Im not too thrilled about the unidentified foreign matter in the pictures, let alone the sticks in your previous photos. BUT, I am not familiar with the brand either. I might expect this foreign stuff in a recycled pellet, such as Blackstone (or Still River?).....they take pallets, grind them up, and make pellets, so it might be understandable in those cases. You have a Quad, which is certainly a good unit. Some of your aforementioned pellet choices, in my mind, are certainly preferable to a product which has to be screened, and even then, you've got the unknown colored bits, and God only knows what they are.......Frankly, I wouldnt consider a product where I had to go and screen it all before I use it, UNLESS its SUPER cheap.....and that'd be maybe less than $125/ton.....just my 2 cents
I'm cheap and I'd pass! Mainly for the colored bits in them. But screening takes away from the good deal with all that added work.......... Too much time wasted for me to bother, But thats just me!! Wonder what the heck that crap is, Certainly wouldn't want that in my stove or burned off and passed out my venting.
Probably shredded plastic crap.. It took me days to clean the mess that stuff left after burning those Penningtons a few years back. DobieMom - you may want to give your stove a real good cleaning, including the combustion blower, after burning these pellets, if you see -any- issues burning new stuff. I wonder if this company is using the same mill? (I think you may have told me it was on the table for sale back in '14-'15, when Pennington sold those mills off.) And if 'industrial' grade pellets are allowed to have this (crap) mix in them? AFAIK they (usually) co-fire the industrial pellets w/ coal.. Dunno.
Sale price is $215/ton so not cheap, for me anyway I would think a company like Hamer's would do better even when bagging for a private label knowing their reputation could be on the line. I don't like putting a lot of time in the pellets but I'm one of those that don't like even dumping fines in my stove! I know, hard to believe since I WAS considering getting these! LOL
I'd like to know what that crap is too! I didn't burn them...they were added to my "stick collection" that I'm saving for Hamer's this time Haven't heard anything back from the seller yet. I keep praying some day I'll find a pellet I don't have to even remove fines from ... hey, a gal can wish
I THINK the owner told me these were coming out of Elkins, WV...isn't that Hamer's only plant? I have a few bags of Turmans here my brother gave me so I'll follow with those and keep an eye on the burn and will be sure to clean real good when these last Harwood Heat are done. We almost hit the 70's here today and they're calling for a warm week ahead so stove is taking a break! The guy that services my stove every year told me the same thing..."Sounds like the chit I found in those Pennington's!" I myself have never burned Penningtons'...read too many bad reviews on them to even buy a bag to try!
well, fines burn too! My stove isnt picky, but if the fines are such in excess that I am in danger of a rat-holing issue, I'd return them long before I went to the trouble of having to screen each and every bag. Possibly the retailer would take them back and try something else? I do understand some stoves are pickier as far as fines go. I'll take this opportunity to say that if the bag has swelled due to moisture, not to use the pellet. In that case there are excessive fines, and if a person were going to use them, then, yea, screen them. Keep in mind that a significant amount of energy is lost evaporating the moisture from the pellet prior to it even combusting, so, moisture will really alter the heat value of the pellet......they are usually around 6-10%
Found that out first hand burning an old bag of CF Pacific @ the bottom of the stack that had moisture issues - the remaining pellets, after screening / vacuuming burned 20-30 F lower vs. a dry bag, excellent advise there LW & why didn't you tell me this 2 months ago. You ain't missing anything not trying them DobieMom . Cool that your brother hooked you up w/ some Turman pellets. To keep it in context, the chit Pennington pellets I'm talking about were bagged 2+ years ago, at a plant they were off-loading, so I'm not 'surprised' whoever was working there dumped whatever-crap-they-could-find into the line at that point.. Or possibly they were using the same pellet line to produce industrial-grade pellets, and there was left-over material from a previous run in the mix. Who knows. * But that you're seeing the -exact same junk- in these pellets now is suspect, to me anyways.
When you get a second stove set up, that 20-30* heat difference won't make a difference really in heating your place. And if you make that stove a Harman, or some other stove that you don't have to mess with the settings to burn different stuff, it won't impact your life. I've dumped in moisturized pellets into the P61a and didn't notice a thing. No knob turning, no "optimizing" and the basement stayed the temp it was supposed to stay at.
That's because you have HARMAN stoves w/ ESP.. Smart Stoves! ( Smarter than I am, anyway. ) * Good to know "Moisturized" pellets won't affect burn, there's plenty of that in the house w/ the Ladies here - that means they'll still burn spiffy.
You sound like my brother and my stove guy Yes, I know fines burn BUT I won't intentionally dump them in my stove because I don't want to block or clog up my vacuum. Just to give you an idea...from sifting a little over a ton of varied brands I have a bag of 4 POUNDS of fines. When I go get pellets I warn them the bag(s) BETTER be TOTALLY dry with NO swollen/hard sections. Places I buy my pellets think I'm crazy LOL Irritates the hell outta me when one of the sales people say "pellets are pellets" GRRRRR!
I actually bought Turman's 2 years straight...one year was fines from hell in them, the 2nd year I had to constantly take the wood chisel to my fire pot after 3-4 burns. Last year I got a ton of Greenways...NEVER again...dusty and a load of fines. I know every batch is pretty much a crap shoot around here but a brand like Turman's - that shouldn't have been. Maybe it's me and I expect too much.
I just confirmed with the seller that these Harwood Heat ARE bagged by Hamer's and ARE coming out of Elkins, WV. Hamer's was given my contact info and the person she spoke with (dummy me didn't ask the name!) is supposed to be contacting me directly. I'll give them this week to touch base or I'll make my own calls
"With one pellet plant facility in Elkins, West Virginia, we can supply your needs throughout the heating season." Taken from Hamer's website: Hamer Pellet Fuel So you are definitely correct!!
Surprising. They are usually spoken of fairly highly here. Can't say I've ever seen them up here in the north country, though, so can't speak based on experience.
They don't seem to be what they have been in the past BUT that might be said for a lot of pellets now a days. I think times are just tough for most mills.
