Poll: For your favorite Softwood brand.......

This poll title should be retitled "Your favorite East Coast Softwood brand". We don't have any of those out here -- but we do have some great Douglas Fir pellets that are quite good and some great prices.

 

im a newbie and all the softwood brands ive burned seem to be retired
i abstain from votin,i will tell you those vanderhoofs are longer then 10 miles of dirt road.......never again.

 

I'm jealous.

 

I don't know. I paid $209.50 pre-tax for a ton of Bear Mountain douglas fir pellets this summer. I just called them today and learned they are now $229.50 during the height of the season. I've managed to buy them during the off season and get good prices. There are some other good premium brands I've used for similar prices. I'm very happy with the product too. I typically use 4 tons to heat us throughout the year. But many of the others are running $250+ before tax (9%) -- and you know how it is. I'm always curious about what's out there. After reading some of the pellet reviews (most come out of the East -- for good reason), I wish I could try them.

 

Those bear mountains sell for something like in the pic. The northern warmth are bear mountains. The okanagan are another douglas fir from out west. Most out here would agree that the douglas fir are better than anything in this poll.

 

$369 a ton! OMG.

 

Yep!!! Same pellet just a different bag. Expensive train ride. Crazy paying thise prices. I tend to pay ~$240 a ton for some on the list here.

 

Yeah, no brainer. It's a good pellet but it's not $369 good. Most of the quality pellets out here run around $250+ a ton and then 9% tax. But off season purchases can see closer to $210 before tax. I find the Sierra Supreme and/or Cascade pellets coming out of Shelton, WA to be quality as well and Lowe's often has seasonal sales to unload them -- and get this -- the end of February! That's about when our really cold weather leaves.

 

Truer words have never been said.....imo.

 

Pacific Coast Pellets in Shelton, WA has (3) brandings: Cascade and Sierra Supreme as Dotman mentioned and the 3rd being, Olympus brand, that I was able to find in CT.
I took a ride one day and headed to Enfield, CT (closest and only dealer in CT carrying the brand) to pick up 12 bags of the Olympus to try, as I also had some of the new (2017) Oakie Douglas Fir from another dealer, so I could test and seen which if any performed any better.
Looked the same, smelled the same. Decided to call Pacific Coast to find out who might be carrying the Olympus brand for next year as the My Pellet Store in Enfield said they would not be carrying them any longer. Apparently, they are bagged in WA and shipped, so pellets get a bit beat up on their way to the east coast.
In speaking with a representative at Pacific Coast I mentioned about what I was burning as my primary pellet (Patriot Pellet) from Squier Lumber in Monson, MA (supposedly - Purcell 100% DF) in their Patriot bag and also how I had a few bags of the new Okanagan Douglas Fir from this years production to try, as I'm not sure the patriots will be available next season. I was told by the Pacific representative, that their DF pellets are what's in the new Oakie DF bags.
Small world.
I have not seen in a difference in the burning or ash , of either the Olympus or the new Oakie DF.
There is a difference seen with the Patriots though. The Olympus & Oakies seem to run cleaner over the Patriots.
Using a Wiseway non electric, gravity fed pellet stove, Model GW-2014.
The more common model is the GW-1949 and is the only model currently manufactured & marketed by USSC since acquiring the Stove brand from the designer/inventor, Gary Wisener.

This week hope to pick up some of the Easy Blaze 100% Softwoods to try. If they burn well and there is no increase in ash or clinkers, may be a good alternate to paying for the DF that the stove works best with and was used as the primary wood pellet in the stoves development. Must be nice to have DF as a local product.

 

IIRC, Purcell is not a 100% DF....I believe its predominantly DF but not 100% DF.....similar to Blazers....I may be wrong though

 

Amen, Brother!

 

had a nice chat with Flyer304 yesterday when he stopped in for some EasyBlaze softwood. great to meet another one of the forum guys!

We'll be waiting to see how they work in your unusual stove!

 

Good Evening Art,
Pleasure meeting you as well.
Pellets worked well with the particular burn basket I was using, which had a rod spacing of 5/16" for bottom of the basket where the pellets drop from.
With the Easy Blaze Softwood having an average pellet length shorter than the pellet length of the DF products I am using, the burning pellets were dropping sooner onto the secondary burn plate of the Wiseway.
This resulted in an increase in the surface temp of the burn tube and increase in temp at the exit flue. Was running between 50 to 70 degrees hotter compared to running the same burn basket and using the Patriot Pellets DF. Brought the house temp up a little more, which is a good thing.
The DF used has a avg pellet length that is longer than the Easy Blaze, so they have to burn longer in the burn basket before they get small enough to drop. With less pellets on the secondary, less heat to keep things going. It is a timing thing you have to balance, if you get too many pellets sitting in the secondary, less air passes through them to burn quick enough for the pellets to fall into the ash pan and the cycle continues. Change the timing with too big or too a pellet, or too much or too little rod spacing of the burn basket for the pellets to drop through, you could throw the whole unit off. Getting easier to understand the more I use the stove and start seeing the relationships between items .
But hey, no electricity needed, no auger or blower motors. Non electric, gravity fed pellet stove. You run it like a wood stove, in that you have to have draft or the stove will not function properly.
Only item noticed with the Easy Blaze is that they are a bit dusty. Even ran them through a vacuum type set up where you pour your pellets through and it sucks the fines and small particules as the pellets pass through the PVC piping and exit into a 5 gallon pail.
After shut down the burn basket was pretty clear, no clinkers. I did have a small ash cake on the secondary, but was very light and broke apart once you tried to handle it, so it was still allowing air to pass through it to keep the pellets on the secondary burn plate not still cook until they burned down more in size and dropped into the ash pan. Had a little more soot present on the burn chamber with the Blaze ,seen after shut down. Stove has its own idiosyncrocies (hope spell check caught it), so just a little more cleaning elsewhere but less in the burn basket.
Plan on taking pics of the difference in the pellets sizes of the Easy Blaze and the Olympus DF, Oakies DF, and Patriots DF (the latter 3, pretty much have the same variations in pellet lenght up to and including 1.25", to put up at the Wisestove user group in Google. Want to do another full overnight burn of 12 to 14 hours again to see if results can be repeated before I post that.

But was very positive for the first burn and if it repeats on the second overnight, may have to consider that a good combination, with the basket I made and the Easy Blaze. Got more heat as more pellets (being smaller for the avg sizing) were dropping sooner onto the secondary burn plate, which translates into keeping the heat up. For a lot less money.
Have to try the Lacretes when they become available again and see how they do and then do an A/B between the Easy Blaze & Lacretes to decide for next season.

Have a Good one.

 

I haven't been around here (the forum) much the past year; just logged on and saw this thread so I voted. I've been a La Crete burner the past two seasons and loved them but this year tried the Vermonts. As of this posting the two aforementioned are in a dead 'heat' in the poll. So far I'm finding the Vermont to be a considerably cleaner burning pellet over the La Crete. That being said, with oil prices still reasonably low I have a hard time justifying pellet cost but wife likes the heat and ambiance, so Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go!

 

if you get the easy blaze super premiums, you won't see much difference in leftover ash compared to the doug firs.
the blaze leave a grey powdery ash coating same as the firs which have a just a tad less residue.
just emptied my ash pan which has been collecting since mid october..
I think the heat is the same or at least feels just as hot..supposed to be high 8's btu.small pellets so more fit in the burnpot..
main thing is the price is much lower for the blaze.. paid 249.00 as compared to well over 300.00 for the firs.. $80-$100.00 difference. only complaint is they have lot of fines n the bag but, the fines burn up and don't think they will cause any harman auger problems. used to get the screech, clunk noise at times with longer hardwoods..

 

Evening Tully, Art and to All,
After a few more overnight - extended burns (10 hours+ to 18 hours), the EasyBlaze Ultra Premium Softwood pellets definitely gave the DF a run for its money and gave change back.
With using a burn basket I made with 5/16" spacing between the rods (using a Wiseway non electric gravity fed pellet stove), and the smaller pellet length that is the avg for the Easy Blaze, I do have the same heat,
with less ash in the ash pan, and the same burn time as compared to running DF in the same burn basket. The Oakies DF was a close 2nd for ash, but the night I was running straight Easy blaze the next day, the ash was 1/2 of what I have been seeing. Didn't think I'd see that , but with the set up I am running, the Easy blaze are allowing the stove to have its proper timing. A subject for another time.
The only bad part is I have 2.5 tons of the Patriot Pellets DF to burn before I have room to replace them with the Easy blaze. Stove is very consistant with Easy Blaze softwood and the homemade burn basket.
Excellent combination for my stove and my chimney set up. The Wiseway is worked/run like a wood stove, so draft is critical.
Vacuum system I made up helps to remove more the the dust the pellets generate (like pouring directly from the bag). The only negative item is that they do deposit more of this dust in the feed ramp of the feed tube. But that's addressed during my regular stove cleanout.
Spoiled by how well the stove ran with the few bags I had of the Easy Blaze softwood.
Going to be a slow winter till I get the existing supply of pellets burned and have room to start stacking the Easy Blaze.
Anyone interested in some Patriot DF pellets?