LG clear bag for $240.00 a ton, are they OK?

[90durham]

Hi: Asking if the LG clear bag softwood pellets are any good, a local lumber store has 1000 bags at their last year price of $5.50 Canadian a bag, with exchange it rounds out to about $240.00 a ton US.
A bought 2 tons of junk called Lakewood last year for the same price and don't want to go there again.
Appreciate your time
Eric

 

[cncpro]

Wow, great price. I bought 6 tons of these from pelletsales.com for $275/ton with free delivery.

I haven't burned any yet but based upon the smell, feel, and appearance I have very high expectations. Very little fines, nice pellet length, beautiful pine smell filling my garage even a month after my pellet delivery...

One thing to watch out for...

The pallets are overwrapped with a couple layers of thin plastic sheets then shrink-wrapped over it. Looking at mine immediately after delivery I decided to unwrap everything immediately because I could see lots of water trapped between all the layers of plastic overwrapping (It had been raining nearly every day for a month at the time). After unwrapping it all I began to see many water damaged bags (i.e. one corner of a bag with several pounds of expanded mush)...

Altogether I had 16 bags with water problems out of the 6 tons. Most of the bad bags came from a single pallet but there was at least one bad bag on every pallet.

Pelletsales is supposed to be sending a check for the damaged bags...

I feel that there are 2 issues...

Firstly, the overwrap they are using at LG Granules is too thin and easily damaged. I think the wind tore open mine while on the interstate... They need to start using a thicker wrap similar to what is used for boat storage.

Secondly, the individual 40 lb bags are not perfect. Almost every bag has tiny holes near the corners. These holes are most often not large enough to lose pellets while handling the bags but are plenty large enough to let in water if the overwrap fails...

Finally, I would advise you to buy the pellets (if your retailer will credit you for any bad bags) but check them over carefully when you stack them.

 

[tinkabranc]

I tried a few bags of this brand last season and was quite pleased with them.
They did not seem to burn as hot as some of the other brands I was trying out
but had little fines and smelled great.

 

[mnkywrnch]

Wow, great price. I bought 6 tons of these from pelletsales.com for $275/ton with free delivery.

I haven't burned any yet but based upon the smell, feel, and appearance I have very high expectations. Very little fines, nice pellet length, beautiful pine smell filling my garage even a month after my pellet delivery...

One thing to watch out for...

The pallets are overwrapped with a couple layers of thin plastic sheets then shrink-wrapped over it. Looking at mine immediately after delivery I decided to unwrap everything immediately because I could see lots of water trapped between all the layers of plastic overwrapping (It had been raining nearly every day for a month at the time). After unwrapping it all I began to see many water damaged bags (i.e. one corner of a bag with several pounds of expanded mush)...

Altogether I had 16 bags with water problems out of the 6 tons. Most of the bad bags came from a single pallet but there was at least one bad bag on every pallet.

Pelletsales is supposed to be sending a check for the damaged bags...

I feel that there are 2 issues...

Firstly, the overwrap they are using at LG Granules is too thin and easily damaged. I think the wind tore open mine while on the interstate... They need to start using a thicker wrap similar to what is used for boat storage.

Secondly, the individual 40 lb bags are not perfect. Almost every bag has tiny holes near the corners. These holes are most often not large enough to lose pellets while handling the bags but are plenty large enough to let in water if the overwrap fails...

Finally, I would advise you to buy the pellets (if your retailer will credit you for any bad bags) but check them over carefully when you stack them.

Your right about there wrapping being to thin,I had the same problem with 4 bags out of three ton,which pelletsales gave me a credit for, all and all lgs are a very good pellet.

 

[Souzafone]

Got mine just like cncpro. Pretty much the same observation, although I was able to burn a couple of bags. I can't speak about the heat yet, but very little fines and clean burning with little ash. I had one damaged bag on each skid. The problem was the automated process I suspect was used to load the pallets. Each pallet was loaded slightly off center, with one corner bag hanging off so much the pallet ripped it. Pelletsales sent us a check for the 6 damaged bags, and I was able to salvage about half of what was in those bags.

 

[Stentor]

I bought about half a dozen bags and used them over over several days last winter. I thought they were good quality. Depending on what else is available for a similar price, they sound like a decent choice.

 

[Westwood]

I bought 3 tons of LG last year (my first season using a pellet stove) and went through half of them. I bought another 1.5 tons this year, figuring it's best to have a season's worth in reserve if supplies/price get flighty. Although I have nothing to compare them to I was quite pleased with their performance. Very low ash content (I have a Harmon Accentra insert) very light in color very little in the way of fines (free powdered pellet dust that can jam mechanisms if excessive). I had no problems with their condition when they arrived on pallets and I suspect that this is more an issue with their care and handling once they leave the factory rather then the way they were originally wrapped. The three pallets that I've gotten (1.5 tons each) were all wrapped tight as a drum and dry as a bone, no bag damage or holes in ANY.

 

[Shortstuff]

I was hoping I could be one of the lucky ones who got nothing but a dry shipment, but I did'nt. I received my 4 tons yesterday morning and it had been raining so the pallets, although covered with two thin clear overbags then shrink-wrapped, were very wet of course. The delivery guy was able to get two tons inside my garage and the other two left outside which I immediately covered (still raining) with a new blue tarp. I noticed the same trapped water between the layers of plastic so I unwrapped the two in the garage right away and somehow there was a lot of moisture water droplets all over most of the exterior of the pile. I couldn't see any immediate damage, so I let them set overnight.

This morning I restacked the bags to their permanent location in my garage and it was very strange to actually see water droplets deep inside the pile, but otherwise dry as a bone elsewhere. 95% of the water I saw and felt had not penetrated the numerous holes in the bags but with the first two tons I had to throw 5 bags off to the side that were swollen with water damage, most of them from the very bottom of the pallet. They put a very thin sheet of cardboard on the pallet which was pretty moist, my guess is from splashing up off the ground in the rain.

I then restacked the two outside pallets inside temporarily and loosely and got a fan blowing on them because one of them had a lot of moisture throughout and the other was pretty dry. But again, even the dry pallet had one area with an excess of water droplets almost dead-center in the pile - weird. I'll let the last two tons dry out with the fan for a day or two then stack them in their permanent home.

I'm quessing I'll end up with 10-12 bags that I'll have to contact PelletSales about. Before the delivery guy left yesterday I asked him if I have to check my shipment before he leaves and he said that they (PelletSales) have been taking the customers word and providing refunds for damages. If it were only a few bags, I would'nt complain but 10 or more is not good.

So, heed the warning others have given about the moisture in the LG's from PelletSales. Compared to the perfectly dry shipment of Barefoots I got last year which were wrapped in a much thicker material, it seems that LG has to improve their weather protection some. I'll post my final results in a few days.

Steve

 

[imacman]

Must be an LG Granules wrapping issue, as I got 4 tons of CleanFires from PelletSales in the spring......I unwrapped one ton for stacking in the basement, and they were dry as a bone inside...."0" bad bags.

 

[kt1i]

I burned two tons of LG Granules last winter (red,white, blue bags) with no problems with wet pellets. Skids were double wrapped and had a tarp over them. I still have one ton out there, will find out how they "summered" next fall. I would buy another ton of LGs if I can find them at the right price.

 

[imacman]

I guess I'll find out how good the factory wrapping job is on my CleanFires this winter, considering all the rain we've had this spring/summer. My pellet "shed" seems to be keeping them dry.

 

[Shortstuff]

Very nice pellet shed you've got there! You should be good to go.

Steve

 

[strangemainer]

I just finished bringing 3 tons of LG Granules form pelletsales.com down the bulkhead and into the basement.
Same thing here with the thin wrapping. I got 10 Bad bags.

Two completely destroyed bags with mush inside.
Six with what felt to be concrete inside the bags, but no holes.
And two more that really only had a little water damage in one corner, but hey...its still damaged!

The driver said pelletsales would credit me. I figure $55.80
And attributed the damaged bags most likely to how many times they are handled.
which made me wonder...Why doesn't the pellet mills get into distribution and cut out the middle man (like pelletsales.com)
and reduce the amount of times the pellets are handled?

Overall, they seem like a good pellet with a good reputation. I just hope pelletsales.com comes through.

 

[vgrund]

I agree on the wrapping. No water issues with my 6 ton delivery last Spring, but there were some bags with holes leaking pellets. No problem, we were still burning at that point so I just burned those bags.

 

[www_godzilla]

LG Granules are a very good pellet. You will be very pleased with them. Check them out for any damage,if none,buy as many as you can handle. That's an excellent price.

 

[Shortstuff]

Well, got my 4 tons stacked and ready for winter. I only ended up with 6 bags that had water damage and I'm going to email PelletSales about them. I don't blame PelletSales at all for the damage as they sell them as they recieve them from Canada so the fault lies with their method of wrapping which should be improved upon. Also, because the individual bags are clear plastic it's easy to see that there are very little fines to speak of, but we'll know better once we start using them.

I haven't used LG's before but have heard no bad comments about them so we are very pleased with our purchase and looking forward to a good winter of heating with them.

Happy Heating in a few months!

Steve

 

[strangemainer]

oops...

 

[strangemainer]

These bags were the two worst in my shippment.
Pelletsales asked that I send in pictures and when the Very nice lady on the phone
saw them she almost fell out of he chair.
They will be issuing me a credit for all 10 bags!

As long as these pellets burn good, and the check "is in the mail" I would do business with them again.