Hello All! This is my first post but I’ve been lurking for over a yr. I bought a new home a cape with a addition even before winter hit last year I knew I needed alternate heat source. This site and another helped me make some decisions .. I purchased a Harmon 52i tc love the stove. Heats most of my home upstairs far bedroom is still a bit cooler but central heat is zoned so on the coldest day I can kick it on for my sons comfort.. My question is if you had to burn /buy one pellet for the whole season regardless of price what one would it be? I bought 4 tons in august Turman , Lacrete ,Matra and Barefoot. Made theses choices from suppliers forums and stove salesmen.. They all lack something . Turmans are hot but are really ashy clumpy , overnight they seem to load up in the burn pot and burn like coals. Lacrete are ashy but decent heat I’d buy more Matra decent heat low ash but the funneling is a deal breaker, stove shut off or just doesn't feed enough pellets to keep the temp up.. it makes the hopper sticky making all the pellets funnel . Polishing cleaning the hopper cuz of sticky pellets seems kinda silly to me . And I love tinkering with my stove it gets cleaned 2x a week. Barefoot good heat more ash , hardwood seems to burn slower . Ive got 2 bags DF’s and 6 of wood and sons ive yet to try.. I just wanna buy 1 brand maybe 2 next yr . I dont wanna be mixing pellets next year.. Thanks guy..
Welcome TLO03 !!! The pellet pigs will be along shortly. Sounds like you have a good stove. Have you considered mixing two brands of pellets together to hopefully get the positive benefits of them to shine through?
I'm not sure you're going to find one pellet that has all the qualities you want unless you lay out some big bucks and buy DF's.
I agree with subsailor... you need to buy DF's. You want the ultimate.. you pay the ultimate. You said disregard price.. there you go. Simple. Or... you can spend a few minutes working on your hopper, and burn white pine. And save a few hundred. Or.. you can just burn LaCrete and deal with the little shortcomings. Dan
Douglas firs. Bought a few tons a couple years ago during the warm winter fire sale. Blazer brand. I still have a small pile of them under my normal burn pile. HOT, no ash, HOT, nice smell. Did I mention HOT
Honestly I like matras. I mean I understand the bridging, it’s pretty annoying. I don’t have a huge selection near me but I like matras. They burn hot in my p43. I like softwoods. I mean I had some fireside ultras I got from Home Depot and they burned ok. But since it warmer and I only like like 6-7 bags of fsu left I have been trying to mix them 50/50 with matras. It stops the bridging and still burns pretty hot. I tried northern warmth supreme Douglas firs and they did burn very hot with no ash but I got clunkers. The matras I feel has almost the same heat but more ash but no clunkers. Guess it’s just burn what your stove likes best.
Tried sanding graphite powder and silicon spary, still matras get my hopper sticky. Ive got 2 bags of Df’s i have to burn to see..
Did you use very fine grit? Guess it doesn't work for everyone.. too bad.. excellent pellet value. Dan
I get funneling also as I use mostly softwoods but l’m always filling and pushing pellets around . I like EazyBlaze , Vermont’s softwood and Cubex hardwood.
Can hear you on the funneling as I to have the same problem and I have sanded and waxed my hopper . As far as the perfect pellet I can't answer that but it may be if money is no issue as Pete said Doug Fir . To alleviate my funneling issue I purchased some Vanderhoof Platinum softwood pellets which are primarily spruce and a very hard pellet so they do not funnel at all. I know you said you would prefer not to mix but that is the only way I have found to have kick arse pellets and not deal with the funneling issue. I mix them with Woods & Sons white pine pellets or with Vermont's or right now I just filled my pellet bin with 2 bags of Matra's and 2 bags of Vandy platinums with the windy and cold weather headed our way . Vandy's burn hot on their own produce less ash than LaCrete's(more than the killer white pine pellets) but not as much heat as the premium White Pine pellets I have listed above. The other excellent aspect of the Vandy Plats are the are a much longer pellet and do not burn nearly as quick as what seems to be the standard now shorter pellets, although others here have reported having short Easy Blaze mine were longer than the woods & sons and Vermonts. The Easy Blaze super premium softwood pellets are another great pellet as they do not funnel like the above mentioned pellets, well not nearly as much but I get clinkers in the pot which affect the performance but they burn very hot and burn longer then the other white pine pellets. If I ever get a Saturday off I am going to purchase some Doug Firs to check them out again, the last ones I tried were not the best and I was not to impressed with them as I get equal performance from a few of the white pine pellets I mentioned above. Good luck on your quest . Welcome Aboard !
Agree about the Blaze. Almost as hot as it gets for softies. Do get some clinkers. Maybe too much mineral content. Do get some funneling but like others i give the pellets a stir now and then. Big change from few years ago when they were longer and yellow blond color.
wow.....the perfect pellet. Tough one because the needs and wants of all of us are certainly not the same, just like our stoves! The pitch of the base of our hoppers differ, which could affect funneling and the remainder of pellets which wont fall into the base of our units. I work fairly long days as well as weekends, and am simply not home to "stir" my pellets every few hours, etc., so thats not a solution to me. For some, prices isn't A primary concern, but THE primary concern....if you're in the largest pellet market in the US (New England), Doug Firs simply wont be an option, since the shipping endemic to get them there will cause them to be too much money. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, you'll use DF, as they are the cheapest, and likely, the ONLY option. Imagine how much a "hardwood" pellet would cost there! In summation, the "perfect" pellet will vary for us all, due to many factors (stove, price, ash content, heat content, geographic locale, etc)......this is akin to the "perfect" restaurant. Gonna vary for many of us. Some are Vegan, and wont want a burger or steak, regardless of the quality of it. Some like Sports Bars, where you cant hear a thing but can enjoy the cacophony of several games being played at once. Personally I prefer a quiet restaurant, where the person I an enjoying the meal with can hear all the effulgent things I have to say!
Well Thanks guys for all the input.. Loaded 6 bags of wood &sons in the pellet box So far (2.5 hrs) i really like them ..
My 2¢, definitely a softwood. You could buy a great batch of a given pellet and the later in the season the area from which the timber came could be a complete different quality of wood. Most of the good pellet mills will produce an overall quality pellet but there are instances whereas the timber quality and or a slight change in production can make a pellet better or worse; example was last years Vermonts. I had two early season ton that were not so good, later season they were the quality we've come to expect from Vermont Pellet. And I have to add that their customer service concerning the issue was fantastic as I ended up with a free ton of "good" pellets. I'm with ttdberg, the Wood + Sons have been great, a little sticky but that doesn't bother me a bit. So anywho! the moral of my story is buy a quality pellet at the best price you can find. If you have to clean a bit more or a bit less, no big deal, price per btu is the focus.
Been about 14 hrs wood &sons are legit for me.. alot less sticky than Matra . The G/F came home and stated “these pellets are good no ash and the house is warm “ only thing i dont like about them is i only have 6 bags .. I’ll trade my matras for W&S.. How I judge a pellets btu is by watching the display. I put the feed rate @ 100% I have a remote sensor located where its difficult to reach temp b/c im trying to heat 2500sq ft . It ramps down on warmer days but runs full tilt @32 degrees. Now if the esp temp reaches its max (485 or so) and its feeding below the default setting which is 68%? or close to it I feel thats a hot pellet ... W&S was @66% feed esp was happy , surprisingly matras and lacretes mix needs 100% feed in my stove to reach max esp temp . Barefoot's need less than default and still meets max esp. any more feed and barefoots and turmans lump up in the pot and spill over hot pellets. This is all fun cuz its new but I hope to do less tinkering next yr.
