Pellet Comparison

I came up with a new strategy for heating with our pellet stove. Actually it’s a known strategy by pellet burners all over. I just figured it out for myself.

Last year we were only using it to supplement heat for the house and mainly on downstairs. Because it was just supplemental, I wasn’t too concerned when the stove place only had low quality pellets to sell in the middle of winter.

What makes them low quality is they typically create more ash and less heat per 4o lb bag, which means more stove refills and clean outs. Not a big deal when you’re just supplementing.

Nor is it as big a deal when you’re heating the entire house on what’s called “the shoulder seasons” – fall and spring.

In the dead of winter, I can go through a bag of premium pellets a day when the night time temps are no higher than the teens and day time temps barely get to 30. At that time of year, you want a good premium pellet because you’re burning so much. You need them to put out a lot of heat and not a lot of ash, so you’re not cleaning the stove every other day.

This time of year when I’m putting a bag in every other or every 2 or 3 days, it doesn’t matter so much. The less premium stuff is adequate.

The benefit is cost savings. The less premium stuff is obviously cheaper, so you can save some money if you use it during the shoulder seasons then use the good stuff only when you need it.

That’s the strategy I figured out, then later found online to be pretty common.

So the premium pellets I’ve been using are Hamer Pellets.

Current per bag cost of these is $5.60 (that’s $.30 more a bag than what I paid last spring). I have 2 tons (100 bags), which will get me through the core of winter nicely. Might even have some leftover. Hamer’s burn nicely. They’re clean and put out lots of heat.

The lesser quality pellet I was getting were Great American Pellets.

These currently cost $5.40 a bag. They pretty much suck. They’re enough heat for the shoulder seasons, but put out lots and lots of ash and tend to create clinkers.

Eh. They work right? And they’re cheaper.

But they aren’t.

I noticed in my many trips to Home Depot and Tractor Supply they had pellets too. The pellets at Home Depot were $4.18 a bag and the ones at Tractor Supply were $4.59 a bag. I’d always heard the brands carried at these places were usually junk, but after using the Great American Pellets and having my new shoulder season plan, how bad could they be? I bought a couple of bags of from each place to test it out.

I started with the $4.18 a bag Stove Chow from Home Depot.

Holy Crap! These things rock! They’re probably not the same heat output as the Hamer’s but they’re significantly better than the Great American pellets and more than $1 cheaper per bag. They’re so awesome I didn’t even try the ones from Tractor Supply. At the price of the Stove Chow, why bother?

Going online I found similar reviews. I also found the Stove Chow brand to be a bit elusive at Home Depot. They sell out fast and are usually replaced with lesser quality pellet.

So it’s off to Home Depot, yet again, to get pellets. With this trip I should have a good selection, at great prices, for heating this year.

– b