MWP Softwood Pellets

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subsailor

Minister of Fire
Dec 8, 2011
1,420
Winthrop, Maine
I called MWP to find out where I could buy some of their softwood pellets. Unfortunately they njo longer make them and have no future plans to do so. Too bad, I heard they were pretty good. :-/
 
How about the 100% hardwood?
 
I didn't know about the softwood until I heard about it on this site. The company did confirm today they make a 65-35 hardwood-softwood blend. I have a ton being delivered Jan. 7 that is supposed to be 100% hardwood. The bags that I've seen with the log cabin don't say what they are.
 
subsailor said:
I didn't know about the softwood until I heard about it on this site. The company did confirm today they make a 65-35 hardwood-softwood blend. I have a ton being delivered Jan. 7 that is supposed to be 100% hardwood. The bags that I've seen with the log cabin don't say what they are.

They are a blend hardwood (65%) - softwood (35%). The same thing is in the big box stove on the bag, bag.

To my knowledge MWP does not produce a 100% hardwood pellet.
 
subsailor said:
I called MWP to find out where I could buy some of their softwood pellets. Unfortunately they no longer make them and have no future plans to do so. Too bad, I heard they were pretty good. :-/

Very sad! OK fella's, I think if we all contact and request the softies MWP might reconsider this. "We want the softies!" chant aught to work. Plus ScotL is a member here and he should be watching.

Scot has done some testing and I don't think he feels the softwoods offer much if any of an advantage over the blend. I think He has seen results from the blend that rival the softwoods. Probably why they aren't planning on future production. Add in the cost factor, The softies might cost more to produce than the the blend. So the sales for the softwoods may not have been outstanding. Most of us pellet buyers look for a cost savings, So the lower price pellet will see more sales volume. I don't have the exact info and this is assumption on my part. But what I gathered from stuff out on the wire the birdies are singing. I also heard MWP was hoping to corner the market and rival Okies sales with these softwoods. So their initial plans basically was to take over the NE softwood world with them!

I'm not sure on other factors. But imagine its costing MWP more to produce the softwood's. So if the sales aren't outstanding and large volume. It may not be worth their effort's in producing them. Maybe ScotL can chime in and add some details for us? I don't think web(craig, the owner here!) would consider this a sales pitch, as We would like to hear the reasons for not producing the softwoods.

ScotL, I'd really like to hear your thoughts and reasons for this decision on the production of the softwoods? Looking at the area dealers that did carry them, Had no issues selling them out!
 
PARIS FARM STILL HAS SOME OF THE SOFTWOOD PELLETS IN STOCK LAST TIME I WAS =THERE......
 
Which Paris Farmers Union?
 
the last time i was there they had some @ main street lewiston.....
 
How are the MWP's? I have a ton coming in 3 weeks from SIB.
 
subsailor said:
How are the MWP's? I have a ton coming in 3 weeks from SIB.
I have had very good luck with them and from SIB, good CLEAN heat and at a reasonable cost. However, I will tell you there are a few folks here who will differ with that to the point that you have to question if we were discussing the same pellets. The advise given to me was the best. Try a few bags before you commit to a larger volume. You have 3 weeks to give them a try before your shipment is due.
 
I burned 6 bags recently but I mixed them with Greene Team. I didn't notice any large increses in ash or decrease in heat. I plan to run several bags straight to get a feel for them If I notice a dropoff in quality, I still have a ton+ of Greene Team I can mix them with.
 
subsailor said:
How are the MWP's? I have a ton coming in 3 weeks from SIB.

I think they are garbage, and the only thing they have going for them is that their 35% softwood.

IF they were 100% hardwood they would be getting the same reviews they did 3 years ago.


To address the statement that they are no longer going to produce softwoods, I think that is not accurate. I believe that they are not "offering" a softwood pellet any longer. They will still need to produce it for their blend.

It is too bad because they could have taken over the Canadian spruce market in Maine, and perhaps the NE with the softwoods ~ but they obviously need them for the blend due to their hardwood pellet being crap.

Hopefully it will stay warm enough for the next week so I can burn my last 20 bags of the garbage ~ been burning 2 bags a day in this warm weather, that's how awful the heat is.
 
MWP are dirty and don't produce a lot of heat. My wife and I also found they had an unpleasant smell to them. I sealed everything on the stove with hi-temp tape and fire blocking silicon but still the smell persisted; the smell hurt my sinuses too. I have never noticed a smell with other brands.... this year (spring) I had a chance to buy into MWP's again for fairly cheap (w/ delivery) but opted to go back to Energex pellets
 
Yep, my father is burning them in his Harman Accentra....................dirty, dirty ,dirty.
 
I am burning MWP blends right now in my Mount Vernon and have been since last fall. They are burning very clean and hot, cleaner than the Spruce Points from last year or the Maine Choice from the year before that, It's 12 F here and we are comfortably warm. I'd buy them again in a heartbeat, especially at $200.00 a ton.
 
I wonder if they are still working out some kinks with these pellets. There seems to be no middle ground. Either VERY ashy or SUPER premium....wacky....I was disappointed only because of all the great reviews last year. If I had never read a review on them I would rank them as middle of the road.
 
Last spring they shut down the plant, then set it up to do a large run of 100% softwoods, they have since shut it down and reset the plant back to doing their blend.

I have pellets from last December and April of this year, both batches of them are fine.

As Save$ has mentioned try a few bags of any pellet before buying in bulk. It only takes a minor adjustment in the set up to ruin a run.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Last spring they shut down the plant, then set it up to do a large run of 100% softwoods, they have since shut it down and reset the plant back to doing their blend.

I have pellets from last December and April of this year, both batches of them are fine.

As Save$ has mentioned try a few bags of any pellet before buying in bulk. It only takes a minor adjustment in the set up to ruin a run.

How can you tell when they were made? I have the numbers 549558 on the bag.
 
IHATEPROPANE said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
Last spring they shut down the plant, then set it up to do a large run of 100% softwoods, they have since shut it down and reset the plant back to doing their blend.

I have pellets from last December and April of this year, both batches of them are fine.

As Save$ has mentioned try a few bags of any pellet before buying in bulk. It only takes a minor adjustment in the set up to ruin a run.

How can you tell when they were made? I have the numbers 549558 on the bag.

The only way I know what I have is because of when they were delivered and the fact that the folks who I bought them from were getting them still warm and turning them right around.

I have 549558 and 08030 on the bags, but that could be a bag run number and not a pellet run number, I don't have any of the covers or pallet tickets. The 08030 were from December last year, the 549558 were from my 11 ton order last spring.

There are also two different upc code labels on the bags.

Currently in the stove is one from 549558.

Usually when I get a delivery a bag gets torn moving them around so I dump it in the stove to verify the delivered batch is fine.

I don't doubt that folks can be seeing different results especially given the changes that the plant went through, stove specific issues, storage, and handling.
 
mainegeek said:
MWP are dirty and don't produce a lot of heat. My wife and I also found they had an unpleasant smell to them. I sealed everything on the stove with hi-temp tape and fire blocking silicon but still the smell persisted; the smell hurt my sinuses too. I have never noticed a smell with other brands.... this year (spring) I had a chance to buy into MWP's again for fairly cheap (w/ delivery) but opted to go back to Energex pellets

When did you buy those pellets?
 
The 4 bags I burned were a very soft pellet, came apart very easy.
Not good in a top feeder, ash flying everywhere, some large chunks too.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
mainegeek said:
MWP are dirty and don't produce a lot of heat. My wife and I also found they had an unpleasant smell to them. I sealed everything on the stove with hi-temp tape and fire blocking silicon but still the smell persisted; the smell hurt my sinuses too. I have never noticed a smell with other brands.... this year (spring) I had a chance to buy into MWP's again for fairly cheap (w/ delivery) but opted to go back to Energex pellets

When did you buy those pellets?

Spring 2010... I had met a guy in Brewer who was selling them. In fact I digitized the flyer he gave me and sent it to a few members on here.

The price was good, the heat was ok (nothing like Energex), and the I found they are dirty. Also, like I said they had an odor to them. I've never had an odor like that from any other pellet brand I've burned.
 
I have pulled samples from several different batches of MWP. Never caught a batch as bad as some have posted. Wonder whats up? They seem pretty consistent in what I have been seeing. I have tried 3 different batches of the stove bag from TSC and 4 different batches of the cabin bag from a pellet dealer. Heat was within 5 degrees and the ash content was under .5% in every batch tried. I'm stumped!

ScotL watches and Listens to whats passed around here! He seems to really have a handle on whats needed to supply a good pellet to us. Not just whats in the bag, But also how they protect them with a liner under the bags on the skid. I'm sure he'll tighten things up!
 
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