My pellet BAGS stink??

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SlimTidy

Member
Nov 12, 2014
46
Maryland
So I have been burning American Wood Fibers Ultra White Pine premium heat pellets for about two years. Have probably been through at least 8 tons in that time.

This week when I went to pick up the newest ton that I purchased the bags themselves have a terrible smell to them. You can't smell it really if you put your nose to the bag but once you handle a bag or two the smell is all over your clothes and hands. At first I thought it was maybe the smell of mildew, similar to that of a dirty dish-rag. Now I'm not so sure. It smells more like almost a fertilizer type of smell? Do they use anything at the plants where these are made maybe to keep dust down or to treat something and maybe it got on the bag and that is what I am smelling?

The pellets weren't stored before I purchased them though I did buy them from a farm supply. They pretty much came right off the truck from the plant and then bag by bag into my vehicle. Not to mention that it's every ton they have sitting around there from their latest pickup down at the plant. It is also on all the bags, layers down where there is no air space so that points to it being a smell from where they were manufactured before they were palatalized.
 
This is a Good Place for a Stick Up !!!!



---Nailer---
 
This is a Good Place for a Stick Up !!!!



---Nailer---


The weird thing is that it doesn’t seem to be an airborne smell. It just gets all over your hands and clothes and then they stink. The area where I have the pellets stored inside doesn’t smell at all and even when you put your nose to the bag you can’t smell it??
 
I have found that some of the pine based pellets can smell like...well...urine at times. It's the pine I suspect.
 
I have found that some of the pine based pellets can smell like...well...urine at times. It's the pine I suspect.

Yes they are Pine pellets but the pellets themselves don’t stink of anything other than pine. To get this smell you have to wipe your hand across the bag or hold the bag up against your clothes like when handling. Then me and my clothes smell terrible.
 
I have found that some of the pine based pellets can smell like...well...urine at times. It's the pine I suspect.

I burn softwood pellets than come from Quebec. These pellets are known for their “sour” smell, and that smell can come off your hands when hand-mixing the pellets in the hopper, but I do not come away smelling like them just handling the bags or feeding the hopper.


Cheers from Oliver’s Pond, Avalon Peninsula
 
I have been painting cars and bikes for 45 years i can't smell anything anymore. LOL
 
I burn softwood pellets than come from Quebec. These pellets are known for their “sour” smell, and that smell can come off your hands when hand-mixing the pellets in the hopper, but I do not come away smelling like them just handling the bags or feeding the hopper.


Cheers from Oliver’s Pond, Avalon Peninsula

Interesting. Yeah these smell completely normal if you handle the pellets themselves. Whatever this is, it’s only on the outside of the bag.

Thanks!
 
Pellets made from piss elm? Had to say it.

It could be that the bagging facility is used for several different products, maybe even side by side. And the fertilizer side blew a filter or had a spill. A highly possible scenario based on my line of work.
 
Pellets made from piss elm? Had to say it.

It could be that the bagging facility is used for several different products, maybe even side by side. And the fertilizer side blew a filter or had a spill. A highly possible scenario based on my line of work.

This almost certainly has to be the answer. It’s American Wood Fibers
https://awf.com/ and it looks like they produce a number of items. I don’t think fertilizer but certainly could be something else.
 
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Pellets made from piss elm? Had to say it.

It could be that the bagging facility is used for several different products, maybe even side by side. And the fertilizer side blew a filter or had a spill. A highly possible scenario based on my line of work.
It's the off the grid people pissin on the trees!
 
Printing ink?
 
Printing ink?

That’s another really interesting thought and could easily be the answer. I would think though that the bags are pre-printed and completely dried and cured before reaching their facility. Not that it couldn’t be an anomaly! Thanks
 
Could be plasticizer. This is a chemical added to plastic to make it soft and pliable. If they put too much in that batch of plastic or the wrong kind, it can evaporate off the surface and smell. I'm a paint chemist by professions and deal with plasticizers all the time.