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[Bar-B-Lew]

Is there an inexpensive easy method for someone to measure BTU's of different pellets?  If not, would it be a fair test to set a pit at 400° and see what the grate temp is for different pellets being run through the auger?  Start with a hopper full of Lumberjack mesquite and run it until temp settles to measure how close grate temp got to 400°.  Next day, empty hopper and fill with say cookinpellets perfect mix and test in same method.  Another day, try a 100% hardwood heating pellet, etc.  I presume that the outside temps and wind speed would have to be pretty consistent and that you would have to use the same grill.

I saw some posts in another thread about some types of pellets not getting grill above X temperature.  Was wondering if there was a fair way to test this so more people knew how each pellet brand and species would perform from a generation of heat standpoint.  I think this would be a great thing to document to help people.

[Bobitis]

http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

[hughver]

IMHO, if the controller is worth its salt, it will adjust for the difference in the pellet BTUs and hold the temperature constant. Maybe if you measured pellet usage to hold a fixed temperature it would be some sort of indication of BTU content.   

[Bar-B-Lew]

http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

Interesting, but not sure how that works in the real world when all of these pellet manufacturers have different mixes/blends.  I had some Osange Orange at one point that I bought from Smoke Daddy.  He doesn't carry it anymore for some reason.  I used to like it with chicken.

[hughver]

http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

Very interesting charts. Thanks for posting.

[Bar-B-Lew]

IMHO, if the controller is worth its salt, it will adjust for the difference in the pellet BTUs and hold the temperature constant. Maybe if you measured pellet usage to hold a fixed temperature it would be some sort of indication of BTU content.   

Fair point, I did not think about that.  Maybe some sort of test will spell that out.  You may be onto a different method of measurement that could provide results useful to the user community.

[ScottWood]

IMHO, if the controller is worth its salt, it will adjust for the difference in the pellet BTUs and hold the temperature constant. Maybe if you measured pellet usage to hold a fixed temperature it would be some sort of indication of BTU content.   

That's my thought as well.  I have never measured it, but I did notice when I switched to Lumberjack that I was using fewer pellets per cook.  I wouldn't say significantly fewer, but noticeable none the less. 

[hughver]

I've found that the low BTU woods do not work as well in the supplemental smoke devices (tubes, etc.).

[Canadian John]

 

 I don't think pellets of closely related BTU outputs could be tested effectually using our back yard test methods. There are too many variables,
 such as pellet moisture content that has an effect on heat output.The list goes on...

[LowSlowJoe]

On my PG500, I can set the auger feed rate to a specific setting and let it run... If the weather were relatively stable for long enough, I could just burn one pellet for a few hours and measure the temperature and figure out relatively speaking , how hot a particular pellet might run...  I would have a hard time converting that information into BTU numbers, but I could say  Pellet A burns Hotter than Pellet B.

  Doing that sort of thing, I can tell you that LumberJack Char Hickory pellets burn a lot hotter than standard wood pellets do... For example, a typical wood pellet will yield about 180F to 190F on a 72F day, when I run at a constant rate of 1.5 seconds on and 13.5 seconds off ( HHT = 15 for those that understand Fast Eddy controller settings ).  When I run Char Hickory pellets at that same setting with similar ambient condtions, I was seeing like 225F.

[bregent]

http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

As I understand it, the BTU of cord wood doesn't relate very well to pellets. For one, a cord is a volumetric measurement. Pellets are sold by weight. Once the wood is turned into sawdust and compressed into pellets, there may be little difference in BTU by weight. In looking at BTU ratings of various heating pellets, I see that softwood pellets are often higher than hardwood - which is the opposite of cord wood ratings.

[pmillen]

I think that it will be very difficult for us to accurately measure the heat energy from burning various pellet varieties.

We could establish a test where we put the pit in a climate-controlled warehouse or other building and monitor the weight or volume of pellets required to maintain a given temperature over a given period.  That would give us a scale and a relative rating for each one but not a BTU measurement.

I don't see it happening.

[Bentley]

Where is Becker or even Fast Eddy (he knew this stuff too) when you need them?  Again, limited knowledge, so assume that all I post is hearsay.  I though that any hardwood pellet produced 8500 BTU.  They are not the same as a hardwood species in it natural form.  Don't ask me why as I am not a scientist.

I believe we determine the BTU by how much heat is needed to raise 1lb of water 1°...So if you can figure out how to do that we are golden!

[Bar-B-Lew]

I may have used incorrect terminology which I think is why some of you are missing the point I was trying to make.  The point I was trying to make was that some people complain that with certain pellets they run hotter or cooler in their grill than others at the same set temp.  Something must be causing it.  In fact, in another thread a pellet mfg told me that my grill by his company did not hit a certain temp because i was using heating pellets instead of cooking pellets and that was the reason why I could not hit controller temp.

All I was after was a method to ideally, fairly, and objectively run a test on a grill at a set temp of say 350 degrees from startup and determine grill temp at certain time intervals and whether the grill could even hit set temp with different pellets.  I realize the temp, humidity, and wind would need to be relatively the same when this test would be run and the same grill would have to be used from startup each time.

This wasn't to call out a pellet manufacturer as some of them it sounds have different blends that they make that perform better or worse than others for some people.  I was hoping it could provide people with some general knowledge so that when they went to buy pellets they had some idea of performance to expect.  There are so many pellets out there now by multiple manufacturers with many different species blends that it is becoming quite challenging for new and experienced pellet grill owners to know what to buy based on something other than price.

I am going to edit the title of the original thread to minimize further confusion.  Thanks for all of those who have participated in this discussion so far.  Hopefully others (maybe manufacturers) will continue to chime in.

[Conumdrum]

It's a wild west thing we have.  No one temp setting, outside temps, wind speeds, type of pellets etc for all the posturing we do.  Until we have a scientist with all of our smokers and a REAL BTU tester (BTW they can be bought), meat cooked, time of day, beers drank in the test.

Cook your meat, buy the pellets you like and cook meat.

Rest is gravy.  Cook and eat.  Finding the best pellet comes down to COST and if you are happy.  Happy, COOK.

CYA later folks.