Hey guys. We are going to purchasing one or the other. Will be in our living room with its own pipe exiting the room. Either through the roof or wall. Love the idea of wood burner because we live in the woods. Endless supply. That said, every shop we go in to is pushing pellet stoves on us. What are you guys thoughts between the two? Any advice? New install. We havent had a wood burner in 20 years, but we are chomping at the bit to get something installed. Thanks

If you have the means to make firewood and store it dry, there's no need for pellets, and pellet stoves require power unless I'm mistaken. Your shops must have some interest in pellet sales.

I have experience with non-catalytic EPA-certified wood stoves by Country, Quadrafire, Regency and Pacific Energy. They're all fine, and I'm sure others are also. I'd stay away from catalytic stoves. No comment on flue piping without knowing all of your wall and ceiling/roof details, but your installer can sort that out.

A heater or a looker?

Room heat when there, or constant?

What's your access to wood?
Who is gonna feed it, their abilities, long term?
What flooring do you have? How much do you care about sparks/ashes?


Have heated with wood and coal most of my life, but I wouldn't like screwing around
with the dirt and ash anywhere but my utilitarian basement.

Well. Wood heat is nice when it gets cold. I have a wood stove in my basement, it has a ducts that I run into my exsisting furnaces cold air returns. House is 72-74 when it is 0 outside. But I have to bring in wood, and it makes a mess and have bugs come w it.

The pellet stove would be nice, having the pellets in a bag and no mess. Also don’t have to worry about cutting, splitting and storing wood. Which I do not mind doing, have the equipment and 398 acers to get fire wood from.

But if the power goes out the pellet stove will not work. Where the wood stove will keep chugging along.

Wood stove needs a chimney, where a pellet stove just requires a small vent. Most require a vent for incoming and outgoing. Also a pellet stove requires the ash be cleaned every several days.

Just some thoughts.

We had a wood stove in our last home and the new one has a pellet stove I’m sitting next to right now. If I had a choice it would be a wood stove hands down. Although cutting and splitting wood is hard work and bringing it in the house is dirty (bugs etc) you are much more self sufficient. With the pellets you have to buy and haul the pellets which went up $50 a ton this year , once a week I have to shut it down to clean it and now I think my blower motor is going. Last winter I used four tons of pellets @ $295 a ton and never turned the furnace on. I would switch over to a wood stove but a chimney would cost a fortune the way my house is laid out.

All good points. We were out of power yesterday during the storm. My Honda 2000 generator powered the pellet stove, tv and coffee pot. Along with keeping our phones and I-pads charged. House was nice and toasty.

Any type of heating source that needs electricity to operate should get a definite "NO" in my opinion. My wood stove heats our house quite well , even in sever minus temps. Like you we have an forever supply of wood. When the power goes down, & it does every now & then , our house stays super warm. Plus we can & do cook with our wood stove. Use wisdom. Be self sufficient to where your not dependent on an outside power source.

Great discussion. I’m trying to decide pellet vs. wood for my barn/shop.

I have some access to wood. My biggest question is will I want to mess with wood when I get older (52 now). I won’t be heating it regularly. Just when I’m out there.

Sounds like I could go with pellets as I would be using a ton or less per year.

Now, the question becomes, what does a pellet stove cost?

Ok so let me try and answer some questions. Wasnt planning on running it 24/7, but if needed, i want that option. There is no chimney on that side of the house, so some sort of pipe is needed. 3 layer pipe? Not sure there. We have access to split and dried wood. Normally around $200 delivered for a cord of wood. I also can cut and split my own. Lots of woods on my property. It will be mounted in a carpeted living room, but i was planning on cutting out carpet where we want it to go and installing ceramic floor, wall and floor in that corner.

Put it on a raised hearth. Not as much bending to feed and clean it. And gives you a place to sit in front of it when you come in out of the cold. And brings the fire up more to eye level if glass front.....

One of my customers bought the pellet stove to heat his roughly 1,000sqft shop, the stove was $4,000 and he said it doesn't need power to work, its a new one.

All good, until the pellets doubled in price which then cost him alot more than he intended, so there is that. His shop is warm all the time while he is at work etc...

There are different grades of pellets, but I have a concern about the availability of pellets if things go for a shyte.

With a wood burner the availability of wood shouldn't be an issue, there are great options for wood stoves made in the USA or Canada, I have a Pacific energy I bought 25 years ago, best money I have ever spent, power go's out here often, no problems with heat.

I sell firewood, I see unhappy pellet stove people all the time, some people are happy with them, usually older folks that can't be bothered with feeding the stove.

Go wood

if you LIKE cutting and hauling firewood (I do) woodstove is way to go,

if you are going to buy wood, pellets are easier I think.

someone posted above with a small generator to run the pellet stove, TV and coffee pot had the right idea.

also, older/less healthy one is, messing with chainsaws, woodpiles, and ashes might be a bust, compared to pellets.

easy to have a 25/50 pound bag of pellets sitting in the living room.

Sycamore

Are you old as shìt?

We have an Englander pellets stove from early 2000 and it works fantastic. It has 9 heat settings and 9 blower settings and also allows you to adjust the air and fuel feed ratio. I have ours figured in pretty good and can burn 1 bag for more than 2 days straight on a low setting which will heat you out. The only part that's inconvenient about it is going out and getting the pellets. If you have a skid delivered, it beats the hell out of dealing with firewood IMHO.

I would NOT want to be cutting wood every year and seeing where you live you're gonna need a lot.
But, if you lose power frequently go with a wood stove, if not get a pellet stove with a small generator backup.
Don't get me wrong, I really like a wood stove but mainly at someone else's house.

I bought a ventless propane stove 11 years ago and love the convenience of it,
of course it's not meant to be run for extended periods.
Sure saved us 7 years ago when we lost power for 3 days due to an ice storm.
I have a small generator now too.

If you’re able bodied and you have access to timber I’d say a wood burner is a no brainer. I just felled, limbed, and stacked about 2 years worth of trees today. I’ll cut them into stove lengths, split, and stack them to dry in the evenings for the next few weeks. It’s good exercise and I enjoy it even though it’s hard work. I really enjoyed it last week when power was out and my house was still warm with no frozen pipes.

Have cousins who have switched to pellets, they like them but look at me funny when I say that I can’t cut pellets.

I mean…I had a shi’t that was born today.

We bought a house that had both.

I personally loved both. Pellet stove for the great room that needed the extra heat as the furnace couldn't keep up. Wood stove was in office and was great to get going and really heat up that end of the house.

I ended up selling the wood stove and bought another pellet stove. Reason being, is no one else in the house wanted to or would run the wood stove. So it didn't get used to its potential.

Lesson here is if you are home and are willing to prep and feed the beast, a wood stove is good. My wife will feed and keep the pellet stove going. Those are the differences.

As far as power going out, we have pellet stoves that will run off a 12 volt battery. But we have smalle generators that can easily run pellet stoves.

I have two wood stoves in my house. Last week when it was -34 it was pretty dang nice knowing that no matter what we could heat and even cook. And I also have a home back up generator. The only way I’d go pellet is if wood was unavailable or I wasn’t sound enough to handle the work. And then I’d have some way to run it if the power went out.

Be as independent as you can be. If you depend on someone else, you put yourself in jeopardy. It takes "your" personal effort to stay warm & safe. Taking the easy way out is what most people do. Our electrical grid hangs on a knife edge. It can be knocked out at any time. Having the will to provide for yourself, is safety , & more importantly , wisdom. If the electrical grid goes down , it could be out for weeks, months , or who knows how long. Depending on a generator or battery power is limited. Remember wisdom & personal responsibility. If the power goes down it will be a nightmare, utter chaos. If it happens, a traditional wood burning stove will be a literal "life saver". Think about it. Easy is easy. Personal protection takes personal effort.

If you're able to cut and split and have a way to keep it fed I would go with wood.

It's messier and more work but more reliable.

If you go pellets I would stock up and find a good place to store them. If things go down hill at least you'll still be able to heat until your stock pile runs out.

-Jake

Nope but im not young either

For the true sadist, they make a pellet compressing machine but I don't know who the hell could justify that amount of work unless you had an unlimited supply of sawdust.

We have both, plus natural gas. Pellet and gas in the house, wood in the garage. We very seldom loose power, if we do, crank up the generator and plug in the pellet stove, or the furnace! I still prefer wood, but mama doesn't like the mess in the house. Have you considered an outside wood burner, duct to the house. One that I have seen worked real well, and the owner really bragged on it. They make non powered pellet stoves, I looked at them. Maybe for a shop but not in the house! Good luck with your choice. Also ask about tax incentives, some areas of the country offer them for pellet stoves.

We have been heating with wood for the last 32 years. About ten years ago, I saw a little pellet stove at an auction and bought it for ninety bucks. We use it to heat the house if we are going to be gone overnight. I cut a hole in the side of the wood stove and vented the pellet stove into it. This reclaims some of the heat which would otherwise be going out side. I am considering getting a larger pellet stove but will also continue to burn wood. I have to admit that cutting wood is less fun than it was thirty years ago and I refuse to drive out to compete with all the townies who come to our area to cut firewood. GD

using 4 tons @ $295 a ton, that's about a full tank of propane for the winter

^^^^this, in spades^^^^ This is not prepper goofy, this is reality.

I like the wood stove. Get a good one with big glass doors and y'all will love it. Green wood has to season 2 years.

In the real crisis, power out in the blizzard, the pellet stove won't work.

Being that you have a supply of wood on your property, don't mind the work & time that it takes to cut, split, haul, stack, cover, rehaul, restack, & burn, I'd go with the wood burner. Fire wood is like a bale of hay. You handle it many times before it is used. When the power is out, you have heat and you can even cook with it if needed.

We run a woodstove all winter.
I'll be 60 next summer. Not sure how many more years I will continue cutting/splitting/hauling.

Employee here runs 2 pellet stoves all winter.
He buys every damaged bag of pellets at a discount at both of our local RK & TSC's.
He also buys them out in late winter/early spring at a discount.

Love my Harman Pellet. Had an Englander that was great but I had to shut down every few days to clean the fire box, the Harman not near as much.

I pre pay for my 5 ton of pellets every summer (230 a ton last summer but I understand they've went up quite a bit) and they bring me a skid up with the fork lift when I need them (I live close to my vender and am friends).

That said if I had access to free wood I'd probably have a wood burner.

Ok, wife is a safety nut. So got some questions that i cant answer fully. We are leaning hard towards straight wood burner. Will need to have flue/chimney installed on that side of the house. Whats the best, safest option there? Wife keeps asking about potential issue/fire. Just burn seasoned wood and have the flue brushed every so often correct? Do the new wood burners with the filter (whatever its called) stop the build up of creosote in the flue? So wood burner would need a triple wall pipe to exit the housd correct? Better to exit the roof or the wall? The roof has a 2ft space and then it exits. Thanks for the advice guys

How many feet to clear the roof. Single wall pipe up to the wall, triple wall stainless from the wall out. Right now triple wall stainless is 40-75 bucks per foot.

The room this is going in has a fairly flat rubber roof just above. Short ceiling, like a little over 8ft tall. About a 2ft space then the roof if that makes sense

These new stoves prefer a pipe going straight up through the roof. Many stoves do not draw well with 90 degree bends.

A little off subject but btu/$ are about the same with wood pellets and LP when figuring in efficiencies. Add the extra labor of pellets and it's a no-brainer for me. Pellets can sometimes be hard to find and are very inconsistent with the value brands.
I heat my 4,800sf shop with LP but burn seasoned wood most of the winter just because I like the heat. My house is strictly LP. A boiler takes care of most of the house and a fireplace does the rest. There is enough overlap so if one system happens to fail, the other will keep the other parts tolerable. I do have my old wood furnace in the basement for emergencies, but I haven't fired it in a few years. Small inverter generators are cheap back-up and have many other uses.

Flat rubber roof I wouldn’t be putting a wood stove in unless I had 6-8 ft from the roof to weather cap. If going with wood, just make sure that you can insure the house.

I have a wood burner. Couple of years back, I built a "Prometheus basket" and burned pellets.
"Heated" as well as wood......starting was much more difficult.
I didn't have a "feed" system, so was constantly feeding pellets.
I'm sure part of the problem was that my home built Prometheus basket wasn't the greatest, but occasionally, I'd feed a dipper of pellets to the basket and the fire would die! 😖 Bummer in single digit weather!

Wood:
$100/load. A "load" of wood is close to a "face" cord and lasts about a month .... depending on weather!
The man has no eye for or doesn't measure his blocks!
I had to use a Sawzall to cut a few pieces down to fit my stove. Wood may be 12" to 24"! LOL!
That's okay! It still burns.
Dude has no clue about dry/seasoned/green. He just cuts, splits, loads and collects his $100! 😜

Pellets:
Not sure how much a bag now.
Last time I bought pellets, I got 10 bags. The weather had been really crappy and we'd had lots of snow and rain. Got the pellets home and realized some of the bags had gotten wet and the pellets disintegrated....or froze into huge, unburnable globs of frozen sawdust! 🤬

Yeppers! All wood stove retailers are big on pushing their pellet burners

Look at the specs on the stove you choose. Many require 12-16 feet of chimney to draw. Sounds like your app is well short of that....

That’s because the feds approved pellet stoves as safe, efficient and environmentally friendly secondary heat. They were offering 75% of total installation costs as tax credits, think this is the last year and it’s down to 25%. When the feds approved them they also became approved as secondary heat by most insurance companies. They still are real sticklers about wood though.

Pellets, they are up around here 1.00 over the last 3 years. 5.69 instead of 4.69 per bag, or 225 per ton.

FYI....Make sure that you contact your home insurance agent before you do anything. As soon as they hear "wood stove" it raises a red flag. They will want to make sure that it is properly installed. My new agent handed me a wood stove installation guide to go by when I switched Insurance companies 4 years ago even though the stove was already installed and working fine. My stove was within the safety specs., so all was good.

I got a pellet stove and used it two years.My wife`s Aunt bought it for me for doing a lot of odd jobs for her.It heated the whole house but the fan runs all the time and is noisy.Propane is actually cheaper to use.I have a Vermont Casting`s wood burner that heats the whole house and is my first choice for source of heat.

Ok, so now youre making me second guess lol. The roof isnt completely flat, but it drops about an inch per foot. Still heavy rubber though. Is this an issue?

I wasnt planning on doing the install. Not too proud to let the "pros" take care of this one and yes i was going to contact our insurance before we do anything

Yes, it would be roughly 10ft if im figuring correctly

We do already have propane here. Heated pool. But wanted a source of heat that isnt dependent on anyone but me

If you're estimating pellet cost, they are 50 bags per ton and usually discounted 10% when purchased by the ton..

You'll have little problem with draft if you do a properly done wall exit. Put the wall exit a few feet above the stove, and route your flue pipe to it with two 45deg elbows rather than one 90deg elbow, in order to minimize the length of the horizontal portion. I.E. put the upper elbow right against the wall penetration. You can add insulated pipe sections to increase height if there are any questions about draft. I put a regency 2400 insert in my inlaws fireplace back in 2004...used a SS chimney liner. Length of flue pipe is probably 8ft to 10ft (but it is straight up with no bends). I have a pacific energy freestanding in my basement with two 45s into the wall chimney liner adapter, but the liner height above the wall penetration is probably another 20ft. It drafts like crazy.

The "metalbestos" type insulated stainless pipe will run from the wall penetration to the outlet.

There are brackets and structures available from the metalbestos manufacturers to hang the pipe off the outside wall.

Or hire a mason and put a cinder block chimney on a small foundation. Build it around a replaceable SS chimney liner.

There are codes written for wall penetrations. Have a professional do the install under a local jurisdiction permit, have it inspected, and tell your wife to relax. Or learn what's required vs what's unsafe, and do it yourself. This really isn't brain surgery.

If you have any kind of eave, you'll get to do a roof penetration also. Get with installer and ask about how they work this with a professional roofer. I'm not familiar with flatter roofs and rubber membranes.

Avoid catalyst stoves like I mentioned earler.

Burn dry wood and you'll have zero creosote for the life of the stove. EPA-rated stoves, properly installed, burning dry wood don't make creosote. I've not run a brush down any of mine, and that's for the last 18 years of ownership and constant wintertime use.

People get pretty hysterical about woodstoves. They're easy to run (if your wood is dry) and firewood is easy to make (if you have a good saw and a good 6lb splitting maul). My 12 and 14yo boys (small for their ages) split nearly all of our wood this year. I only had to do a couple of big rounds into halves and they took over.

Then you answered your question. A stick burner is the way to go if your home insurance allows it. I worked for a pellet furnace manufacturer and I while I wasn't directly involved with the engineering of the product, I saw first-hand the struggles they had with pellets. It was everything from availability to quality issues with pellets.
I'm only a few years behind you in age and while I enjoy cutting and burning wood, I don't want it to be necessary to provide heat. I used to burn 20-25 full cord of wood a year in an outdoor boiler to heat my house and shop. I used to cut it all on my property then started buying 10-15 cord a year to supplement. Now I cut 7-10 a year for additional heat in the shop and let the propane man take care of the rest. I enjoy the exercise and gratification. Yes I can be completely self-sufficient but if it gets to the point that I can't get propane, gas and oil for the saw and truck isn't far behind, much less electricity. My $0.04

A thought as to supply of wood.

We have several Amish saw mills in our area Western Wisconsin) and can get slab wood from them dirt cheap or almost free if you have a large truck or trailor you can leave with them to fill.
Price hauled is a large dump truck or trailor holding about 3.5 to 4 cords for $150 to $170 depending on how far it is hauled.

The wood is mostly oak, with some hickory and cherry. Slabs with bark on one side. You get it pretty wet as it comes from sawn logs. If you plan ahead and get it at least 6 months before burning season it burns great...it drys quickly. If you got and stacked it a year ahead of time it would be even better.

I know Pennsylvania has a lot of Amish so may be an option for you to save you some time making wood.

Forget it. Rubber roof might catch fire from sparks. Get a propane powered "wood stove."

Pellets stoves need regular cleaning and maintenance. Most folks keep loading pellets into the hopper until the stove won't run anymore. The ash needs removed from the combustion chamber or the auger will jam and maybe kill the auger motor. The circulation fan pulls unfiltered room air, and if not cleaned occasionally, will load up with dust and become unbalanced.

A word of warning on the newer (EPA certified) wood stoves:

They have a bad habit of building up coals without burning them down. Eventually, you get to the point where you don't have enough room to get sufficient wood in. Searching the internet, lots of people have this issue. Supposed fix is to rake coals to the front and burn a small log across the front to get the coals down.

I tried it last weekend. Not impressed. Better than not doing it but, damn, took a while and heating capacity went down. Other option is to shovel the coals out to make room. That seems a waste of heat.

Other issue is I've never met anyone that said their new stove would run all night. I've filled mine up, choked it down and best I've been able to get is about 3 am before the heat pump kicks on and I have to either go back to sleep and let the heat pump run or get up and add wood to the stove...or whatever I can get in with all the coals that are built up.

Basically, I love having a wood stove. Mine is in the garage. I open the garage door and put a fan blowing warm air into the living room. That will keep us warm and comfortable until we go to bed. It can't be relied on for all-night heat, though.

I would think a pellet stove would likely run all night if you filled the hopper up before going to bed.

P.S. I have a friend that hated his EPA stove so much he found an older wood stove and swapped it out. His EPA stove sits in his barn. Nobody wants to buy it.

Like those water saving toilets when they first came out

"A word of warning on the newer (EPA certified) wood stoves:
They have a bad habit of building up coals without burning them down. Eventually, you get to the point where you don't have enough room to get sufficient wood in."

The coals build up because you are burning wood that is not dry enough. Common rookie mistake.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/General-Tools-Instruments-Digital-Test-Meter/3136919

You need to shell out $39 at Lowes and buy a moisture meter. The moisture must be below 17 percent. For oak, this takes at least two years of drying.

Don't go out and test wood in your woodpile. Common rookie mistake. Bring a piece inside for 24 hours to let it warm up to the 65 to 70 degree range. Take it back out and split it. Immediately test the freshly split face, with the prongs running parallel with the grain.



My stove is a modern EPA approved. Made in Norway and cost $2500 six years ago. It is a delight to run. Burns the coals down to fine white ash.
Works great with dry wood.

First I've heard, after a bunch of internet searching, about this likely being a moisture issue. I'll get that moisture meter and see what I'm dealing with.

Also, my stove will "Burn the coals down to fine white ash" too. It just takes a long time and they build up. Perhaps that is the difference between a $2,500 stove, made in Norway and one bought thru Northern Tool.

For what it is worth, the wood I'm currently burning was cut, split and stacked 7 years ago.

I know all about the good old pre-EPA stoves. I had one just like this, a 55 gallon barrel, with a wood stove kit made by Sotz. This stove loved green wood! In fact I would load it up at midnight with green wood and it burned all night. An honest 12 hour burn. I burned the Sotz for 8 years. Sadly, the new girlfriend didn't like the looks of it so I had to shell out big bucks for the Jotul. I must say the Jotul looks better, and the big glass doors give a beautiful view of the fire.

Your cheapo stove will work well if you will use dry wood.

I got smart about wood stoves, including moisture content and moisture meters on this forum. These gearheads really know their stuff, they have the answers. I bet you will discover that you have a pretty good stove after all. Go over there and ask any question you have.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/forums/the-wood-shed.17/

ps As far as the "all night burn" don't feel bad. Jotul lies about that, like all manufacturers do. I am supposed to get a "ten hour burn." I load up the Jotul at ten pm, and ten hours later at 8am, the fire is out! The stove feels slightly warm after 10 hours. Jotul ought to advertise a "five hour burn."

What is this EPA y'all keep speaking of?

Buford: If you get a moisture meter, and your wood is, indeed, dry, then maybe I am not as smart as I thought. Any wood should be dry in seven years. Do you have it stacked under a roof, or what?

If that wood is dry then please go over to hearth.com and see what they say.

I'll go check that site out. Thanks for the link.

I do plan to get the moisture meter but my wood is in a woodshed that has a roof and is only open on one side. The floor is gravel. The wood is stored in the back, stacked on pressure treated lumber so it is not on the gravel floor.

For the record, I enjoy my stove. I use it for auxiliary heat. Usually, it is fine for Alabama cold (think 30 degree nights followed by 65 degree days). I'd enjoy it more if I could keep the heat pump from ever coming on.

Thanks for the info.

The reason I responded to your post in such a fashion, the same thing happened to me. After years of burning various old time stoves, including the 55 gallon drum, I got my first EPA approved stove in 1999. Waterford stove made in Ireland. Cost $1400.

I cut and split the wood in March as usual, fired up the Waterford in November, and the coals wouldn't burn down! In 3 hours the damn thing was stacked 2/3 full with red hot coals. Eight month old dried wood had always worked before. I was as puzzled as you are.

I got on to hearth.com and they straightened me out, and I got a moisture meter, and it has been smooth sailing since, now, with the pricey Norwegian stove.

Simonkenton7: That is a great site. I plan to spend a bit of time there. Thanks.

Here is one thread discussing what I mentioned: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...-to-open-discussion.191546/#post-2572534

I've got a lot of learning to do. That's half the fun, though.

A question regarding pellets.

Can you keep them for several years unused or will they collect moisture?

well I've got an outdoor wood boiler. put it in I think 05 have done very little maintenance some but not much. actually heats our hot water as well as the heat for the house. we actually burn wood 365 days a year. it doesn't take much wood at all for the hot water you feel the wood box like every 10 days to 2 weeks at the most. of course when it's cold weather in the winter just feel it twice a day even sometimes that ain't necessary. wood cutting does get old. but all of our wood is free just go outside and start cleaning stuff up and cutting very selling do I cut new trees down there's enough dead standing and deadfall to take care of everything.
if I've had anything to change I will damn sure have a water softener put in front of the system to fill this boiler. we have very hard water here and liming can be an issue.