Call me a pellet snob...
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Probably get your coffee from that "Star-whatever" place as well.
bcarton
Feeling the Heat
Unless of course those big box stores carry awesome pellets
I've been buying solely from my dealer for about a decade - same thing, always have them in stock year round. This year I found Blazers at my local HD - a great douglas fir pellet. I was a little skeptical of the hype, but i'm sold now - best pellets i've ever come across.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Foolish pellet snob... in my naivety, I purchased all my pellets through our local Home Hardware until... they stopped carrying the Heartland pellets and substituted Indecks and refused to source any others. No stove shops locally so a bit of a captive audience. Switched to North American lumber but their shortfalls are storage outside and order only in the Fall... once they're gone, they're gone. Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire are useless this year.
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
Never say never. If your BBS ever gets in Blazers or AWF White Pine Ultra, buy a few bags of them. Then come back here and tell us all about it. As far as your dealer being in stock, that part I can't argue with, if they are always in stock that's great. True. But BBS don't Always have junk. Just have to keep your eyes open.
Beaudeen
Member
Was out to my Brothers home 2 days ago and stopped in at their local Farm supply store for the first time and they had La Cretes..never seen them in my area before, but read on this forum that they are a good one. Picked up 12 bags and have gone through 2 bags....my stove LUV'S them...great heat and clean burn...fluffy ash in the burn pot and glass is still clean.
Having said that, are they worth $1 a bag more than my Currans that I get from the Native Reserve..no tax and cheap delivery. Going back today to pick up another 12 bags...only reason is that he short changed me..paid for 12 got 11.
I can see now how one gets sucked in to become a Pellet Snob...DAMN you La Crete...lol
Having said that, are they worth $1 a bag more than my Currans that I get from the Native Reserve..no tax and cheap delivery. Going back today to pick up another 12 bags...only reason is that he short changed me..paid for 12 got 11.
I can see now how one gets sucked in to become a Pellet Snob...DAMN you La Crete...lol
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
If you think La Cretes are good (and they are), wait till you burn a Douglas Fir pellet ( even better) . You're not a true pellet snob till all you will burn is DF and pay top dollar for them !! lol.
dlavigne7324
Feeling the Heat
- Dec 30, 2013
- 273
Well if your buying blazer from Home Depot far from top dollar ..lol
Arti
Feeling the Heat
Local stove dealer is the same price as the big box stores. If you look at the big picture he is actually more affordable because you are buying a quality product at the same price.
Occasionally the local big box stores will have good pellets in stock but they don't last very long.
Occasionally the local big box stores will have good pellets in stock but they don't last very long.
Pete Zahria
Minister of Fire
Lake Girl
Moderator
bogieb
Minister of Fire
My local dealer has higher prices (by ~$30/ton - more if I buy by the bag), no delivery (at all), is only open 4 days/week (and Saturday is the only day I can get there during their business hours), and only carries one brand of pellets - which happen to be chit this year (last year they were okay - not great or even good, but okay). Yep, I pre-bought 3 tons from him this year and still have to pick it up 15-20 bags at a time in my car.
I get better stuff from HD (FSU's) at less per ton (buying by the bag) - then add on my 5% discount and I save even more for a better pellet. They are open 7 day/week for long hours and one is close enough I can hit it at lunch time during workdays. Oh, and if I really wanted, I could have them delivered and still pay basically the same amount as what I paid to the local guy.
Oh yeah, and the local dealer runs out or rations at times, so really, don't have any incentive to pre-buy from him next year.
I'm not a pellet snob - I just want value (which is not necessarily the same as cheap),
I get better stuff from HD (FSU's) at less per ton (buying by the bag) - then add on my 5% discount and I save even more for a better pellet. They are open 7 day/week for long hours and one is close enough I can hit it at lunch time during workdays. Oh, and if I really wanted, I could have them delivered and still pay basically the same amount as what I paid to the local guy.
Oh yeah, and the local dealer runs out or rations at times, so really, don't have any incentive to pre-buy from him next year.
I'm not a pellet snob - I just want value (which is not necessarily the same as cheap),
dlavigne7324
Feeling the Heat
- Dec 30, 2013
- 273
riverat
Burning Hunk
Woke up this mourning and sat down with a cup of Jo in hand snooping around on the net about buying pellets for next season and was shocked to find a pellet delivery company 25 miles from where I live. Called them up and they told me that a min order would be a ton delivered at $290.00 and there would be a price break of $ 30.00 less up to 6 tons that there trucks can handle, the brand that they handle is Energex , she also told me to wait till late spring and get on there email list and they will notify me when the price drops , I consider myself very lucky to live where getting pellets are abundant in so many areas close to home ,check out the delivery service kingdombiofuel.com any of you folks that live in Maryland state they also deliver there, not sure how far south they go into Maryland.
Jeff
Jeff
Pete Zahria
Minister of Fire
Talking about Blazers at $239 a ton in New England,
is like wishing gas would be $1.99 forever........
Dan
is like wishing gas would be $1.99 forever........
Dan
I will never figure it out. My dealer only offers (wood pellet co) I think made by CC Lumber in Pa..this year very dusty...got HD stovechow...cleaner and burned hotter...I have a infrared thermometer to see it for myself...plus the chow was $30 a ton cheaper...go figure. All the p stove peeps where i work burning chow with no complaints. I joined the crowd.
P.S. $4.98 a bag now..was $230 ton early season in Bethlehem, Pa.
P.S. $4.98 a bag now..was $230 ton early season in Bethlehem, Pa.
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alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
If you are really confused about this I'll give up a couple of words as clues. Volume. Profit.
Stove Chow are not a bad pellet if you don't mind the ash. Stove Chows in my stove equate to an ash dumping of my pan in under two weeks time. AWF Pure White Pine do two things better. They burn hotter and require dumping my ash pan in a little over 4 weeks time. Additionally, less pot scraping, less ash clearing off the pot . Further, when HD has them, they have them for the same price as SC, in fact stacked side by side. And when TSC has them they are cheaper yet. Now to me that puts AWF White pine above, Stove Chow, Energex, LG and near equal to DF. Cheaper and as good as anything my dealer sells but yes, the dealer will always have stock, always have pre season order times at some kind of discounted rate.
LOL once every 14-21 days I shut down for 20 minutes. I dump the ash or clinker box once a week but it is simply carry it to garage where corn and pellets are stored and dump it into a metal garbage can then replace in the stove. This is done while the stove is running so basically I turn it on after my 20 minute clean job which includes the glass and it will stay running for the next 14-21 days then I shut it down clean the convection tubes and floor plate-check the air holes in the bottom of the pot then wipe any soot off the glass then shut the door and push the start button and heat level desired. Back in business in less then 25 minutes.Guess you have lots of cleaning scheduled
To aid in keeping things clean if we have moderate weather I will lean the fuel mix a little plus every few days I will run the stove wide open to prevent any buildup of soot in exhaust pipe. If the temps are at Zero it is running good enough to keep things pretty clean.
Usually between week two and three I can tell I am getting a buildup of soot on the convection tubes since it just isn't putting out the heat that I am used too.
I could ask other Bixby owners to share what they do just to compare notes.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Yes but parts are easily available and if you read the manual there is no big mystery on how they work. Like other stoves companies they use motors and other components made by other companies. The boards are repairable much like other companies and if you have a laptop you can adjust the settings to burn virtually any type of pellet. Both the owners manual and the dealers manual are available on line so by having that knowledge the owner should be able to get used to how it works very easy.
In the beginning even some dealers didn't know how they worked so they couldn't help their customer if he had problems. They liked the dealers profit but sad to say they didn't back the product or educate the owner as to how to run the stove.
The company had a phone number where you could get parts directly unlike some companies that made you go through a dealer.
There was a rumor that a individual from Canada had bought the patents and was going to produce it using a different name but as I said it could be just a rumor
Looking back the stove industry had several boom and bust cycles from 2004 on up to the present and several companies over expanded and got burned and in the process went broke and were bought out by bigger worldwide conglomerates. Harman and Quadrafire are know owned by one of those organizations. The up and down of gas prices and corn prices made a tough combination. With corn prices at 1.25 it was very easy to sell a high priced stove but when corn started to go up things changed. Bixbys were sold on E-Bay for as low as 1700.00 which hurt the dealers as they had been charging 4,000.00 per stove. Harman dumped a lot of their stoves over seas during the same period
In Bixbys case unfortunately the owner of the company got involved with two Xcons and set up a fake idea of a new way to clean coal. It turned out to be a gigantic scam resulting in investors loosing 75 million dollars. The owner got 25 years and the Xcons got much less as they turned state evidence. They should have spent their efforts in solar power as they could have gotten away with that if they donated to a political campaign.
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