Okanagan Pellets

[Raven20]

Just went to my stove store to gets some pellets, They had Lignetics and Turman...I ask the guy for a few bags of Lignetics, He ask me If I ever tried these Okanagans, I've never heard of them before, There out of Canada... He said he's been selling them all day, So I figured I would give them a try, Just cleaned the stove and waiting for the temp in the house to go down (Wife cleaned the oven, It must be a 100 in here)....Has anyone tried these before?.....Also the Lignetics were 309.00 a ton, So I ask if they were going to come down in the spring and he said yes in April they should be 250.00 a ton but not lower.....

 

[JeffGuy]

Hey there, I also buy my pellets from Courtland. I used Hamers and Turman before but now that they aren't available anymore I'm stuck with what ever they have. I've used Lig before and produce too much hard crusty ash for me.

The dealers are at the mercy of whatever is available. I know if the prices are down in the Spring I'll buy a ton to start off the next season.

At the rate oil prices are going down I may switch back to oil and use the stove in the basement as a compliment to oil.

Courtland does have the best price around and the salespeople are very helpful even if you didn't buy your stove from them.

When I'm in a jam I also buy from Bay Stoves in Edgewater but they are more expensive. The cheapest this season has been $5.99 a bag and now $6.29 a bag at Courtland.

I'm currently using out my supply of Turmans and Hamers. I've been using Stove Chow which is a soft pine. I have a Harmon Accentra so I can use both premium and soft wood.

I hope you post back with your experience with Okanagans or whatever it's called.

I had to chuckle when you said the salesman said they were selling all day. That's because, like I said, they have the best price and they are always well stocked but when the premium brands aren't around they will sell whatever they can get. So sure, they will be selling all day. They are always selling pellets all day.

 

[victor]

I'm in Harford County, MD and bought a ton of Okanagan's from Courtland last Saturday. So far they've been terrific except for being a little dustier than the pellets I had previously, O'Malley's hardwood pellets. With our unusually cold winter I ran out of pellets and debated whether to turn the electric heat on or get another ton of pellets. When I stopped in at Courtland and saw they had softwood pellets I decided to give them a try. I installed my AE last November and have only used three brands of pellets, the O'Malley's from Courtland that were pretty nice, a few bags from Wal-Mart that I'd rather sell the stove than continue to use and the Okanagan's. I'm not a veteran pellet stove user by any means.

On Monday the temperature here dropped to about 9 above zero. My Mount Vernon AE set to Manual High and Normal convention blower speed (the highest heat output) kept the downstairs of our 3400 square foot house at 71 through the night and the upstairs at 73. The stove seems to put out noticeably more heat with the Okanagan's pellets. My wife commented that the air coming out feels hotter, on the highest setting its uncomfortable to keep your hand in front of the exhaust due to the heat.

Another thing is the ash. Amazingly there is almost NO ash in the firebox after burning about 10 bags. I'm going to pull the ash pan out tonight and see what's in there.

My only complaint is the dust. These pellets are a little dustier than the O'Malley's but I'd still take them over the hardwood pellets. They aren't as dusty as the crap I got at Wal-Mart, can't remember the name right now. I'll just go to Courtland from now on to get pellets.

Overall, I'd recommend getting the Okanagan's. If I have a choice I'd get them again. The bag says they're from British Columbia Canada. It's a mystery to me how thay can ship these across the country and sell them for $6 a bag and still make much money. Perhaps they are shipping them in 100 to 130 ton lots by rail. Trucking 24 or so tons seems prohibitevely expensive.

 

[JeffGuy]

Thanks for a great detailed post. I think I'll try them also and see what happens in my stove.

Yea, I agree, they're from Canada and they sell for that price here?? Makes you wonder what the markup is.

Thanks again for an informative post!

 

[JoeS]

I am going to Courtland this weekend and pick up 20 bags to get me through the rest of this heating season. I just finished up a ton of the Energex from Canada and they seem to be a decent pellet. I actually had to burn them on the Sunflower setting, the softwood setting didn't give me the heat output.

 

[bambam68]

I pre-purchased pellets for the winter (3 tons). The company was supplying Cubex hardwood pellets, but the had a hard time getting them due to a plant fire and a lack of market of hardwood floors. Consequently, they brought Okanagan pellets from British Columbia via rail. They are softwood and the are more available as trees in BC are being killed by the asian pine beetle. Once the tree is killed, it is only viable for wood products for 4 years before it rots. Hence the wood pellet production.

Compared to the hardwood pellet (which was good), I much prefer the BC pellet. Despite being softwood, it produces a very intense heat, less ash and I found a remarkable decrease in the amount of fouling on my glass on the stove. I also find the pellets easier on the auger as they are "softer". They are dustier, but this has created no problem with the stove.

Overall, I am quite happy.

 

[harleyguy]

We just bought our Mt.Vernon AE on Valentines day 2009 and have been having fun trying different pellets. Like everyone else i like the Okanagan even though they are dustier. We've bought all of ours from Courtland as well. Good bunch of people too. We'll probably stick with the Okanagans as long as they are available.

My question to the other Harford Countians is this.
I see someone posted about Pre-purchasing pellets.
Where can you do this in Harford County? I live in Belair and we have an EOG Townhouse and theres no way to store 2 or 3 ton of pellets without keeping them outside in something which i hear isnt good to do with the moisture.
Is there somewhere local that you can do this? This would be IDEAL I dont even mind paying a little extra for the convenience.
It's either that or we'll just have to store a ton at a time in our basement under the steps until we get the room.

Doing a search for that is what brought me here to this site.

Thanks

 

[jezbo33]

when you refer to dustier do you mean more house dust or the pellets themselves. A dealer is offering 1.3 ton pallets for 350 down here thinking of getting 2 pallets ...

 

[brian22]

I just bought 1.3 for 295.....In Maine

 

[brian22]

I think you will find that the $350 was for the whole pallet of 1.3 tons and the $295 is for a ton pricing....the way that Okanagan Pellets are shipped from Western Canada is 1.3 tons per pallet so they can get a maximun load in a boxcar thus being able to be competitive in the NE..You can's stack 3 pallets on top of each other in a boxcar (only two) so they have to bulk up those pallets to get as much in as possible.

ya you are right...what was i thinking?

 

[jtpack123]

Where did you get your pellets for 295?

 

[Jack Morrissey]

Just bought a couple of bags myself. Going to try them out this weekend if gets cool enough. I like the clear bag!

 

[summit]

okanagan pellets 285/ton at rocky's in augusta, me

 

[Jack Morrissey]

Burned 1 bag of them this week. Like them very much!! The glass stayed clean more than anyother pellet ive tried. Good heat. A lot more fines in the bag though- about 1/4 cup or so, not enough not to buy them again though. Running out of cool - cold nights to try anymore though....

 

[Xena]

Hey Jack thanks for the comments on the Okanagans.
1/4 cup of fines in a bag is too much for my liking but
let me know if all the bags have that much.
If my stove was in the basement I probably wouldn't
mind the fines, but it's in the living room and too much dust
from the fines really kills everyone including my Shih Tzu.

 

[Stentor]

Hey Jack thanks for the comments on the Okanagans.
1/4 cup of fines in a bag is too much for my liking but
let me know if all the bags have that much.
If my stove was in the basement I probably wouldn't
mind the fines, but it's in the living room and too much dust
from the fines really kills everyone including my Shih Tzu.

There seems to be a little inconsistency in the fines. I bought three bags in mid-April and two more at the end of the month from the same source. One bag seemed to have a little more wood dust (that's fines, right?) than the other four. They all burned well and apparently have a good reputation on this board, so I ordered two tons to be delivered next week along with two tons of New England Wood Pellets. I don't expect to be burning them until the fall, so my information may be too late for anyone buying now.

Another person on this board posted in reply to a question I had that the wood is pine, spruce and hemlock. I don't know whether just because it's softwood that that affects the amount of dust or whether dust comes from the manufacturing process. As far as how they burned, they seemed to me to be like LG Granules and Spruce Pointe, both from Canada.

Here's the link to the manufacturer.

http://www.westfibre.com/pellets.html

 

[Stentor]

Stentor, when you consider how far these bags have to travel and how many times they get handled, I guess one of the trade offs for having a great pellet is a tad more fines in a bag. You might understand that the pellet is made and bagged in BC, railed across the country to usually one of two reloads either in southern Quebec or Central MA, where they are unloaded and then reloaded onto trucks to the various different dealers in the NE. They then unload the truck and then usually load onto another truck to be delivered to your home. All the moving around may create some more fines in a bag, but the trade off is probably one of the very best pellet available in the NE today. Very high heat and extremely low ash is what you will get from this pellet. This is really the first time I have heard that someone wasn't happy with the amount in a bag, but then again you can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time.

There is also a difference between an Eastern Canadian product such as Energex or LG and something that comes form BC or Alberta. The western Canadian product will typically come from the interior of BC where they produce what is referred to as a SPF grade of lumber (Spruce, Pine and Fir...thus SPF) ....... The vast majority of what is found in this grade is spruce and pine...which is what is found in the OK pellets. ..........

Again, IMHO the Western Canadian products will produce the highest heat and the least amount of ash of just about any pellet available in the NE area. That is what you are buying, not if it's a hardwood or softwood product. You are buying heat and how much mess is left over. Okanagan, which is has a very good rep on this board, and Spruce Pointe, Eagle Valley, Sure Fire, Pinnacle, and Dragon Mtn are all examples of this. ..... Mtn

BTU, I've committed 50% of my pellet money for delivery of two tons of Okanagan this month, so I'm expecting them to be good. I'm not knocking them. The point of my post was a reply to someone's question earlier in this thread. I saw a little fines in one of the five bags I bought; that doesn't mean I was unhappy with it. There is some wood dust in the various other pellet brands I've tried and it doesn't seem to matter anyhow. Fines don't seem to clog the stove and they slide into the firepot with the pellets.

What you said about the differences between eastern and western Canadian pellets is interesting, by the way, but that's a question for another day.