Maine Woods Pellets 2009 2010 report

[bobforsaken]

Maine Woods…224 °F …ash content… .65% or 132% more ash than the Okies
Okies…262 °F ….ash content… .275% and 16.96% more heat than the MWP

I am not trying to be confrontational, but could you list the origin of your facts. For the record I am not nor have I ever been a distributer of any wood pellet company and I have read TPA reports. Just my .02

Jay's analysis is great and very valuable. I'm trying to find the date of the batch however. if it was 2008/2009 MWP and not the 2009/2010 pellets that could be a major difference since there is a consensus that they have improved dramatically. Even if the test was done in 2009, was it new stock at the Agway or not?

Jay, can you clarify?


And for clarification of my facts.. claimed any facts.. I just said that they seemed every bit as hot as the Okies.. Observation only. As for what may be considered facts regarding cost effectiveness.. I explained my rational above in a response to BTU.

bobforsaken,

The batch I tested was Sept 2009. I was very impressed on there improvement's from the previous year. It is definitly a better pellet now.

As web said, My test is a snap shot of one batch! There are batch variance factor's. There is also the stove factor too. We may all see different results in our testing of different brands. I have tried to let my stove pick my pellets for me. My test was more to show how I compare brands and have always said everyone should compare them in there own stoves. YMMV as they say.

I wouldn't get all flustered about this. If the Mainewoods are burning good for you then I say burn them. Let your stove be the judge of what pellets are good or bad! Not some smuck testing pellets in his basement!

happy burning
jay

Thanks Jay.. Your testing is valuable as a reference and I appreciate your work on this...

 

[bobforsaken]

And for clarification of my facts.. claimed any facts.. I just said that they seemed every bit as hot as the Okies.. Observation only. As for what may be considered facts regarding cost effectiveness.. I explained my rational above in a response to BTU.

But you ONLY took into consideration the heat factor..what about the ash...that to some people is almost as important and you really have to compare both components to give a fair evaluation of the pellets...any pellets to establish a value...at least you should to determine if you are getting your total monies worth.....sort of like saying a car has great looks and is super fast...except it only gets 2 miles to the gallon...a deal killer for some...(OK, most..!!)

I'm not trying to say your analysis is wrong.. just wrong for me. To use your car analogy, in reverse... If a car got 100 miles per gallon but could only go 200 miles per fill up.. well, if I was someone with a short commute that rarely drives long distances that car would be more valuable for me than someone who wants to drive long distances.

I"m not saying that Ash shouldn't be considered... but low ash has different values to different people and you can't just uniformly TELL people that they should consider higher ash pellets as XX% less valuable. For me right now, ash is a very minor concern because my stove will keep running with high ash pellets. Since I clean the stove at least once a week anyway, it doesn't matter to me if my ash pan is mostly full or mostly empty. Conversely, if someones stove my snuff out after a few hours on high ash pellets the value of the oki's vs MWP would be even higher than you state because the MWP would be nearly worthless to them. So please stop trying to tell me that my perceived value for a pellet is wrong because I don't follow your formula. You can't create a formula for value that is correct for all people... but you can compare BTU's/dollar uniformly. So given the prices I had when I was purchasing pellets.. the BTU's per dollar for the MWP made them a more cost effective option for me.

Using your analogy again.. If you said to a car dealer that you wanted something that was a good Family car, Safe with Good Gas mileage and as Cheap as possible because you are on a budget.. You see a Station Wagon for your family that gets 24MPG but the Dealer kept steering you towards another station wagon that is more expensive , gets 20 MPG but is faster and therefore a better value, wouldn't you be put off by that dealer? If you don't care about the speed of the Vehicle then why would you spend more for it? I don't know about you, but I would shop somewhere else because I'd think that dealer is just trying to get me to spend more money and not listening to what is important to me.

 

[BJN644]

What I was trying to point out was that someone who doesn’t have an agenda or a particular bias on any brand of pellet has put a couple of hundred hours of effort into burning over 40 brands of pellets this fall/winter and has posted his results for all to see.

Jay does deserve credit for his test, and I have told him so. You like to keep referring to it even though Jay himself has said it's not a very scientific test. I wonder how you would comment about it if your product was somewhere in the middle?

I want to help educate the pellet buying public as to what is good and what is garbage out there.

Hard to pass the straight face test when this is your signature line.

Exclusive wholesale distributor of Okanagan, Dragon Mtn and SureFire Super Premium softwood pellets from Western Canada…

 

[dobie daddy]

Well put BJN.
I can tell u r a very honest person.
Your explanations were clear and concise.

Lest another spin from the spin Doctor.

 

[bobforsaken]

agreed on the best to agree to disagree part. Now for the record, the reason I took exception to your post, is not that I don't appreciate the opinions of others. I Do.. and have enjoyed many of your posts in the past. What rubbed me the wrong way is the fact that you assumed I was a dealer and had an agenda then proceeded to tell me that my self proclaimed "Unscientific observation" was wrong because it didn't match your formula or Jay's tests. Like the original post by Dperkins... I've noticed my house with my stove seems to remain warmer by about 1-2 degrees with the MWP. (when I compare a day with a low of 5 and a high of 20 with MWP with another day with a low of 5 and high of 20 with Okies using the same stove settings) Not scientific at all which is why I said it was an UNSCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION... It may have been windier one day.. or the sun may have been shining more with the mwp. But repeatedly I ended up with MWP going toe to toe with the Okies day in and day out in my house with my stove. For me they are a better value, and my personal valuation really isn't up for debate. That is my opinion and I'm not trying to convince anyone else to not buy Okies because I've found them to be very good. Had you said instead, "I've never found MWP to be even close to Okies.... our testing shows they are about 15% cooler" then I wouldn't have had a problem with the correction. It was the assumption that I was being disingenuous that ticked me off. Would you have been angry if I had implied your testing and observations were pro-oki only because you sell them?

 

[bobforsaken]

Thank you for your explanation and apology is accepted. An honest mistake due to the Twin Ports testing reference, I'm sure.

With that said, I welcome any suggestions you may have for improving my stove settings for better performance. Its an XXV and my comparisons of MWP and Oki were all done with Blower at Med.. Feed rate at maximum in stove temp mode between 2 and 4. Note.. My feed rate at maximum does not force pellets out of the burn pot even while operating at Maximum Stove temp and High per the instructions for calibrating my feed rate on the stove. As a matter of fact the pellets did not really reach the 1 inch threshold of reaching the edge of the burn pot on maximum. Also.. this was done (as was my comparisons) with my first batch of Oki which may have been from last year's stock vs the ones I purchased in December that were clearly different in pellet size and color. (more reddish tones, longer pellets, and less fines in the second batch). Now I have never compared the two operating at Stove temp of 5 or higher.... Largely my stove is operating at med to med-low.

 

[sparkydog00]

Thank you for your explanation and apology is accepted. An honest mistake due to the Twin Ports testing reference, I'm sure.

With that said, I welcome any suggestions you may have for improving my stove settings for better performance. Its an XXV and my comparisons of MWP and Oki were all done with Blower at Med.. Feed rate at maximum in stove temp mode between 2 and 4. Note.. My feed rate at maximum does not force pellets out of the burn pot even while operating at Maximum Stove temp and High per the instructions for calibrating my feed rate on the stove. As a matter of fact the pellets did not really reach the 1 inch threshold of reaching the edge of the burn pot on maximum. Also.. this was done (as was my comparisons) with my first batch of Oki which may have been from last year's stock vs the ones I purchased in December that were clearly different in pellet size and color. (more reddish tones, longer pellets, and less fines in the second batch). Now I have never compared the two operating at Stove temp of 5 or higher.... Largely my stove is operating at med to med-low.

I know something about pellets.. I know nothing about stoves, so I would have to throw your questions to the forum and ask that anyone with this knowledge or the same stove give up your opinion on this. I do know that some stoves have a "sunflower" setting and that is what you need to dial in on to get the maximum results desired. I turn this thread over to experts for your answers.

Please tell me someone really isn't trying to say Maine Wood Pellets are at even close to the same quality as Okies....
Maybe in traction ability...but as long as MWP use trees with bark...their pellets would be of standard quality...not premium...certainly not super premium.
At any setting in any stove

 

[bobforsaken]

What I'm saying, sparky, is that in terms of heating my home, seem to be more cost effective in terms of BTU's per Dollar.. If you read the thread, you'll see that I said the MWP have much higher ash and dirty the glass faster. I'm in no way saying they are better quality. For me with my cleaning routine and financial constraints and relative costs at the time I purchased my pellets.. MWP were more cost effective and a better value for me and what is important to me. You can use MWP for traction.. I'm very happy to burn them in my stove.

 

[Bigjim13]

Thank you for your explanation and apology is accepted. An honest mistake due to the Twin Ports testing reference, I'm sure.

With that said, I welcome any suggestions you may have for improving my stove settings for better performance. Its an XXV and my comparisons of MWP and Oki were all done with Blower at Med.. Feed rate at maximum in stove temp mode between 2 and 4. Note.. My feed rate at maximum does not force pellets out of the burn pot even while operating at Maximum Stove temp and High per the instructions for calibrating my feed rate on the stove. As a matter of fact the pellets did not really reach the 1 inch threshold of reaching the edge of the burn pot on maximum. Also.. this was done (as was my comparisons) with my first batch of Oki which may have been from last year's stock vs the ones I purchased in December that were clearly different in pellet size and color. (more reddish tones, longer pellets, and less fines in the second batch). Now I have never compared the two operating at Stove temp of 5 or higher.... Largely my stove is operating at med to med-low.

I know something about pellets.. I know nothing about stoves, so I would have to throw your questions to the forum and ask that anyone with this knowledge or the same stove give up your opinion on this. I do know that some stoves have a "sunflower" setting and that is what you need to dial in on to get the maximum results desired. I turn this thread over to experts for your answers.

I have a Harman P61A, not quite the same stove as the XXV but similar enough. I stand by my review earlier in the thread, MWP are an OK, middle of the road pellet. They have heated my house this winter fairly well. There seem to be alot of fines, sawdust, dust in general and pellets that range from tiny (like 1/8" to huge 2"+). All this is easy enough for my stove to deal with though. The real issue I have with these pellets is the amount of ash they generate. I basically need to clean my stove once a week, scrape the burn pot down once a day and give it a FULL cleaning every other week. The ash pan is FULL after 2 weeks (approximately 10-15 bags depending on how cold, no more than 20 though when its really cold like 10*F and below). I don't know if this helps, just my experience.

Hey, I saved approximately $20-$40/ton when I bought them. But if you factor in the amount of time I have spent cleaning my stove, I would say it's a wash over a more expensive premium pellet.

 

[MCPO]

Thank you for your explanation and apology is accepted. An honest mistake due to the Twin Ports testing reference, I'm sure.

With that said, I welcome any suggestions you may have for improving my stove settings for better performance. Its an XXV and my comparisons of MWP and Oki were all done with Blower at Med.. Feed rate at maximum in stove temp mode between 2 and 4. Note.. My feed rate at maximum does not force pellets out of the burn pot even while operating at Maximum Stove temp and High per the instructions for calibrating my feed rate on the stove. As a matter of fact the pellets did not really reach the 1 inch threshold of reaching the edge of the burn pot on maximum. Also.. this was done (as was my comparisons) with my first batch of Oki which may have been from last year's stock vs the ones I purchased in December that were clearly different in pellet size and color. (more reddish tones, longer pellets, and less fines in the second batch). Now I have never compared the two operating at Stove temp of 5 or higher.... Largely my stove is operating at med to med-low.

My Harman is supposed to push the ashes over the edge too but it ain`t never happened. It gets about an inch from the lip and just builds up like a dam. Every day I just pull the ashes forward and it`s fine.
I`m burning Green Supremes (NEWPS). They`re fine but I think I like the Heartlands (Spearfish SD)better.