New to pellets and stoves and I keep seeing this verbage on these forums and wondering what it is? Is it a namebrand of pellets? I tried to 'google' the term, but can't find an answer.
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What are 'shoulder' pellets?
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Bioburner
Moderator
Stuff being able to burn but of marginal but good enough to burn but not putting out a whole lot of heat but lots of ash to make you clean alot so used when not a high heat demand as in the early fall and late spring
Don't know if I can make the answer any longer as the threads on the subject are stupidly long too
Don't know if I can make the answer any longer as the threads on the subject are stupidly long too
Generally speaking it is a cheap pellet that doesn't put out much heat but lots of ash. Usually not bought on purpose.
Bioburner
Moderator
Not on purpose.Thanks... I understand now. As a noob in the pellet stove world, how will I know a shoulder pellet from a decent pellet, experimentation? Generally speaking, how are the pellets (by ton) at the home depots and lowes?
Bioburner
Moderator
Like a roll of the dice, its a c@*p shoot. Buy a bag or two and try. Don't take long to figure if the stove makes a pile of ash and soots up or burns hot and clean without to much ash. Another thing to watch for is the length of pellets and how many fines in the bag. To long and won't feed properly in corkscrew feeds like Quads. Good luck
holy smokes batman.... it looks as though finding the right pellets is going to be more difficult then finding the right stove. Sounds like lots of experimentation and when I do find the 'right' pellets, there is no guarrantee those same pellets will be around for the next winter.... therefore the experimentation might start all over again.
Looking at where your location is I would find out what is available at the cheapest price and go from there. I would think if you headed north and looked at towns along "40" they would handle them at a more reasonable price then say Phoenix. Check local Home Depot as they maybe more reasonable then smaller stores. Looks like Holbrook has a Home Depot and carries 3 different brands. Buy some of each and pay attention when burning them to see which you think burns best.holy smokes batman.... it looks as though finding the right pellets is going to be more difficult then finding the right stove. Sounds like lots of experimentation and when I do find the 'right' pellets, there is no guarrantee those same pellets will be around for the next winter.... therefore the experimentation might start all over again.
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TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
The whole idea of shoulder pellets is silly. Just buy your pellets and burn them. When it starts getting warmer out turn the stove down.
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
So, now that you've heard from some with strong negative opinions about shoulder pellets (and every other subject known to man), here is an alternative view:
Another way to look at it is that there are some brands of pellets that produce more ash than others. Some may produce a perfectly acceptable amount of heat, and a moderate volume of ash, and sell for a moderate price (in my area, this season about $240 / ton). There are other pellets that produce extremely low volumes of ash (less than half as much in some cases) and great heat, but (again, locally) sell for about $300 per ton. When the really cold weather of midwinter occurs and you are burning 2-3 x the volume of pellets compared to the "shoulder" seasons of late fall and early spring, those "shoulder" pellets may produce an amount of ash that requires more frequent cleaning of your stove than you desire. For example, I want to stay on a schedule for cleaning of once per week regardless of time of year because it creates a good habit that I will remember, without becoming a burden. So, you may wish to purchase a more expensive pellet for those colder periods. It's not much different than putting snow tires on a vehicle, except easier, because all you need to do is decide to burn one brand of pellet from the beginning of the season to some point when it gets cold, when you switch to the more expensive (less ashy) pellet. When it starts to get a bit warmer, you switch back. The result is that you pay less money, stay on a consistenet schedule for cleaning, and your only inconvenience is that you must make the horrendous effort of telling your pellet dealer that you want x quantity of pellet A and y quantity of pellet B, and then have enough common sense to know when you have reached the point where it is cold enough or warm enough to grab a bag of pellets from one stack or the other. This is apparently too much for some peole to handle, so they label this logic as "stupid".
There are some pellets that are truly bad and are best avoided if possible, but many good poducts that can be purchased and used without a problem IF the difference in price warrants it. Make up your own mind, but please do so with full information and a rounded view. The concept doesn't seem difficult for many of us to grasp or practice, but others do struggle...
Another way to look at it is that there are some brands of pellets that produce more ash than others. Some may produce a perfectly acceptable amount of heat, and a moderate volume of ash, and sell for a moderate price (in my area, this season about $240 / ton). There are other pellets that produce extremely low volumes of ash (less than half as much in some cases) and great heat, but (again, locally) sell for about $300 per ton. When the really cold weather of midwinter occurs and you are burning 2-3 x the volume of pellets compared to the "shoulder" seasons of late fall and early spring, those "shoulder" pellets may produce an amount of ash that requires more frequent cleaning of your stove than you desire. For example, I want to stay on a schedule for cleaning of once per week regardless of time of year because it creates a good habit that I will remember, without becoming a burden. So, you may wish to purchase a more expensive pellet for those colder periods. It's not much different than putting snow tires on a vehicle, except easier, because all you need to do is decide to burn one brand of pellet from the beginning of the season to some point when it gets cold, when you switch to the more expensive (less ashy) pellet. When it starts to get a bit warmer, you switch back. The result is that you pay less money, stay on a consistenet schedule for cleaning, and your only inconvenience is that you must make the horrendous effort of telling your pellet dealer that you want x quantity of pellet A and y quantity of pellet B, and then have enough common sense to know when you have reached the point where it is cold enough or warm enough to grab a bag of pellets from one stack or the other. This is apparently too much for some peole to handle, so they label this logic as "stupid".
There are some pellets that are truly bad and are best avoided if possible, but many good poducts that can be purchased and used without a problem IF the difference in price warrants it. Make up your own mind, but please do so with full information and a rounded view. The concept doesn't seem difficult for many of us to grasp or practice, but others do struggle...
One other thought to consider is how much of a job is it to remove the ash bucket from the stove and simply dump it in a metal container and then put it back into the stove? a lot of stoves are made so that you can do this while the stove is running. It probably takes less effort to dump the ashes then to add pellets to the stove.
Read the following thread if there are other terms you might not know.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/the-newbie-dictionary.139395/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/the-newbie-dictionary.139395/
It's basically a figment of people's imagination. 'Shoulder pellets' IMHO are just less dense and/or longer pellets that a user feeds into his stove but doesn't bother to adjust his stove properly to burn those pellets. If the pellets are less dense, it means you have to feed MORE of them per shot to equal the same pounds per hour rate. If you don't adjust for that, you are feeding fewer pounds per hour which equates to fewer btu's per hour which means you don't get as much heat. If the pellets are longer, you can't pack as many pellets into the flights of the screw and, hence, once again you get fewer pound per hour and less heat. Ash really has little to do with 'shoulder pellets'. It just has to do with frequency of clean-up. If someone wants to argue about ash %, remember that coal has a LOT more ash but puts out more than 50% more heat than pellets so that kills the ash argument.
Basically, if you adjust your stove for what you are burning, you should get the same amount of heat. If your stove can't be adjusted enough to compensate for the difference in density or length, then yes some pellets will provide more heat per auger revolution.
Basically, if you adjust your stove for what you are burning, you should get the same amount of heat. If your stove can't be adjusted enough to compensate for the difference in density or length, then yes some pellets will provide more heat per auger revolution.
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