Only the best pellets

[muss]

will survive for us consumers in the next couple years. So many new manufacturers out there that they won't have much choice but to keep getting better. We have so many choices already. I know personally, i'm on my 3rd bag of pellets from Strong called Maine's Choice & out of 5 brands they rank right up there as far as ash, i have yet to clean ashes out. Just as good as the Canadian Energex . As far as going back to the Athens, well, it won't happen in my lifetime . Muss

 

[arcticcat1]

I'm glad to hear that the Maines Choice is working out for you,I am currently suffering through my last ton of Athens.I got stuck with 5 ton last year cause it was the only thing I could find at the time and like a lot of people I bought to many.I've got a ton of Maines Choice just waiting to be tapped!

 

[Lousyweather]

definitely we are on the cusp of having a plethora of options available to us in the pellet world, especially those of us who are in New England. Historically, we didnt have much choice for pellets here, there just werent many mills. Then, enterprising companies started importing (to our area), some pellets, but we were plagued with paying shipping costs. Noone can really control those costs, its overhead, and needs to be taken into account. Now, due mostly to the fact that new mills have been build, old mills expanded, we find outselves in the postition of having for the first time, an good amount of pellets available. What I see happening in the next couple years is some of these upstarts not making it, while others shall, obviously. We will have a dual market actually, where one sector will be the high quality pellets, such as Turman, Okanagan, etc, and the other option being the absolute cheapest pellet out there, but giving up quality. There are some folks, albeit the minority, who will buy the expensive, Super-premium pellets, becuase they do burn better, and the price is irrelevant to thse folks, as long as it isnt totally our of whack....BUT, in a review of alot of these posts here, and what customers tell me, the greater, probably by far, portion of the market will go to the low-ballers, who have made the choise to drop their quality, but offer a better price. I feel the majority of folks will be willing to buy an "ok" pellet at a low price versus a great pellet at a higher price.....heck, one only has to look at the Big Box retailers to prove this...its why they exist and are successful. Our challenge as retailers of pellets will be to decide what our customers want, and try to bring it to them at a fair price. This fair price has to be low enough to be affordable to the mainstream end-user, but also have enough profit built in to keep us in business and prosper. I only hope that the new upstart mills can stay in business, and that the importers can convince us that their quality is worth paying a difference for.

 

[imacman]

.....So many new manufacturers out there that they won't have much choice but to keep getting better.....

We can only hope so, plus the more pellet manufacturers there are, the price will remain relatively low.

As for those troublesome Athens pellets, hey, we need SOMETHING to sell to the European countries, don't we? Might as well stick them with what we don't want. They don't give 2 craps about US.

 

[schmeg]

The rumor here in central Maine is last year Athens initially made pellets out of a back stock of waste wood that was originally destined for a biomass
boiler that never got licenced. So they turned it into pellets. After the pellet revolt, they supposedly switched over to a more realistic fiber source. I personally haven't
burned any, and plan on not burning any Maine made pellets this year. I got burned on 4 tons of Northeast from Ashland Maine last year. The were so long, my stove would jam up
unless I took the extra step and dump them in a 5 gallon bucket and smash them up with a sledge hammer, then sift off the fines,,,,,,all 4 tons. Average pellet
length was 1/3/4. Some were 2 1/4 in long! All Canadian stuff for me, hate to say it being a Mainer and all, but I'm done buying junk. I did latch on to a few
bags of Strongs. Very good pellet. Hope they come back on line soon.

 

[Havlat24]

Some pellet producers will be content with selling crap pellets to big box stores... and uneducated consumers will buy them up.. then come here and complain about it..

 

[save$]

I had a coupon from Tractor supply that I used to buy 6 bags of Maine Choice. Fantastic burn. No ash in my burnpot. My winter supply of pellets are Canadian Energex. They burn nice, but I do have to clean out an "ash doughnut" every 2-3 days. My brother has the same stove as mine. He burned Athens last year, and has reported to me that this years Athens are burning much better and also without ash in the burnpot. From his report and from others who have mentioned there current experience with the new Athens pellets, I think we have a new product from this company. If I could get Maine Choice, I would buy those first, Next I would like to try the reformulated Athens. I don't like stove cleaning any more than the next guy and I would prefer to buy local first.