Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire For those using pellet stoves for their primary heat......

I'm looking at getting a pellet stove to heat my house. It's a single story log home with a full basement. The mail level is just shy of 2400 sq ft, not planning on heating the basement. I'm blown away by all the options and brands to choose from. From what I've read, wood pellets are the cleanest burning, followed by corn at about 2x the ash content, then cherry pits. I have all 3 fuels readily available to me, and I see that the cherry pits do have a little higher btu than the other two fuels.

What kind of stoves do you have, and what kind of issues have you had with them? Also how long have you had them?

Quadra Fire Mount Vernon AE so its a bit older
I burn 3-4 tons of wood pellets a year and go through 2-3 igniters a year is about the only issue.
I burn strictly pellets but it has settings for corn, pits, etc
Had it at least 5 years, Im happy with it , and I like the looks.
My 4" pipe rums into an 8" existing chimmmey and starlings kept getting down the pipe until I put a chicken wire around the chimney cap.

I have never had a pellet stove but in looking at them the one thing that concerned me about them is that the feeder mechanism is electrically driven. My concern would be that if the electricity is off for an extended period then the stove would be inoperative. Maybe I am wrong on this but it may be something you should check into before buying one.

drover

I have been running two at a time in a 2000 sq ft. bi-level house. The heat/cold air circulates with one stove on the bottom floor and another on the mid floor. The circulation is like two eggs, with one egg a bit higher next to the other egg. I doubt one stove can circulate across 2400 sq/ft on a single plane. We also have supplemental base board electric.
I had 3 Harmons and one entry level from lowes. The Harmons are more efficient. None really over heat the area. Depending on temperature, I burn a bag or less a day in each one. I burn around 4 tons a season here in central Pennsylvania. I burn hardwood pellets, and pay a little more for the premium stuff. The premium stuff has less dust. I sometimes burn 50/50 pellets and corn. The corn ash is fluffier, but cakes up less that just pellets. The only reason I don't use corn is mice. It seems to bring then inside the garage. Corn is usually cheaper because I buy cash direct from local farmers. But I hate the mice and chipmunks. Poison works, but then the dogs eat the poisoned mice.
They need cleaned out with a vacuum about once a month, and a big clean including the chimney/vent annually. I had mine for 20 years. My favorite is the Harmon Accentra. The other new one I got last year is the Harmon XXV. It is noisier and not as efficient than the Accentra, although the XXV is easier to clean and has a bigger pellet hopper.
The Harmons are about 3500 each. Vent is 1.00 an inch or so.
They are somewhat dirty. You get dust from loading, and smoke when you open the doors. Naturally your wet and dry vac will blow a bag once in a while due to Murphys law. They are cleaner than wood stoves or coal, and I have then in nice furnished living areas, but you will have to paint more often and probably dust more. They are kinda noisy, like a fab or air conditioner. I am used to the white noise. So like anything it is a trade off, but I like them.
I only burned a few bags of cherry pits many years ago. Pellets were hard to get and a dealer imported some. I never saw them sold again. I thought they burned as good as corn or pellets. Like I said with corn, rodents may like the smell.

If the power is out, they don't run. Generally they don't use much juice, so a small UPS battery system can be used. Our electric never goes out because we have underground wire. I disconnected our back up UPS because the batteries corroded. I never hooked it back up. I have a new Yamaha generator I never used as a dire back up. I think the stove draw 150 watts, but I could be off on that. If I was in an area that had touchy electric, I would get a UPS from norther tool or Best Buy.

We replaced a fireplace with a Harmon accentra insert. Love it. Incredibly clean compared to wood. We heat 2300 sq ft with a small ventless propane in the office in addition to the stove. Had it two years and burn about a ton and a half of pine pellets a year. Was somewhat shocked to read that softwood pellets put out a lot more heat than hardwood.
Fred

I'm heating about 1,800sf with a Harmon Accentra and love the stove. We first tried a US Stove Company top of their line stove that proved to be a piece of junk. I see on the internet we weren't alone in this opinion.

Start out with a Harmon and save a lot of grief. We got ours for the new addition this September and have used it every day since October 1. I'm burning premium soft wood pellets and burn two bags in three days. We pay $249.00/ton, and the bags are 40 pounds. We paid $2,500.00 for the stove on sale and got a ton of pellets free with the purchase. Plan on $400.00-$800.00 for pipe, etc.

If the power goes out, as it does often here, we have a fireplace with a Buck insert with fan and a non-fan powered convection design that we can use.

Think about putting it in the basement with vents through the floors. That way you get warm floors and keep the muss, fuss and noise out of the living area.

We run a Mount Vernon AE model of Quadrafire.

Love it. Have a soapstone stove in opposite end of the house and if I could find a used Quadrafire to replace it, I would. Our stove is in our great room which was an addition to the house. Does a great job heating it and the neighboring kitchen.

You asked about a power outage. My stove came with a cord that attaches to a car battery and will run the stove for a decent amount of time if power is out. You just have to light the stove manually, and then the battery will run the stove. Another option is any small generator will easily run our pellet stove.

we have a older model KOZI 100XL that works great as a backup heat source. when it gets real cold mine runs all the time.i burn 70 bags a year average . i have a champion 1700/1400 generator that i run mine on when the power goes out. its very easy on gas and i changed out the fuel tank to a 5 gallon plastic gas can.it will run about 36hrs on a tank.the brand of pellets we use makes a big differents in the amount of heat and how often the stove needs cleaning. the best pellets i have found a TURMAN BRAND made in galax va.they are way cleaner burning then anything else i've found and they heat really well.

like i said this is a fairly old model stove but i bought 3 of them from a guy that used to sell them. he sold me all 3 stoves and 5-6 boxes of insulated 3in pipe and elbows for 200.00 just to get rid of them.i have plenty of parts if something goes bad in my stove.i sold some of the extra pipe and payed for my stoves.

Wood stove. Wood's cheaper and does not require any 'feeding' system..

FWIW.

Check the comments on ARBORISTSITE.COM pretty much the impression everyone has is pellet stoves should be sold in pairs> burn the pellets stove then burn the other (real) stove to keep the pellet stove warm. Buddy of mine had one made it one winter all he could stand setting in the scrap heap somewhere now!!!!!!!! JUNK

We have a quadrafire and have had it about 8 years and it has been flawless. Greatly reduced our propane usage and essentially paid for itself in a few years. It does a great job of heating the main area of the house due to our open floor plan. The master bedroom is off to the side and it doesn't get very warm but we have a gas fireplace in there so it works out fine.

I have a US stove multi fuel without the auto ignition, and lowes small unit for the basement. I burn 3-4 tons of pellets a year, no issues with either but a fan bearing in the US stove in a decade. I have a inverter and keep a rv battery charged in the garage for power outages, plus I have a generator for longer outages.

I bet heating bills up north are tough. Our heater rarely comes on

Here's a rough sketch of my home's layout:


In the lower right corner in red is where there is currently a wood stove insert that would be the tentative location for the pellet stove. We do have a propane furnace that is in the basement that the previous owner was using for primary heat.

The wood stove insert is starting to struggle to keep the house warm as we start to dip into the single digits. Except for the bedrooms/bathrooms, the house is an open floor plan with a cathedral ceiling in the living room. Bedroom 2 is where my daughter sleeps and we currently have a infrared heater in there to keep it a steady 70 degrees.

I used one, a Harmon Accentra, for 9 winters. While it was a hell of a good heater, I found pellet burning to be messy. The pellet ash is so fine, it's hard to keep it off window sills, walls, and furniture in the room the stove is located. We just sold our home, and moved into a smaller 1 story ranch style house. The Harmon went with the sale on the other home. I thought about getting another for the newer home, but decided against it. Currently, in our area, pellets are selling for $259-$279 per ton. #2 heating oil was $2.00 per gallon on our last fill up. With a ton of pellets containing approximately the same amount of heat as 100 gallons of fuel oil, its easy to do the math and make that choice. If oil should sky rocket again, I'd go with a wood burner insert for my fireplace. After 9 winters averaging 5 tons of pellets, (50 bags per ton) I have moved and handled my last bag of pellets.

We get pellets from the manufacturer at $170.00 a ton .I use a bag a day and it is still cheaper to use propane.I also have a wood stove for back up if we lose power.

That is cheap.

I have run 1000 dollars a month at times.

I have (2) Pelpro PP130 pellet stoves. I paid $1052 shipped for each of them through Tractor Supply on line after negotiating some discounts. I looked at everything from $800 to $4K when I bought my first one last fall.

I have friends/family who own Quadrafire and Harmon and they are happy with them. If money isn't a serious concern they may be a solid bet. I chose the Pelpro based on price, features, and heating ability.

I have 2100 sq. ft. on one level. The stove sits toward the far 1/3 end of the house. I bought a wall mounted Hurricane fan from Amazon to move the heat to the other end and it works well. During the coldest part of winter I use about a bag per day. I live at 6K feet in the high desert of NM (5 miles from CO). Get an ash vacuum to make cleaning any of them easier.

What I like about the Pelpro is it has a 'thermostat' dial on the side. Basically it goes from 1 to 10, and once you determine the temperature a number represents in your particular house, you simply set the dial there. The stove will automatically light the fire and regulate the pellet feed rate to maintain that temperature. If it needs more heat it increases the feed rate; less heat it slows it down. Once it's at the lowest feed rate it stays there until the temp in your house gets too warm (based on the setting) then it automatically turns off. If it gets cool again, it relights and goes again. The fan is also on a VFD, so it changes speed based on the needed temp. I absolutely love this because I can 'set it and forget it' regardless of whether we are home or not. You can also 'lock' it on low or high setting if needed. For reference, leaving mine on '3' keeps my house at about 66 degrees. Setting '6' will keep it at about 73 or 74.

It also holds 3 bags of pellets so it can go a few days if you're out of town. The stove can run a few days without being cleaned. It doesn't have an ash pan, but using an ash vacuum makes cleaning pretty painless. The stove is made in the USA. I called their Tech Help department 3 times before buying the stove. Each time they were on the phone withing a few minutes, were American and spoke English, and were very helpful and friendly. I've used about 8 different brands of pellets and it's burned all of them without missing a lick.

Negatives? It's not the most beautiful stove in the world. The blower fan can be a bit loud when the stove is really cranking. If the house is quiet you can hear the auger motor cycle on/off when feeding pellets.

I liked the one in the house so much I bought one for my shop. I haven't had a single issue with either of them, and I like knowing I have extra parts if needed. There isn't much more I can say until I've had 5 or 6 years, but I'm a YUGE fan of this stove.