Are Bear Mtn pellets worth $300/ton?

[flynfrfun]

I've been burning Cleanburn, but have heard they are "salty" which can cause my stove to rust. I tried some Blazers from HD, and aside from the increased ash, they burned just fine and seemed to put out about the same amount of heat. I hear the Bear Mountain pellets are about as good as you can get, but are they really worth $300/ton when I can still get Blazers for $187/ton?
Flynfrfun

 

[Fsappo]

Right this very second no pellet is worth 300 bucks a ton in my opinion, but I have the silly feeling that may be the going rate by this coming fall.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

It might be close to $300 a ton by next burn season but not right now, no way. Stay away.

Eric

 

[iceman]

Lotta the small pellet shops are outta fuel right now.... the big box stores seem to be done for the season.....
Oil prices are up ... Mideast troubles....=supply and demand ... if most people dont get their pellets by April- may you might be paying close to 300 for shoulder season stuff ...lol ...

 

[flynfrfun]

Yeah, my HD is out, but they are ordering more. I'm thinking I will get a couple of tons of Blazers for next winter if I don't find a better price for the Bear Mtn. Thanks guys for the advice. I thought $300/ton was way out of line. Of course, I'm pretty sure that will be average prices next winter for most of the pellet brands >:-(
Flynfrfun

 

[checkthisout]

Yeah, my HD is out, but they are ordering more. I'm thinking I will get a couple of tons of Blazers for next winter if I don't find a better price for the Bear Mtn. Thanks guys for the advice. I thought $300/ton was way out of line. Of course, I'm pretty sure that will be average prices next winter for most of the pellet brands >:-(
Flynfrfun

Yeah that's way out of line.

Check Craigslist. There is a store out in Sultan selling Pine pellets for $159.99 a ton and they do negotiate.

I like the Blazers though. I noticed there are several tons out back of the store I purchase them at but they are no longer displaying them inside the store.

Atlas was one of the best but I here they are out of business. I think they were selling for $260.00 a ton.

 

[iceman]

O

Yeah, my HD is out, but they are ordering more. I'm thinking I will get a couple of tons of Blazers for next winter if I don't find a better price for the Bear Mtn. Thanks guys for the advice. I thought $300/ton was way out of line. Of course, I'm pretty sure that will be average prices next winter for most of the pellet brands >:-(
Flynfrfun

Yeah that's way out of line.

Check Craigslist. There is a store out in Sultan selling Pine pellets for $159.99 a ton and they do negotiate.

I like the Blazers though. I noticed there are several tons out back of the store I purchase them at but they are no longer displaying them inside the store.

Atlas was one of the best but I here they are out of business. I think they were selling for $260.00 a ton.

If only we could get blazers..... let alone for the prices you guys are talking about!

 

[checkthisout]

O

Yeah, my HD is out, but they are ordering more. I'm thinking I will get a couple of tons of Blazers for next winter if I don't find a better price for the Bear Mtn. Thanks guys for the advice. I thought $300/ton was way out of line. Of course, I'm pretty sure that will be average prices next winter for most of the pellet brands >:-(
Flynfrfun

Yeah that's way out of line.

Check Craigslist. There is a store out in Sultan selling Pine pellets for $159.99 a ton and they do negotiate.

I like the Blazers though. I noticed there are several tons out back of the store I purchase them at but they are no longer displaying them inside the store.

Atlas was one of the best but I here they are out of business. I think they were selling for $260.00 a ton.

They are made out here and they generally have to compete with the price of natural gas in this area which I think works out to be around $11.00 per Therm?














If only we could get blazers..... let alone for the prices you guys are talking about!

 

[iceman]

O

Yeah, my HD is out, but they are ordering more. I'm thinking I will get a couple of tons of Blazers for next winter if I don't find a better price for the Bear Mtn. Thanks guys for the advice. I thought $300/ton was way out of line. Of course, I'm pretty sure that will be average prices next winter for most of the pellet brands >:-(
Flynfrfun

Yeah that's way out of line.

Check Craigslist. There is a store out in Sultan selling Pine pellets for $159.99 a ton and they do negotiate.

I like the Blazers though. I noticed there are several tons out back of the store I purchase them at but they are no longer displaying them inside the store.

Atlas was one of the best but I here they are out of business. I think they were selling for $260.00 a ton.

They are made out here and they generally have to compete with the price of natural gas in this area which I think works out to be around $11.00 per Therm?











0.11 per therm? LOL
I don't know if we can get them over here for under 300 a ton! But they are supposed to be the hottest pellet!
Buy as many as you can so we can be jealous! LOL

 

[flynfrfun]

...They are made out here and they generally have to compete with the price of natural gas in this area which I think works out to be around $11.00 per Therm?

My natural gas is 1.08/therm not counting the "basic charge" of about $10/month just to be a customer. It is cheaper per BTU than pellets, but we are enjoying supplementing with pellets to get the living room and downstairs nice and warm. Plus, it's nice to have a hot stove to get warm in front of if you get chilled. Can't do that with the furnace. We got the pellet stove with the 30% tax credit which brought the overall price (after the tax credit) down to about $3200 including stove, pipe and building materials. I would never have spent the $4500-5500 on a pellet stove without the credit. Guess Uncle Sam's plan worked in my case...it got me to spend some money.
Flynfrfun

 

[checkthisout]

...They are made out here and they generally have to compete with the price of natural gas in this area which I think works out to be around $11.00 per Therm?

My natural gas is 1.08/therm not counting the "basic charge" of about $10/month just to be a customer. It is cheaper per BTU than pellets, but we are enjoying supplementing with pellets to get the living room and downstairs nice and warm. Plus, it's nice to have a hot stove to get warm in front of if you get chilled. Can't do that with the furnace. We got the pellet stove with the 30% tax credit which brought the overall price (after the tax credit) down to about $3200 including stove, pipe and building materials. I would never have spent the $4500-5500 on a pellet stove without the credit. Guess Uncle Sam's plan worked in my case...it got me to spend some money.
Flynfrfun

Sorry, I meant per 1 million BTU's. You're about $11.00 delivered.

 

[checkthisout]

O

Yeah, my HD is out, but they are ordering more. I'm thinking I will get a couple of tons of Blazers for next winter if I don't find a better price for the Bear Mtn. Thanks guys for the advice. I thought $300/ton was way out of line. Of course, I'm pretty sure that will be average prices next winter for most of the pellet brands >:-(
Flynfrfun

Yeah that's way out of line.

Check Craigslist. There is a store out in Sultan selling Pine pellets for $159.99 a ton and they do negotiate.

I like the Blazers though. I noticed there are several tons out back of the store I purchase them at but they are no longer displaying them inside the store.

Atlas was one of the best but I here they are out of business. I think they were selling for $260.00 a ton.

They are made out here and they generally have to compete with the price of natural gas in this area which I think works out to be around $11.00 per Therm?











0.11 per therm? LOL
I don't know if we can get them over here for under 300 a ton! But they are supposed to be the hottest pellet!
Buy as many as you can so we can be jealous! LOL

I goofed sorry. It's about $1.10 per therm or about $11.00 per 1 million BTU's.

Pellets have to compete with NG.

 

[jtakeman]

I liked the Blazers, around here they are tops. But Bear Mountains are just that much better as far as heat and ash content. Try a couple of bags and see what there all about. But are they worth that much more? Probably not. If they were just slightly more than the Blazers I would say get um. But $300 a ton in the west is pretty high.

Just something about these red fir/Douglas fir pellets. Only pellet we have in New England that comes close is the 100% Oak pellets. But the fir ash content is un-real. I have seen numbers as low as 0.17% where our Oak pellets run the 0.28% range at best. You can get that from a SPF pellet pretty easy. Douglas fir rocks!

I also have seen numbers from Ponderosa pine pellets that were outstanding. If you see Heartland's, Try them. AFAIK they are the only brand that's 100% Ponderosa pine. Been a while since I have burned them, But outstanding heat!

 

[flynfrfun]

J,
I'm finding that the Cleanburn produces very low amounts of ash. But, having a little more ash pile up on the edge of the burn pot liner keeps unburned pellets from getting pushed into the ashtray at startup with my M55. So, in that regard, I like the Blazers more than the Cleanburn. The Cleanburn leaves so little ash that unburned pellets fall into the ash tray each time it starts up. I think I read one of your posts about this same thing somewhere. I would think Enviro could modify the start program to wait longer to start the agitator. Right now, it starts at 5min after the pot starts filling with pellets. It then brushes a bunch of pellets to the edges of the pot before they get a chance to burn. I'll have to send an email to them.
Flynfrfun

 

[jtakeman]

I wouldn't blame the pellets for that. I fixed mine another way. No more loose pellets in the ash pan or corn either.

Oops, there I go showing proof I modified my stove again!

 

[flynfrfun]

Good thinking J! I can't weld...yet. I'm thinking about going to my local community college and learning how. It has always been one of those things that I wanted to learn. I could probably do the same thing with some screws/bolts as long as they didn't interfere with the agitator.

So do you still get some fire coming out from outside of the burn box, or is it totally contained in the burn pot? Mine has a little fire outside of the burn pot at times due to pellets still burning that have been pushed to the edges. Containing all pellets inside the burn pot would probably increase heating efficiency even if it is a very tiny amount.
Flynfrfun

 

[jtakeman]

Just a bit of flame that sneaks out. Ash has no problem getting pushed out to the ash pan. Best upgrade besides the new blower. Its been 3 seasons in the stove(my first mod). Next one will be stainless plates just bolted to the lower side of the grate. The tabs are starting to rust and crumble from being in the fire, But still working fine.

If you notice I also welded up the back of the grate(by the feed shute). Pellets do bounce over the back side from time to time. But most were from skipping out the bottom.

P.S. you can drill and tap the grate. Its just mild steel. Never seez the screws so you can take them out later on!

 

[flynfrfun]

Just a bit of flame that sneaks out. Ash has no problem getting pushed out to the ash pan. Best upgrade besides the new blower. Its been 3 seasons in the stove(my first mod). Next one will be stainless plates just bolted to the lower side of the grate. The tabs are starting to rust and crumble from being in the fire, But still working fine.

If you notice I also welded up the back of the grate(by the feed shute). Pellets do bounce over the back side from time to time. But most were from skipping out the bottom.

P.S. you can drill and tap the grate. Its just mild steel. Never seez the screws so you can take them out later on!

Thanks J, that would work and the anti-seize is a wise suggestion. I was thinking about how that could become a problem if the bolt rusted over time. Should be an easy mod. I haven't noticed the pellets falling behind the chute. They do seem to load into the left side of the burn pot which makes the fire big on the left and small on the right. I've thought about adding a "deflector" in the chute itself to direct some of the pellets to the right side of the pot. I just haven't figured out a way that wouldn't be too permanent if it didn't work.
Flynfrfun

 

[checkthisout]

Just a bit of flame that sneaks out. Ash has no problem getting pushed out to the ash pan. Best upgrade besides the new blower. Its been 3 seasons in the stove(my first mod). Next one will be stainless plates just bolted to the lower side of the grate. The tabs are starting to rust and crumble from being in the fire, But still working fine.

If you notice I also welded up the back of the grate(by the feed shute). Pellets do bounce over the back side from time to time. But most were from skipping out the bottom.

P.S. you can drill and tap the grate. Its just mild steel. Never seez the screws so you can take them out later on!

Thanks J, that would work and the anti-seize is a wise suggestion. I was thinking about how that could become a problem if the bolt rusted over time. Should be an easy mod. I haven't noticed the pellets falling behind the chute. They do seem to load into the left side of the burn pot which makes the fire big on the left and small on the right. I've thought about adding a "deflector" in the chute itself to direct some of the pellets to the right side of the pot. I just haven't figured out a way that wouldn't be too permanent if it didn't work.
Flynfrfun

What ya flyin and what ya rated to fly?

 

[flynfrfun]

I started as a kid flying sailplanes (Schweizer 2-33, and 1-26). Then got into ultralights and have progressed thru several (Challenger, Kolb Firestar and Titan Tornado). Got tired of ongoing cost of hangar rental in a supposedly cheap way to fly, sold my ultralights and settled on powered paragliding. Stores in my garage, transports in my Honda Civic and only burns 1gal/hr. Have been doing that for the last 8yrs and love it. I also fly RC planes and helis, so I don't mind tinkering. That's why a pellet stove is right up my alley, as I don't mind playing with it.
Flynfrfun

 

[checkthisout]

I started as a kid flying sailplanes (Schweizer 2-33, and 1-26). Then got into ultralights and have progressed thru several (Challenger, Kolb Firestar and Titan Tornado). Got tired of ongoing cost of hangar rental in a supposedly cheap way to fly, sold my ultralights and settled on powered paragliding. Stores in my garage, transports in my Honda Civic and only burns 1gal/hr. Have been doing that for the last 8yrs and love it. I also fly RC planes and helis, so I don't mind tinkering. That's why a pellet stove is right up my alley, as I don't mind playing with it.
Flynfrfun

Cool. I have my Private hut have not flown in 3 months. I miss it terribly. I have to drive all the way to Renton or all the way up to Everett so it's always a big deal. There are no Airports in between.

 

[arnash]

I'm near the Calif border with Oregon and the Bear Mnt. pellets are $5.00 per bag at Ace. Every other store charges more for their pellets, even by the ton (except Walmart). So...1 ton costs $250. which may be cheaper than the $300 per ton you quote because the Oregon plant may not be that far away. I assume that the other brands have to be trucked farther to get here and gas here is $3.93 per gallon for regular, unless it's gone up even more in the last few days.

 

[checkthisout]

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/for/2240159517.html

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/grd/2231109209.html

 

[flynfrfun]

Thanks for the info guys. Hmmm...now the question is: Are Bear Mtns worth $255/ton? Yelm is a bit of a haul to get them as I'm in the Puyallup area. I'll have to go get a couple of bags and see if I think they are really worth the extra money.
Flynfrfun

 

[jtakeman]

Careful, Once you try them you might get hooked!