For years I've been analyzing my pellets for the differences in the thought I could share some tips for choosing which brand to buy when purchasing wood pellets for heat.

The main difference is as follows,

Wood comes in two types Hardwood and Softwood.

Hardwood grows slow and is dense like oak and maple. Soft wood grows fast but is light in color and weight and density. This causes the pellets made from each wood try to behave similarly to burning logs, hardwoods last longer due to a slow breakdown under combustion. Softwoods burn fast and hot meaning pellets and logs of soft woods will combust quicker. The second and separate issue is a brand by brand difference and that's pellet length.

The industry standard is 6mm diameter pellets with an average length of 3/4" (19mm). Most brand pellets are longer. Hard woods contain more lignum with glues the pellet together. This generally causes longer pellets that are harder to crush or snap. This causes an issue with auger fed pellet stoves if the pellets ever become jammed in the auger. If this is a frequent concern, try a soft wood pellet for this reason.