Picked up three tons of Matras for this season. They were $10 more a ton vs. the Green Supremes at the local big box store. No brainer to me. Excited to test these out! I moved about a ton into the garage thus far. The other two will set outside, well covered. That set up worked well for me last year. Also, looking forward to burning the last of those Still Rivers. They had a ton of fines in them and the heat output was so/so.
burned them for past 4 yrs and yes.. super hot with very low ash.....but, too many fines we're gathering at my slide plate and stopping pellets from dropping.. hopefully they have addressed that.. lots of good softies seem to have more than the hardwoods.
Appreciate the input. I dealt with a lot of fines with last year’s pellets. I dump my pellets into a coal hod and then give that a good shake side to side. I’ve gotten into the habit of not dumping the entire hod into the hopper, the last bit goes into separate bucket with most of the fines. I’ll definitely keep this thread updated once I get into burning these.
Picked up a ton of Tractor supply pellets. Cheaper than Depot, and convenient. See how they burn soon.
Looks like those are eastern shore forest products. Unfortunately their website doesn't say anything about heating pellets.
sounds like good idea.. being a bit lazy, and older now, have this thing about moving 40lb bags of pellets more than needed. unload, stack, and dump is nuff for me.. after 8 yrs of softies now using barefoot and Hamer Hots Hardwoods. more ash of course but good heat... we'll see how it goes this winter.. BUT, have 3 tons of NW Douglas firs and 1 NW Spruce in the basement for those single digit days/nights when needed. getting another ton of both hardwoods dropped of in January..
I opened a bag the other day and put some in the hopper. Nice pine smell! I didn’t see many fines, then gain, I didn’t dump out much of the bag. Once I get through about 8 bags of last year’s leftovers, I’ll be able to see how these perform.
they are deff one of the top Hottest burning Softies out there...very close to the doug firs 9K BTU.. I know.. have burned both over the seasons...
Hope you like those. My local TSC store was selling them at the end of last season. I bought a few bags and liked them enough that I went back and grabbed a ton for future use. The sniff test reveals the batch I got is heavy to softwood. Whenever you get around to burning some, curious to hear of your experience with them.
Will let you know. They are my shoulder pellet starting late October or so. I hope they are at least as good as stove chow or the Home depot pellets. Was shopping by price mainly.
After seeing all the posts I’ve wanted to try them but didn’t want to travel the hour to get them I’ve burned Vermont wood and son easy blaze and a few others and do like the softwood . pretty pricey in my area this year might stick to big box this year
I’ve run a few bags through the stove over the last few weeks. It’s hard to gauge heat output with the fluctuating outdoor temps. However, these definitely throw out some heat! And the ash just isn’t there. I’m amazed at how little is in the pan. There are, however, a good amount of fines in the bag, so something to be mindful off. A small trade off though given how much less I’ll be cleaning the stove this season.
Ran my stove for first time yesterday. Had leftover Matras in it, plenty warm. Switching to the tractor supply stuff now for the next few weeks.
