good riddance Barefoots

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LordmetalZ28

Minister of Fire
Nov 2, 2014
593
Hudson Valley NY
Out of three tons burnt burnt worst pellet by far. Even worse that the awf white pines as barefoots where the only ones to clog up the burn pot and overflow pellets this year outta many different brands( and yes the stove is clean soup to nuts) the clinkers where so bad they clogged up the burn pot air holes after 3 hours. Has anyone else experienced this with barefoots as im hoping it was a fluke. Also pellets where extremely long and my auger fought tooth and nail to feed these. What a disappointment I had high hopes for these chitfoots
 
Barefoots are very good from my pickings. Light fine ash and no clinkers. My lot is from April 2014. What's the manufacture date on the bag? Maybe someone else is having similar issues.
 
I tried them for the first time this year.just got my harman last year.i thought they were great.low to average ash.great heat.no clunkers.i will probably get 6 tons next year.only pellet i found as good were Turmans but they left alot if dust in house and alot of fines in bags
 
That's funny because AWF and Barefoot are the best pellets I've burned. Both burn clean and hot in my Harman with low ash. I get very few clinkers and build up in my pot. Every morning I give a quick scrape and I'm good to go. I can go 2 weeks without a general clean out. I'm getting 2 ton of each next year.
 
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I have to agree with Husky, those 2 brands are some of the best pellets out there. I know some people have a problem with the length of the barefoots in their auger, but otherwise I cant figure out why your having problems in your stove!
 
Burned about 1.5 tons this year of barefoots and have not had any major issues. They burn pretty hot in my insert. I notice is the ash is darker and grainer then say the lignetics I also burn. That ash is lighter and fluffy. The only complaint I had about the barefoots is I had some bags that had some really long pellets and lots of them. I have a lopi agp and it chops the pellets that are too long and it does a lot of chopping with the barefoots and hardly any with the lignetics. So I usually do a rough screen of the pellets to break up any super long ones before I put them into my insert. I bought my pellets in the spring of last year.
 
Thats odd, I agree my darker Lignetics leave whiter ash, were-as my Super Light colored La Cretes leave darker ash. Lignetics being longer pellet of my consumables. Green Supremes were the only pellet to leave a clinker. Greenways burning awesome and Hamers being my pellet of choice for tonnage purchase. Energex were good. NEWP one step above the GS. I should note I havent ran my Englander above 5-5, it just flames us out of the house. it typically idles on one bag of pellets on 2-2 or 3-3 for 24-36 hrs....
 
Loved the Barefoots when I burned them last year. My 4 ton stockpile of other brands is down to 30 bags, so I may buy some Batefoots to get me through this season.
 
I've been burning barefoots this season since Nov. No issues. The low ash high heat pellet I'm used to. I'm thinking bad batch as well??
 
I'm through 3 tons so far, 7/14 batch with no problems except the pellets are a bit longer this yr. Barefoot has been my preferred pellet since I purchased my XXV.
 
I exclusively used Barefoot for 6 years 4-5 ton a year until last year that is
Found they had some type of foam pressed in the pellets They were making tons of ash and the smoke outside stunk... SAM_1948.JPG
called Barefoot & sent them a handful and never heard back ... when speaking on the phone they said perhaps it was an ear plug that fell in ... REALLY in 4 ton ...
This year I chose to give my $'s to Turman and could not be happier they burn with a 1/4 of the ash last years Barefoot were making ... previously I loved Barefoot but not after last years...
Here is a pic of a pellet I broke open ... if you enlarge it you can really see the foam in it
 
This seems to be an increasingly common occurrence, particularly among pellet brands with a previously good reputation for quality.

I'm guessing that regional pellet shortages = increased mill production pressures = manufacturers cutting corners on product source quality.

I bought LaCrete's this season based on their quality reputation, and though they burn hot, I have to clean the firebox ash daily to keep my Quad running optimally.

Certainly more ash than the reported 0.5%, and considering the premium pricing, I wouldn't buy them again.

Given the LaCrete 'branding motto' is "Quality is our Priority", I relayed a similar message via their corporate contact page, but heard nothing back from them.
 
This seems to be an increasingly common occurrence, particularly among pellet brands with a previously good reputation for quality.

I'm guessing that regional pellet shortages = increased mill production pressures = manufacturers cutting corners on product source quality.

I bought LaCrete's this season based on their quality reputation, and though they burn hot, I have to clean the firebox ash daily to keep my Quad running optimally.

Certainly more ash than the reported 0.5%, and considering the premium pricing, I wouldn't buy them again.

Given the LaCrete 'branding motto' is "Quality is our Priority", I relayed a similar message via their corporate contact page, but heard nothing back from them.

Unfortunately these were purchased in the summer of 2013 before any pellet shortage problems arose ... Always buy my supply of 5 tons before the season starts just in case of shortage etc... so they can't use that as an excuse...
Barefoot just put out a product that had issues of foam mixed in with the pellets... I would have never known except I saw a pellet with this long black foamy thing sticking out of it ... then I started breaking some open and low and behold they had this in the middle... opened several other bags ... same thing... I won't burn anymore of them in my stove ... not worth risking high repair bills... like I said we had noticed a huge increase in ash over other years and the smoke outside smelled horrible... should have looked into it sooner... but when I contacted the dealer he said no one else had complained of higher ash / dirtier stove so I let it go... until I found the foam ... when I looked online I saw there were others complaining of Barefoot quality going downhill...
 
Unfortunately these were purchased in the summer of 2013 before any pellet shortage problems arose ... Always buy my supply of 5 tons before the season starts just in case of shortage etc... so they can't use that as an excuse...
Barefoot just put out a product that had issues of foam mixed in with the pellets... I would have never known except I saw a pellet with this long black foamy thing sticking out of it ... then I started breaking some open and low and behold they had this in the middle... opened several other bags ... same thing... I won't burn anymore of them in my stove ... not worth risking high repair bills... like I said we had noticed a huge increase in ash over other years and the smoke outside smelled horrible... should have looked into it sooner... but when I contacted the dealer he said no one else had complained of higher ash / dirtier stove so I let it go... until I found the foam ... when I looked online I saw there were others complaining of Barefoot quality going downhill...

This was what I found with Vermonts. They were great one year, and then significantly worse last year. Didn't even give them a second look this year and threw my bucks elsewhere. NEWP also showed horribly. Perhaps the all time worst pellet that's been in my stove, and they smelled rank as all get out!!
 
also forgot to mention this is what i found in my barefoots alot of metal this year
 

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