Anyone using LaCrete that were purchased recently? I bought 30 bags in the last month and a half-they are very dark and oroduce a lot of ash. Good but not great heat. Not what I am use to from LaCrete. I have 4 bags of Lacrete that are about 3 years old-let the stove run out of the current batch and opened one of the old ones. Nice light color and almost no ash. Overnight, the old bag burned far hotter and even just burning low produced very little ash. The new stuff produces less heat with high volume, dense ash. Here is a pic of the 2. New stuff bottom, old stuff on top. Pic doesnt truly show how dark the new stuff is compared to old stock.
Actually kind of glad this happened so I dont stock up on this brand in a month or so for next year. Unless there are good answers it looks like LaCrete will not be my go to pellet any longer for high heat/low ash.
Haven't burned them in a long time. But hearing how some dealers have had issues getting pellets it could be that La Crete may have let their guard down. Still not an excuse IMHO. Letting quality slip just to put products on the selves is never good for business. Only hurt sales in the long run! I'd let La Crete know whats going on and explain your feelings! Also the dealer where you got them.
Just left a message on their site. Will see if I get a response. Will also contact Henry McManus. Too bad about Dan's passing-really good guy and could have also shed some light on this issue. It might be a batch issue as I have been using LaCrete almost exclusively due to their consistent quality. Any answer likely will not change the fact that I now doubt their ability to produce.
Nothing new here. 9 yrs burning softwoods and not 1 is exactly same as they were back a while. They have gone from light to darker, larger to smaller, less ashy to more ashy Etc. If the high btu heat is still there then I live with it. Manufactures of products have downsized to save bucks ( think supermarket items,,) so can understand cutting back on ingredients in the process. Could be harder or more exspensive to produce. Dont like it but in the end its a pellet stove and it's all about the btu it produces. I burn top softwoods and have found that the lighter colored stuff seems to have more fines that were not there yrs ago. Bargain priced box store hardwoods have prob gotten worse but I have not bought them since the old stove chow days which are now one of the green supremes flavors from HD.
Yeah, I could deal with the ash and was but after putting in the old stock and realizing the difference in heat then its time to try other brands to see if any better for restock time.
The analysis on the bag has changed slightly. Spruce to SPF which is Spruce Pine Fur blend that shouldn't have these results. I can feel the Pine in there as the older ones are slicker than the new. The dont funnel like matra but they also dont slide down the hopper as well either. Ash has gone from .3% to Less than 1%-so triple but the actual ash content has increased far more than that. Heat is not even close. Sorry, when there are other choices to test, this might be the end of the road for my using LaCrete Remains to be seen though. Guess I will be looking to pick up other flavors to try this week.
speaking of Matra, I have stopped buying them for now.. so much fines in the bag that it has chocked off the pellets flow at the slideplate at times overnight. looked like the pellets we're getting stuck on the side walls but actually stopped moving due to the sawdust gathered down below. I usually have to dig my hand down to the slideplate and stir it up.... to be honest, i usually fill when hopper is half or less assuming the weight will keep things flowing but am actually contributing more sawdust via each bag I dump so not a 100% fix for sure. I always burn good softies but it seems that the light blond colored stuff, specially if the pellets are small appear to have the most fines... right now trying out NW super spruce.. they are Not light colored so we will see.. Shame because EasyBlaze and Matra we're my go- to for high 8K btu but getting tired of the funneling due to abundant fines. still have few tons Of NW doug firs in basement which are my Silly Cold weather stuff. One other thing: started using room Manual most times this season and can't swear to it but possibly the very slow dribble of a few pellets here/there during maint mode [ as opposed to the other modes ] might be small and slow enough that it give the sawdust time to gather " and pizz me off". will see if that's true.
Looks like they are no longer a super premium pellet going by the specs listed on the new stock label. But still charging the super premium price. Certainly would deal with the change if the price matched the quality, But not an even trade off IMHO. Puts them on my chit list now!!
** Yeah not happy with Matra's, black glass immediately! got ton of woods and sons, far superior in my stove, have to mix matra's in with them.
my P61A harman glass is fine.. it's the damm sawdust...btu was plenty hot.. burning some Hamer hots today.. bit more ash but no fines..
The only issue I had with Matra was some funneling, although I havnt burned any from this year so cant say about the fines now. I do have a ton in the garage but those were bought fall of 2021.
Yeah. Sawdust fines at bottom cause the flow to stop feeding at times. Those matra are almost as hot as doug firs. I know. I burned both. Close to 9K.
The la cretes that showed up at HD stores around here a couple seasons ago were similar to what is described here. They weren’t all dark, but a mix of dark and light pellets in each bag. Heat is fine, but the ash is different and much more than any prior experience with them. I’m surprised to hear this is still an issue, all this time I had thought the product they unloaded on HD stores to sell that year was known to be a lesser quality product (like what we normally refer to as a “bad batch”). If that had been my only experience burning la cretes, I would not buy them again. For what it’s worth, the logik-e softies I bought this year are nothing to write home about either, and from what I’m reading here the Matras this year are bad too? Yikes, sounds like quality is off all around this season. Let’s hope this is a temporary issue. FWIW the MWP I have are performing consistently as ever.
With me being out of the pellet burning game this season until several weeks ago, I hadnt even bought any until maybe a month ago. Was unaware of the drop in quality from pellet brands as my last bulk purchase was fall 2021 which included 2 ton of LaCrete that were far better. Much cheaper as well but that is the same for everything we buy. As J mentioned, if the current LaCrete were cheaper then I could deal with it but at 350/ton I expect better. Time to start testing for better stock or lower prices before bulk purchase for next heating season.
