Pellet Stove review?

[Ken45101]

Haven't had the jams or equipment failures. However, we don't really like pellet heat and consider it a major mistake. I have sat five feet away from the pellet stove and been chilled by the draft. We heat primarily with wood, the pellet stove is only used for mild nights when its too warm for the wood stove.

Harman may have a good reputation but their Advance stove is a major bear to clean. Needs disassembly and very difficult to get to . I know one guy who sold his Harman Advance and bought a different Harman that was easier to clean.

Another problem with Harman is that you are stuck with your dealer. Our dealer did a poor installation (ignored the Harman instructions) and will not come back for warranty issues. Harman's only response was "call the dealer". Harman has protected sales territory and there are no other dealers around.

Another issue is that pellet quality has declined and prices have gone up. It's hard to find good quality pellets.

If we were doing it over again, I would not buy a pellet stove. An unvented gas (propane) stove is more efficient and much better in our experience (we had one in a different house and my son currently heats with an unvented propane fireplace.)

 

[Car Doc]

I have never had any jambs either with ours we run a bag a day on low or medium cant remember its been a few years since we fired it up but that's pretty cheap heat even as a supplement.

We found a mix of 25-30% corn with wood pellets makes a world of difference in output. With just straight corn in ours will run us out of the house so we came up with the mix idea and that way we can run the stove on a low setting and it will stay lit. Straight corn has to be run at almost full throttle to stay lit and makes waaaay to much heat for our size living room. And thats what that stove is meant to do is heat just the one end of the house where the bedrooms are at fwtw.

When I get to where I see a lot of ash on the fire board backstop I take a poker and bang around the inside of the stove with the clean outs opened and that usually puts the fire out but a spoon full of kerosene soaked pellets and a lighter get her back going. I will occasionally shut it down and brush the ash off the heat exchanger tubing but banging on them with a poker gets 90% of it.

That's about all the maintenance besides pulling the ash drawer and dumping it in a metal 5 gal can outside. Speaking of the kero soaked pellets fwtw its a easy way to start a manual ignition stove like ours. Just fill a coffee can full of pellets and add kero and use about a 1/4 cup in the fire box lit and wait a few minutes with the door cracked then turn it on away you go works for us. :thumbsup:

 

[fordmantpw]

Haven't had the jams or equipment failures. However, we don't really like pellet heat and consider it a major mistake. I have sat five feet away from the pellet stove and been chilled by the draft. We heat primarily with wood, the pellet stove is only used for mild nights when its too warm for the wood stove.

Harman may have a good reputation but their Advance stove is a major bear to clean. Needs disassembly and very difficult to get to . I know one guy who sold his Harman Advance and bought a different Harman that was easier to clean.

Another problem with Harman is that you are stuck with your dealer. Our dealer did a poor installation (ignored the Harman instructions) and will not come back for warranty issues. Harman's only response was "call the dealer". Harman has protected sales territory and there are no other dealers around.

Another issue is that pellet quality has declined and prices have gone up. It's hard to find good quality pellets.

If we were doing it over again, I would not buy a pellet stove. An unvented gas (propane) stove is more efficient and much better in our experience (we had one in a different house and my son currently heats with an unvented propane fireplace.)

Our pellet stove will flat run you out of the room if you crank it up. When we first got it, we wanted to see what she'd do, so we cranked it up. I turned it down when it reached 88 degrees in the room, and it was in the 20's outside. The only time our stove will cool you is when you've got the blower turned up and the stove isn't up to operating temp yet. Otherwise, it's nice, warm heat.

We toyed with the idea of an unvented propane stove, but I just don't like the thought of burning propane, and then running the exhaust straight into the house. It just doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do. Plus, it's a LOT more expensive to burn propane than it is to burn pellets.

 

[Car Doc]

I have worked in shops where they use un-vented radiant gas heaters and I hated it. Everything in the shop was moist all the time and the smell will drive you nuts. my .002

 

[fordmantpw]

I have worked in shops where they use un-vented radiant gas heaters and I hated it. Everything in the shop was moist all the time and the smell will drive you nuts. my .002

Yep! In the stove store (for lack of a better name ), when they fired up the unvented gas stove, you could smell it instantly, and I hated it. My wife, who is very sensitive to smells, hated it even more than I did.

 

[Beltman60]

I bought a US stove from TSC 2 years ago and it replaced a wood burner
I couldn't be happier
holds 120 lbs of pellets
have never had any problems with my auger getting clogged
cost was $1000 less my 20% off coupon $250 for the exhaust kit
I use about 1 1/2 tons of pellets and is far easier and cleaner than my wood burner was

My wife and daughter hate when it warms up outside and the heat pump gets turned back on and the thermostat is set on 68
The stove makes it so much warmer though-out the house (only place cooler in the house is the basement)

I also find it easier to carry a couple of 40 lb bags in every 2-3 days instead of half a cord of wood that needs constant attension

Mine does not have a thermostat just 1-5 settings
We use it mostly on 1-3 setting and have never had it on 5
If my daughter comes home from school and its a little cool she just bumps it up one setting and within min it has those rooms in the house up (wouldn't want my little girl messing with a wood burner that needed lit)

 

[Car Doc]

I like my wood burning fireplace insert a lot also it heats the other end of my house opposite the pellet stove but you seem to bring in all sorts of bugs with fire wood. Then they un-hibernate and fly or crawl around the living room which makes pellets a bit more house friendly. My cats can hear them gnawing inside the wood and will sit by the wood pile for hours waiting its pretty funny.

I wish we could by pellets in bulk where a person could fill a grain bin on wheels and just fill 5 gal buckets to bring in the house. A bucket is a lot easier to wag around than a sack imo that's how we bring in corn anyway but pellets would be nice that way also.

 

[toyotadriver]

I have one of those Englander pellet stoves and I really like it. Mine is 5 years old. I've never had to repair anything on it. We don't use it for primary heat but use it to supplement the heat pump when the outside temps really drop. We usually turn the pellet stove on when the temps drop to about We usually use about 1/2 - 3/4 ton of pellets per winter.

The Englander stove isn't the quietest stove on the market but it's not bad.

I've had one jam out of it in 5 years. I poured in the pellets carelessly and they somehow managed to hang up before hitting the auger. I dug my hand through the pellets and they started working fine. Only jam I ever had with it.

You have to clean it out every 3-5 days. Every 1.5 days you need to scoop the excess ashes out of the burn chamber and dump them to the side to allow the stove to burn well. You'll know when you need to by watching the flame in the window. Only takes about 30 seconds to do it.

About 2 times per burn season (more if you use more pellets) you'll have to chip out the burn deposits inside the auger. Screw driver and a small hammer will take care of it. Takes a couple minutes to do.

All in all, the Englander stoves are a great value for the money. You'll like this stove IMO.

If you have a specific question about this stove, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer it. A lot of people here are posting useful info on pellet stoves but nothing about this particular stove. I actually have this stove in my house and can answer this brand specific questions if you have them.

Here's mine.

 

[Tollster]

I left my woodstove about 8 years ago and went with a Harmon P-61 and never looked back. I'm busy and don't have time to haul, cut, and stack wood. Install was easy since I had an 8" flue, it was the only time I ever went to the dealer. I get 5 tons a year, empty ashes once every 5 weeks, and clean the stove once a year in the spring.
No more mess from wood in the house and a consistent heat source from late September to late April.

 

[Ken45101]

Plus, it's a LOT more expensive to burn propane than it is to burn pellets.

When you take stove efficiency into account, pellets and propane cost about the same. Add to that the higher initial cost and work involved with a pellet stove, I probably will not buy any more pellets when our current supply is gone.