(-: 2010 Pellet review its that time again! :-)

[teetah222]

Anyone tried Eagle Valley Pellets yet? I just unwrapped my first new pallet of this year's supply and found that although the store called them Premium Wood Pellets (which is a real brand name) the pellets I got are Eagle Valley. The nice thing about them is the fact that the bag they are in is clear, so I can see all the pellets and they look good. Not a lot of sign of fines either. I brought in a bag to burn, but won't get to it until tomorrow as I just filled the hopper before I went out to unwrap and restack them closer to the back door.

 

[quazi95]

I have updated the Okies info and the comparison chart.

I need to take a break from this! I am a bit sick of cleaning the stove. We have some cold weather coming and I want to burn some of my stash! yadda yadda yadda!

See you in the other threads!

Hey Jay. Hope all is well and I'm looking forward to your reviews. Check out the new test results for the Maine Woods Pellets! I think they are Super!.. no pun there. (broken link removed to http://www.woodpelletreviews.com/Reviews/Wood-Pellets/Maine-Woods-Pellets.html)

 

[jtakeman]

I have updated the Okies info and the comparison chart.

I need to take a break from this! I am a bit sick of cleaning the stove. We have some cold weather coming and I want to burn some of my stash! yadda yadda yadda!

See you in the other threads!

Hey Jay. Hope all is well and I'm looking forward to your reviews. Check out the new test results for the Maine Woods Pellets! I think they are Super!.. no pun there. (broken link removed to http://www.woodpelletreviews.com/Reviews/Wood-Pellets/Maine-Woods-Pellets.html)

With those results they are Super, Super Premium that is! Very impressed on what they have done over there.

Looks like I will be getting to the Corinth right after xmas. Plan is to join your site and post the results there. I may also move some of these there too. But the season has started off with a bag on the day job. Way too much to do in my new role. So no promises! I may have some time contraints and crazy dead lines to juggle!

 

[Ro3bert]

j-takeman

Ash volume ounces 14 ounces

Ash weight onces 4.96

I don't understand recording volume by weight seems to me it should be cups/quarts and so forth.

So why ash volume recorded by weight? I'm confused, please elucidate me.

Robert

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

j-takeman

Ash volume ounces 14 ounces

Ash weight onces 4.96

I don't understand recording volume by weight seems to me it should be cups/quarts and so forth.

So why ash volume recorded by weight? I'm confused, please elucidate me.

Robert

Because the standard for ash content by pellet grade is by weight. The reason Jay provides both a volume measure and a weight is so you can see the difference in ash density.

 

[jtakeman]

j-takeman

Ash volume ounces 14 ounces

Ash weight onces 4.96

I don't understand recording volume by weight seems to me it should be cups/quarts and so forth.

So why ash volume recorded by weight? I'm confused, please elucidate me.

Robert

Because the standard for ash content by pellet grade is by weight. The reason Jay provides both a volume measure and a weight is so you can see the difference in ash density.

Thanks Bear!

I did the volume in ounces so you could see it 1st hand. Most people don't weigh the ash and just do a visual to compare. PFI states ash content is figured by weight percentage. So I weighed the ash and calculated the ash content for each brand as a comparison. Mostly to see if there was a brand that was out of spec. I did find some with last season testing.

I did my darnedest to cover all bases and eliminate any squawking!

 

[slls]

This is the internet, there will always be squawking, don't let it get to you.

 

[jtakeman]

This is the internet, there will always be squawking, don't let it get to you.

The squaking was in the early stages of last seasons testing. This season was very quite compared to last season. I think adding density and the time on how long they burned helped. Now finding time to do this is hard for me.

Happy holidays!

 

[jtakeman]

Latest from Corinth posted on a review site!

(broken link removed to http://woodpelletreviews.com/The-BurnPot/Corinth-Latest-batch.html)

PS, this is probably my last review for the season.

 

[fidiro]

I haven't been following up on here for a while but have a little bit of info on TreeCycle. I just recently started running the stove all day/night on low setting and 1 bag is running out in about 25-26 hrs. I can't do weight yet but the volume is as follows:

1st bag weighed exactly 40lbs and left about 20oz of ash
2nd bag 39.6lbs leaving about 28oz of ash
3rd 40lb and 4th 41.2lbs together they left about 49oz of ash.

I tried getting a heat measurement as well but can't get a steady test going. Heat output is plenty for me on low as it keeps the approximately 450sqft area at about 73 degrees, switching my stove to med heat/low fan will bump the room temps up to 78-79 so I keep it low most of the time. Buying this pellet based on the volume of ash, will not work for most full time burners. I also see I can't get my glass to stay clean, I have tried to adjust the air from max to min and back to max, with no cleaner results. If I clean glass it will be dark before one bag is done. Running these last two bags completely covered the glass pitch black and when I opened the door ash poured out. I have not seen any clinkers. Stove never shut down because of pellets not burning. Always ignited first try. The only downs for me is I have to clean stove after every bag or when I open the door it will pour out, and the glass gets black pretty quick.

I have 5 bags of greeneteams to test out against the TC's so I'll see if it's my stove or the pellets soon. I have to get a scale to weigh the greenteam's ash and then come back to TC again to weigh it as well. I have the bags stored inside the house, not in the basement, so they are completely dry.

 

[fidiro]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My GreeneTeams are gone. Wife said she used them months back. She didn't know I had them aside for these tests. I never told her not to use them and they were easier to get to at the time, oh well. Last time I was at Lowes a few days ago they only had Nature's Own Fuel. I remembered a family member buying a ton of the Natures so I traded 5 bags of TC for 5 of his. I already weighed each bag of NOF and one was 39.6lbs and the other four were 39.4lbs and all have bag dated 09-24-09.

TC's light fast, burn hot enough for me on low, smell good, have not shut down stove ever due to lack of fire even on low, no clinkers like some say they used to produce plenty of in early batches. Again the high volume of ash and black glass is my only complaint, which I can still live with. Now I'll see if Nature's Own does anything different.

I was really hoping to see the ash content of the greeneteams and now I don't know if they will be available anymore around here this season. I was going to pick up a scale this weekend to get the weight of ash as well. Now I just have to run what I have and can get locally.

 

[fidiro]

Just ran a bag of Nature's Own Fuel dated 9/24/09

Weighed in at 39.4 lbs
Ash Weight: 196 grams
Ash Volume: Was too excited to use the scale I ordered and received today that I dumped the ash in the garbage, before I got to check volume. Next time.

I currently filled hopper with TC again so that I can get the weight. I am waiting for a different thermometer to try and get a good position of probe, to test. This is my first ash weight. If this brand has been weighed before how do the numbers compare to mine?

Also, don't see much trafic through this thread anymore. Is there still in interest to continue to post results of different brands if I can get others.

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EDIT: 2/12/2011 Ran two bags of Natures's Own again(This time I burned each bag with stove running nonstop)

1st Bag: 39.6 lbs 2nd Bag: 39.6 = 79.2 lbs of pellets

Ash Weight: 8.6 oz Ash Volume: 37 oz (a little less then TC)

Ash Percentage: .68% (I think I did the math right)

A litter better burning than TC, didn't darken up the glass as fast but still does, Burn pot bottom was almost completely closed off with clinker like ash that breaks apart when I push with my finger.

 

[jtakeman]

Nice work pelletnubi, I think you caught the bug! Careful, Your whole house will be full of pellets to test and gadgits to test them with.

Once the xmas bills get caught up. I am looking at USB data loggers. I will be able to psot graphs of the burn from start to finish. And for pook a temp probe that will have temp, humidity and maybe even dew points. Might even track the flue vent temp if I can afford it. Shhh don't tell the wifey.

 

[fidiro]

Thanks J. Between pellets and chainsaw addiction I will keep busy. I really don't know how to figure out the ash percentage, how do I figure out using the numbers I gave.

 

[jtakeman]

In order to figure out the percentage you need to convert the grams to ounces or pounds. I'll do ounces here. 1 gram = 0.0352739619 ounces
Divide that by the total bag weight. Whats left is the ash percentage.

196 g = 6.91369 oz(round it off to 6.914)

39.4 lbs x 16 = 630.4 ounces

6.914 divided by 630.4 = 0.010967(rounded to 0.0110) or 0.11%

 

[fidiro]

Thanks J. I'll switch it to oz. on scale for next test to make it easier.

.11 seems too low for a box store pellet, right? Does the manuf. date dry pellets more that then creates less ash weight? I haven't been reading much about pellets in the last few weeks so I'm a little rusty.

I cleaned everything in the stove prior to starting the bag and I collected ash from all the crevices and T cap, unless my type of stove sends ash out chimney. Stove ran on Low heat/Low fan for whole bag and even running it on low with todays weather, I had the room thermostats reading 80-82

 

[jtakeman]

Some could have went out the vent or stuck behind the baffles. On low I doubt much went up the vent though. I have hit a batch here and there that were extremely low in ash content. Went and bought some more and the next batch was horrible. One can never tell with pellets.

You may have just got a nice clean batch of fuel! Or my math is wrong? I haven't tested in a bit so I could be rusty too!

 

[fidiro]

I'll practice a little more with the TC's before I do the 4 Natures I still have.

 

[jtakeman]

It took me some time to figure out where all the ash would be in my stove. Getting all the nooks and crannies is the tough part. Some stoves are tougher than others. My bigE was a real pain because of the clean out doors and the heat exchanger baffles. So I only played with temps on that one. I only started posting ash amounts when I knew I was getting it all from this stove.

Do the best you can at getting it all and run with it. Your doing a great job!

 

[Pellet_Dog]

6.914 divided by 630.4 = 0.010967(rounded to 0.0110) or 0.11%

You forgot to move the decimal over one more place, its actually 1.1% ash!

 

[jtakeman]

6.914 divided by 630.4 = 0.010967(rounded to 0.0110) or 0.11%

You forgot to move the decimal over one more place, its actually 1.1% ash!

Thanks Pellet_Dog, Just a bit rusty! 1.1% it is!

 

[fidiro]

Thanks guys. One little dot makes a big difference. When I had the ash in the scale bowl it looked pretty high in volume, about the same volume as the TC's.

I just started up the stove this morning on TC's again and by tomorrow afternoon I should have it finished. I have to do one bag at a time because if I don't open the door to push the ash into pan it builds up against the door and pours out when I use two bag test.

TC bag weight 41.2

 

[fidiro]

I wound up doing two bags of TC. First was 41.2lbs Second was 40.2lbs Ash weight for both was 10.3 oz. I'll try to figure out the percentage later. Volume I didn't bother this time as I have done a few volume tests and they have been coming out about the same as before. This one my math came up with .79%
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EDIT: 02/04/2011 Decided to test another two bags of TC to make sure I would come up with similar results. 1st Bag: 40.4lbs 2nd Bag: 39.6lbs = 80lbs

ASH WEIGHT for 80lbs of TC: 10.6 oz

ASH VOLUME for 80lbs of TC: about 49 oz

This test my math came up with .83%

Don't know how this ash is so light and yet creates so much volume. There were no hard clinkers once again just a spot (about size of a nickel) in corner of burn pot that I pushed with my finger to remove, broke right apart into fine ash. These Bags of TC are all dated 06/2010

 

[fidiro]

Picked up a couple bags of Pres to logs from Lowe's @ $3.74 a bag. Was hoping to find more Greene Team pellets there to test but these are all they have left. This is my first full winter using pellets to help supplement my wood stove and have used only about 40 bags so far. I wasn't sure and bought 2 tons last summer, just in case, for this winter so I'm set for next year on pellets and already have about 3 cords of wood split for next season(just need to cut/split 3-4 more cords). Although I'm set on pellets I was going to take advantage of the 3.74/bag from Lowes and put away another ton just in case, but really wanted to test the greene teams first if I could find them in a different Lowes.

Here are my findings on the Prestologs:
Started with a full bag 39.6 lbs and added exactly 18.4 lbs from the second bag so that I can have stove burn out at a later time for cleaning.

Found a super hard clinker in corner of pot, size of a quarter, that I had to hit hard with the handle of a paint brush to remove. Glass still turned dark just like the two others with the Natures Own having a slight edge on cleaner glass.

Here are my calculations:

58 lbs of pellets(928 oz)
Ash Weight: 7.5 oz
Ash Volume 40 oz
Ash Percentage: .80

The three brands I tested came up with similar results in the ash weight and volume so to me it wouldn't make a difference which brand to get. Price would be my decision maker on these three I tested. I need to find some of the better pellets to test to see if it makes a differerence in my stove.

One more thing is that I run my stove mostly on the lowest settings and have never had stove go out. Heat is plenty for me on all three brands. Never had an auger jam. TC seems to be the lowest in fines, followed by Prestologs then Nature's own. No date on Prestologs bags and Nature's own is alot older then the TC's maybe the reason for less fines since TC's I bought in 07/2010 and bags are dated 06/2010(came directly to me from mill I guess that is the reason for less fines).

 

[jtakeman]

Very nice pelletnubi, Keep up the good work!