I reached out to Athens (Maine Wood Pellet Company) this morning. Scot Linkletter, Plant Manager, responded to the comments I posted here earlier. He's got some excellent information that I know I benefited from. The second email is in response to a question I raised on how to spot a good/bad ton of pellets in a parking lot and if they were there for several months, would they pick up moisture. Based on his feedback, I'm off to buy a well-wrapped ton of some Maine-made pellets and refire the Harman!
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Hello,
The pellets from Tractor Supply are made by us. The mixture is actually 65% hardwood and 35% softwood.
A lot of dust in the bags and crumbly pellets is a sign that they have absorbed some moisture. We keep the pellet moisture about 5% and we don't use additives like other mills. If they absorb any moisture at all, the pellets will break down into sawdust. That will also make them burn very poorly. At 5% moisture they burn great, but if they get even as high as 8% they won't burn well at all and when they get crumbly, the bags will have more dust in them.
When we bag them, the pellets are extremely hard and you wouldn't be able to crumble them in your hand. Even when they're still hot, it's hard to crumble them. That's where the durability test comes in. They are tumbled for 10 minutes in a drum at 60rpm. They've been testing at 98% durability. (Scot included the testing report from the University of Maine in his email; it is a PDF that I can't seem to attach to this email - I'd be happy to send it along upon request).
The Fines test is where they take a bag, screen it over a 1/8 inch screen and measure the amount of dust collected and compare it to the total bag weight. Our pellets always test less than 0.5% (1/2 of 1%) fines and are usually closer to 0.1%.
I'm wondering if it's possible that they left an uncovered pallet outside in the rain. Or if they got one with a hole in the pallet cover. The pallet cover is what we put on to keep each ton dry. The 40 pound bags are not waterproof and can't be left outside uncovered.
Scot Linkletter
Plant Manager
[email protected]
207-654-2237
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Hello again,
As long as the pallet cover is intact, they shouldn't pick up any moisture. I had one over 1 year old that I took apart and put in my own basement last weekend. It was still nice and dry.
If you're looking them over before buying one, I can tell you what I look for when I check the pallets here. I check the top for any holes (we're using a special cover now that doesn't have a seam in the top, only a crease where the bag was folded on the roll). Then I look at the sides for any holes and look on the ground to see if any have come out the bottom and I check the pallet cover to make sure it's covering the bottom row of bags. Then I look for any signs of swelling. Usually if a bag looks swelled it's because it wasn't stacked perfectly straight - we do all of our bagging and stacking by hand (Maine labor at work). If it looks swelled, I push it with the flat part of my thumb. If I can feel hard lumpy pellets, it's not wet, just stacked crooked. If I can't feel pellets, then it may be wet and swollen.
We do put stickers on each pallet so I can tell when each was bagged and by which shift but it's a sequential number - meaning I have to look it up in a table to determine the date. It's mostly so if there are a few ton that are stacked or wrapped incorrectly, I can figure out which shift is responsible and train them better.
You should find that the Super Premium pellets we're making now (and selling at normal Premium pellet prices) are the best pellet around. They've been testing very well and we've had a lot of positive feedback on them.
You're welcome to post on whatever forums you'd like to and thank you for your feedback. It's always nice to hear from customers, even when something isn't quite right.
Scot Linkletter
Plant Manager
[email protected]
207-654-2237