Pellet Shortage?

Check that I just went on line 7-8 bucks a bag for the good tuff. Crickey!

 

Lol, yeah there is zero percent chance I pay that price.

 

With oil down to 2.30 range I am gonna go pig out on dino juice.

 

It was this time last year I just went back through a conv, I had with my Man Steve to confirm the dates , after mid Jan. things dried up down here. Then it was hit or miss at the big boxes and when they did get them they flew out the door ,and thanks to Steve having my back he let me know who had them so I didn't drive all over chasing them . I was able to score enough here and there as they were being rationed at most places to get through the season.

After that I said that Chit ain't happening again as soon as the big boxes got them in in Aug. I started buying and kept at it till I ran out of room about 4 tons worth No worries here

 

I've noticed in the past two weeks, the local TSC here appears to be at lower inventory levels as well. I stopped in tonight to see exactly what they had. 2 tons outside the front door and 16 tons inside the cage; all North Americans and Pure Fires. That's it! The entire surplus supply behind the store is gone too. A forklift operator was outside so I asked him why is the inventory this low? He said they're only getting 2 truckloads per week these days, down from 10 earlier in the season.

 

Keem em coming indeed! It's been a great season for testing, and I gotta funny feeling we're going to see another run of northwestern softies hit the boxes here before the season is over.

 

I hope you are right about the softies. Given a choice, they are the ones I would prefer. Our HD has three brands of pellets. One soft and the other two mixed.

 

My Big Heats are doing pretty good. However, I expect a lot of varying opinions on this brand by the description on their website.

 

Larry, I'm assuming the softies you refer to are the Nature's Fuel, which I wasn't too impressed with and that one of the blends would be FSU. What's the other blend? I haven't seen 3 brands there at the same time yet this year.

 

Nations Choice, Therma glo, and AWF white pine are at a HD near me.
the AMF are Great!
I bought 12 bags the other day.
and going back for more soon.

 

I am thinking it was the Therma glo by Northeast wood products. A search on the Net says they purchased Pennington Seed Pellet

 

I hope they are going to do a better job of things.

 

Me too, but I won't count on it. They bought up a bunch of mills so product quality might not be consistent.
http://biomassmagazine.com/articles...oducts-purchases-pennington-seed-pellet-mills

 

“ThermaGlo will meet or exceed both PFI & ENplus A1 certifications, the most stringent in the industry,” said Michael Reid, senior vice president of business development.

Northeast Wood Products is a newly formed company of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut, which prioritizes investments in enterprises that have positive environmental impacts. “The wood pellet venture creates fuel from a renewable resource,” said a tribal spokesman. “It fits our eco-friendly investment model.”

Well at least it will put a plant or two back in operation, for how long is unknown.

 

I went Saturday TT they had only North Americans ( I did pick up a couple bags even though they are not that great, I figured with sunday being in the 40s why waste the good pellets!). They had one ton and while in line the lady said they were limiting pellets to 5 bags per person. A ton was being picked up by a customer and the ton that I pulled rom was 2/3 gone before I checked out, people pulling 5 bags a pop.

 

I took advantage of the warm weather and took a tour of the box stores to see what was available. Lowes only has Maine Choice at $5.58/bag. TSC has Northeast Pellets from Maine, not to be confused with the Northeast Wood Products, Maine Choice and their own brand with an ash content of <1%. I didn't see a bag price but the ton price was $249.50. Went to HD expecting to pick up some FSU's. All they had was Nations Choice and Therma Glow at $4.48/bag and $239.50/ton. With choices like that I didn't buy anything. I know Steve tested the Therma Glow and said they were decent, but I couldn't bring myself to buy pellets with the ash content blacked out with a permanent marker.

 

I did buy one bag of the therma glow, I haven't used it yet.
I would hate to have that job blacking out those bags!
" and your job today is to take this sharpie and black out these two lines".

 

I had to stop in on Saturday morning and return something. The store manager processed the return for me. He told me they have 4 truck loads on the way, but no specific ETA. I think the mothership is rationing them these days. While I was there, people were grabbing bags right and left. Over the course of the weekend, I must have driven by there 4 times and there were people loading up their cars with loose bags, and the forklift bringing out a new ton every time I drove by. I was floored to see how rapidly they were selling, it was crazy! It looked like a good old fashioned "run on the bank". It looked like the 18 tons I saw on Friday night were not going to last the weekend.

In related news, I was at Robbins this weekend and took the opportunity to ask how they are doing with pellets this season, and did she foresee any issues with supply like last year. She answered with zero hesitation and complete certainty, that they would not run out of pellets. Based on what I saw in the yard, they do have a decent supply on hand.