Help selecting a pellet stove.

[_RaT_]

Any ideas about brands. This stove is for my sister who is wheelchair bound and could use a easy to use stove to simply heat her master bedroom. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

 

[DaveNay]

First, I would call around to your local retailers. I have been looking for a corn stove for the last couple weeks, and they are sold out. I talked to retailers as far away as Oklahoma, and the word is that corn and pellet stoves from all manuafacturers are sold out until about March 2006. If you can find one, then I would snap it up quick.

edit:

Oh yeah....I have been looking at Harman Stoves, they appear the be a high quality unit.

Dave

 

[_RaT_]

Thanks Dave, the Harman was the first and only one I looked at on the internet when I decided to just post at TBN to get some input from you guys.

 

[Highbeam]

Those puppies put out some serious heat. I would be careful not to get too much heater for the room and I worry that it will be hard to find a miniature pellet stove. They are great devices and only second to gas for ease of operation in a stove type heat source.

I just picture her being cooked out. Or the stove turning on and off all the time if it is on a thermostat.

 

[x585guy]

I have a Harman P68 wood pellet stove. Its located in our dinning room. It generates 68000 BTU's at full heat blast. Its an awesome stove. We have had the stove for almost a year now. It use to be in the basement but had it relocated to current location because in order to get the 1st floor warmed up to 70 degrees the basement had to get to a temp of approx. 80 degrees. We also went through about 60lbs of pellets per day. Now I fill the 76lb hopper that is attached to the stove once every four days. The first floor stays at a comfy 69 degrees. We usually like the room temp somewhere in that temp range. The stove itself is fully auutomatic. Fill the hopper and set the temp at the controll panel that is on the side of stove and leave it. It fires up itself and heats to the specicfied temp and then slowly dies down then eventually shuts off. There is no starting gels to light the fire. There is a heating element inside just like a electric kitchen stove. Yes it does uses electricity, but it doesn't cause your electric to spike like AC's do in the summer. The Harman Stove Co. offers one of the best warranties in the industry. If I remember correctly, they offer 6 yrs on the electrical system to include the ignition system and 3 years on the rest of the stove. One other thing, it also has a manual setting feature where you can set it to burn so many pounds of pellets per hour. Good luck with your decision! P.S. My oil consuption has went down ALOT!!! Russ

 

[Dozernut]

We have a Harman P61-2 pellet stove and really like it. The stove is fully automatic, you set the temperature you desire and the stove will cycle on and off by it's self. Pellet usage depends on the ambient temperature, our winters can be mild or quite severe, so I can not give a standard on pellet usage, but never use over four tons. I buy my pellets by the ton through the summer and by the time winter is here my winter heating bill is already paid for.
The pellets are not as labor intensive as wood nor as dirty, but do require a little maintenance. You have to scrape the carbon deposits out of the burn chamber periodically and in the burn chamber there is a removable, thick, cast iron, butterfly shaped, piece that protects the sensors for the thermostat. You must remove this and use a shop vac to remove the ash that accumulates there or the ash acts like an insulator and the stove will not cycle on and off properly. This is usually only done once a year and is not hard, just a little dirty. Ashes must be cleaned out like a wood stove but with far less frequency and amounts. It is not a set and forget stove like propane but it is far better than a wood stove. With a little help with the pellets I think your sister would get along fine with the pellet stove.

 

[DaveNay]

Rat, one other thing. All of the manufacturers explcitly state in large letters on the first page of the users manual that the stoves are not to be installed in sleeping areas.

Something to consider for your (or your sisters) uses.

Dave

 

[_RaT_]

Thanks, I did not know that, a good thing to know.

 

[ByronBob]

I heat my house with a pellet stove and it is set on the lowest setting possible for the auger and my house is 71 degrees right now. It's 2400 sq ft

You can't put this in her room she'd die of heat stroke.

 

[LMTC]

Actually this question is for anyone with a pellet stove...though I am seriously inclined toward Harman. We suffer frequent (as in 30-40 per year) electric outages. Typically 2-4 hours, sometimes worse. Don't have a genset yet...that is on the wish list below a pellet stove. Any idea how much 12V reserve capacity would be needed, with an inverter, to operate a pellet stove for, oh, say 12-24 hours? Does anyone think 2-3 fully charged Group 27 (675CCA, 160 reservce capacity) batteries might do it?