white spruce crabbes delivered today from SIB.

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St_Earl

Minister of Fire
Sep 9, 2011
1,337
millinocket, maine
so i got the lowdown from steve (SIB) today on the crabbes.
white spruce from the mill owners sawmill waste.
state of the art facility and a double vacuum set up to reduce fines to a minimum.

$269 per ton for the white spruce crabbes versus $259 for the mwp softies which are pine.


now i just need to sling them down the chute to the bunker.

"see you in september."
 
so i got the lowdown from steve (SIB) today on the crabbes.
white spruce from the mill owners sawmill waste.
state of the art facility and a double vacuum set up to reduce fines to a minimum.

$269 per ton for the white spruce crabbes versus $259 for the mwp softies which are pine.


now i just need to sling them down the chute to the bunker.

"see you in september."

Did you try a few bags of them first? I tried 10 bags of them this spring, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the amount and weight of ash, as well as their tendency to form clinkers. I have not had clinkers for several years until I test drove the Crabbes. Hopefully your stove likes them better then mine did! Good luck!!
 
Old pellet saying, don't buy a ton until you burned a bag. I burned 3 bags LG granules, wish I had only bought one.
 
Did you try a few bags of them first? I tried 10 bags of them this spring, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the amount and weight of ash, as well as their tendency to form clinkers. I have not had clinkers for several years until I test drove the Crabbes. Hopefully your stove likes them better then mine did! Good luck!!
Steve also delivered my Crabbe's this week! He lent me a few bags to try out a few weeks back and they burnt great! They were so hot it was hard to stand in front of the stove for to long and they showed very little ash! For him promoting his summer special for $269 a ton there was no way I could turn up that deal!
 
My local dealer has Cabbe's same price, deliver is cheaper. Softies were $235 delivered last year, $54 more a ton delivered this year, not worth it to me.
 
My local dealer has Cabbe's same price, deliver is cheaper. Softies were $235 delivered last year, $54 more a ton delivered this year, not worth it to me.
I understand that they are more, but it is a different brand then the maine softies. and delivery is cheaper probably because he is your "local" dealer.
 
some of steve's drop fees are as low as $5 depending on where you are.
for me, $75 to millinocket is a godsend considering the local stove shop charges $50 PER TON.
i'm glad he's running his bigger truck now too and can bring me 6 ton at once.

Steve also delivered my Crabbe's this week! He lent me a few bags to try out a few weeks back and they burnt great! They were so hot it was hard to stand in front of the stove for to long and they showed very little ash! For him promoting his summer special for $269 a ton there was no way I could turn up that deal!

that's what steve says as well. can't hold his hand in front of the stove long burning these.
i burned the mwp softies last year and i can say it was nothing like that kind of heat.
i sampled opinion here on a few threads and took the plunge.
i'll let you all know how they do.
 
Steve also delivered my Crabbe's this week! He lent me a few bags to try out a few weeks back and they burnt great! They were so hot it was hard to stand in front of the stove for to long and they showed very little ash! For him promoting his summer special for $269 a ton there was no way I could turn up that deal!
Bet ya the air temp would be no different on harman stoves.... ;)
Grab some popcorn folks! Hahaha
 
Bet ya the air temp would be no different on harman stoves.... ;)
Grab some popcorn folks! Hahaha



well, i have a simple 3 speed control and a manual feed gate on my stove.
so a good hot pellet will allow me to do what i want and have the feed gate closed down as far as it goes and keep from running on high when it's really cold.
the mwp softies didn't give me quite enough more heat than the blend to really make that difference.
as i said, i'll report in in the deep of winter after i burn off the rest of the mwp blend and softies i have and it gets good and cold.
fingers crossed.
 
no pics= never happened.

so i figured it out that i can fit 12 ton in this room and still leave the ramp in place.
i use 4 bags of pellets as a landing cushion at the bottom of the ramp. zero broken bags this year. ;lol





 
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I understand that they are more, but it is a different brand then the maine softies. and delivery is cheaper probably because he is your "local" dealer.

The same Maine softies will cost me $54 a ton more this year, same pellet.
 
so i figured it out that i can fit 12 ton in this room and still leave the ramp in place.
i use 4 bags of pellets as a landing cushion at the bottom of the ramp. zero broken bags this year. ;lol







You heating a barn lol. Last winter I burned 2 ton 19 bags and 55 gal HHH.
 
so i got the lowdown from steve (SIB) today on the crabbes.
white spruce from the mill owners sawmill waste.
state of the art facility and a double vacuum set up to reduce fines to a minimum.

$269 per ton for the white spruce crabbes versus $259 for the mwp softies which are pine.


now i just need to sling them down the chute to the bunker.

"see you in september."

$281.50 is close to HHO, last summer my area $2.89 gal. Looks like I will be going HHO this coming winter.
 
Well The Price this year is $259 a ton so where ever you bout your Maine softies for $205 a ton I would go back to them! :)

My post said $235 a ton delivered from SIB.
 
statewide hho average price is $3.43 and up here the average is $3.54 (with a low of $3.40)
http://maine.gov/energy/fuel_prices/index.shtml

and a ton of pellets = a fair bit more than 100 gal oil.
even back in temperate portland oregon we were never really warm with forced air oil (which is the system this house has)


pretty sure i won't be burning oil this year or any year soon.

no i'm not not heating a barn, slls.
i'm stockpiling.

just to be sure, steve's drop fee is not a flat $75 everywhere. that's to come up here to millinocket.
it's based on distance and can be as low as $5.
 
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statewide hho average price is $3.43 and up here the average is $3.54 (with a low of $3.40)
http://maine.gov/energy/fuel_prices/index.shtml

and a ton of pellets = a fair bit more than 100 gal oil.
even back in temperate portland oregon we were never really warm with forced air oil (which is the system this house has)


pretty sure i won't be burning oil this year or any year soon.

no i'm not not heating a barn, slls.
i'm stockpiling.

just to be sure, steve's drop fee is not a flat $75 everywhere. that's to come up here to millinocket.
it's based on distance and can be as low as $5.

Right now I can buy HHO for $3.099, it will go lower. I burn what is cheaper, looks like the pellets are over priced, will go oil. Oil heats better, less work, actually no work.
 
even at 1 ton to 110 gallons oil equivalency, that's a pellet price of $330 per ton.
and it's debatable if oil heats better. certainly in my experience with forced air oil, you have to burn more to be comfortable.
and as i said, even back in temperate portland oregon, we were never as comfortable with forced air oil as we are now with pellets in much much colder conditions.
pellets make my house cozy. i suffer waiting for heat in between blasts of forced air from the oil burner.
if it works for you, great.

pellets are still the clear choice for me. especially with oil costing a good deal more up here.
if i can run with the gate max closed with these and not have to run on high, i'll get them again next year. if not, i'll go back to the blend.
 
even at 1 ton to 110 gallons oil equivalency, that's a pellet price of $330 per ton.
and it's debatable if oil heats better. certainly in my experience with forced air oil, you have to burn more to be comfortable.
and as i said, even back in temperate portland oregon, we were never as comfortable with forced air oil as we are now with pellets in much much colder conditions.
pellets make my house cozy. i suffer waiting for heat in between blasts of forced air from the oil burner.
if it works for you, great.

pellets are still the clear choice for me. especially with oil costing a good deal more up here.
if i can run with the gate max closed with these and not have to run on high, i'll get them again next year. if not, i'll go back to the blend.

I agree, off the beaten path costs more, being in the Bangor neighbor I get their perks. I burn pellets like oil, on and off thermostat. The key is set it so your still comfortable when it comes on.
Steady burn of any fuel is wasteful.
 
Steady burn of any fuel is wasteful.

How do you figure? A properly sized heating system will run for long durations and maintain a specific set point rather then overshooting its target and shutting off. That is what a pellet stove is doing by having a large diff set at a thermostat it overshoots then plays catchup not the most efficient model. That is where modulating heating systems came about they run constantly at a lower BTU to maintain temp. Sorry if I misunderstood your statement.
 
How do you figure? A properly sized heating system will run for long durations and maintain a specific set point rather then overshooting its target and shutting off. That is what a pellet stove is doing by having a large diff set at a thermostat it overshoots then plays catchup not the most efficient model. That is where modulating heating systems came about they run constantly at a lower BTU to maintain temp. Sorry if I misunderstood your statement.

I can't think of any central heating system, furnace, boiler that runs all the time. Running constantly burns more fuel than on and off like any central system. If running all the time is your way, it burns more, that's your choice. :)
 
I can't think of any central heating system, furnace, boiler that runs all the time. Running constantly burns more fuel than on and off like any central system. If running all the time is your way, it burns more, that's your choice. :)

Think of it has driving down the highway at 100mph then slamming on the brakes versus driving a constant speed at 50mph the whole way. Which gets better mpg?

You may want to read about modulating heating systems.
 
yeah. when it gets really cold, it's a lot easier to maintain my already warmed up house than to let it cool and start over.
in "shoulder " season, i use the stat. but when it's well below zero i burn constant and steady and match the heat loss of the house.

this is also where the "soak" comes into play.
all the items, furniture, walls everything is heated when burning steady.
this is also why i prefer pellet heat over forced air oil.
i don't like getting cold over and over again.

now i imagine it's different with oil fired baseboard heating. and that you get a more saturated heat with that.
but i've never been in a house with that kind of system.


btw- this thread left the tracks long ago.

i'll report back in on how these pellets work out when it's deep winter again.
 
Think of it has driving down the highway at 100mph then slamming on the brakes versus driving a constant speed at 50mph the whole way. Which gets better mpg?

You may want to read about modulating heating systems.

You know of a central heating system that runs all time, no burner off, give me the link.
 
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