"Warm Front" wood Pellets

[geek]

Looks like the newenglandpelletllc website only offers this "Warm Front" brand for us CT residents, they do not sell the "New England" brand here except for NY/NJ.

Any comments on this "Warm Front" brand ?

They said it is the same New England pellet but in different bags.....

 

[Wet1]

Steve at NE Pellet claims they are the same thing. Ive never heard of them until this year, but I think I'm going to order 4 or 5 tons for this winter.

 

[geek]

so you're gonna take the chance, ah ?

I wonder why is it that the cannot offer NEWP to CT residents, I thought they were, did they change the website recently ?

 

[geek]

I hope someone from CT that already purchased from them will provide feedback here.......

Don't manufacturers always have their main brand and then another brand (lower quality) to seel at a lower price?
hoping it's not the case with this Warm Front brand........:-(

 

[GVA]

I have no Idea but a guess.
Could just be a logistics thing....especially if they are the canadian softwoods...
They, last I knew of were still being bagged in Palmer MA...
New york now has a massive plant as does The original Jaffrey plant. (which are both hardwoods)
Could just be a way of keeping the shipping around new england to a minimum....
But I don't know..... :coolgrin:

 

[Wet1]

so you're gonna take the chance, ah ?

I wonder why is it that the cannot offer NEWP to CT residents, I thought they were, did they change the website recently ?

I think so. I'm about 80% confident in them. I'll probably order from them at the end of the month. I'm moving my stove from the basement to the first floor of the house (later this fall) to hopefully improve efficiency, so I'm not really sure how much I'm going to need for this winter. Running the numbers, it looks like I'm probably going to need about 3.25 tons. My first thought was to pick up 4 tons, but since I expect pellet demand to be high in the coming year or two (because of outrageous oil/gas prices), I'm now considering ordering 5 tons. Then again, since (IMO) there's a 20% chance I'm going to get porked by them, maybe only ordering 4 tons makes more sense. I obviously haven't decided yet.

Like I said, despite my conspiracy theories and better judgment, I'm most likely going to put all of my eggs in this one basket and hope for the best. With all the scammers around these days, and the law doing little to hold them accountable, it's unfortunate I've come not to trust anybody with out a positive history. I guess that's what this world has come to. I would certainly feel a lot better about dealing with them if there were more (even some) repeat customers vouching for them. Someone saying a friend of a friend knows the guy and says he's cool doesn't given me too much additional confidence in them... Hopefully next year at this time I can give them a glowing endorsement, and additional business!

I also agree with your fears regarding this WF brand being a second tier product. If they are the same product, coming from the same plant, sold at the same prices, why two different bags/products? Why not just sell or distribute under the larger more trusted NE name??? I know I'd choose the more trusted NE brand if given the choice, despite what the specs say.

I know they did reduce the pellet choices on their website from four to two, but I can't recall if all were available in CT or not... I thought they were, but I'm not 100% sure.

Are you going to order from them?

 

[geek]

thanks for feedback wet1,

I spoke to a woman yesterday and she gave me some explanations on this and that they were not allowed to sell NEWP brand to CT residents but only NY/NJ residents (dealer geographical "stuff") but I wasn't convinced.

She also said they'd deliver whenever I want, even next week. When I spoke with a man few weeks ago he mentioned delivery would start mid-June, I guess they changed the plans.

I won't be afraid to order from them, the problem now is the brand, which she claims is the same EXACT NEWP but different bags and this is 100% hardwood.
Again, the brand is now representing a show stopper for me and thinking on this a lot.

See if you can email pelletheat.com the original manufacturer of NEWP and ask them about this brand and the reason this dealer not offering the NEWP brand, I will do the same now.

Time is ticking and price will go up a little next month.

Hope some others can offer their opinion on this Warm Front brand........

 

[geek]

I got a response from www.pelletheat.com which is the manufacturer of the NEWP:

"Warm Front is a new brand that is manufactured by Schuyler Wood Pellet in Schuyler, New York and will be offered throughout the northeast. It is a hardwood blend that meets the Pellet Fuels Institute premium grade standard. The ash content is generally in the 0.4-0.6% range and the moisture content is between 2-4%. I’ve attached a PDF file containing the Warm Front spec sheet.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or concerns."

 

[Wet1]

I got a response from www.pelletheat.com which is the manufacturer of the NEWP:

"Warm Front is a new brand that is manufactured by Schuyler Wood Pellet in Schuyler, New York and will be offered throughout the northeast. It is a hardwood blend that meets the Pellet Fuels Institute premium grade standard. The ash content is generally in the 0.4-0.6% range and the moisture content is between 2-4%. I’ve attached a PDF file containing the Warm Front spec sheet.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or concerns."

I got the same canned response.

Given the alternatives, I think I'm just going to give these a try for this year.

 

[mrmichaeljmoore]

hey geek --

coould you post the pdf file you got from NEWP regsarding the Warm Front pellets??

thanks....

 

[geek]

it is pretty much the details seen on the website for newenglandpelletllc.com
this forum/site does not allow pdf attachments......

I took the plunge and ordered 3 tons this morning......wish me luck.....

 

[Wet1]

When are you taking delivery? Are you going to be testing any in your stove soon? The reason I ask is because I believe I have an older version of a similar stove (25-PDVC maybe?)

 

[geek]

well, I just paid this morning and added a note to the paypal payment asking them to call my cell to talk about delivery, they haven't called as of yet, I think delivery for me will be ok within 1 or 2 weeks, need to get basement ready.........

 

[TboneMan]

As I mentioned in another thread, NEWP, LLC, is hosting an open house at the new West Schuyler plant tomorrow. I thought I had something else going on, but as it turns out, I will likely have the opportunity to go. I'll ask some questions while I'm there.

I attended a workshop (more of a "pro-pellet" seminar) held by their Sales Development Manager a couple of months ago. From what I gather from that, and will likely see tomorrow, from a business model stand point, I don't think they'd make different "formulas".

Different bags, sure, there are many reasons manufactures label the same product differently (<Chevy, GMC, Buick, Pontiac,>; <Ford, Mercury>; <Dodge, Chrysler>).

I'd be curious to know if the Warm Front bags list West Schurler, NY as the place of place of origin.

 

[geek]

tboneman, it would be great to hear your feedback after you visit the plant tomorrow; and yes please ask as many questions as possible so we can understand better.

will be awaiting for your input, and thanks again...!!

 

[TboneMan]

tboneman, it would be great to hear your feedback after you visit the plant tomorrow; and yes please ask as many questions as possible so we can understand better.

will be awaiting for your input, and thanks again...!!

Ok. Here's the scoop.

I went to the factor open house. First off, it is pretty amazing to think they have 100,000 ton/year capacity in what I'd consider a modest sized facility (with only 16 employees). A good third of the building is indoor storage.

Extensive automation.

I saw at least 3 different rols of bags on their storage racks, NEWP, Warm Front, and AGWAY. As one might figure, with the extensive automation, the pellets going into these bags are all the SAME. It would be very impractical to change formulas just to change bags. I talked to one of the staff and he confirmed that all pellets produced in the plant are the same (with whatever variability that exists when working with a natural wood coming for numerous sources).


Each brand has a different pallet cover color. Warm Front have a brown cover, NEWP is tan, white pallet bags must have been the Agway (I didn't personally witness this, but it makes sense).


Their business model, price points and distribution networks (dealerships) dictated the multi-branding.

They are vowing to stay OUT OF BIG BOX stores and focus on expanding their dealership network and their relationship with organization such as "Pelletsales.com" (who had a representative on site). They WILL NOT sell directly out of the factory. While locals didn't really like that statement, it makes a lot of sense. You don't want to undercut your local dealers and you don't need a bunch of "red necks" with their pickup trucks waiting in line among the quoted 34 tractor trailers/day coming in and out (my statement not the factory's by the way).

Overall, a good experience. I just wish I could move and stack bags of pellets as quickly and easily as their robotic arm does!

 

[geek]

thanks for the feedback...

wonder if you asked any questions on prices, guess it wouldn't make sense then.....but......

did you happen to get the chance to touch the pellets, meaning like opening bags and check for lenght and specially for pellet dust inside the bags, just wondering about consistency, I tried a few brands (not NEWP) and some have lots of residual pellets and others are very clean and very little residual....

again, thanks for sharing....

did you take pictures that you could post and share?

 

[Wet1]

Great info, thanks for sharing TboneMan!

 

[TboneMan]

Walking up the to plant I did a "V8 commercial" whack of the forehead, "Gee I should have brought my camera". So no, sorry, no photos.

My experience with the two tons purchases (and used) that were produced at this plant is there is a small amount of very, very fine dust. This is not uncompressed pellets "fines". It is more like the fine dust from sanding a board not the auger clogging saw dust. Pellet size is very consistent.

The first ton I bought would have come off the line within the first month of production.


This was my first year with the stove so I tried several brands (3 or 4 bags experimental purchases). In terms of fines and size consistency, NEWP were at least if not better than some brands, and far superior to other brands.

New York State manufactures:
InstantHeat - 2%-5% fines (i.e., uncompressed pellets). These were free with my stove purchase - I wouldn't buy them if I had a choice of any other brand.

Associated Harvest - Good, clean pellet. Only one dealer in my area, and he sells out quickly. That's a good thing, I guess. I would have purchased these for next year except the deal I got on NEWP was far better for the same quality.

Other Manufactures:

PA Pellets - through Sam's Club. - Some fines but not too bad. After trying a couple of bags, I went back for a ton, but they were all gone ($189/ton in February).

Some brand (I can't remember) sold through TSC, manufactured in Kentucky. They were ok, but expensive $4.79/bag as I recall.



I boils down to buying "local" for a good price and good quality.

 

[tinkabranc]

Thanks for the update TboneMan!

 

[Yzerct]

Has anyone burned enough Warm Front to gather an opinion of it vs. last year's NEWP? I burned two tons of beige bag NEWP (OK) and one ton of Green Supreme from NEWP (fantastic).