Northeast Distribution Annual Open House

Welcome!
Manufacturer's Reps on-hand
Networking
Fabulous BBQ Lunch!
With grills they distribute of course ;)
Solar Hot Water
At least it was a cool day!
Full warehouse is good!
Venting
We would like to thank the good people over at NDL for a great day showcasing their new and long-standing products at their Open House last week.
Here are some pics of the day.

Pellet Mill Fire

By Aimee DolloffWednesday, May 21, 2008 - Bangor Daily News
CORINTH, Maine - A fire Tuesday at Corinth Wood Pellets Manufacturing LLC has caused an estimated $500,000 in damage and shut the company down for an unknown period of time.
"I see them being several days out of work," Corinth Fire Chief Scott Bragdon said Tuesday.
When it opened in March 2007, the company was touted as the largest of its kind in the United States and was set to produce an estimated 140,000 tons of wood pellets per year for sale both domestically and overseas. It initially employed about a dozen workers but anticipated having 40 producing 300,000 tons of pellets by the end of the year.
The fire at the facility Tuesday was called in shortly before 11 a.m. as a fire on the roof, but when firefighters arrived, Bragdon said the roof and attic were on fire, and one outside wall was engulfed in flames.
The blaze started when a fire in one of the exterior burners was sucked inside the building by a fan.
Dust and insulation inside ignited, and the fire was tough to fight, Bragdon said.
"It was a real stubborn fire because everything’s dusty in there," he said. "We had to really do a lot of overhaul, digging it out of the walls and out of the ceiling."
Fire crews from Bradford, Charleston, Glenburn, Dover-Foxcroft and Levant were called in to assist Corinth. Dexter Fire stood by at the Corinth station with additional trucks in case they were needed.
"We needed a couple of extra ladder trucks to gain access because everything was above the roofline," Bragdon said. "The metal roof made it tricky."
Crews from Corinth were expected to operate a 24-hour detail at the facility to watch for potential flare-ups.
"The insurance company is there now," Bragdon said. "They’re trying to get stuff repaired to get the production line back going."
Although no one was injured, there was excessive heat, smoke and water damage to the building, the fire chief said. A team of electricians and contractors also had been called to the site to assess the damage.
About a foot of blown insulation in the attic and dust had to be rolled over and wet down to make sure the flames were out.
An employee asked photographers to leave the property, and reporters’ phone calls seeking information weren’t returned Tuesday evening.
The pellets made by the company are used in stoves that look similar to wood stoves but have a more sophisticated combustion chamber. Pellet stoves, like wood stoves, have enjoyed increased sales because of heating oil prices that have pushed homeowners to seek alternative heating sources.
The production plant is housed in the former Corinth Products Co. Inc., which closed in August 2006, leaving 21 people without work.
At the time the wood pellet company opened in March 2007, the second phase of the project was expected to be completed by the end of the year. Additional lines were anticipated to allow the company to produce more than 300,000 tons of pellets a year and create 40 jobs at the site.
In addition to those 40 jobs at the factory, an additional 120 jobs were expected to be created for loggers, truck drivers and others.

NEWP-Wood Energy Day

Over this last weekend I attended New England Wood Pellet's Wood Energy Day at it's new Schuyler NY plant. (Note- They will not be having it in August at their Jaffrey plant as they have in years past.) This ten million dollar ten acre plant is up and running five days a week now. It supplies New York, New England, and probably down to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This plant has a great supply of raw material, a sawdust dryer similar to the one in their Jaffrey plant, and four pellet mills that I saw. Fully ramped up it can produce 100,000 tons a year. Enough to heat approximately 25,000 residential installations.

Outdoor raw material storage
Conveyers to move raw materials to storage silos
Storage silos that are mixed before heading in the plant.
They also let us walk through their testing lab. Many pellet manufacturers test their incoming raw materials and finished product. This is done in house by the participating manufacturers. There is not an industry requirement, third party, or outside source. You may keep that in mind when trying to compare products based on the testing data from each. This does help New England with quality control and helps to keep their product consistent with their expectations.
Their facility is heated with radiant floor and powered by a Harman PB105.

Sawdust Dryer

Pellet Mills- (open)

The guts...

Off to the Bagger

Stacked by machine and down the conveyer to the warehouse or onto a truck for delivery to your local dealer!

It was great to see many tons stored in their warehouse and in their yard.

They can store about 2000 ton in the warehouse, have outside storage for even more, and they also have a silo that will store 300 tons unbagged product behind the facility.

There were many pellet stove and boiler/furnace manufacturers on hand as well as local dealers to demonstrate their wares. The areas congresswoman also made an appearance.
One comment on a conversation that I had with a company rep about a new practice for NEWP. New England has joined other manufacturer's in bagging their product in multiple bags. Lauzon is an example with their Northern and Cubex brands- same pellets- different bags. I personally do not agree with this practice as it sometimes leads people to believe that the product in the different bags conform to different standards. I have already seen this rumor mill spinning about NEWP products. That one bag is better than the other or more "premium" than another. In fact it is just a marketing tool. Period. They make one product. The product is the product, and the bag is the only difference. Anything else is just plain rumor and marketing.
It looked like a successful day for New England Wood Pellet and we were pleased that some of the staff took time out to show us around.

Smoking and Grilling

In the NorthEast it is finally time to turn off the furnaces and stoves, and move to the great outdoors. It is time to early buy pellets for next year, clean the stove and furnaces mentioned above, unplug them (to protect in the many thunderstorms we have here), and I put a box of baking soda inside each to help with condensation control.
Then it's time to pull out my grill!
History of grilling- according to yours truly~
Aaahhh, there is nothing like the smell of meat on the grill! What type of grill do I use? A wood pellet grill, of course! When we began in the 1990's I had a Whitfield pellet grill. It worked pretty well, but they were discontinuing them. Rats! So we picked up Reliant Grills. They were DC and portable (somewhat- they were still a pretty good size, but you could plug them in to your car.) Then they reorganized and dropped their grills. All this time a family in Oregon was smoking up a storm. Traeger. We picked them up. Soon they were selling the smokers under the Smith and Wesson name.

Louisiana Grills
The newest player in the grill game is Louisiana Grills. Ironically, they were bought by a Canadian company. "Would ya'll like to have a barbecue, eh?" So far I am pretty impressed with the company. Very nice people, a solid and varied product line. Their grills SEAR, BAKE, BARBECUE, SMOKE, ROAST AND GRILL. The offer smokers, a line of grills that do it all from searing steaks to slow smoking a turkey, and outdoor kitchens and grill drop-ins for your own setup.
Pellet Flavors
I think my favorite meal made on my pellet grill would have to be pork loin smoked with apple flavored pellets. Big juicy burgers done with onion pellets are a close runner up. A advantage to cooking with your wood pellet grill is that you have many choices of different wood pellets like hickory, ash, alder, and mesquite, but they flavor them with other flavors like onion, garlic, and they even have Jack Daniels induced pellets! The ones out of my stove supply work just fine too!
How do they work?
A pellet grill actually has pretty much the same components that your stove or pellet furnace has. The auger feeds the pellets from the attached hopper. They have ignitors to start the fire, and the variable heat setting to adjust your cooking temperature. The only thing they don't have is a fan to blow the heat off of the grill- that wouldn't make much sense after all... There is a combustion air source so that you have a nice crisp and controllable flame inside. As with your pellet stove the precise air to fuel ratio control gives you a constant convective heat source to evenly cook your food. No hot spots!

Maintenance
Everyone is a little different in this department. Regardless of fuel type there are people who meticulously go through their grill to clean up the grease, and polish the grates. There are also those who clean it weekly, monthly, quarterly, or once a year. This grill is no different. Your biggest mess is what you put on the grill and what it drops in. They do have a nice plate that catches the drippings and directs them to an easily removed grease container. I do cover my plate with tin foil to help make cleanup easier. But to each his own!
Price?
There is a huge grill market out there. Cheapo Depot and the like have grills for $100. But they also have top of the line grills at patio stores, stove shops, et al that range up to $10,000-$15,000 outdoor kitchens. Pellet grills are not cheap, but they are worth every penny! They generally start around $600 and up. Louisiana Grills also makes the outdoor kitchen grill setups that range toward the higher end.
Easy to use!
Anyone can use a pellet grill. The plate that catches the grease also prevents direct fire contact. No nasty flare ups, or charred food. I have a very hard time overcooking anything on my pellet grill. It does a great job grilling steaks and chicken, too. People say that a turkey on the grill is divine, and that it is a great way to do summer baking although I haven't tried it yet. I better get grilling!