We'll soon be closing on a 120 year old house and buying a pellet stove will be the very first thing we do to supplement the existing oil furnace and wood stove. This will be our first pellet stove so we're not sure what to look for. For those with experience using them, what do you recommend?
It would have to be rated for a minimum of about 2000 square feet. Flue pipe already in place so needs to be standalone. Bonus points for rustic styling to match the decor.
I have a QuadraFire Castile. Very nice traditional styling.
It has a remote programmable thermostat which is great. Set and forget. It also has a battery backup so it can run off a 12v car or boat battery during outages. Great feature.
I’ve had it for 8 years, and it works flawlessly. Makes less than 5 gallons of ash for every ton of pellets burned. When it’s hot and burning, there’s no visible smoke from the chimney and no smoke odor at all. Kind of amazing really.
We saw those when looking online and thought they looked good. Great to get someone's first-hand account though. Thanks!
Harman may be the best brand on the market.
Some hearth stores, tho, discourage customers from buying pellet. They recommend gas or wood (again, Harman is the favored brand) b/c no electricity is needed, but my gas uses a fan. Powered by electricity, naturally.
I've only heard good things about Harman. Will definitely keep an eye out for those.
Hearth doctor might have some recommendations
How long does a Quadra-Fire pellet stove last? When burned in a high efficiency pellet stove, a 40-lb bag of pellets can provide about 24 hours of steady heat for 1500 square feet of living space.
Is this Google answer true or false? @ 6-7$ per bag x 1 month = less than 300$ a month...not bad at all!
We have one of those big ol' Kings they sell at Tractor Supply. 120 pound hopper so it'll easily take 3 bags at one shot.
Be aware that 'rated for 2000 feet' will not mean that 2000 feet will be evenly heated. You'll be tolerable at the extremities and roasting the closer you get to the stove itself. You'll want to factor in some method of air flow to draw that heat away from the stove and into the far depths of your house.
I haven't installed one yet (I should) but if you're living in Maine a backup generator for the house is generally a good idea anyway.
> a 40-lb bag of pellets can provide about 24 hours of steady heat for 1500 square feet of living space.
That’s a very arbitrary calculation. It depends on how cold it is outside, where you set the thermostat, how well your house is insulated, etc.
I have a Harman that I've been pleased with over the 8 years I've owned my house. I believe the stove is 15 years old, and it heats my 1600 sq ft craftsman fairly well. We use the forced hot air/oil furnace as a secondary heat source of the thermostat dips below 62 degrees with the pellet stove running. The furnace usually only kicks on during those bitter cold January and February days.
One thing I recommend doing is becoming very familiar with whatever stove you buy so that you can troubleshoot and make repairs yourself. I'm not very mechanically inclined, but read forums and watched YouTube videos so that I could change out worn out parts and perform deep cleanings and maintenance of my stove. It's saved me a bunch of money over the years.
Very helpful and good advice! Will definitely do plenty of research on whatever we end up with. Harman is definitely at the top of my list right near PelPro.
One caveat that I'll make is that my Harman is an insert, meaning it replaced an old wood fire place in the house. The chimney runs up the middle of the house, and the radiant heat from the chimney helps to heat the upstairs, so I can't speak to how well a standing pellet stove would heat an upstairs area. I know one poster said that it was a bit of an issue for them.
Yeah that's true. I'm sure it likely won't be quite up to par for those frigid days but as long as it keeps the oil furnace off for the majority of the winter, I'm happy, lol.
While I'm at it, I'll give a shout out to the Wood Pellet Warehouse in Jay for pellet delivery. I ordered from them this year after numerous frustrating deliveries from a local place over the years and Pellet Warehouse was great. They deliver all over the state and have great options for pellets. It ended up being $75 cheaper to have three tons delivered to my door than it was from my local place about a mile and a half from my house. The pellets were all in great condition, too.
I think you'd have trouble staying comfortable using only 1 bag per 24 hours in the middle of winter in Maine. But it depends a LOT on the insulation of the house and personal preference. (Also most houses are bigger than 1500 sf.)
The Englander works well for me. It has an auger so you just need to dump pellets in periodically.
I agree. A friend of mine alternates between using his pellet stove for primary and secondary heat...he also uses three fans to help circulate the heat throughout his home.
I tried this and got nowhere. Pellet stoves are really just big space heaters, you’d be much better off putting one on each level you’re trying to heat.
We have a harmon 63 and love, love, love it. We had a Quadra fire insert for years, but we had to replace just about every part over the past 6 years (it was an old stove when it came with our newish house, might not be typical), got tired of dealing with it and bought this one last year when they were offering tax credits. Its like night and day. It basically heats our whole 2200 sqfoot cape house. Our house is pretty well insulted, this might not be typical. We have learned over the years to pay for the good pellets like "wood and sons". Cheap pellets seemed to gum up our old quadrafire for whatever reason, and you get much less ash with the good stuff, seems to burn longer per bag, too. Good luck on the new home!
Second vote for pelpro pp130
Great efficiency and hopper size
Thank you! Looks like we made the right decision because since posting this we actually went with the Harmon absolute 43, which I think is the smaller version of yours. Our new place is smaller than yours so hopefully it works out well!
I think you will be very pleased with it. Harmons are top of the line. As others wrote, if you want it to evenly heat the entire house with just the stove, second floor included, you might need to get a little fan at the bottom of the stairs to blow the hot air upwards, or open the floors up with some vents to the upper floors. We like to sleep cold, so the second floor being 66 while the bottom floor is 72 doesn't bug us so we don't bother with either. Have a toasty winter!
Totally agree. We decided to spend more now so we save in the long run. This new place does have some vents for airflow here and there but time will tell how well they work, lol. Stay warm!
Donutannoyme t1_iwrvhex wrote
We have a Harman p43. The heat doesn’t go upstairs though. We’re looking at cutting holes for grills into the floor.