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Burning Wood Pellets for Heat

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JGaulard

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Okay guys, I’m going to give Green Supreme Wood Pellets a try. I only have about 15 bags of the pellets I purchased from the “Maine Woods Pellet Company” in Athens, Maine and I have to say, I don’t love them. I can’t be certain, but I suspect it’s the pellets that are causing the problems with the auger getting stuck in the stove.

green-supreme-wood-pellets-package.jpg

I’d like to get something out of the way here. I’d like to tell you that as hard as I try, I can’t seem to locate a bag of pellets anywhere, either in person or online, that isn’t labeled, “Premium.” My brother and I have a running joke about pellets. “Hey, I got another bag of premium pellets today.” “No way! Premium?” Every single bag of pellets I’ve ever seen has been labeled “Premium.” With that said, I have no faith in that word anymore. When buying pellets, it’s either luck of the draw or trying to nail down where the pellet company sourced their wood. And even that changes, so if you find a brand you fall in love with and decide to burn those pellets for the rest of your life, chances are, you’ll be disappointed with your next batch. Or, you can buy garbage pellets one year and be delighted with them the next. Not even the pellet company can tell you what you’re going to find in the bag. They get wood from so many sources, mostly on a hand shake. They’ll tell you this and they’ll tell you that. Don’t believe a word of it. It’s luck.

Another thing – never put any stock into pellet reviews. I was looking at pellet reviews on TractorSupply.com and after going over some negative ones, I realized that the people who did the reviewing lived in Michigan. Not really the same pellets out there.

Burning Green Supreme Wood Pellets​

This is a pretty good page that talks about Green Supreme pellets. It also shows the inconsistencies in rating pellets. Some love a specific brand and some hate it.

Anyway, I ran over to Tractor Supply today and picked up a ton of Green Supremes. I want to see if they burn any better than the Maine pellets I first purchased. Also, Tractor Supply is closer and these pellets were actually a few cents cheaper than buying them directly from the plant. And I didn’t have to run around looking for a forklift guy at Tractor Supply.

This is what the pellets look like:

wood-pellets-in-hopper.jpg
wood-pellets.jpg

They are virtually identical to the other brand. I’ll have to wait until they feed into the stove to see what the burn and the ash look like. I already poured some in the hopper. I’ll let you know what I find.

The Verdict on the Green Supreme Wood Pellets​

This is the second part of my “Green Supreme Wood Pellet review.” The first half, where I basically told you that I bought a ton and had put part of the first bag in the hopper is here on the site.

green-supreme-wood-pellets.jpg

Okay. Are you ready? Here goes. I think these pellets are almost identical to the Maine Woods Pellet Company pellets that I had burned prior to this ton. Strange, but yes.

When I first began burning these pellets, the temperature outside was in the 30s, which was much warmer than it had been just a few days before. I kind of forgot about the outside temperature when I expressed to Laura, “Boy, it’s warm in here. Those new pellets are HOT!” And after burning them for a few weeks, they may in fact be hotter burning than the other Maine ones. The thing is, these new pellets offer up a lot of ash. If I’m not mistaken, even more ash than the Maine ones. Take a look at the picture below. This is what the burn pot looks like just about every five hours, before I scoop the ash out.

flame-in-pellet-stove.jpg

Now, I’m not too keen on reviewing pellets, especially because there are way too many factors that go into how pellets burn, such as stove design, stove cleanliness and air flow. And I’m not sure if it’s the fault of the Englander Pellet Stove I purchased from Home Depot either, but what I do know is that burning both the Maine wood pellets and the Green Supreme wood pellets result in having to remove big clumps of ash that look like this.

wood-pellet-ash.jpg

I don’t know if this is the infamous “clinker” or not, but I have to take these out of the stove at that five hour interval I just mentioned. Funny, because the “New England Wood Pellet” company blames clinkers on the stove (question #6), “Wood Pellet Reviews” blames the pellet and “SFGate” blames both.

I do want to say, I’m not annoyed at all about this. I think both of these brands of pellets are pretty good, for the money. I’ll buy the Green Supreme pellets again, simply because they’re closer to pick up. If I had to, I’d get the Maine ones as well. And I’d also like to mention that I’m thrilled with the Englander Pellet Stove. It puts out great heat. I am going to be looking at how to adjust the air flow though, because that may be a factor in the ash getting bound up in the burn pot.

Have you burned either Maine Wood Pellets or Green Supreme Wood Pellets? What’s your take on this? What’s your favorite brand of pellets and why?

COMMENT: Green Supreme wood pellets are the worst I have ever used. They produce too much ash and cause the glass on my stove to turn black. Many, many ash chunks as well. Awful.

COMMENT: Interesting, I’m new to the pellet world. I have a Harmon Stove and used Stove Chow from HD last year. Reviews were horrible but it was the only one’s i could find as there seemed to be a shortage last year. With the cold we had in the NE, those pellets were dam good in my opinion as I only ran my gas furnance in the morning taking a shower, the the pellet stove for the rest of the day. I think it all depends on your stove and how you maintain it, I clean mine 1x per week. Good luck.
 
JGaulard

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  • #2

Tractor Supply Brand Wood Pellets​

Okay, I picked up our third ton of wood pellets last week and this time, I went with the Tractor Supply brand. As you may already know, I’ve already burned the Maine Woods Pellet Co. brand and the Green Supreme wood pellets brand. I now have experience burning all three major brands in the Central Maine area and can give my opinion, or review, on all of them.

First off, the Maine Woods Pellet Co. pellets were okay. Actually, all three brands are okay. The Maine ones are better than the Green Supreme pellets. While the Green Supreme pellets seemed to have burned hotter initially, I now believe that had to do with the outside temperature. They seemingly burn the same as all the others, but leave huge clinkers in the pellet stove burn pot. The Maine Woods pellets leave a less amount and come to find out, the Tractor Supply pellets leave the least. With the other two brands, especially the Green Supreme pellets, I’d find myself scooping the clinkers out of the stove almost hourly. The Maine Wood pellets about every two hours and these Tractor Supply pellets, about once per day.

This strikes me as very odd because I was under the impression that the Maine Woods pellets and the Tractor Supply pellets were one and the same, just in a different, branded, bag. It doesn’t seem to be that way because the Tractor Supply pellets are, on average, about half the length of the others. And as we all know, smaller pellets burn better.

Oh well. To be honest, I’d burn whatever I can get my hands on. They are all okay in my book. But for the future and if possible, I’m going to continue to burn the Tractor Supply pellets. They cost $200 per tons and they load them right into my truck. The process is quite painless. And Tractor Supply is closer than the Maine Woods pellet plant.

I took some pictures of the pellets below. I just thought they looked cool in my truck and all stacked up after I unloaded them. Enjoy.

pallet-tractor-supply-wood-pellets.jpg pallet-tractor-supply-wood-pellets-pickup-truck.jpg stacked-bags-of-wood-pellets.jpg ton-of-pellets-in-pickup-truck.jpg wood-pellets-stacked-in-house.jpg

COMMENT: We are looking to buy a coup!e of tons of pellets for the upcoming winter. We came across your post and was interested in your life in Maine.
 
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  • #3

Maine Woods Pellet Co. – Buying Pellets Directly From the Plant​

When Laura and I agreed to move back up north in mid-autumn, there was a bit of trepidation on my part. I said something like, “I’m freaking out a little about the prospect of moving to Maine right before winter. I need time to plan. I need time to think about how we’re going to stay warm.” As you already know, oil ain’t my thing.

Since we’ve arrived here, I’ve been working diligently to get our situation settled. I already purchased and installed the pellet stove and bought five bags of pellets. I think we burned two of them. It’s been warm. What I really needed was go get my hands on at least one ton of pellets to keep in the garage. Over time, I’ll get a few more tons to keep a steady supply. There’s nothing worse than running out of pellets in spring, when it’s still chilly outside. I am so over the shivering and shaking thing as I sit here and try to type.

The five bags I bought from Home Depot the other night were priced at $4.19. That’s a really good price. I think the guy at the register charged me $4.68 for some reason, but I wasn’t in the mood to argue. I still hadn’t put the pellets in the truck yet or removed them from the store. I didn’t want to walk all the way over to them to correct him on the price.

Anyway, they cost $4.19 a bag. If I’m at the Home Depot again for one reason or another, I’ll pick up a ton. They’ve got a nice forklift that can extend the cargo pretty far out into the bed of the truck. Much better than placing something on the rear, near the tailgate, and then having to push it towards the front.

I did a quick search yesterday to see if there were any semi-local wood pellet dealers that I could acquire more pellets from. I think I hit the nail on the head when I found an actual pellet plant that sells to the public. They’re called, “Maine Woods Pellet Co.” and they’re located in Athens, Maine. They sell pellets directly to the consumer for $200 per ton, or $4 per bag. I think that’s the best price I’ve ever found for pellets. Considering I saw them for sale last spring up in Connecticut at a hardware store for over $8 per bag. Smoking something those people were.

wood-pellet-plant.jpg

Now, just to let you know, I did see a big sign that said, “Wood Pellets – $199 Per Ton” as we rolled into town last Tuesday. I don’t exactly know how far out that was, so I thought it would be a better idea just to go to the plant today. In addition, I figured I would get some interesting pictures of a pellet plant, just in case anyone is interested.

I kind of took these incognito as I drove into and out of the plant. I wasn’t sure if these guys were down with the whole photo blog thing, but then I remembered a sign I saw in the office that talked about tours. I guess they’re okay with it.

Pellet plants are really cool places. They’re loud though and they have a lot going on. I was on edge the whole time I was there.

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COMMENT: Hi. Wish i could get the type of pellets you get. The Green Supreme wood pellets I purchased from Tractor Supply this year are the best pellets I have ever purchased. They burn cleaner and longer by a long shot. Last year at my local Tractor Supply in Southwestern Virginia (Blacksburg) they only carried "Hardwood premium wood pellets". Most bags contained broken pellets and they had a short burn time with a great deal of ash. These Green Supreme are far superior. I believe they are a blend of 90% hardwood and 10% softwood. They certainly get my 5 star rating.
 
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