Vermont Wood Pellets

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cac4

New Member
Jul 11, 2008
376
Essex County, MA
Anybody tried them?
the few comments I've seen have been positive...

My local dealer has them...wondering if I should give them a try.
 
Very good pellet, I stocked with Okies but buying a ton of Vermonts when I get more room
 
I bought a couple bags, then it got too frickin' warm to try them. Hope to fire the stove tomorrow morning. I did find a good 2 cups of fines in my bag. That could be how they were handled at the place I bought them from, but it was way to much if that's the way most bags are. They also smell like they are scented with something. Maybe that's just the softwood that I'm not used to. It certainly isn't an unpleasand smell, just different than other pellets I've tried.
 
I burned a ton of them last year, and they are a very good pellet. They have the nicest pine smell of any pellet that I have ever tried. They have low to moderate ash. In my stove there was some build up of the burned on carbon that has to be scraped hard to remove. I have two more tons left over from last year left to burn and when those are gone I will buy them again.
 
Just got a ton Delivered, I'll let you know in a few weeks.
Closest dealer was 30+ miles away and get this... was only $10 for delivery even though they had to unload and restack by hand in my garage.
 
I tried 2 bags of them and I liked them. They burned clean for me and produced less than .3% ash which is very low. The heat was decent and I think if they increased the pellet density it could rival some of the hotter brands I have burned.

I would buy them if the price was right. But here in CT there up there do to logistics.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/51871/P22/#602652
 
StrangeRanger said:
This will be my second season burning them. They're a decent pellet, but I wouldn't rave about them. They're simply what I can get in my area.




where did you pick them up at? how much? i would like to do a test run on them...
 
Energy Co-op of VT will deliver them to you for $259 - $269 a ton depending on where you live. Go to their website to see if you are in their delivery area.
 
Yea......

I Test Run Before i Buy Bulk....

Was hoping for a retailer carrying them to try a couple bags......
 
They (ECOV) will give you a free bag to try. I'm sure that if you want to try more they will sell them to you. They did for me last year.
 
Got 3 tons recently (from HB in SE Vermont - who will stack 'em where you want 'em on delivery), and they burn very well. Much less buildup in the pot (of my Quadra-Fire Santa Fe) than the Fireside Ultras I burned last winter, which I was otherwise happy with.

Also, contrary to the experience noted above, little by way of fines.
 
whit said:
Also, contrary to the experience noted above, little by way of fines.

Good to know. It seems like when some of these places sell single bags, they've been tossed around a bit. I burned 2 bags and liked them. I didn't do any real tests since I'm too lazy, but I feel like the Turmans burned hotter. Of course it could be that since I have 3 tons of Turmans in my basement that I want them to be hotter! I definitely would pick up a ton of the Vermont pellets if the price was right.
 
opened first bag this morning. Much darker pellet than I expected. We'll see how they burn.
 
Burned a few bags and...
Like I said above, not sure what kind of wood is in it, thought it was soft wood, but pretty dark in color for soft wood.
Fines. 1-2 cups of fines in each of first 3 bags. May be from handling, I think dealer loaded and unloaded truck by hand.
Seems to burn warm, but have only cranked stove up about 1/3 way so far this year.
Nice light ash blows out of burn pot.
Fines make for a constant fireworks display in the stove window! My 3 yr old boy loves that.

Not sure why but this is the only pellet I have had in the stove that does not want to feed into the bottom of hopper. Flame started dieing last night so I checked hopper, there was an inverted cone shape that was empty in the middle of hopper, I could see the bottom, with pellets piled up all around it all the way to the top of the hopper. That's gonna be a hassle if it keeps happening when it gets colder.

I really WANT to love these pellets as its a local mill in it's 2nd year, but so far would give a GOOD rating.
 
I have to agree with you about the constant "fireworks display." What makes this happen? I was thinking it was because my VT Wood Pellets are over a year old and they may have absorbed some moisture from storage, but it sounds like that is not the case. I cleaned my stove yesterday after running it for around 12 days straight on low to medium flame, and I have to say there was a large amount of fly ash. The heat exchangers on my P61a were really coated. I'm finding that there is a lot of carbon build up that requires twice a day scraping to keep it under control. Even with all of my scraping, after it was shut down for cleaning, there were large flakes of carbon that I scraped out of the burn pot. I also really want to love this pellet and would agree with your GOOD, but not GREAT, rating.
 
Sawduster said:
I have to agree with you about the constant "fireworks display." What makes this happen? I was thinking it was because my VT Wood Pellets are over a year old and they may have absorbed some moisture from storage, but it sounds like that is not the case. I cleaned my stove yesterday after running it for around 12 days straight on low to medium flame, and I have to say there was a large amount of fly ash. The heat exchangers on my P61a were really coated. I'm finding that there is a lot of carbon build up that requires twice a day scraping to keep it under control. Even with all of my scraping, after it was shut down for cleaning, there were large flakes of carbon that I scraped out of the burn pot. I also really want to love this pellet and would agree with your GOOD, but not GREAT, rating.

were you burning at a low setting? what you have mentioned could happen in a lower heat setting.

the hotter the fire the less likely that you get solid build up.
 
I am burning at a fairly low setting. It is keep the house at a perfect 72 - 74 degree temp. Maybe that is what is causing the severe carbon build up that I did not experience last winter. It is pretty much unavoidable then, because If I run the stove any hotter right now it would quickly climb to over 80 degrees,which is way too hot for me.
 
I think the "fireworks" are the fines igniting and then getting blown out of burn pot. I usually only see them as hopper gets toward empty but it is constant with these bags.
 
mascoma said:
Burned a few bags and...
Like I said above, not sure what kind of wood is in it, thought it was soft wood, but pretty dark in color for soft wood.
Fines. 1-2 cups of fines in each of first 3 bags. May be from handling, I think dealer loaded and unloaded truck by hand.
Seems to burn warm, but have only cranked stove up about 1/3 way so far this year.
Nice light ash blows out of burn pot.
Fines make for a constant fireworks display in the stove window! My 3 yr old boy loves that.

Not sure why but this is the only pellet I have had in the stove that does not want to feed into the bottom of hopper. Flame started dieing last night so I checked hopper, there was an inverted cone shape that was empty in the middle of hopper, I could see the bottom, with pellets piled up all around it all the way to the top of the hopper. That's gonna be a hassle if it keeps happening when it gets colder.

I really WANT to love these pellets as its a local mill in it's 2nd year, but so far would give a GOOD rating.

I had the very same problem with them last year. No other pellets seem to have this severe of a problem. It seemed like the heat from the stove had some reaction to the pellets in the hopper and left some sort of non-slippery coating on the surface of the hopper. There is a thread on here somewhere about ways to make the hopper "slipperier" so that pellets slide down the hopper easier. I think that might help. I loved the head from the pellets and the smell wasn't bad. I just got accustomed to opening the cover on the stove and manually moving the pellets around a couple times a day. As long as someone is home, that's a possibility.
 
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