wood pellets

Does anyone burn the wood pellets from Menards? I got an email saying if I buy now I can get them at $169/ton. Otherwise the place I normally buy from I can get 1.2 ton skids for $222 which is $185/ton,(or 1 ton skids for $189) plus a lot more drive time.

I just don't want it to be like when I got them from TSC a couple years ago and they didn't burn very clean, so the stove would get gunked up a lot faster. Menards is giving me till the 8th, where as my other vendor has them on sale until April 30th, and they're actually a mix of 80% hardwood and 20% soft wood (60% maple, 20% mixed hardwood, 20% pine)

If the weather cools down to where I can light the stove again (been turned off the last week) I may just buy 2 bags form Menards and see what they are like before I commit to 4 tons.

Last year I burnt 6 tons, this season I only burnt about 4 tons. I figure if I keep 7 tons on hand at the begining of the season, I'll be set for the whole heating season even in the coldest of winters.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I am getting a semi load of softwood for $200 per ton. You get a lot more BTU"s vs. hardwood. I am in WI also, If you want to get in on some of mine. Bill

more btu's from softwood,..that's a new one on me..never heard that before

There is no correct answer Don,Same brand,one shipment to next can be completly different.Some stoves will burn one and not another and another stove just the opposite.There have been a lot of stoves taken out because of the poor quality of each batch of pellets.

I used them a few years ago. They worked good. I also got some from TSC and found them not good.

the most BTU's come from hardwoods.apple is the
best, then oak.soft woods just burn fast and maybe
that makes you think it is better.

I've been burning Indeck pellets from Menards for the last couple of years. I just got 3 ton today taking advantage of the sale price.
The Indeck pellets are 1/2 to 3/4 inch long no long pellets like some other brands. They also don't have very much fines like some other brands.
I've burned close to 10 tons in the last couple of years and never been disappointed in them. I've been using a Bixby Stove and a Harman PC45 both handle them well with no problem.

Softwood pellets often have 10%-20% more BTUs per pound as compared to hardwood pellets. That is because unlike firewood - density is not a factor.

When using firewood - hardwoods can have twice the BTUs per volume then some sofwoods. That because a cord of Hickory weighs twice what a cord of Basswood weighs. That's volume because of wood density. All wood has pretty much the same BTUs value per pound except soft woods have a little more due to resins.

So with wood pellets? They are made from ground up wood and compressed and sold by the pound. Unlike firewood that is sold by volume.

One example: White Oak pellets have 8810 BTUs per pound, whereas Yellow Pine pellets have 9610 BTUs per pound.

Don
Have been burning pellets for 9 seasons now. Marth from Marathon, Indek from Ladysmith, & Lumberjack from Hayward seem to be the best. Don't know about the theory that softwoods have more BTU, but had one batch of Burn Brite with some softwood. Those had 4-5 times as much ash as the others.
Normal business practice to put a special price on winter items to make warehouse space for upcoming summer items.
Have been buying from Lamperts in Sandstone lately. 20 bucks a ton cheaper than Menards, & 15 miles closer.
Willie

You mentioned indeck as one brand. That was what I got from TSC 2 years ago, and I don't know if it was just because they were stored outside for so long, or what, but they didn't burn very clean for me. I am currently burning Vulcan, and some is burning better than others but better than the Indeck did last season. That being said, what isn't burning the best is because of moinsture, and again I bought it last fall after it sat outside in their yard all summer in the rain. The first year I got them, I bought in March or April and I store them inside so they were kept dry. Those burnt great.

I wouldn't be leery to try Indeck again, as I wrote them and complained, and they did send me a couple new bags in exchange for a couple of what I had. They said according to the tests they ran everythign was right in line with where they should have been. The 2 new bags did burn cleaner. I just burnt 1 bag of Indeck to every 2 bags Vulcan. When we moved in the previous owners left behind 1/3 a skid of Marth, but I wasn't overly impressed by them.

I've heard that softwood was more BTU's per lb. than hardwood, and I may try 1 skid of softwood to try it out. See how much longer a bag lasts or if I notice any difference.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Wood pellets are "engineered wood fuel". Apple wood in nature is very dense. Pellets, hardwood or soft, are compressed threw an extruder and all are just as dense, so density is no longer a factor. The resin in the wood dictate the BTUs per lb. in wood pellets. An all hardwood pellet will burn cleaner, with less cleaning due to having less resins, that create ash and residue.
I am a certified Harman Service Tech.