pellet stoves

[jerry]

any info ? any one got one ?

[hydrostreamvking4m]

Jerry
Best move ive ever made..The heck with wood any more..A trip out for 50 bags and home in a hour works nice with me.

[inspectorlance]

Pellet stoves are great. There are a few things you need to know about them. They do require cleaning about once a week. Pretty easy to do with a shop vac. There are 4 main componants that fail over time. Each componant costs about $250. Circuit board, air circulation fan, combustion air fan, and auger motor. They are pretty easy to replace with some basic skills. There is also the ignitor, but its cheap.
Be carefull with used units. Some units you can not get parts for. If buying used make sure it is a current model that you can get parts for. A used unit may have a few break downs that cost you more than expected. New or a low hour unit is my recommendation. A Lopi is a great unit, but you have to buy your parts direct from them at a premium. I would recommend researching low cost replacement parts availability for any unit I was considering buying.
The big brand name units will have better burn comtrol and be quieter.
Caution: Operation of stove is not recommend by small yellow dog ! Severe Injury and burning of nylon / polyester exterior may occur !

Hope this helps.

[RB in NM]

Thye are super efficient and very clean burning. I was amazed at the first one I had seen up close and in operation many years ago in New Mexico. Seemed small for its' area to heat, but once unit was warmed up, it really generated more than enough heat even on the slow setting. They are apporved in Albq, N.M. for the 'no burn' nights , as they burn so clean.
RB

[inspectorlance]

Another thing to keep in mind. A pellet stove produced convection heat a wood stove produces radiant heat. A pellet stove basicly is like a large forced air heat register. You do not get the nice radiant heat like a wood stove. A pellet stove will also light up the whole room. The flame is very bright and intense. My pellet stove can run for 40 hours on low from one bag of pellets.

[hydrostreamvking4m]

Your lucky..What stove are you using?
We just bought a Forester that holds a 40 lbs bag and on low im getting around 12.mabie 13hrs run time..

[inspectorlance]

Lopi pioneer. It is there smaller stove. The larger sizes can't turn down that low. The benefit to having a smaller one is, it's useful in late spring or early fall when you only need a little heat. Of course you can always connect it to an automatic programable thermostat.

Another thing to consider is to make sure the unit that you buy can draw combustion air from the exterior. This is an important feature.

[stokernick]

guess I'm old fashioned,I prefer cutting,splitting,stacking,and burning wood! definitely low maintainence,clean out every 3 weeks,clean the chimney 2 times a year!!

[inspectorlance]

A wood stove doesn't break. A pellet stove can stop working at any time, and require special parts to repair. Each one has their pro's and con's. I would say that a pellet stove is the best choice for a busy person that can not tend the fire at least a few times per day, or a woman, or older people.

[inspectorlance]

In a power outage a pellet stove can be powered with a car battery and a $30 inverter.

[Superbender]

I'm with stoker nick,seems like a lot can malfunction on a pellet stove,plus I like the wood stove,why dont you just get a coal stove?

[inspectorlance]

How about a wood fired forced air furnace with a hot water coil. That would be labor intensive. Even seen hot water loop coils on wood stoves.

Lots of ways to heat a house.
Once I seen a house that had a brick exterior that would reflect the radiant heat of the sun, then there was a green house like glass structure about 2 ft away from the brick. If you wanted heat in the room, you would open the window. The guy claimed a really low heating bill. Only seen that one once.

[Michael J Giesler]

i still like my old Jenson woodburner that takes 30" logs house hasn't been under 72 deg since dec1 and that's not bad since my house is 90 years old