You would first need to determine how many know exactly what it is... And then the answer would be "very, very few"! Dan
There's a PFI annual fee and there's a fee for every ton you produce. The per ton fee goes to a lumber standards organization and the certification company doing the inspections. You have to fly an inspector in and pay for their lodging and travel (and the inspection) at least every month. The lobbyists have managed to convince a few vendors that the label is a government requirement. It is not, yet, but those lobbyists would like it to be. Yes. The power plant is running. We haven't finished the drying system.
Scot...out of curiosity, what do they inspect? They pull some bags and inspect? How do the test for ash, fines, etc. percentages? I'm thinking part of that cannot be done onsite.
The inspectors don't do the testing. That's done in our own lab with samples sent to a PFI certified testing laboratory. We do have all of that equipment on-site. The vast majority of testing is done on-site with the outside lab used for verification. The inspectors will inspect paperwork, like your Quality Assurance Manual, and inspect your testing procedures and look at your process. I'll know for sure when we have one arrive. We have one box store customer that's been tricked into believing they need that "Quality Mark" - at least until they find out it's going to cost more. It was the same with FSC certification. That's another expensive and paperwork heavy process that we've done but none of the FSC Certified labels are on the bags. The customers think they want it until they find out it will cost more. I'd like to drop the FSC certification because it continues to cost a lot of money and time and provide absolutely no benefit but the owners are reluctant to abandon all the money they've already invested.
oh, please, all that's just a cost of doing business! You should be able to absorb those costs easily. Just like us retailers, who get asked why delivery isn't FREE. Its just a cost of doing business too, right? Lets see.....fuel at 4 mpg, insurance, taxes, a CDL driver, a truck and lift at roughly $250,000, repairs to said vehicle and lift........yea. Of course I am being facetious with it being a cost of you doing business! I just thought I'd get your blood pressure up. Frankly, I don't give a rats sphincter whether or not the PFI logo is on there, and have never had a customer ask me that. Just another level of bureaucracy with folks who have no idea trying to regulate something, and really doing nothing but padding their wallets, raising the prices to the consumer, and creating mountains out of molehills.
And the ones questioning why the PFI guarantee isn't there are the ones that shouldn't be burning pellets in the first place.
Bought 55 bags today without trying, Lady whom I always deal with said they got them in during winter and the Vermont and Maine softy users bought a bag or two and became repeats. She got me into blazers 10 years ago so I trust her. Plus I have a few VT's stashed.
Great Pellets as they burn hot and clean and very consistent, the only thing I do not care for is they are very short pellets 1/2" and less so they load quick but with my stoves its not a big deal. The other thing is I have found a few sticks / slivers in them which I really do not believe would damage or create much a problem if any. They really burn wicked hot and dang clean as well . At the price someone I know bought them in the spring of this year I would probably grab some tonnage of them for next year. Great Pellet !
I used a ton of Logik-E softwood last year, and they were a toss up between them and VT this year, I went back to the VT's, though if I had known my batch would be bad lol.
Not sure about the Hardwoods but can testify on the Softwoods as mentioned above LW a very good softwood pellet just some really small pellets. With the quality of the Softwood pellets considered trying the Hardwoods as well, have you got any feedback on the Hardwood version ? Realizing that unless I figure out how to rectify the funneling situation with the 100% eastern white pine pellets I need to mix in a bag of hardwood to every 2 bags of eastern white pine. Ill check around and see what reviews are available but like to hear it from a knowledgeable person and especially member here. Does not necessarily have to be hardwood as some softwoods it seems the Spruce do not funnel as bad and have been using some LaCrete and Doug Fir and Okie Plats mixed in to negate the funneling with Matra's, Logik-E and the T&D Wood pine pellets. Do you have any loose bags of the Logik-e Hardwoods ? would like to try them out if its not to far of a hike. Thanks
