Wood Pellet Stove.
Anyone use one? Any savings over furnance? Best brand of pellets and where do you get them? Pellet price? Maintanance? Buy from a fireplace store or big box/farm store? Use with T-Stat or manual?
As much info will help!
Thanks, Russell, Allegan, Michigan
Replies
I have seen the pellet stoves in operation ... think of them as ordinary furnaces that let you see the flame!
You need an electric outlet to power the feed auger. Since the auger controls the feed, it's real easy to incorporate a thermostat into the system.
Source out a pellet source. Also look at price changes in the past few years. A cord of wood is probably way cheaper than a ton of pellets. We in the west have had pellet shortages and have seen some dramatic price increases.They make noise (not a big deal but you should hear the one before you buy). They also need to be maintained and need ash clean out. Power is needed (can get battery back up) as mentioned above. Read lots of reviews.
- from Huntdoctor, 11/18/2007
- from Dinosaur, 7/24/2007
- from Skippy, 7/24/2007
- from ttfweb, 10/28/2007
- from Waters, 10/10/2007
- from edlee, 7/20/2007
- from Ray, 5/29/2007
Dear Huntdoctor , We bought a Big E stove for our 3000 sq.ft shop last year. (So.Oregon). We love it. On low setting it burns 1 bag a day 24/7. Clean it about once a week,we use a shop vac that is dedicated to the stove and put it outside with a long hose it works really good.We buy our pellets all at once (5-6 tons) and store them when it gets really cold there always seems to be a shortage (they say they are already maxed out on production this year.)We shop around stove store,Ace,HD. . We ended up buying from HD this year $240. a ton last year it was 220. You want high quality hard wood ,it burns better.
Good Luck
Cathy
Chack to make sure what the supply of pellets is in your area.
couple years back, they were all the rage in some places, then folks found they could not buy pellets enough so the pellet price shot way up....
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Thanks for the info. Will be checking around for stove and pellets. Maybe it won't get cold enough here to have to worry about heat. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks again for the help.
Russell, Allegan, Michigan
I had a pellet stove in a house I owned awhile back in WA. The quality of pellets varies quite a bit. Ask for low ash content. Find out what they are supplying and try different kinds. Some burn hotter and some burn with more ash than others. Also find out of the capacity of the burner - 1 bag, 3 bags, etc. It will give you an idea of how long you can be gone from home. We could only leave for 24 hours due to the size of our stove. Also the heat is generally only in one room and the one next to it. So you have to figure out how the heat is going to circulate around the stove. If the stove comes with a fan that really helps.
I wouldn't have one again. 1000# of pellets delivered over 3 weeks is a pain to store and move around. Luckily the company delivered and stacked them on my porch and I could store them too. But still who wants to look at a big stack of plastic bags on your porch! I got tired of picking up 50# bags of pellets and carrying them into the house and dumping them into the stove every day. I hated being chained to it if we left for a couple of days. I'd have an alternate heat source so you could avoid that.
Just my 2 cents.
Best brand of pellets and where do you get them? Pellet price? Maintanance?
A friend of a friend moved from California, here to Texas. When she came, she brought her pellet stove. That year, a shortage of pellets came about, and the local "Stove and Fireplace" business refused to sell her any pellets because she didn't buy the stove from him...and because he was trying to keep his own customers happy...
Being new to Texas and trying to get settled in a different home, the place where she had stored her stove pellets wasn't pest proof. Mice and rats chewed into the pellet bags and made a rather mess. In view of making the best of what pellets she had, the lady's father-in-law came and offered to clean up the mess... He swept and scooped-up the wood pellets into a dustpan and bucket...complete with the mice and rat pellets...and their dried #### on the piled and scattered wood pellets... It took awhile before everyone could come to consensus as to where the foul odor was coming from and who was going to tell the new Texan....... :>)
Pellet stoves are starting to lose their novelty and charm here in Western Colorado. Several neighbors bought them a couple of years ago, believing the hype that one stove could heat an entire house and save money compared to natural gas or propane. They found that when you factor in the cost of the pellets (about $250/ton), the cost of delivery or gasoline to fetch them, and the hassles of running your own heating plant 24/7, the savings aren't all that great.
The other issue I see (literally) is the increased air pollution on days when we have a temperature inversion. Our county has a voluntary ban on wood burning fireplaces during the Winter months and they typically put it into effect when we have stagnant air. Otherwise the valley becomes a smoke-house for humans. Pellet stoves are exempt from the ban but they still put out quite a bit of smoke and particulates that make this otherwise pristine area look like LA on a bad smog day.
Edited 11/20/2007 12:40 pm ET by TJK