Question Regarding Softwood Pellets

[smwilliamson]

Again, it depends on the stove. I got no mess out of Okanagans, but no heat either. With the Spruce Pointes, I got tons of heat but the ash piled up quick. McFeeters were junk. But, LaCrete were far and away the best pellet for my stove. All of these are softwoods.

I hate to pick a fight and it's not my intention but you got "No Heat" out of Okies? You are splitting hairs amongst the differences between all of those brands. Stoves are all the same but installations are all different.

Ash piled up with Spuces? McFeeters were junk, no heat with Okies but somehow LaCrete works best? Are you high? No seriously....I could burn any of those four in any stove and barely notice any difference....

 

[Defiant]

I hate to pick a fight and it's not my intention but you got "No Heat" out of Okies? You are splitting hairs amongst the differences between all of those brands. Stoves are all the same but installations are all different.

Ash piled up with Spuces? McFeeters were junk, no heat with Okies but somehow LaCrete works best? Are you high? No seriously....I could burn any of those four in any stove and barely notice any difference....

X2

 

[Cowdogz]

I hate to pick a fight and it's not my intention but you got "No Heat" out of Okies? You are splitting hairs amongst the differences between all of those brands. Stoves are all the same but installations are all different.

Ash piled up with Spuces? McFeeters were junk, no heat with Okies but somehow LaCrete works best? Are you high? No seriously....I could burn any of those four in any stove and barely notice any difference....

With Okanagans I had no problem holding my hand in front of the heat outlet for 30 seconds or more. Couldn't do it for 10 seconds with LaCrete. Ash piled so high after two bags of Spruce Pointes that it was spilling back into the burn pot. Couldn't care less if you believe me or not. If you "hate to pick a fight," then quit being snarky and take my word for it, or don't bother posting to me.

 

[Defiant]

With Okanagans I had no problem holding my hand in front of the heat outlet for 30 seconds or more. Couldn't do it for 10 seconds with LaCrete. Ash piled so high after two bags of Spruce Pointes that it was spilling back into the burn pot. Couldn't care less if you believe me or not. If you "hate to pick a fight," then quit being snarky and take my word for it, or don't bother posting to me.

To each his own, you guys are trading words of fire Why can't we be friends I know he started it.

 

[smwilliamson]

With Okanagans I had no problem holding my hand in front of the heat outlet for 30 seconds or more. Couldn't do it for 10 seconds with LaCrete. Ash piled so high after two bags of Spruce Pointes that it was spilling back into the burn pot. Couldn't care less if you believe me or not. If you "hate to pick a fight," then quit being snarky and take my word for it, or don't bother posting to me.

Snarky....

What I'm saying is that the results you are posting may be your account but they are not very typical of the brands. The air flow through your system has a lot to do with what you are experiencing and I'm not sure that you created a neutral starting point by which to base your findings. That's all.

 

[Cowdogz]

Snarky....

What I'm saying is that the results you are posting may be your account but they are not very typical of the brands. The air flow through your system has a lot to do with what you are experiencing and I'm not sure that you created a neutral starting point by which to base your findings. That's all.

Is this how you would have worded it to a paying customer, or would you have asked him if he was "high?" As a businessperson you should be more careful how you communicate with total strangers in a public forum.

My "starting point" is no less neutral than yours, because every setup is different. As someone who services these things, you know this. If I just took everybody's blanket statement that "softwoods burn hotter and cleaner" for granted, I might have gotten stuck with a ton or two of pellets that don't work well for me. I'd like for the OP and others to avoid that, so I relate my experience and they can take from it what they will. That is why a forum like this is valuable, to help people make informed decisions. The bottom line for me, based on experience, is that you should never just go out and buy a couple of tons of a pellet based on someone else's report without trying it in your own stove first.

 

[smwilliamson]

My "starting point" is no less neutral than yours, because every setup is different. As someone who services these things, you know this. If I just took everybody's blanket statement that "softwoods burn hotter and cleaner" for granted, I might have gotten stuck with a ton or two of pellets that don't work well for me. I'd like for the OP and others to avoid that, so I relate my experience and they can take from it what they will. That is why a forum like this is valuable, to help people make informed decisions. The bottom line for me, based on experience, is that you should never just go out and buy a couple of tons of a pellet based on someone else's report without trying it in your own stove first.

All I was saying is that you were comparing 4 brands that by most measure are identical. You say that Spruces are ashy and Okies have "No Heat" I have to wonder what on earth you are talking about.
For the record...I'm not above asking a customer is they are proverbially high either...so lighten up please. Getting stuck with a ton of Spruce Pointes....yeah that's a problem

 

[Cowdogz]

All I was saying is that you were comparing 4 brands that by most measure are identical. You say that Spruces are ashy and Okies have "No Heat" I have to wonder what on earth you are talking about.

I stated my experience several times, in plain English. I'm done. Good day.

 

[nailed_nailer]

I'll take any and all of those "bad" Okies and Spruce Points that you decide to get rid of.

I Like 'em.

Never burned McFeeters but I'd be willing to try them.

Hell, I'll make a trip to Maine to pick 'em up even.

Just to help you out......

---Nailer---

 

[smwilliamson]

I stated my experience several times, in plain English. I'm done. Good day.

I would like to apologize for ruffling feathers or fur. I was being snarky.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Actually it depends upon the fuel air mixture which requires proper adjustment for each pellet brand burned.

On a number of quads it is only the fuel gate that the owner has control of. It must be set according to the instruction for flame height adjustment.

 

[Cowdogz]

I'll take any and all of those "bad" Okies and Spruce Points that you decide to get rid of.

Oh, I used 'em all. After my first two times buying a pallet of pellets my stove didn't appreciate, I learned to try a few bags of something before committing to a whole ton, which was the whole point I wanted to get across to the OP.

I am sitting on two pallets of PWI you can have for the bargain price of $500 per. Gotta make some money back for hauling and stacking.

 

[Cowdogz]

I would like to apologize for ruffling feathers or fur. I was being snarky.

Bygones. You can owe me a beer. I prefer Sierra Nevada Pale.

 

[Cowdogz]

On a number of quads it is only the fuel gate that the owner has control of. It must be set according to the instruction for flame height adjustment.

Hey Smokey, I am right around the corner in Gorham.

You are right, the only adjustment I have is the feed gate. I probably keep it open a little too far, but I like the bigger flame. Probably contributes to more "fireworks" and resulting ash, but with some brands this is just not an issue. Actually, in the whole cost-heat-mess matrix, blended pellets like Trebio and NEWP have probably been the best deal for me.

 

[smwilliamson]

Bygones. You can owe me a beer. I prefer Sierra Nevada Pale.

I'm brewing up a Steam right now, though the temp in my basement has been climbing over 60 lately so it may not have as much of a bite, perhaps more like the Pale

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Hey Smokey, I am right around the corner in Gorham.

You are right, the only adjustment I have is the feed gate. I probably keep it open a little too far, but I like the bigger flame. Probably contributes to more "fireworks" and resulting ash, but with some brands this is just not an issue. Actually, in the whole cost-heat-mess matrix, blended pellets like Trebio and NEWP have probably been the best deal for me.

If you are in North Gorham you are indeed a neighbor, I can walk to either North Windham or North Gorham without much effort, Gorham "proper" not so much but close enough. The town of Standish proper is more than an easy walk from here.

Your burning issues are mostly related to an improper fuel/air ratio if the softies are causing ash issues. My unit has nothing for adjustment ability except on low burn and is very sensitive to fuel ash levels, the stove prefers softwood. I however feed it almost a steady blend diet and among other things there is a world of difference depending upon the softwood to hardwood ratio in the blend.

 

[RiddleMasterMorgon]

Softwood pellets burn hotter and cleaner....

sigh, OK I cant resist and have to chime in (putting my marketing hat on):

pellets are a (somewhat) standardized commodity (fuel). Do you discuss if the gas from Citgo is better than the one from say Exxon ? No because within the legal limits they are exactly the same and hence have the same price (lots of price pressure makes it so). Now of course they try to suggest one or the other is better for your car and burns cleaner....in the absence of any other distinnguishable feature thats a nice marketing effort...

On the other side of the spectrum is the knowledge people have about fire and wood and stoves....hardwood is better than softwood...everyone knows that much.

Now, wood pellets have a stadard in diameter, they tell you the BTU output (in more or les accurate terms) and the ash content (usually fairly accurate if stated at all) - unfortunatly a coarse grading was accepted a while back putting pellets in categories of premium, super premium ect...which does not help terribly much other than to weed out the terribles from the reasonables. Where the fiber comes from is fairly useless information.

Now back to the top argument, if you want to distinguish your product from all the others, maybe you can somehow convince people that softwood is better than hardwood for pellets ? Wouldn't that be cool ? You could sell your hardwood for premium dollar to the wood stove folks and the softwood (as pellet) to the pellet stove folks....mission accomplished.

Of course it gets more complicated, because the length of the pellet is not standardized (has a rather big variable that is), so indeed short pellets with the same BTU than long pellets appear hotter for the enduser because the stove auger delivers more material per time and burns more pellets per time...hence any pellet 'test' that is not testing the burn time in a home setting is rather useless compared to BTU. Unfortunatly even the BTU is usually given with a 10-15 % varience by the vendor...and one gets the impression that some of the box store pellets are sometimes consistantly shorter than some brand product....I wonder why that is

And now throw on top that every wood pellet stove has a different air intake and settig and burning wood can range from a too much air to not enough air and cause all kinds of changes to the ash measure, heat output, effort in cleaning, long term damage to the stove, chimney cleaning need ect.....and you end up with a product that people discuss like we do...

The only winner in such a market is the vendor(s) not the consumer, because the pricing is removed from the function of the commodity (heat output) and you end up with the 'same' product costing everythig from 150 USD to 350 USD/ton....that sucks.

There is, now I feel much better. And hopefully this discussion forum helps people navigate this market better than they could all on their own. Glad to be back in 'heating season', we had way too much sun lately....

 

[Lousyweather]

good points, Riddlemeister....in fact, even if we use the data given us by manufacturers (ash content, BTU content, salts), we see very small differences in all of the premium pellets out there.....cant really talk about some of the recycled pellets, as I dont view them as the same product with some of the foreign materials in them. In a great pellet versus a bad bellet, there might be a 10% difference in the BTU's......not much. WHen you factor in variances of quality in production, its even less......but one guy buys a pellet because it has 52 more BTU's/lb than another? eh, dont get it sometimes!