Pellet Angst
Although it is definitively NOT our goal and we greatly regret when we have to take the action of limiting pellets to our customers, it does happen occasionally..
Wood pellets are a commodity and in terms of availability and popularity, they completely follow (in this part of the country at least) the prices of oil, LP (propane) and to a lesser extent electricity.
Historically every 3 to 5 years something happens on the world stage that makes people very interested in wood pellets and all of the sudden pellet stoves are sold online, at auto garages and satellite dealers and seemingly virtually everywhere - except perhaps the local grocery store.
Very often people take old stoves and put them back into service or rely on their existing stoves much heavier. Also, many corn stove users will switch to pellets when corn prices are up.
When all this takes place pellet supplies get tight. most pellet dealers that sells pellets (just for profit -as opposed to supporting stove customers) raise their price to match the market demands.
FLAMEWORKS sells pellets to support our stove customers first and the industry as a whole second.
By selling fuel at a reasonable price we hope to support people with lower heating costs AND to influence the market in this part of the world.
BUT, or first responsibility is to our customers and to do the very best job at supporting those customers, we limit the sales or pellets to only those who bought their units from FlameWorks when supplies are tight.
Some people in response to our decision get quite upset and we occasionally (usually only in the middle of the heating season) we even have people in tears in our showroom or on the phone.
We have had MANY people threaten to sue us and several call one or more mills encouraging the mills to cut us off from our pellet supply, indicating that we are discriminating
It is our STRONG belief that you are getting upset with the wrong party. FlameWorks commits ourselves to the most reasonably priced pellets anywhere and usually we offer fuel to anyone has an interest.
We feel that your anger should be directed at something more productive. Ideally, toward encouraging responsibility from YOUR stove dealer to support their customers.
If the mills were to feel inclined to cut FlameWorks off because of proposed discrimination, only two things that would be accomplished:
- Our customers would be hurt, getting cut off from their affordable fuel supply source.
- The retail prices of wood pellets in South Central, PA would go up.
Simply speaking, there is no other dealer in this area who holds the price down for pellet fuel like we do. The astute observer will note that just a few weeks (sometimes sooner) after we limit pellet sales to our customers the other pellet resellers raise their prices, often by $30 to $50 per ton.
If you want to see pellets continued to be priced reasonably you can:
- Support dealers who sell quality pellet fuel at reasonable rates.
- Buy your fuel when it is available
- Buy your fuel in a way that realistically reflects your need and usage, not your fear. In other words, don't get two years worth, because there is a temporary supply hiccup.
- Buy and use stoves that are fuel flexible. All of our stoves fit this category.
- Consider encouraging those involved in ANY part of the wood industry to source their scrap and dust to pellet mills... or even to start their own mill.
- Let your opinion about alternative heating methods be known to governmental representatives.
For the record, for those of you who have to buy pellets from somewhere other than FlameWorks occasionally... even with pellets priced at $250 per ton, the price per delivered BTU of pellets (as of this writing) is less than 1/2 that of oil and an even better deal when compared to LP (propane) gas. Click here for a comparison. This will open a new window/tab - make sure to enter current costs and fuel efficiency for the best comparison.
We are going to expand this section later, but this is enough fro now to get the basic information out there to those who care.