was checking out pellet dealers and stumbled on this. check out the prices! http://www.woodpelletsexperts.com/pricing.html
The per-bag prices are enough to make you chuckle. Believe it or not, the per-ton prices have become "the norm" around here. A few of us traditionally buy our pellets at this store, but in the past two seasons, the prices at most of the small shops like this one have gone through the roof. As much as I like to support the small local businesses, they are making it impractical to do so. A $10, $20, or even $30 /ton price difference is one thing, but I just can't make a case for paying these prices when the exact same product can be had for $50 - $100 per ton less at the store 1/4 mile down the street. This is why we are all box store buzzards these days! I will still shop here for a select favorite brand (Vermonts), but unless these prices drop significantly (not likely) most of my stash is coming from TSC and HD from now on.
I was at the grocery store yesterday at the check out I saw a guy buying Big Heats ,I didn't know that they even sold pellets at the grocery store . One other observation is these pellets don't slide down the hopper , a good amount tends to get hung up in the corners ,very much like the Heatr's did.
Another observation from today ,my hopper lid is glass , I dumped in a bag from the cold garage . When I checked on the stove around noon I noticed condensation on the inside of the lid never saw this before , stuck my hand down in the hopper could feel cold pellets ,mixed them up it's all good. I know there was a thread about pre- warming the pellets or something to that affect , My pellets always come from the cold to the warm first time this has happened . It was no big deal stove was pumping out the heat , so I don't know?? I just wiped off the inside of the lid ,I don't know if it was just this bag or what . Just thought I would put it out there
I had this effect with Heat'rs too, as well as the AWF Ultra Premium White Pines and Vermonts in prior years. Seems like some brands / batches just have a "tacky" surface where the pellets like to stick to each other and not slide well. It's kind of funny (ok, not really) when your stove "runs out of fuel" and you open the hopper lid to find it's still half full, it's just that there's a giant gorge down the center leading to a pellet-less slide plate! When I get some like this, I just make sure the hopper really, really FULL before going to bed, so we don't wake up to a cold house! Edit: Just curious, do you know what wood fiber those Big Heats are? Just wondering if you can tell by the smell if they are Spruce or Pine or something else?
They are a Hardwood / softwood blend no % given according to the web site kinda depends on what they get in .
I liked the big heats until I cleaned the stove and found a pile of green residue they left behind in and under the burn pot. Must be the copper staples in the pallets they are grinding up!! No other pellets I have burned thus far this year have done this.
That's just a fancy way to say : we grind chit up and bag it... But if it's good chit that's all that matters! Got a pic of these bags? I have a feeling I have used them a couple seasons ago.. Now that you mention it my last few bags of AWFWP have been hanging up in hopper, but not the vermonts, it's starting to pizz me off.. I'm going to pull an Imacman & hit the hopper with furniture polish. Ray
I burned 7 bags ,and when I cleaned the stove I didn't find any of that either ,I'm thinking bad batch also.
I called my local TSC today to see if they still had any greenways in stock (my stove seems to love them) and they were out but she said they just got some Big Heat's in. I ran up after work and grabbed 6 bags to see how the stove likes them
