “Super Premiumâ€
according to a new standards category defined by the Pellet Fuels Institute.

A lumber yard in Snohomish sells Cleanburn pellets for $194 a ton..place is called Chinook lumber.

Emilio said:

A lumber yard in Snohomish sells Cleanburn pellets for $194 a ton..place is called Chinook lumber.

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That is a great price. I am paying 199.99 a ton plus tax. Nice thing is they are close by and I can stop in on my way to or from work and grab a ton.