We just bought a pellet stove this year for heating the house. We're both getting too old and crippled( ) to be hauling,cutting,and lifting the wood for a regular wood stove.Not to mention the bending down or kneeling to actually start and stoke the darn thing!
I was wondering if anyone here on the board uses a pellet stove and how they like/dislike it. It seems to do a good job for a guy we know and he's been using one for years now. Just wanted to get some other opinions.
Hubby keeps hem-hawing around about the fact that you have to run a small pipe either out the floor or the wall to bring in fresh air for the stove to use. he seems to think that our house is drafty enough,but I've told him it wouldn't hurt to go by the manufacturer's instruction.What is it with men?! I'm bout ready to "put my foot down".(and Dragons have BIG feet ).
Any tricks or insights would be real helpful.
Thanks guys!!

I've had a pellet stove in my two story house for a few years now. I don't rely on it to heat the house, but rather to supplement the propane forced hot-air furnace, on the colder days.

A ton of pellets will last me 2-3 years. However, on the other hand I have a friend who heats his ranchstyle house almost exclusively with his pellet stove and goes thru about 3 tons a season.

I like it. but like all wood based stoves it is a dry heat. and unlike a wood stove, it doesn't get hot enough on the top to place a kettle of water so you can replace some of the moisture.

I don't have my air intake vented to the outside. It just takes the room air as intake. The chimney does however go straight up to the roof. I would like to extend the air intake to the farthest part of the house, however, so that I could actually circulate the air better. You will also notice that the heat from the pellet stove is not quite as hot as a wood stove, but you can adjust the rate of pellet feeding.

It is convenient, clean and easy to use. A whole lot less ash than wood. Once a week I vacuum the ash out and clean the inside with grill cleaner. A couple times a year I oil the one motor that requires lubrication. I have an Envirofire I bought from Solliday Sales on Memorial Blvd in Hagerstown. Knock on wood, never had to have the stove serviced.

Bottom line, I like it.

My parents bought a pellet stove for use in their house, but wound up replacing it with a propane stove within two years. Their chimney was on the end of the house, instead of in the middle like some, and the darn thing just couldn't keep the house warm! The clean-up was easy, and the pellets were cheaper than the propane, but in essence it just couldn't perform.

As long as your house isn't huge, a pellet stove is nice and affordable. Otherwise, expect to be supplementing with your electric-based heat source (if you have one!). Just from my experience....

My in-laws have one -- bought it a few years ago for same reasons -- wood stove got to be too much for them. But, now they complain about the 40 pound bags of pellets they have to lug around. They have no special venting -- most houses -- especially older ones, have enough natural leaks to provide needed air.

One thing to remember, if power goes out your pellet stove goes out, too, unlike a wood stove that will still heat your house. So to make the pellet stove work in event of a power outage you need a small generator (around 300-500 watts should be fine) or an inverter of the same size to run off your car battery.

Good luck!

Good point Snoop, I forgot to mention that. You need power for the auger feeder and the blower.

BTW, I run mine on about medium auger speed which produces around a 4-6 inch flame. The higher the auger speed, the higher the heat output and the larger the flame. I've measured the temperature coming out of the stove to be about 135-140 degrees.

I'm gonna guess that if you feed it with outside air (which is significantly cooler than the inside air) your heat output won't be as high since your heating the cooler air as opposed to heating the already warmer air. Much like a water heater, water takes longer to heat in the winter than it does in the summer.

Thanks guys for all the good info.Appreciate it!!

Well just went to Sam's and got the pellets! That was an adventure! Had a truck with a plastic bed liner and the skid of pellets slid ALL over the darn place! Every little curve and forget about the turns!
Does every road in WV bear to the left??!!
Glad that's over for now.

p.s. got them for $2.86 a bag/40lbs.apparently thats a good price.

Not bad WVD. $135-$145/ton is a reasonable price. Your's works out to $143/ton. That's about what I paid at Solliday Sales. Though you may want to give Rich Grove a call there and see what he's sellin' 'em for. Price's go up as we get deeper into the heating season.

A couple years ago, there was a shortage of pellets because of a slowdown in logging operations.

Did your's come from WV? WV's a big producer of pellets.

Not sure,it said on the pallet that they were shipped from N.Carolina.Could be just a distrbution center.
Hopefully this will last us all season.I'm always hot, so I like the temp low in the house and I hardly use a coat in the Winter. Just a sweater mostly.
Don't know about that OLD man I've suddenly been married to! He was always walking around last year saying he was cold!

Too bad there isn't some kind of co-opt over here for this sort of thing. I know in the past I've heard of them for fuel-oil but not for wood. Oh well.

WVD,

I hope you get by with only 1 ton (I assume that's what you got). Will this be your primary heat or supplement? My in-laws used over 2 tons last year heating an older house ~ 1200 sq. ft. with some electric supplement. Might wanna keep track of how many pounds you use per day and what the temp. was to kinda estimate how long they'll last. As Yoss said don't wait till the last minute if it looks like you'll run out or youmight not be able to find more.

Did you decide on the intake air issue? I'd resist adding an extra vent unless it appears you really need it. Most people would be amazed how many cracks they have where fresh air comes in. If you're worried, buy a CO detector and locate it near the stove as an extra precaution.

If you run the stove 24/7, you will definitely need more pellets. Running at medium heat, all day will consume about a bag a day. I've noticed that if you run it at too low a setting, more soot builds up on the inside. Seems higher setting equates to higher burning efficiency.

It's pretty much trial and error for the first year, but after that you get a pretty good idea of the operation of the stove.

$2.86/day is still cheaper than any other fossil fuel alternative (gas, propane, oil or electric).

We bought a vented propane fireplace insert this spring. Several folks made fun of how much we spent for it, but I chose a vented one, which was more than twice what you can buy a ventless one from Lowe's for. I have allergies and asthma, so an investment in a cheaper, ventless unit was a crap shoot I didn't want to take.

Before making a final decision, we talked to several folks who had ventless units because their homes supposedly had adequate fresh air leaks, and they all complained of breathing problems, etc that they hadn't had before they bought their units. Amazingly, they hadn't made the connection between their health problems and the installation of the unit.

I had wanted to buy a pellet stove because of their "Cleanness", but hubby said no. He didn't want to be carrying bags of pellets around, I didn't want the bags of pellets stacked up in my living room, and I've had 2 hernias repaired, so I don't need to be lifting 40-lb bags of pellets, anyhow.

I never understood the so-called safety of vent-less propane. Any combustion produces deadly carbon monoxide. With a vent-less insert, you're just circulating that CO into the room, diluting (hopefully) with normal air-infiltration.

In some jurisdictions, vent-less is illegal.

I think it's a very wise decision, sheash, to go with a vented model. BTW, I think propane is upwards of $2.25/gal now with the expectation it will rise. My furnace is propane, so I know I'm gonna get hit hard and heavy this winter.

I think I forgot to mention that we bought 3 skids.(told ya's I was gettin old!)
That's 150 bags. We were thinking that we'd might go thru a bag a day so thats 5 months(?). Like I told the hubby,we'll have to experiment some and fine tune everything like we did with the wood stove. We knew how long to wait to put more wood on to keep a fairly even temp. in the house.
As for the bags,we have to lug 40lb. bags of cat food and 50lb. bags of dog food every month so wood shouldn't be a problem. We also have a nice dry mud room for the bags to sit in so we don't have that far to move them. We have them in the car port and then we'll just move a week's worth into the mud room.Sure do love that hand cart of ours!!

Hey wvd, if ya' mix up some garlic and butter with some heavy whipping cream and let the wood pellets soak in it for a couple of hours, it tastes just like chicken! Plus it's very high in fiber.

Propane is cheaper if you can find a company that offers lock-in pricing with the understanding that you agree to buy so many gallons. My parents have theirs locked-in at 1.75 I think, from last year, and it's been convenient for them. They use it year-round though, because during the spring/fall seasons they use it to heat their pool. It lets them keep it open from April 1st to October 1st. In fact, they will close the pool this Thursday. No more swims for preggo I guess. Anyway, propane is a godsend if you need fuel for multi-tasking.

Try prunes for that problem and you'll have fewer pellets to buy.

Wonder if theres a cooking contest?I could enter and maybe win a vacation to some place nice this Winter!
So are you telling me Yoss that pellets are actually tofu??!

I am looking to buy a pellet stove to supplement (and hopefully save money with increasing home gas prices). I wanted your opinion as to where in the Hagerstown area has pellet stoves, what are the prices? Prices to include installation? Anything I need to know before purchasing one? Thanks!!!

You might want to read this thread for some more info:

http://www.herald-mail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1830

Most places that sell pools also sell pellet stoves.

Home Adventures on Wilson and also on the Dual Hiway.

That pool place on Pennsylvania Av near Hillcrest.

Baer Pools out on Jefferson Blvd.

Not sure of the prices anymore, I think I bought mine for around two grand with installation, but that was about seven years ago.

Call around, or visit some of these places to see what they have and what they cost.

There's some new stoves out now that are thermostatically controlled. You set the temp you want and it'll turn off and on as needed.

I just got a price on pellets, $199/ton, but they were out -- I'm on the list, should hear from them this week.

Depending on how much you use the stove, you can expect to go thru anywhere from one to three tons a season.

The pellets come in fifty pound plastic bags, btw.

By the way, I figure a bag of pellets lasts about 24hrs more or less. And a ton is probably the equivelent of a cord of wood.

A pellet stove can be a nice suplement and save you big $ over electric heat. But remember, if the power goes out you're screwed unless you have a generator as they still use some electricity.

Figure how long till you get your payback -- the $2000 for the stove plus the cost of pellets is lotsa bucks -- figure how long till you break even and start actually saving money then decide if it is what you want.

We went to Mace out in Ringgold. They know their stuff and the stoves are wonderful.
Pellet stove is our main sourse of heat and we only went thru 2 & 1/2 tons last year.
We bought the pellets at Sams club last year but found some cheaper just up the road from us over here. real convienient that.
Paid $379.48 for 2 tons. Not bad tho.$189 a ton roughly.Save some $$on gas being so close by too.

Don't buy a stove at the local "home improvement" stores. We did that first last year(trying to save $$) and within 30 days something was wrong with it and a wire was loose and it had some sort of computer in it to regulate the flame and crap and it was sooty as heck. YUK! Took it back and spent the money on one much better out at Mace's.

Good point Snoop. You really have to consider the return of investment. If not, then it becomes a very expensive luxury item.

By the looks of the artical in todays paper,we made a good decision last year to get our stove. Theres been a run on them and theres a waiting list for the stoves and the pellets.Again,I want to warn people who are getting a stove for the first time,YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Spend the money to get quality.
AND FOR PETE'S SAKE,INSTALL IT PROPERLY!!!!!!

How much do you want to bet that the # of fires this Winter will go up way above normal?Just because people are idiots to begin with and they're also trying to save $$ so they skimp on installation or some such thing.

As opposed to their very expensive luxury: mega big screen tv's,boats,suv's,luxury vacations,10,00sq.ft. homes for two,.....etc.

Who you talkin' about when you say "their", WVD?? Darn sure not me.

Side issue -- does anyone know if we can do a poll that gives the person the option to click more than one choice? Like if I were to ask how do you intend to heat your home this year and the options were electric baseboard, oil, gas, heat pump, pellet stove, wood stove, and kerosene, could someone pick oil and pellet stove?

he,he. didn't name names.but if the shoe fits....

it sure ain't us.we don't have a "big" anything.

sooooo..... vacavaliers, didja' go shopping yet?

Or didja' just use us and abuse us?

What brands of pellet stoves does everyone have? Ours needs to be replaced and I'm researching the different manufactures.

I have a 7 year old EnviroFire. It's been reliable and only had to have it serviced once.

Here's a nice little FAQ about pellets and stoves:

http://hearth.com/what/pellet/pellet1.html

Yossarian - Thanks. I've already read that one and it doesn't rate the different brands. I've found that Harman and Whitfield are popular brands.

We have a Harman .We got it out at Mace's in Ringgold last year. it's our main sourse of heat and it does great. They know their stuff out at maces.especially the older gentleman(i'm guessing the dad?).We set it on thermostat and fill the hopper and when the temp drops in the house it comes right on and keeps it at 70 and then when the rooms heat up from the Sun it shuts off. LOVE IT!!

Which model is it?

I also have a Harmon, it came with the house,
so I don't know where it was purchased.
I tried to read the model and the way it is positioned,
I need to get a better set of eyes or eye glasses.
it looked like it said "Advance"

I love it, heats the area so quickly!!

P61A2-model

Thanks for the information everyone. Based on what I've read, we were leaning towards the Harman.

We ended up buying one today. No much of choice not to. They're all sold out and the next shipment stores are getting in will be January. We ended up with the Harman P61A. The only other one they had available is the Harman Accentra and the BTU's is too low on that one. Not too sure about the color; its red There were three other couples trying to decide on pellet stoves and/or coal stoves and if we didn't take it, one of the other couples would have. The stove store said you can paint them, so if the red doesn't work, I'll research painting it.

Naw! Be daring and wild and a rebel! Leave it Red! Or do you live in one of those sterile model homes?

Definitely not a sterile model home The majority of our downstairs is open; the rooms are not divided by walls. The dinning room has a dark green color theme and the living room has a red/blue color theme. The stove is in the living room just before the dinning room. Now that we have it on the platform and the all the bubble wrap removed, I think its going to work.