Wood Pellets - soft vs. hard

[Lemms]

OK, I'm sure that this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find anything thru a search. So, here we go again...
Are soft wood or hard wood pellets better to burn in you pellet stove.
I've heard arguments for both. I had a service tech out on Friday, and he swore that softwood pellets will perform better. They put out more heat per bag, start easier, burn cleaner, and burn just as long as a bag of hard wood pellets. I have been burning hardwood pellets and have been having some issues with ignition. So, I think that I will be switching to softwood. I thought that it was here at the forum that I was told to that hardwood pellets were better, but I can't remember... So, let me know what you think...

 

[begreen]

Service tech is correct, but be sure you get a good brand of pellets. Crappy softwood pellets are no better than any other.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

agreed with BG and the tech. softwood creats less ash, and has a high BTU/lb ratio. People get confused because hardwood is the more desirable wood source for woodstoves, and thats only because of long burn times. With a pellet stove, you dont care about long burn times. FWIW, i will put up my home grown doug fir harvested at 9000' against any hardwood out there

 

[Lemms]

OK, thanks... I wish that I would have known this two tons of pellets ago...
Oh well, I heard somehwere that hardwood was better and went with hardwood. And
I have problems with my stove. Now I know better. I have one ton of hardwood pellets
to finsih up and I will be going with high quality softwood pellets from herer on out...
Any recommendations on "high quality" softwood pellets?
I heard that Kentucky Comfort and Home Comfort are both made by Vanderwell out of
Canada and are very good pellets.
Any others?

Thanks...

 

[restorer]

OK, thanks... I wish that I would have known this two tons of pellets ago...
Oh well, I heard somehwere that hardwood was better and went with hardwood. And
I have problems with my stove. Now I know better. I have one ton of hardwood pellets
to finsih up and I will be going with high quality softwood pellets from herer on out...
Any recommendations on "high quality" softwood pellets?
I heard that Kentucky Comfort and Home Comfort are both made by Vanderwell out of
Canada and are very good pellets.
Any others?

Thanks...

I've used Eureka this year. Done a fine job except the last two bags. Hope this isn't a trend. They have very good heat value, and a moderate ash level, seems gritty vs. fluffy. Not the standard size(1/4 inch), but smaller diameter (7mm?). That took some adjusting the feed rate. Come from Missoula, MT. 100% Douglas fir.

I have used Heartlands, Spearfish, SD. Liked these better than the Eureka, but they were not available in my area this season. Had a few trucks in January at Sutherlands and I was able to buy four bags to sample. Really put out the heat, light ash, a better feed consistency, no clinker like the Eureka.

Before you buy a ton or more, gather up sample bags of options you have. What is carried year after year in your area. Try a couple of bags and see how they perform in your stove. I've tried locally made pellets that just did not perform. This year I tried three different pellets before buying the Eureka. Bear Mountain was an equal choice, but they were not going to be available. The sample was a left over from last season. Don't get caught by picking one that you can't get later.

 

[begreen]

I've done well with Lignetics and Blazers.

 

[Lemms]

Well, thanks for all of the brands for looking into...
I'll have to see now which, if any, are available here in Wisconsin...
We have plenty of choices of hardwood pellets, but now many softwood.
Home Comfort at the Home Depot... I'll have to do some digging to see what others
we can get...

Thanks...

 

[begreen]

Try a few bags first of whatever brand you choose.

 

[GVA]

Softwoods smell alot better when you are outside too.
The BTU's are not really that much between the hardwood and softwood.. Burn times are equivelent So burn what you can get and whatever is more cost effective for ya......
I just had a bag of NEWP that was nuclear.............. I got a call from my wife this morning that the stove smelled funny........ It was curing again new high temp I suspect.. Told her to crank the blower all the way up to pull the heat off the stove. The cast Iron on the other side of the heat exchanger on the top of the stove must still be around 300*!! 9 hours later.......... It's pretty cold here in the NorthEast right now...
Long story short,,,,,,,,,,, the softwoods seem to be a bit more stable with the burn, They should be cheaper too..

 

[Roospike]

agreed with BG and the tech. softwood creats less ash, and has a high BTU/lb ratio. People get confused because hardwood is the more desirable wood source for woodstoves, and thats only because of long burn times. With a pellet stove, you dont care about long burn times. FWIW, i will put up my home grown doug fir harvested at 9000' against any hardwood out there

What are you betting now MSG!? ;-)

 

[begreen]

Ooo, this could be good. Old growth fir against.... I have some madrona which is pretty fine hardwood and I think I have some fir from a 200+ yr old tree. Both stashes are in the shed and very dry. Maybe I can do a burn test equivalent of the compressed log test. I'd have to go by weight I guess. Though with fir grown at 9000ft I would imagine that the growth rings are very tight. This could be a safe bet.

 

[restorer]

Ooo, this could be good. Old growth fir against.... I have some madrona which is pretty fine hardwood and I think I have some fir from a 200+ yr old tree. Both stashes are in the shed and very dry. Maybe I can do a burn test equivalent of the compressed log test. I'd have to go by weight I guess. Though with fir grown at 9000ft I would imagine that the growth rings are very tight. This could be a safe bet.

Have some friends near Bozeman, MT. They have some Tamarack from first growth trees. Took 3-4 years to dry to their satisfaction. They use large splits. They start a stove normally, getting a few pine splits going, then spruce or fir to build heat. When they have a nice coal bed they build with the Tamarack. You'd think the fire looked like it was dying, the T's so hard to start, but in twenty minutes you'd think they switched a gas jet on. Don't remember their stove, but I sure remember their wood. His Dad heated with wood and was in the forestry business. The wood is from their own property, and is thinned timber. Probably has ten years worth of burning, cut split and stacked. They relax in the mountains in the Summer cutting on the weekends.

 

[Roospike]

Ha , Dont make me pull out all the stops and the ole' 100 year old Hedge Apple fence posts out on ya. ;-)

A few narley , notty 100 y/o hedge rounds at a hinney whoppen 34 mill/btu pc, tho it might take and Oxygen / Acetylene torch to get it to lite.

 

[Lemms]

GVA - 05 February 2007 04:28 PM
the softwoods seem to be a bit more stable with the burn, They should be cheaper too..

It this typical; softwood being cheaper than hardwood? Because I am looking at some now from the same company,
and the softwood is $25/ton more expensive. I thought that the softwood would have been cheaper...
Plus, a buddy of mine ran a little test this week. He cleaned his stove, and burned one bag of softwood, and recorded the burn time. The next day, he cleaned the stove and burned one bag of hardwood. He said that he thought that the hardwood pellets gave off more heat. Both were from the same manufacturer...

Thoughts?

 

[TMonter]

Remember,

Pellets are processed, compressed and extruded so the actual heating value between softwood and hardwood ones will be minimal. Additionally you're buying by the pound so the heating value should be very similar (within 1-200 Btu/lb)

 

[hearthtools]

Ok my 2 cents
I have been selling and burning pellets for 19 seasons now.

This is what I see
Pine pellet burns Clean and Hot (most available wood from Lumber mills)
Fir pellet burns VERY CLEAN and about as hot as pine. (SHORTAGE OF FIR AT THIS TIME)
80% fir 20% pine make a good match but you CAN NOT get a fir pellet at this time.

Hard wood pellets burn HOT but make more ash and like to clinker.

I got 42 tons of Energex last Winter from back east. DARK pellet.
Burned hot but I had to clean my burn pot every 40 # of pellets.
Reminded me of the days when a local mill made pellets out of Pallets.

I had some left this summer and sold them to my BOTTOM FEED pellet stove people.
Pellet master, Martin ect.

Now im selling 100% pine pellets from Surefire (foothill forest products)
foot hill website

 

[GVA]

Cost should depend on the supply near you... Here in the northeast the local Hardwoods are cheaper than the softwoods shipped over 3000 miles but I still prefer the softwoods, again it depents on the type of softwood used..

 

[mtalea]

Ok I did alittle research and found that softwood does burn hotter/cleaner and less ash than hardwood..according to all that I have read,but who makes a softwood pellet? I cant seem to find a brand.

Please any and all help appreciated

Matt

 

[GVA]

NEWP canadian
Granules LG
that's all I can think of of the top of my head that are sold around here

 

[mtalea]

thanks, But I finally found 4 brands of softwood pellets...Eagle Valley / Canadian premium pellets / Pinnacle / and Corinth premium pellets

Im going to try those this year ,what the hell...see if I notice anything...they say hardwood pellet is 8800btu and softwood is 9600btu

 

[GVA]

thanks, But I finally found 4 brands of softwood pellets...Eagle Valley / Canadian premium pellets / Pinnacle / and Corinth premium pellets

Im going to try those this year ,what the hell...see if I notice anything...they say hardwood pellet is 8800btu and softwood is 9600btu

I forgot about the pinnacle.... Good pellet......Very very very very similar to the NEWP canadians ;-P

 

[hearthtools]

thanks, But I finally found 4 brands of softwood pellets...Eagle Valley / Canadian premium pellets / Pinnacle / and Corinth premium pellets

Im going to try those this year ,what the hell...see if I notice anything...they say hardwood pellet is 8800btu and softwood is 9600btu

I forgot about the pinnacle.... Good pellet......Very very very very similar to the NEWP canadians ;-P

Pinnacle WAS a good pellet when they had Pinnacle Fir. Now they dont use Fir and use some kind of pine and SUB out most of there BAGGED production to another mill (they did not tell me they subbed out the production and found out latter in the season).
They sell alot of bulk over seas.
I had the worst pellets ever from them last year. ALL 568 tons of them. Hence I changed to Surefire.

Most pellets from the west side of the Continent are soft wood. Midwest and east cost are hardwood soft wood mix.
you can get a lot of info about each mill from the

(broken link removed to http://www.pelletheat.org/2/index/index.html)

 

[HarryBack]

Ok I did alittle research and found that softwood does burn hotter/cleaner and less ash than hardwood..according to all that I have read,but who makes a softwood pellet? I cant seem to find a brand.

Please any and all help appreciated

Matt

softwoods around here? a few:


Energex (Canadian)
New England Canadian Pellets
Pinnacle
Corinth

 

[HarryBack]

thanks, But I finally found 4 brands of softwood pellets...Eagle Valley / Canadian premium pellets / Pinnacle / and Corinth premium pellets

Im going to try those this year ,what the hell...see if I notice anything...they say hardwood pellet is 8800btu and softwood is 9600btu

I forgot about the pinnacle.... Good pellet......Very very very very similar to the NEWP canadians ;-P

hehe...its almost like they are the same pellet, Huh, GVA?

 

[GVA]

thanks, But I finally found 4 brands of softwood pellets...Eagle Valley / Canadian premium pellets / Pinnacle / and Corinth premium pellets

Im going to try those this year ,what the hell...see if I notice anything...they say hardwood pellet is 8800btu and softwood is 9600btu

I forgot about the pinnacle.... Good pellet......Very very very very similar to the NEWP canadians ;-P

hehe...its almost like they are the same pellet, Huh, GVA?

Almost..... but NE has a stronger bag