potomac pellets anyone burn em

[dave1966]

a local lumber yard told me they are thinking about supplying this brand of pellet they say they are premium pellet and are made from hard wood yellow pinehas anyone had any experience with this brand they as of now looking to sell for $295 a ton.

 

[tinkabranc]

No experience with this brand, but last I knew yellow pine was a softwood not hardwood.
Also, $295.00 a ton is expensive

 

[dave1966]

that was what i said about the pine but they say yellow pine is accually a hard wood and white pine is a softwood i'm no tree expert but it was also listed as a hard wood on the packageing

 

[imacman]

that was what i said about the pine but they say yellow pine is accually a hard wood and white pine is a softwood i'm no tree expert but it was also listed as a hard wood on the packageing

The lumberyard guy is playing semantics games with you. Softwood and soft wood are two different things

All wood from trees that have cones are grouped into the category softwoods, and trees with leaves are considered hardwoods. However, one very hard "softwood" is southern yellow pine (as hard as western maple), and conversely balsa is a very soft "hardwood".

Regardless of what the lumberyard guy says, or how he says it, yellow pine is a softwood....period.

 

[Stentor]

But there's an interesting question off to the side. Macman's right that Southern Yellow Pine is a softwood. It looks like what we call softwood and especially it meets the definition and classifications of botanists. But how does it burn?

Here's a line from the Wikipedia article on pines, particularly on the sub-genus containing Southern Yellow Pine:
"Diploxylon pines tend to have harder timber and more amounts of resin than the haploxylon pines." I don't know if that means Yellow Pine would be more like some hardwoods than other softwoods, especially after it is compressed and turned into pellets. Does the theory have practical applications?

I don't know much about wood personally and Google search in Wikipedia can only take me so far. But I'd hesitate to buy without trying a few bags or getting comments from others. And the salesman is raising a red flag by his way of talking. He sounds too sure (and is wrong).

 

[garyo]

a local lumber yard told me they are thinking about supplying this brand of pellet they say they are premium pellet and are made from hard wood yellow pinehas anyone had any experience with this brand they as of now looking to sell for $295 a ton.

I bought a ton of these at Lowes- I was told that they were hardwood. They don't seem to throw as much heat as other brands i've used, and there seems to be a lot of ash

 

[Trophy_67]

Hi,
Yes I have been burning "Potomac" brand , yellow pine pellets since I installed my Englander with great success other than there price!, there is NO DISCOUNT for buying a ton vrs bags at Lowes, they are $5.98/bag or $298/ton wich I FEEL IS OVERPRICED!
I get mine from Lowes wich is right up over the hill from the place I work (convienient), but I have been experimeting with other brands for a few weeks as I have gotten to know a few fellow pellet burners that have been willing to swap me a couple of theres for a couple of mine.
So far I have found that mine burns the Potomac's very well with great heat and low ash compared to another brand I tried from a local feed store then a gent swapped me a few bags of "Keystone" hard wood pellets that perform just as good maybe even a little better and they run $230/ton at my local lumber yard (Lezzer Lumber, Curwensville, PA).
Today I picked up 10 bags of the Keystone to give them a good weeks worth of burning before buying a ton.
Do some experimenting there are pelelts out there that work as good or better and priced much CHEAPER.
Just my 2 pennies.