Wood pellet review

Summer time pellets

2011-07-23T15:26:00.001-04:00

In the hot summer we do not think too much of the benefits of a warm pellet stove fire, but I do think of pellets in a big way. Why? Because I have a trager grill. I have had it for about 3 years now, and love it.

It is basically a few grills in one (smoker, grill, convection oven). You can do anything from pork shoulders to chocolate chip cookies. If you buy a trager you will end up using it all the time. I especially like to do bacon on it, because it comes out crispy and doesn't smell up the house. I have cooked Thanksgiving turkey on mine for the past 3 years!

As you know this site is geared toward reviewing pellets. With these grills there are specialty flavored pellet they sell, and they work great and add flavor. The problem is they are considerably more costly than home heating pellets. About $19 a 20lbs bag versus $6 for a 40lbs bag. Add to that folk who are into this pellet heating solution tend to be a frugal bunch.

So inevitably the question arises is it ok to use home heating pellets in a grill for food. Short answer: maybe.

It all depends on the pellet manufacturer. I live in Pennsylvania and most of our pellet are hard wood to start with, but soft wood pellets would be out of the question. The other issue is what kind of wood was used for the pellet, and is there any binders or other materials in the pellets.

In my grill I have used Hammer and Turman, and they work great. I called the actual factory and asked what went into the pellet before I used them. Before you consider using a pellet to cook with I would recommend a call to the factory- even the ones I mentioned as factories change formulas often.

Even though the Trager pellets are more money, the grill does not burn up a lot of pellets (give or take a pound and hour), and the different woods really do provide different flavor.

Any way you go these grill are amazing.

Gary

Inferno Pellets

2011-05-11T13:28:00.000-04:00

Like many others this brutal heating season – I ran out of pellets recently (March, 2011)

and was forced to buy what would be the “leftovers” at many outlets. Unfortunately, I

happened to be at Lowes and saw a couple of pallets of pellets for individual bag sale.

I bought six bags to try them out – planning on going back the next week to get more

if they worked out. These pellets were burned in a Quadra-Fire stove which had been

recently cleaned (including the firepot).

Without reservation – these are the absolute worst pellets that I have ever used. I bought

five bags too many. They produced a large volume of clinkers (5 days of burning

produced a two inch thick layer of clinkers in the firepot) and produced a large volume of

black soot on the inside of the stove from day one (when the firepot was still clean). I was

literally stunned on how poorly they burned (of course, the bags proudly displayed the

rating of Premium Pellets). Possibly I got a bad batch but I would be extremely hesitant

to buy them again.

I cleaned the stove and found a place selling LG pellets and bought some bags of those.

The LG’s have burned (and are still burning) fine so I don’t believe that it was the stove

that caused the Inferno to be so terrible. On a one to 5 scale – I would give them a rating

of 1 – meaning that if there were nothing else available – I would be hard pressed to

purchase these again.

Thanks to Bob for this review

LG Granules

2011-05-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

Like many others this brutal heating season – I ran out of pellets recently (March, 2011)

and was forced to buy what would be the “leftovers” at many outlets. After having a
bad experience with the few bags of Inferno pellets that I bought at Lowes – I looked
around and found a brand that I had used a few years ago (on a limited basis). A brand I
was at least familiar with – the LG Granules brand from Canada (softwood). They come
in heavy clear plastic bags so that you can actually see what you are getting so if they
were many black or dark pellets - you would be able to directly see them through the
transparent bag.

I knew from the past that they were not the best but, also, not the worse pellets that I had
used and they didn’t disappoint on this outing in my Quadra-Fire stove. As virtually ALL
the pellets sold these days - they are touted on the bags as being “Premium Quality”.
They burn relatively hot and relatively cleanly. They do produce clinkers but not a
tremendous amount. Ash is about – “middle of the road” and there are few fines or
loose sawdust per bag. They have a pleasant light “woodsy” odor which, I find, is very
pleasant.

All in all, if you bought a few pallets of these you probably would not be disappointed in
their performance. They are a solid – middle of the road pellet. LG’s are not outstanding
but not poor either and are of this consistent quality - judging by buying them again a few
years later and finding the same quality. On a scale of 1 to 5 (one being the worst and five
being the best) – I would give them a two and a half or three. I would buy them again.

Unfortunately, I happened to be at Lowes and saw a couple of pallets of pellets for
individual bag sale. I bought six bags to try them out – planning on going back the next
week to get more if they worked out. These pellets were burned in a Quadra-Fire stove
which had been recently cleaned (including the firepot).

Without reservation – these are the absolute worst pellets that I have ever used. I bought
five bags too many. They produced a large volume of clinkers (5 days of burning
produced a two inch thick layer of clinkers in the firepot) and produced a large volume of
black soot on the inside of the stove from day one (when the firepot was still clean). I was
literally stunned on how poorly they burned (of course, the bags proudly displayed the
rating of Premium Pellets). Possibly I got a bad batch but I would be extremely hesitant
to buy them again.

I cleaned the stove and found a place selling LG pellets and bought some bags of those.
The LG’s have burned (and are still burning) fine so I don’t believe that it was the stove
that caused the Inferno to be so terrible. On a one to 5 scale – I would give them a rating
of 1 – meaning that if there were nothing else available – I would be hard pressed to
purchase these again.

Thanks to Bob for this review

Cleanfire

2011-03-08T13:35:00.001-05:00

This season, I ordered CleanFire Certified Premium pellets (softwood blend) (www.cleanfirepellets.com) and the following is my experience with them over the heating season.

The pellets are close to 4 tons on three pallets as there are 60 bags per pallet. I like to review how the bags on the pallets arrive as I have had them arrive with many broken bags and this is a real pain. Fortunately, these pellets arrived with only about 10 – 12 bags with holes large enough to spill pellets. I usually have a tape gun and scissors handy with me when I move the pellets into the basement, so that I am able to patch the holes so I don’t wind up spilling loose pellets all over the driveway.

These pellets burn VERY hot in my Quadra-Fire stove. They also leave few clinkers in the fire pot, however, they are VERY dusty with much sawdust. The pellets are generally small with many tiny pieces. Coloration is generally yellow with a few dark or darker pellets. Unfortunately, when you load up the hopper there is a cloud of dust when you pour them in as the bottom of the bag always has a handful or more of sawdust. The amount of ash – I would say is average to above average as the area around the fire pot fills rather quickly with ash.

I will, unless assured otherwise that I got a bad batch, NOT be purchasing these pellets again. The high heat is attractive but this is more than offset by the high dust and sawdust content. I would give these pellets a 2 and a half out of five stars.

Review by Bob

Here we go again: pre-order this year!

2011-03-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

As oil climbs expect a renewed interest in heat with pellet stoves. This next winter I predict to be a big year for pellet stove sales again. With that in mind My advice is to pre-order as soon as you are able. For the past few years I have been recommending to not pre order, but this year is a good year to do so.

A few words about stoves

2009-12-08T13:51:00.003-05:00

Stoves are a topic of great interest to me. I have owned about 8 of them, and I have done more than just own them, I have actually refurbished a few of them. I have includes some pictures of a real rescue job I did on a whit field advantage.

With that in mind I currently own a Harman P61A, and it is the stove that I observe pellets from. The P61A is not the most visually pleasing stove on the planet, I in my experience it is simply one of the best stoves made, including in Harmans line up. The other Harman P models are also very good, and rather similar in many ways.

Ok, enough about me and my favorite stove, the question that is important is what makes one stove better than an other, and what effect does that have on the type of pellets one should use? The model you see below is a Whitfield advantage, which was probably one of the most popular pellets stoves made in its various configurations. Most pellet stoves on the market today are some variation on this theme. It is a "top feeding" feed system. These work very well, but occasionally run into some issue with certain pellets. For instance the Hamers I burn form a sort of cake type of ash, which in a whitfield requires you to frequently (a few time a day) scrape out the burn pot to clear of that heavy cakes ash. That same issue is less of a problem with a Harman because the rear feed system will just eventually push the cake over the edge of the burn pot.

In a top feed I found that an inferior pellet like Appling County can work really well because the ash is much lighter and just blows out of the burn pot. The downside to Appling is you will need to empty your ash pan after 5-10 bags. Now some top feeders like the St. Croix add one useful variation on the top feed approach, and that is to have a plate on the bottom of the burn pot that rocks back and forth to prevent cakes from forming.

Other stoves are very sensitive to saw dust, that is a common issue with some of the Englander stoves and there dual auger feed system. Other stoves are very sensitive to long pellets, and get jammed because of them. Once you learn what works in your stove you need to take that into consideration when selecting a pellet.

*** Important- It is easy to fall into the thinking that the best pellet is the one with the highest BTU output rating, that is not a good way to select a pellet. Firstly many of those ratings are bogus anyway because many pellet manufactures use a variety of wood types, and that BTU rating can vary from batch to batch because of it. Manufactures do not test every batch, and some manufactures are most conservative about there ratings than others. In my estimation BTUs are not a number I would even look at.

A stove burning cleanly a lower BTU pellet will produce more heat than a stove burning with issues (feed problem, jams, clogged burn pot, ect...) a higher BTU pellet.

Before

After

Updated Hamer review

2009-12-07T23:44:00.002-05:00

Updated Hamer review

Pellet Prices dropping

2009-11-28T17:32:00.000-05:00

Pellet prices in my area (central PA) are falling in late fall. Typically this is the time when price jump up on the way to their winter highs. This summer I was predicting a price drop durring this season, and it appears I have been correct thus far. For instance in my area Barefoot pellets are going for $259 a ton, which is about $30 dollars less than this summer. Barefoot pellets one of the best pellets money can buy.

I still think pellet fuel is too high to make pellet stoves a significant money saver. I look for prices to fall through the winter, and potentially getting below $200 by the summer pre-buy.

Maine's Choice

2009-10-17T01:14:00.002-04:00

I was hesitant to purchase the three tons of pellets on a “first out of the gate” pellet manufacturer but I gave it a try anyway- hoping for the best. These pelletsare sold in the 60 bags per pallet lot so you are getting more than a ton per pallet. I had kind of mixed feelings about the two imprinted moose on the bag – onereading a newspaper - but thought it was kind of the Bullwinkle approach (hoping it wasn’t the Captain PeachFuzz approach) to heating the home. Contrary to popular belief – hardwood is not the only way to go with pellets. I have read and confirmed that softwoods burn VERY hot as pellets and that they provide more lignite (a natural pellet binder) to hold the pellet together. The Maine’s Choice pellets are premium pellets (meaningless - because which pellets aren’t premium pellets?) and are a combination of hardwood and softwood which I would think is the ‘way to go’ – best of both worlds. The hardword side providespellet durability (hardness) with low ash and the softwood side for high heat and stable pellets (high lignite) – if they are made properly - without a lot of bark (dark pellets) - this is the way to go.

The pallets dropped in the driveway had NOT one broken bag. This was due to the conscientious use of the delivery equipment (fork lift) but also of the durability of the plastic used to make the bags. This was very much appreciated. I have had deliveries with many broken bags and after a rain - many ‘pregnant’ pellets trails left on the driveway.

Opening the pellet bag was an experience. The bag opening provided a sort of peanut-like aroma – not unpleasant - just different. One would expect wood pellets to smell like – well … wood. They do not smell like wood - but mildly like peanuts. The pellets are NOT dark, which to me, is a good sign. However, they are mostly small in length which makes me think back to my Wal-Mart pellet experience but I won’t go there right now.

A few weeks after the delivery - we have a cold night and my wife, who could live on the surface of the sun, asks to have the pellet stove fired-up. My Quadra-Fire stove begins dropping the pellets but doesn’t ignite them during the combustion phase of the stove cycle – I think “uh –oh”. However, within about 10 seconds beyond the combustion phase – they ignite (slow ignition).

They are pretty hot pellets – not the hottest I have used but definitely OK for heat. After a few days of running the pellets – I notice very little ash in the shake down pan and NO CLINKERS – not a one. This cannot be. After a few more days of shaking down the firepot – very little ash and no clinkers confirmed.Very ‘clean’ pellets indeed.

So what we have here are low ash - no clinker pellets – adequate heat and attractively priced in my area (Central Massachusetts). I would give these pellets 4.5 out of 5 stars and a ‘thumbs up’. I would definitely purchase them again.

*Thanks to Bob Dewsnap for submitting this review

**Update 1/2011

As often happens from year to year pellet quality can change in the same brand, for that matter it can be month to month, or even Batch to Batch. (better manufactures less so)
This is a comment from user Cliff.

*This year I bought 4 pallets of Maine's Choice pellets, and I have to tell you these are the worst pellets I have ever bought. I have been burning pellets for 7 years and I only needed to clean the stove every 14 to 20 days. In that time span the ash pot would be less than half full. With Maine's Choice pellets I need to clean every week and the ash pot is almost full. I don't know how Maine's Choice can claim these are low ash. They do not look like premium pellets, they are very dark like they are mostly bark and I am using a lot more of them than usual. I am very sorry I bought these, and will never buy them again.

Eco-Flame

2009-10-17T01:02:00.001-04:00

Towards the end of last year I was approached by the folks at confluence energy about reviewing their pellets. They are planning on shipping to the northeast and had noticed my blog on pellets and wanted me to review them. I got the bag of pellets around the middle of spring last year, and it is finally gotten cold enough to give them a fair test. There are a few things about these pellets that are different than ones us folks in the Northeast are used to. The first is that they are soft wood pellets. Eventually I will do a more extensive article on soft wood pellets versus hardwood pellets, but let me just say a high quality soft wood pellet can burn as well as any hardwood pellet, and potentially have more BTU's per pound. One of the other interesting things about these particular pellets are they are from Colorado, and they are shipping them to areas in the northeast where pellet prices are high. With pellet prices at nearly $300 a ton I am figuring that their business model can work shipping all the way to the northeast, if and when pellet prices drop down below $200 a ton I believe it may be difficult for the folks at confluence energy to compete here in the Northeast. The other interesting part of their business model is that there wood comes from trees that have been killed by beatles. Unlike many of the pellet plants in the northeast that rely on production factories waste sawdust; these guys have a wood source that is not dependent on the economy or output production of lumber using industries. ie: They are not buying saw dust at premium prices.

Okay enough about the company and on to the actual pellets. The name of these pellets is a "Eco-Flame", and the first thing I noticed was there was very little in the way of fines in this bag of pallets. I believe that is worth mentioning because these pellets came to me via UPS, and if you know anything about UPS I very well could have received a bag of saw dust. They have no binding agents added, but either their process or the nature of the wood result in virtually no fines. Because these are soft wood pellets they also have a different odor, they basically smell like pine lumber. When they burn I would say the odor is a little sharper than typical hard wood pellets, but not any stronger. It basically smells like pine burning. The pellets burned very bright and had very little ash. Because I did not burn a lot of these I cannot speak fairly to the clinker issue, but from what I could tell from what was left in the burned pot I would not anticipate clinkers to be a big issue. From my sample this seemed to be was a very fine pellet. If they were being sold in my area I would try a ton of them without reservation.

*As a matter of full disclosure I need to say that confluence energy sent me a sample to try. Because I did not buy them off the shelf I can not be entirely certain that the sample I had is an absolute reflection of the average pellets that confluence energy will produce. They sent me some of their testing data and their ash content ranged from .7% to .3%, I would suggest that the bag I had was closer to the .3% mark. It seems like they have a pretty consistent source of wood, so I would expect the quality to be pretty consistent as well.

2009-05-23T13:50:00.000-04:00

To pre-order or not 2009-2010? -

This is a great question and comes up each year. Last year I pre-bought Hamers (very early- March) Hot ones for $175 a ton, however this year that same pellet from that same store was $285 (pre-buy).

So what to do? I will will pre-buy half or less than my anticipated need for the winter of 09-10 and look for better deals durring the season. I believe pellets are at an inflated price at the moment and will possibly decrease during the heating season.

Why do I think this? Simple- pellet stoves are not a tremendously economical option when pellets are @ $300+ a ton and oil is at $2 a gallon. Also last winter represented a pellet stove craze because in the summer oil was $4+ a gallon, pellets and stoves where in hot demand. I believe this year we will see a dip in demand as many of the pellet newbies of last year give it up because of the work and lack significant savings because of high pellet prices.

My prediction- look for a glut of used stoves on ebay this summer and declining pellet prices through out the year.

Disclaimer- This is just my opinion and could be totally off, so take this with a grain of salt.

Pre-buying

2009-03-31T15:50:00.000-04:00

It is about the time of year that you start to think about pre-buying your pellets. Usually the best prices can be had at this time of the year. Last year I pre-bought 3 tons of Bearfoot @ $175 a ton. This year the pre-buy price is somewhere in the $250+ range.

I am of the opinion that pellet prices are inflated at the moment for two reasons. 1. The past year saw a large influx of new pellet stove users, and 2. in addition to increased demand saw dust for pellet manufacturing, the saw dust supply was low because of the economic slow down. This was the perfect storm to make pellets really pricey this season.

With that in mind it becomes a little more difficult to decide to pre-buy or not. My plan is to hedge my bets and pre-buy half, and wait on the rest because I believe there is a good chance price will fall.

Greene Team

2009-01-08T00:37:00.000-05:00

Review By Aaron

Greene Team Pellet Fuel Company
Garards Fort, PA
(724)966-2166

Hardwood Pellets

These pellets have been my primary pellet for 4 years now. I pick them up @ local Lowes. Pricing has been all over the place since summer ’08, and now Lowes states that Greene team will not be delivering until 2009.

Greene Team Pellet Fuel is the one company I will compare all of the pellet purchases I get.
These pellets have been the most consistent in size, color and very little fines in the bags.
They produce very small amounts of fine ash.
Over a weeks burn time they do tend to produce small clinkers in my Napoleon.
The Greene Team Produces very good heat.

I would recommend these pellets to anyone who can find them.
Recommend - YES

Clean Energy

2009-01-08T00:35:00.000-05:00

Review by Aaron

Clean Energy Wood Pellets
Hardwood
Distributed By Lowe’s

After being told that Greene Team would not be delivering pellets until 2009, Lowes had these pellets in stock. I picked up 3 bags…

These pellets were small in size and had more than average fines in the bag. (this could be from the bottom of the ton where I got it). The diameter were very consistant with all other pellets that I have burnt so far.
These pellets produced somewhat more ash than the Greene Team, but had more clinker buildup in the burn pot than the Greene Team’s. Being a hardwood pellet I would like to try a few more bags and see how the consistency is through out.

Spruce Pointe

2009-01-08T00:32:00.000-05:00

Review by Aaron

Spruce Pointe Wood Pellets
Softwood
Canadian

These were my first softwood pellets that I burnt this season. I picked up 3 bags at the local mardens and was very impressed with the overall quality of the pellets.
The consistency through out the 3 bags were very good and the bags contained very little fines and broken pellets, sawdust.

These pellets give great heat, very low ash content and no clinkers in the burn pot of my Napoleon.

Though they are softwood, they burnt somewhat faster than the hardwood ones that I have been burning.
Recommend - YES

Corinth

2009-01-08T00:28:00.000-05:00

Review by blog reader: Aaron

Corinth wood pellets
www.corinthwoodpellets.com/
(207)285-7700

Pricing as of 12/26/2008 $289/ton
Hardwood Pellets.

After burning 3 bags of these pellets, they produce very good heat, low ash and zero clinkers in my top feed Napoleon. The average sizes of the pellets were about 1/2in to ¾ in. with very small amounts of broken pellets.
The bags contained very little fines and sawdust.
All 3 bags were very consistent in size and color of the pellets.

Some have stated in the past that they have found corn in their corinth pellets, I did not find any at all.

One of 4 fairly new manufacturer’s in Maine. After having somewhat bad luck with Athens, I wanted to try another Maine wood pellet. After trying these I would buy in bulk.
Recommend - YES

Statistics

2008-12-24T15:44:00.000-05:00

I have listed the statistics of some the pellets I have reviewed so far, however I am finding it more difficult to get straight answers out of the manufacturers. The most common response is that they meet the criteria for a "Premium" pellet by the PFI. I can tell you with those standards there are a great variety of pellet quality. As I linked to the PFI I found that they have indeed initiated a "Super Premium", and that will help distinguish the better pellets. I am not sure the news of the super premium rating has officially gotten awarded to many manufactures yet. I have not spotted it on any bags yet. I want to offer some basic guide line for looking at pellet stats.

The truth is do not rely on statistics alone. Even some of the best pellet mills occasionally put out bad batches, particularly in these days of limited saw dust supplies. Also some of the statistics are not really helpful. For instance fines, that statistic measure the fines at the factory, it does not account for how the pellet stays together after being moved around. In fact I would argue that the bulk density may tell you more about the amount of fines you may end up experiencing than the fines statistic. Even that is not going to always predict what you will end up with by the time you pellets land in your hopper. There are so many variables that can effect a pellets performance that the stated stats do not even address it is difficult to even advise how to use the stats at all.

If there is one stat that maybe is more revealing than the rest, I would suggest it is ash content. Ash content will often reveal the quality of the raw materials used to make the pellets. It can also reveal how the saw dust is cared for. If you are use poor saw dusts, or letting sit out in the weather is is going to be very difficult to have a pellet will a low ash content. One could conclude if a pellet manufacturer takes the effort to find good materials and handle them carefully, than they should continue that trend in the rest of the process. Again, this is not a certainty, but it is a fair conclusion.

So if you want to look at a stat to help you find the best pellet, ash content is probably a good place to start. I think conventional wisdom might point to the BTU rating, but remember ash reduces the efficiency of the stove so even if you get a few more BTUs you may lose them with a quickly ashed up stove.

In the end the only sure method for evaluated pellets is to run it through your own stove (then buy from that batch), but hopefully sites like this one, along with careful interpretation of stats can give you a head start.

Bald Eagle

2008-12-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

I am trying to locate these pellets in central PA, if any one knows where I can find some please email me. They are known to be a very fine pellet and I would like to find out for myself, and let the rest of you know what I come up with.

Lignetics

2008-12-24T15:33:00.001-05:00

Let me start my review by saying lignetics stink ! You may be saying to yourself that is a rather sweeping judgment of a common pellet, but it is the truth. They really smell bad. I would say this is the worse smelling pellet I have come across (usually they have a pleasant odor). They smell like mildew meets mineral spirits. (yum)

Ok, enough about their odor, how do they burn? They are a decent burning pellet, actually I would say they are a good burning pellet. They seem to produce average or below average ash for a premium pellet. Many pellet mills do not use binders in their pellets, however I suspect lignetics does. I would not cook with lignetics.

In my area Lowes and Home Depot commonly offer these pellets, and considering some of their other offerings I would say lignetics are not a bad choice.

I did pull a quote off of there site that I wanted to address. "You will need to purchase fewer pellets for your winter’s heat. Fewer pellets means less to haul, less to store, and fewer trips to fill your stove's pellet hopper." This is a load of bull, lignetics is a slightly better than mediocre pellet, and certainly not going to deliver on the promise of fewer pellets. I did not find there heat output to be anything more than average. When a company makes such an outlandish claim I start to not trust them, and this line from their web site is plain silly.

Bottom line: If you can get over their odor, and their over the top claims lignetics is a reliable middle of the road pellet that burns well in most stoves. I recommend lignetics.

Check out there outlandish claims @ www.lignetics.com

ACP - Appling County Pellets

2008-12-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

BTU per pound: 8200

Ash content: less than 1%

Wood Type: Mixed Hard with less than 5% pine

Fines: TBA

A relative new pellet producer my experience with ACP pellets thus far is a positive one. They are a different pellet than what I am accustom to. The diameter thickness is among the largest I have seen, they claim 8mm. For a stove like a Whitfield that relies on air alone to clear out the spent ash from the burn pot this larger pellet works very well.

There are virtually no clinkers with this pellet, however they do produce a very significant amount of ash. It tends to be a light fluffy ash (which also adds to the good performance in my Whitfield). In terms of volume of ash it is dramatically higher than any of the other pellets reviewed here. I was not to worried about the ash though because is was a very light, and clinkers were almost non existent.

This is a surprisingly good pellet, and a little outside the norm (large diameter). I would add they work particularly well in a Whitfield style stove, if you can live with a lot more frequent ash removal, I can recommend this pellet.

*Update- I have switched stoves recently to a Harman P61 (best stove I have owned and I have owned many). The ACP pellets do not burn as well, no problem with klinkers but literally 4 times more ash as a true premium. These are not premium pellets, there is no PFI seal on them. They claim that they are, but from what I have observered they produce likely over 3% ash. 10 bags fills the P61 ash pan.

Please add you experience with this pellet in the comments section.

Check them out @ http://www.framfuels.com

Barefoot

2008-12-18T23:40:00.000-05:00

BTU per pound: TBA

Ash content: TBA

Wood Type: Cherry, Maple, White/Red Oak, Walnut

Fines: TBA

These are simply one of the best. They are consistent from batch to batch, very few fines. Pellet lenght is consistant. When burned they produce very little ash, and clinkers. Barefoot is a step above the rest, they really deserve there own class. One thing to note about these pellets is the are a smaller diameter pellet. This means at the same feed rate you will be burning more pellets than a larger pellet would burn at the same rate. I have watched folks that sell these pellets tell customers that they will have to turn there stove back because these "burn so much hotter than other brands hot", which is simply not true. They simply feed faster because they are smaller.

That does not take away from the fact that they are a great pellet. The biggest con with these is they cost a little more than the average pellet, and as far as I am aware they do not have a pre-buy seasonal price change. You do get what you pay for, and with Barefoot that is an outstanding pellet. I actually use them for my Traeger pellet grill, because they are pure sawdust with no binders.

I can whole heatedly recommend Barefoot pellets.

Please add you experience with this pellet in the comments section.

Check them out @ http://www.barefootpellet.com

Pennington / Nature's Heat

2008-12-18T23:25:00.000-05:00

BTU per pound: TBA

Ash content: TBA

Wood type: Hard

Fines: TBA

Nature's heat by Pennington has one of the nicest web sites of any of the pellet manufacturers, with glowing (no pun intended) reviews of their pellet products. The irony is that in my experience they qualify as one of the worst "premium" pellets I have used. You know you are in for a good time when they are also recommending Englander stoves. Other than being poor performers what do Pennington and Englander have in common ? They are both sold at the big box stores. I have a friend who saw that both Stove Chow and Nature's Heat pellets where coming out of the Energex factory. As far as I am concerned that is good news for Nature's Heat. The latest batch of Nature's Heat I got where much better than last years. In fact they seem like a different pellet.

In fairness let me specify what it is I do not like about Nature's heat. The number one beef I have is their marketing seems to significantly out pace their product. Even with an improved product this year it is still a mediocre pellet. If they are not in fact Energex, they are certainly extremely similar. They are darker in color, and have far less fines than the the batch I had last year.

Even though the last batch I had was ok, who knows what the next batch might be. Unless you are in a pinch I would pay a little extra, and look a little harder for something else. If you do get these I would suggest just getting a few sample bags to see how they are going to work.

Please add you experience with this pellet in the comments section.

Check them out @ http://www.naturesheatpellets.com

Hamer's Hot Ones

2008-12-18T15:46:00.004-05:00

BTU per pound: TBA

Ash content: Less than .5%

Wood type: Hard- predominantly red oak

Fines: TBA

Hamer's hot ones claim to fame is their pellet is made up of primarily red oak and they burn very hot. I would put them as one of the finest pellets on the east coast.

There are two different plants that make Hamers- Elkins and Mt. Hope. The Elkins pellets burn much better than the Mt Hope ones in my stove. They produced about 1/4 the clinkers for me. They are a lighter in color as well. It is almost like the Elkins and Mt. Hope pellets are two different brands, It will typically say on the bag where they are produced.

Depending on the stove you use the clinker issue may not effect you. I burned some of these in a Harman and it was not issue, because the clinker cake just got pushed over the edge of the burn pot every so often.

One big advantage to hamer is there is very little in the way of long pellets. The pellets lengths tend to be less than 1/2", which is a major advantage for stoves sensitive to long pellets.

I would highly recommend Hamer, but I would try to get ones from the Elkins mill.

Please add you experience with this pellet in the comments section.

Check them out @ http://www.hamerpellet.com

Energex

2008-12-17T23:32:00.001-05:00

BTU per pound: 9000

Ash content: .5%

Wood type: Hard

Fines: .5 oz per 40 pound bag

*figures according to Energex

It only makes sense to start with the largest manufacture of pellets in the world. Energex is a bench mark for pellets, however from what I have seen the bar is not that high. This article is paticulry for the Juniata bag. The pellets are dark in color, which makes me curious what is in them. I have burned them in both Whitfield and a Harman stoves and they are simply ok. They appear to create a fair amout of ash, and a moderate amount of clinkering.

Their popularity is likely due to the fact that they tend to be a rather competitively priced pellet, and usually offer pretty attractive spring pre-buy price reductions. I live about 45minites away from the PA factory and know the guys who haul saw dust for them, and they report that they have a surplus of saw dust, however at the time of this post they are in short supply in stores.

I can recommend energex with some reservation, but would add they are a consistantly middle of the road pellet.

Please add you experience with this pellet in the comments section.

Check them out @ http://www.energex.com