Pellet Manufacture Date

[DBNH22]

I had an interetsing conversation with a rep from the Maine Woods Pellet company this morning.

Between mid October and Late December last year I was burning MWP blend that I had purchased in early October from a local hardware store. In this time period I burned a little under two tons and the ash was very consistently a fine grey ash. Around late December I started purchasing a few bags here and there of Fireside Ultras and some MWP blend from Home Depot because they were cheaper. I've been burning them since this time through today. During this whole time the ash has been darker and clumpier. It's also been hardening and accumulating on pieces within my burnpot.

I called MWP to enquire as to why their product would perform differently when purchased from separate resellers. The rep said that one likely reason may be that the pellets which I purchased in December and January were actually manufactured only slightly before they were brought to market at Home Depot and that pellets manufactured in winter, due to mineral content and other variables, tend to be of lower quality than those manufactured in the spring/summer which is when the ones I got from the hardware store were most likely manufactured.

I was wondering what everyone else's thoughts on this are. Also does anyone know for a fact where and how Home Depot stores their pellets? I guess I should have done my homework on that one but didn't and now I'm guessing that storage is not a big concern for them when they can afford to sell them much cheaper than outher pellet retailers.

 

[Stevekng]

I had an interetsing conversation with a rep from the Maine Woods Pellet company this morning.

Between mid October and Late December last year I was burning MWP blend that I had purchased in early October from a local hardware store. In this time period I burned a little under two tons and the ash was very consistently a fine grey ash. Around late December I started purchasing a few bags here and there of Fireside Ultras and some MWP blend from Home Depot because they were cheaper. I've been burning them since this time through today. During this whole time the ash has been darker and clumpier. It's also been hardening and accumulating on pieces within my burnpot.

I called MWP to enquire as to why their product would perform differently when purchased from separate resellers. The rep said that one likely reason may be that the pellets which I purchased in December and January were actually manufactured only slightly before they were brought to market at Home Depot and that pellets manufactured in winter, due to mineral content and other variables, tend to be of lower quality than those manufactured in the spring/summer which is when the ones I got from the hardware store were most likely manufactured.

I was wondering what everyone else's thoughts on this are. Also does anyone know for a fact where and how Home Depot stores their pellets? I guess I should have done my homework on that one but didn't and now I'm guessing that storage is not a big concern for them when they can afford to sell them much cheaper than outher pellet retailers.

Home Depot stores them outside in a fenced in area. I've bought Firesides from them for the past 5 years and never had a big variance in the ash or heat output. I've never burned MWP but I think the only thing that really varies with MWP is the quality of the materials they put into the pellets. That would account for the rep's statement. MWP probably cheapened their pellets because they sell them to HD a lot cheaper than they do to the hardware stores; lower profit margin and all.

 

[pelletizer]

You have 60 reads and no post so I will post.
I burned MWP a couple of yeas ago and the were nice.
My recent purchase from a local hardware store proved to have a lot of fines and dust and lots of dark ash opposite from you having this situation at Home Depot.
Its hit or miss sometimes with pellets.
As far as storage I have seen pellets stored outside and inside.
Inside and dry would be best I assume but then again the way the pallets of pellets are shrink wrapped and covered in the outer plastic wrap appears to be pretty water proof unless damaged.
I will try MWP again as I will others.
Take care,

 

[pelletizer]

ok now two posts.

 

[chken]

I had an interetsing conversation with a rep from the Maine Woods Pellet company this morning.

Between mid October and Late December last year I was burning MWP blend that I had purchased in early October from a local hardware store. In this time period I burned a little under two tons and the ash was very consistently a fine grey ash. Around late December I started purchasing a few bags here and there of Fireside Ultras and some MWP blend from Home Depot because they were cheaper. I've been burning them since this time through today. During this whole time the ash has been darker and clumpier. It's also been hardening and accumulating on pieces within my burnpot.

I called MWP to enquire as to why their product would perform differently when purchased from separate resellers. The rep said that one likely reason may be that the pellets which I purchased in December and January were actually manufactured only slightly before they were brought to market at Home Depot and that pellets manufactured in winter, due to mineral content and other variables, tend to be of lower quality than those manufactured in the spring/summer which is when the ones I got from the hardware store were most likely manufactured.

I was wondering what everyone else's thoughts on this are. Also does anyone know for a fact where and how Home Depot stores their pellets? I guess I should have done my homework on that one but didn't and now I'm guessing that storage is not a big concern for them when they can afford to sell them much cheaper than outher pellet retailers.

I'd give him kudos for the honesty, but it's still rather disconcerting. I thought they advertised that they got their feed supply from stable sources. They don't mention anything about seasonality on their website.

I wish they'd tell us consumers when they are making the crap pellets so we can avoid them! I suppose you can go to your HD and look at the wrapped pallets for the date that is usually sprayed on the outside.

 

[DBNH22]

I just finished cleaning the entire boiler and removing all of the Home Depot pellets from the hopper. It took some time because the hopper is actually a 300 lb. hopper and it was nearly full. What I noticed is that there was a lot of dust int he HD pellets that were in the hopper. Much more than was in the bags of MWP from the hardware store. SO i refilled the entire hopper with all pellets from the hardware store and I'm going to keep running just those pellets to see if the problem occurs again. My suspicion is that the dust is getting dumped into the burn pot and choking the flame/airflow to the pint where it's not getting hot enough to burn the ash completely and therefore the blacker, hardened ash is accumulating over time. I'm not a heating guy so I don't really know all that much about the combustion and airflow dynamics of the unit but it seems to make sense to me.