I have used about 8 or 10 different pellet manufacturers over the years, but definitely have my favorites, There are certain ones that don’t leave extensive residue inside the stove, leave very fine ash, which is only a problem when trying to clean the stove (blows around a bit), and for the most part it seems like price usually indicates quality. But there is often not a huge price difference between ok, good and really good pellets, and it’s definitely a good idea to see what works the best for you. You really need to test at least 5 bags before you start to get a good idea what to expect, and with some brands you need to burn more than that over a period of time before you get an idea of how consistent their manufacturing is.

Even though I’ve been in the “wood pellet club” now for a fairly long time now, like some others I am concerned about reliability and resilience of the pellet manufacturers should another circumstance arise such as the price of other fuels going up significantly again, a situation which I think is quite possible and already may be happening. The good news is that there seems to be a bigger and more widespread availability of pellets than a couple of years ago. But I am still proceeding cautiously as I prepare to decide if I’m going to purchase a pellet or wood fired boiler within the next year or two. While the pellets are more available than they were a couple of years ago, I am still concerned about availability and price as more people explore options besides oil/gas. The advantage of wood is it is readily available, requires no “factory processing”, and all the things that go along with the processing like transportation and processing costs, that still are very susceptible to cost increases affected by the “other fuel” costs.