Thoughts on a pellet stove

[Diggin4copper]

Oil is gonna be 4 bucks a gallon this winter.. I spend an enormous amount each year on oil.. 300 or so a month (12 month budget) I see pellet stoves for 1200 up to 3k.. Questions that I have are
1- will it heat thru the doorways and down the hallways? Or will it just heat one room..
2- Are the pellets messy at all? (dusty when pouring bags?)
3- Can I store pellets outside?Are the bags weathertite? (No garage)
4- should I buy a higher end model?
5- anyone dissapointed with their pellet/wood stove after using it?
Im thinking of a 2k stove and still will be using some oil (water heater, bedrooms)
Thanks! Diggin

[natsb88]

We got a great deal on a used Harman pellet stove a few years ago and tried it for one winter as an alternative to our coal stove. It did everything it was supposed to, was easy to operate and a lot cleaner than coal (still a little dusty but not bad), but it just didn't put out enough heat to keep the house much above 55 degrees. We also spent at least twice as much on fuel as we ever did with coal. The next season the coal stove went back in place, we went back to a toasty-warm house, and we sold the pellet stove for nearly three times what we paid for it . A larger stove may have done a better job in terms of heat, but it still would have been at least double the cost of coal for fuel for the season.

1- You get convective heat (warming the air) and radiant heat (warming the walls, floor, ceiling), so it will heat beyond the room it's in, but make sure you get one properly sized for your house. Any legit stove dealer can help you do a couple quick calculations to determine the necessary capacity.

2- A little dusty, yes, but compared to coal it seemed super clean . You'll have to dump ashes out periodically (depends on the stove, but probably once a day).

3- You can buy them in bulk if you have a hopper to store them in, or you can buy them in bags (they're sealed and can be stored outside, but if there is any moisture in the pellets they may freeze into a 50 pound brick).

4- Get something with a hopper on the back and an automated feed so you don't have to spoon-feed it every few hours.

5- Yes, because it didn't keep the house warm enough (was probably too small) and the fuel was significantly more expensive than coal (and a bigger stove would just make that worse). Coal is a lot of work, and dirty, but it's warm and cheap.

[hobo finds]

Wifes family back east has one. They lost power last month for 5 days after a storm, the pellet stove needs power to run. They got a generator and fixed the problem.

[narragansett]

I have a pellet stove ( Harman) actually 2 of them.One here in Mass & 1 at my 2nd home in RI. Both in the basement & a couple floor vents in the bedrooms. No problems heating the bulk of the house. Heat rises. The harmann is electronic ignition. I usually pay about $200/ton & store them outside. Water tight. I have used different brands and have been mostly satisfied with all of them. I like hardwood and some people like softwood. Personal preference. Even with big name brands thr quality will differ from batch to batch. Very little dust. I liked my coal stove for heat but sold it because of the dust when it dried out. When it was wet the dust was down but it was tough keeping it wet all the time. I am using some pellets now that come out of RI. Fired it up for the 1st time yesterday. I hope they are good as I got 6 tons @ 199/ton. Home depot has them for about $200/ton. Good exercise morning them around. At 40lbs/bag the wife can still pick one up or if need be you can scoop them out of the bag. Recycle the bags for trash-very thick plastic.

[68Camaro]

Being as I'm in Florida, let me know if someone comes up with a pellet air conditioner...

[natsb88]

Being as I'm in Florida, let me know if someone comes up with a pellet air conditioner...

Steam is commonly used to drive air conditioning cycles (usually through an absorption cycle). Just use the pellet stove to boil water

[Dr. Cadmium]

Reasons you should not get a pellet stove:

1) They're complicated machines. They require more regular servicing than a wood stove and have many more parts (including many sensitive electronics and moving parts), making them more likely to break. Someone near me had one break and needed to buy a replacement $400 circuit board. Another person had theirs break and they couldn't find any replacement parts - a common problem with modern electronic components manufactured overseas.

2) They require electricity.

3) They require specialized fuel. A few years ago here there was a shortage of pellets and the price for pellets shot up to three times normal, if you could even find any for sale.

4) They're more expensive to buy. There are fewer used models available secondhand, and they're more complicated machines that cost more to make.

5) They're more expensive to operate. You you have to buy the pellets and electricity. Wood I can get for free - I have to cut up fallen trees and limbs anyway, so I wouldn't be saving much time by buying pellets instead.

Now compare this to a normal woodstove, which is:

- Simple to service and has fewer parts to repair or replace.

- Still works if the power goes out and you have no generator (or fuel to run it).

- Fuelable using a local, natural and abundant resource - wood. You can also burn furniture in it in a SHTF scenario. Better yet, one of my neighbors has a coal stove that can burn coal or wood and another has an external boiler that can burn almost anything.

- Can be bought secondhand for a couple hundred dollars or less - or you can get one cheaper or even free at a moving sale.

[NHsorter]

All good points DrCad, I too heat with wood. But I have a rental apartment where I would NOT want anyone burning wood. Mistakes are much easier with woodstoves. They are also messier and more work. It is worth it for me, but it's not for everyone. Pellet stoves can run unsupervised for longer periods of time as well. It's the middle ground between oil and wood so it does have it's place for some people.

[natsb88]

...Better yet, one of my neighbors has a coal stove that can burn coal or wood...

Harman doesn't advertise the Mark series of stoves as being multi-fuel (presumably an EPA thing), but our Mark III burns wood just fine. Watch for creosote buildup (varies a lot depending on your chimney setup and the wood), but if you burn wood for a while and switch back to coal, the first couple coal fires will dry out the creosote and send it tumbling back to the bottom, where hopefully you have a cleanout (watch for blockages while this is happening). Wood is fine if the stove is centrally located and it's not bitter cold, but nothing beats coal on those real frigid nights.

[Diggin4copper]

Got a pellet stove! its all installed and waiting for the building inspectors final approval. The installer turned it on and made sure it was working properly and it was awsome! Cant wait till I can fire her up.... 2or 3 days and itwill be cranking...