My Okie Douglas Fir thread

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Branson4720

Branson4720

Burning Hunk
Jan 21, 2012
238
Quabbin Watershed, Massachusetts
Worked a half day today. Came home to find my pellet dealer delivering 2 tons of Okie DF's.:) Here is a little bit of "pellet porn" to satisfy the curious crowd! The Accentra got a springtime super cleaning last weekend in anticipation of the DF's arrival.......it will be lit-off this evening to test these puppies out;)
Too warm right now. First impressions....... super strong Okanagan bag, almost zero fines ( Upton definitely got their act together), they smell fantastic! More to come............ [Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread
 

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Wow, DF. Look forward tp a report this weekend !
 
All this excitement over doug fir... highly amusing. It grows on trees around here.

DF does have low ash, I burned a half cord this past fall and only had to clean out the firebox a few times. I flipped to hardwoods and the ash loaded up in a hurry. Doug does not get a lot of respect here, and I can buy cords of Doug for less than alder, cherry or maple which do not have as high a BTU rating. If I have to buy wood (its been a few years now) I buy Doug. By weight its a good value which is the big advantage of buying Doug by the ton vs. by the cord.
 
Can't wait to hear what you think of them. I'm hoping to get to mine sometime next week. Seems a shame to burn them when its warm though. Is that the new toy in the background? Nice!

Stihlhead, If you knock the bark off the DF they will burn much cleaner. As for pellet they are the lowest ash content fiber I have seen. But very expensive over here as you already know! The caddy of wood pellets IMHO. Next nearest thing for us is BC softwoods or white oak from Turmans. The DF are burning at less than 0.20% ash and the BC softies/Turman pellets are under 0.40%. All 3 fetch top dollar in our neck of the woods!
 
jtakeman said:
Can't wait to hear what you think of them. I'm hoping to get to mine sometime next week. Seems a shame to burn them when its warm though. Is that the new toy in the background? Nice!

Stihlhead, If you knock the bark off the DF they will burn much cleaner. As for pellet they are the lowest ash content fiber I have seen. But very expensive over here as you already know! The caddy of wood pellets IMHO. Next nearest thing for us is BC softwoods or white oak from Turmans. The DF are burning at less than 0.20% ash and the BC softies/Turman pellets are under 0.40%. All 3 fetch top dollar in our neck of the woods!
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Yes Jay......The Accentra is locked and loaded for tonight! I know that it's warm, but i'm ready to try these pellets out;) And yes, that is the new 2013 Tacoma crew cab SR5 in the background! I am in LOVE with that truck. Full tow Pkg. and all. Bluetooth and touch-screen audio to boot!
 
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jtakeman said:
Stihlhead, If you knock the bark off the DF they will burn much cleaner. As for pellet they are the lowest ash content fiber I have seen. But very expensive over here as you already know! The caddy of wood pellets IMHO. Next nearest thing for us is BC softwoods or white oak from Turmans. The DF are burning at less than 0.20% ash and the BC softies/Turman pellets are under 0.40%. All 3 fetch top dollar in our neck of the woods!
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I used to knock off the bark but no longer, as that has almost the same BTU value as the wood. Some of it sluffs off and I have a bark pile out by the wood piles. I am not worried about cleaner burning in this rural remote area, and I love the smell of Doug burning. Cutting it or burning it has the hint of blueberry smell to me.

Looking online Vermont pellets look pretty low in ash... 0.27. Steep prices for that stuff though. Anything from BC is going to be mostly Doug, as they grow more there than just about anywhere else. Oakanagen is in BC, Canada. They also run rail cars of Douggie logs from Canada to some of the larger mills here for milling (NAFTA). At the huge Weyerhaeuser mill in Cottage Grove, OR all they do is cut Doug logs shipped down by rail from Canada. Meanwhile half of the Doug that they cut here locally goes to Columbia River ports and is exported to Asia. Many of the saw mills here were permanently shut down after the housing collapse. There are a lot of newer pellet mills springing up around here now, like Bear Mountain, Pacific, Packsaddle, and others. The locals say that thee is an overcapacity issue here though, and the market is fickle. Hence the current cheap prices for pellets locally. Biomass, ethanol, solar, switchgrass processing, pellets, etc. are all pretty stagnant in this economy.

Many pellet mills here are looking for distributors and wholesalers... I wonder if it is possible to break into New England pellet sales, or supply direct by rail from here? Supply here and rail shipping are pretty easy to set up, but NE destination locations and distribution there? There would also have to be enough margin to pay for shipping, allow for some margin, and sell at below $300 a ton. The market is there and the supply is here.
 
Hey Stihl....I have burned both Blazers ( Douglas Fir ) and Vermont ( Pine ). The Vermont are very close to the ash level of Blazers but the Blazers have them beat. Vermont's are the second lowest ash pellets I have tried and in my opinion the best pellet around besides the Douglas fir. I just ordered 4 ton of them for next winter....will be here next week!!
 
IHATEPROPANE said:
Vermont's are the second lowest ash pellets I have tried and in my opinion the best pellet around besides the Douglas fir. I just ordered 4 ton of them for next winter....will be here next week!!
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If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for them? A lot of people say they are expensive, but they are not much more than anything else I can get around here. Obviously it helps that I live 20 miles from the factory.
 
jslinger said:
If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for them? A lot of people say they are expensive, but they are not much more than anything else I can get around here. Obviously it helps that I live 20 miles from the factory.
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The Spring special price was $285 a ton. I believe $16 more dollars than last year. I got free delivery so not a bad deal for me.
 
Temps. dropped into the lower 20's last night, so the DF's ran for the evening. First off....VERY hot fuel! Probably the hottest I have ever seen. Second, I am in dis-belief at how little ash there is. It's almost like the ash combusts and vaporizes out the vent. No exaggeration at all. These are different than last year's stash of Okie DF's, very different. I ran the Accentra in Stove temp mode with a lower feed rate and was amazed this morning to see the burnpot holes completely clear, with just a few tiny specks of super fine ash. the glass is clean as a whistle too:) This fuel will be a very welcome addition to my stockpile of super cold weather pellets! I may even have to get a few more tons!!![Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread[Hearth.com] My Okie Douglas Fir thread
 
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Where did you get them around the your area...Higgins?
 
Branson4720 said:
I doubt that Higgins will be carrying these.
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I get the feeling many pellet house aren't going to stock them. My nearest will only do a special order type deal. The price even has the dealers being shy on getting large quantities of them. I think they will have to prove their worth before we see full trucks rolling into our nearest dealers!
 
Why do they have to cost so much? They're made the same way and are transported from the same place.
 
jtakeman said:
I get the feeling many pellet house aren't going to stock them. My nearest will only do a special order type deal. The price even has the dealers being shy on getting large quantities of them. I think they will have to prove their worth before we see full trucks rolling into our nearest dealers!
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That's what is so great about Bentley pellets.......he picks them up in Upton with his own truck, so he is able to do a mix and match load of DF's and regular Okies! If anyone in the Barre area or surrounding towns wants some, I would highly reccomend them. They deliver with their own flatbed and Moffet lift.
 
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Damn you guys are killing me ! Makes me start thinking of getting some of these in if possible for next year. At 285/ton it would be a no brainer for at least 1-2 ton, maybe more if they are all that you are saying about heat and ash.

I wee that we have another Harman with a feed rate of 2. Seems that any super duper pellet is getting the feed rates turned down. I know mine does when burning certain pellets. So much for the set it at 3.5-4 and leave it there mentality. Maybe that was true back when there were not as many variance in the pellet quality as there is today. Back then, maybe a pellet was a pellet and most all were similar; but that is not true any longer.
 
gbreda said:
Damn you guys are killing me ! Makes me start thinking of getting some of these in if possible for next year. At 285/ton it would be a no brainer for at least 1-2 ton, maybe more if they are all that you are saying about heat and ash.

I wee that we have another Harman with a feed rate of 2. Seems that any super duper pellet is getting the feed rates turned down. I know mine does when burning certain pellets. So much for the set it at 3.5-4 and leave it there mentality. Maybe that was true back when there were not as many variance in the pellet quality as there is today. Back then, maybe a pellet was a pellet and most all were similar; but that is not true any longer.
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Playing with the feed rate? Shame on you! :p
 
gbreda said:
Damn you guys are killing me ! Makes me start thinking of getting some of these in if possible for next year. At 285/ton it would be a no brainer for at least 1-2 ton, maybe more if they are all that you are saying about heat and ash.

I wee that we have another Harman with a feed rate of 2. Seems that any super duper pellet is getting the feed rates turned down. I know mine does when burning certain pellets. So much for the set it at 3.5-4 and leave it there mentality. Maybe that was true back when there were not as many variance in the pellet quality as there is today. Back then, maybe a pellet was a pellet and most all were similar; but that is not true any longer.
Click to expand...
I think they're talking about Vermonts at 285/ton. No way will you find the Okie DF's at that price. I think this thread got a little off track:confused:
 
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