What is your pellet stove?

[Christiaan]

I'm figuring on a new wood stove in the next few years. Leaning heavily to a pellet stove as the fuel cost and ease of use is very good compared to fuelwood here.
So, what brand pellet stove do you have? How happy are you with it? Would you get that brand again or a different brand?
Thanks for your help!

[Billie in MO]

We have a Quadra-Fire and I like it. This will be our 3rd winter for it and we've had just minor problems with it. Usually just have to unplug it for a minute and then plug back in or it didn't get cleaned out quick enough. Wanted a wood stove but no room and these go against the wall. It will go with us if we ever move.

[Simpler Times]

I hope more people will respond to this. I am interested in a pellet stove as a secondary heat source to my wood stove. I need something that can be counted on to keep the house warm longer than a day if we aren't home. How big of a hopper do people recommend? How much do they hold? How long will they burn? Anyone use corn instead of pellets?

[moldy]

I am debating wood/pellet/corn stoves as a back-up heat source for my house. My only area of concern re: pellet/corn stoves is that they require electronic ignition to light according to the dealer I talked with. Might be a big problem if there is no electricity.

[shadowwalker]

Been there done it. First thing when buying. Make sure the stove has parts dealers in the United States. I had one that was out of canada. I had all kinds of heck (putting it lightly). Over just getting a fan for the rear of it.
Now I will tell a few things you should do.
1. Put the stove where you can get to the back of it easily. You will need to take the stovepipe off the back of the stove to clean the soot out of it. It will come straight out the back of the stove. You should clean it twice or more a winter. In wyoming I cleaned it once in the middle of winter and again when I quit using it in the spring. Also where it comes out of the house and goes straight up, you need a cleanout here also.
I could mostly get pine pellets and the soot was bad.
2. You need to clean ALL the pellets out of your stove hopper in the spring when you don't need it anymore. Also run the auger to get all the pellets out of it. With humidity those pellets will swell up like something out of a monster movie. It will cause you to burn up the auger motor that feeds the pellets into the stove. Because it can't turn. Mine cost almost $230.00
3.Keep the pellets dry. Even in the bags, if they have holes they will swell and not work in the stove. I kept duct tape and covered the holes in the bags with it. Hardwood pellets are supposed to work better than pine. Maybe. I was kept away by the price of them.
4. Oil the stove in the fans and auger where needed in the spring. The way they work and the heat dry out the bearings. I did this in the spring so the bearings had all summer to just set with oil on them. Just the way I did it.
They make stoves that can be used with wall thermostats. Mine was just a control on the side of the stove. Once we got the hang of where to keep the stove all we had to do was vacum out the soot. From the front of the stove, in the fire tray. I'd get about four onces out of a 40 lb. bag. (not bad). And keep the hopper full.
I really liked the stove and would have another again. Hope it helps.

[MtnGranny]

We have 2 pellet stove. The first one we got is a Harman Accentra. It heated our 1500 sq foot very well. Then we added a large master bedroom and put another stove in there. It is a Thelin Parlor 3000. I love this stove!!!! It is much easier to clean than the Harman and looks like a parlor stove. They both hold 40 lb bags of pellets and on the coldest of days will go through that in 24 hours. I buy hardwood premium pellets and have never had the problems shadowwalker spoke of. It is very damp/humid here and have left pellets in the stove over the summer with no problem in the fall. The Harman stove has a sensor that keeps the room warm but not at an exact temperature. The Thelin has a remote thermostat that works just like a wall thermostat and will kick on the stove at the preset temperature. We will eventually replace the Harman with another Thelin and place the Harman in my husbands workshop when it is built. You can add a battery backup to the Thelin (not sure about the Harman). We have a backup generator so don't need it. Pellet stoves are much easier than wood stoves, especially as we age. I vacuum mine out once a week. The buildup in the stove pipe is much less than a wood stove as they are very clean burning. They do make a little noise with the fan running, but it was easy to get use to. Hope that answers your questions.

[shelljo]

We have an Avalon in the basement and love it. It's 3 years old now and still runs like a charm. We just bought another one for the main floor it's a Country Flame. We haven't even hooked it up yet because we are moving and want to take it with us. the Country Flame is a multi fuel stove. We got a pallet of corn--free from the feed store as it was buggy and they couldn't sell it. So we took it off their hands. The Avalon is for 1500 sq feet and heats quite well. We used it during a power outage last year, running it off the generator, and it keep the entire 2700 ft house comfortable.

[Jim S.]

Well, I recall a few years back when the pellet shortage happened, because I had a couple friends who tossed their pellet stove out the back door and installed wood stoves. To me the whole purpose is to free myself from relying on some corporation to provide me fuel at a price they set, and that means burning logs.

If you do get a pellet stove, look at a dual-fuel stove. I know they used to make them that would burn pellets or grain. I don't know what all they offer now. All I know is, those stoves my friends had that burned pellets only became instantly useless in the early '90s when the pellets suddenly weren't available. When some finally did become available, the price had skyrocketed. So think carefully before you buy.

[airotciv]

We heat with a Whitfield pellet stove, has been in our house for the last 20 years. The only problem with a pellet stove that you must have electricity to run it, unlike a wook stove. We can loose power, for hours to days, No pellet stove, unless you have a another power sourse (generator).

[JayinCT]

I second the Whitfield. Mine is the Advantage model. I have had mine for years and it has never missed a beat. Installed a wall mounted thermostat and it works almost like a boiler. I heat a 1800 square foot house built in the early 1900's with no insultation with mine. Old windows and everything. I only use 4 tons of pellets per winter. I also only burn premium pellets and have never had any problems with them swelling up. I typically purchase my pellets in the summer time to save a few bucks. The only thing with it is, if the power goes out, so does the stove. This has never become a problem for me because have a small back-up generator. It doesn't take much of a generator to run it either. I can tell you that I have one of those small quiet Honda 1800 watt generators, and it runs it at an idle.

Jay

[Christiaan]

Thanks for all the info.
I already use a pellet basket in my wood stove, sure makes life easier. A pellet stove would be even nicer.
I found that the pellets work out to be the cheapest heat source for me. Got quite a headache doing the numbers so I could compare cordwood to pellets. The cash savings worked out to about $25 per unit (can't remember what unit I finally settled on), the labor and arthritis pain savings were priceless.