Curran soft/hard wood blend

The Massena NY based Curran is an interesting pellet compy in that they produce 4 different varieties of pellets for home heating. They have a hard wood, a soft wood, a 70/30 blend of hard and soft wood, and a FSC (Forrest Stewardship Council) unspecified soft/hard wood blend. This is a review of the 70/30 blend.

Curran Blend pellets are 70% hardwood and 30% softwood. They are PFI "premium grade", and claim an ash content of 1% 0r less. Fines of less than 0.05%, and the sodium content is less than 300PPM.

These pellets are being burned in a basic Englander model 25-PDVC stove. The pellets have a pleasant scent when opened, and are fairly light colored. The pellets are varied in length with most being around 1/4 of an inch, and there is very little in the  way of fines in any of the bags. These pellets burn very clean, leaving only a fine ash and no clinkers at all.

These pellets come on 1.5 ton pallets, and the bags seem to be fairly thick plastic so there was no problems with ruptured bags. I did keep a few bags left over from last winter, stored outside under a lean to, and probably close to 50% did take on noticeable moisture, so bags are not water tight. Upon closer inspection I have found tiny little compression holes in many of the bags which possibly due to being stacked on higher 1.5 ton pallets and travel stresses.  I now store any extra bags inside my home until I'm ready to use them.

This will be my second season using Curran Blend. So far, this years pellets seem to burn even cleaner than last years with very little residual ash. I've been very happy and would have no reservations about purchasing this brand again.

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