Its true! Sorry. Guy here has had a free bag of pellets on CL all week: "I have a free bag of Heating Pellets for someone. You pickup" We have gobs of water too, and we just let it run into the ocean. California is gonna dry up and blow away and we are drowning up here.
Picked up a couple of these today. Never burned them before, anyone else have prior experience using them? First bag should go in tonight, will provide some feedback after.
Yes, can't wait to hear what you think. Like IHP said I believe those are typically very good. Are those straight spruce or a blend?
I don't think you'll be disappointed ,personally never burned them I think that Geno has these in his stash
Geno has burned a lot of these. I've burned them in the past, very good pellet. Not quite Lacrete good but close. What did you pay for them?
Steve, I don't know if they are 100% spruce, the bag doesn't say. I assume they are. They sure smell great. Sub, I'm embarassed to admit it, but I paid $6.50/bag for these. TBH I've only ever paid more than that for one other brand, I'll give you one guess what that was If I had bought them as a full ton, the price would have been $5.78/bag. Oh well, this is the markup a vulture has to pay for testing a few bags from the pellet store these days. Thoughts - These pellets are OK. Pellet size is very irregular, no dust, lots of fines. Ash is superb - none of it remains in the pot. Heat is not the best. Nothing like some of the hotter pellets I have burned this year though. I'm only getting 350 out of these on the same settings I got 480 out of the AgriRecycles a week ago, and that's a pretty substantial difference. To be honest, these pellets are identical in almost every way to Heat'rs for me. So close, I would not be surprised to find that Heat'rs are a private label brand for them. I know, unlikely since these are from Alberta, CA and the Heat'rs are supposed to be from Arizona. However, the smell of them, the tendency to bridge in the hopper, ash, heat, and the lower density are all the same. In fact, about the only thing I can think of that's different is the Heat'rs were a bit darker in color. Based on prior reviews and feedback of these, I don't think I'm getting nearly as much heat out of them as others have reported. These were plucked from an open pallet stored outdoors.
TSC in Putnam got about 4 full truckloads last week. They have Pure Fires, GS, Nation's Choice, and Energex in TSC bags now. Not moving very quickly either; funny what a brief little warm-up in the weather will do.
You really need to compare feed rates when your compare the heat. Unless of course you are running on your highest setting. At that point it would matter. But if you are not it is hard to get a fair comparison. They should be as hot as any.
Understood, and this is fully accounted for in my testing. When I do a max temp test, I set the stove to room temp and turn the temp dial up to an unattainable temp (level 6 = ~85 degrees), effectively simulating maximum heat demand. I then wait for an hour or so and record the max achieved stove temp. I did the test again today and while the Spruce Pointes consistently hovered around 350 - 370 degrees (hello, Heat'rs), they topped out briefly at 380 degrees (see attached image). Now, as luck would have it, I took a swing through TSC parking lot on the way home and noticed they had a ton of TSC bagged Energex out in front. Turns out they had 3 partial / damaged bags marked down to $4.25/bag so I bought them all, what can I say I'm a bargain hunter. As soon as the hopper was depleted of Spruce Pointes, I threw in a bag of the TSC bagged Energex. Didn't change one single stove setting, mind you. As soon as those Energex hit the burn pot, the flame more than doubled in size. Within 20 minutes, the stove temp was up to 500 degrees (see other attached pic). This is not the first time this season I have bought a brand of pellets others have had outstanding results with, only to find that they perform badly in my stove. What does all this mean? If you ask me, it means that batch variance has become more the rule than the exception. What kills me is pretty much across the board, just as observed in this test, I am getting markedly better results with the "cheap" and "crappy" box store pellets than with the "brand name" pellet store products.
Well that's a win win! Less mola out of your pocket and the stove is happy! Not the first brand we've heard have variance, And this season seems to have a higher chance of seeing it. Many mills were bombed with orders that they had issues keeping. No excuse in my book, But I guess when ya get sick of hearing the phone ring and everyone on the other end screams "where's my pellets". Ya tend to drop your guard and lessen the quality. Proceed to the quantity route. Hopefully they are back to quality as they used to be one heck of a softy.
As long as maximum heat demand is achieved, I don't think it matters whether Stove or Room temp mode are used. If there was a possibility I'm not really creating max heat demand, like let's say I didn't set the temp dial high enough, and the stove really did get the room up to the configured temp, I would agree, but that definitely is not the case here. It is running full blast, creating as much heat as each product is capable of, throughout the test.
Well, all I know is that the only time I see temps in the 500* range is when I either start the stove up or increase the set temp dramatically, which is basically what you are doing. The stove is feeding for all it's worth trying to reach the set temp. I see that no matter what I'm burning for pellets, including FSU's and MWP's, so it doesn't make sense to me that the SP's wouldn't do it.
Are you also observing the average length of all the brands? Pellets that are much shorter as a whole normally result in higher temps for the same heat setting......each burn pot "charge" actually has more wood to be burned since they can pack more in the auger. With longer pellets, less actual fuel makes the burn pot on each charge cycle.
Yes, I definitely agree with this and have observed it as well! The length of the SPs is all over the place, they are not uniform at all. From pea size to 1.5" long. Here's the deal: I unfortunately seem to get landed with the proverbial "bad batch" more often than anyone else I know. No doubt, that is what happened with the SPs here too, they are outright "bad" pellets. My best guess is because they were stored outdoors on an open pallet, for who knows how long, before I bought them - high M/C? Funny update: I got home late tonight and the wifey had already started the pellet stove about 1.5 hours earlier. Still running the Energex pellets, at feed rate 3.5. I come in the house and she says what kind of pellets did you put in the stove, it smells funny. So I go over and take a look, the stove is at 550* !!! I said holy chit! You guys must be familiar with that smell that occurs when a wood stove gets just a little too hot? The pellet stove was making the same smell. So I quickly turned it down, out of concern to be honest! Think I may just have to rundown to TSC and pick me up a whole ton of these Energex pellets!
Stopped at HD in Oxford on the way home, and they had these. Date stamped on bagsis 01-15. Bought 3 bags because I'm a glutton for punishment, HA HA. Actually just want to see if they create the same crazy hard ash as the first batch I bought earlier in the season! Report forthcoming.
