# Financing a pellet stove



## jryan10 (Jan 18, 2007)

Does anyone know of a retailer in the Northeast who offes financing on a pellet stove? We just bought a home and the 65 year old furnace up and died. We would like to replace with a pellet stove, but aren't in the position to outright buy one right now.


----------



## Jay H (Jan 18, 2007)

Northeast is a pretty wide area, I think you should probably narrow your geography down a bit... 

Jay


----------



## MountainStoveGuy (Jan 18, 2007)

first you need to decide what stove you want, dont let the finacing come first. In other words, just because a dealer offeres financing, that doenst make your decision on what brand to buy.  So once you figure out what you want, start calling dealers in your area and just ask. Do not buy out of your service area.


----------



## jryan10 (Jan 18, 2007)

Jay, I'm in Central CT. I figured I would travel to buy... didn't realize the improtance of purchasing within our service area. 

I am looking at Whitfield, Lennox, and Harman. Any preferences, folks?


----------



## MountainStoveGuy (Jan 18, 2007)

From that list, only Harmon is worth buying at the moment. 
Read up on some pellet stove threads around here, you will soon see the importance of buying from a local, servicing dealer.


----------



## Shane (Jan 18, 2007)

Whitfield & Lennox are the same.  stay away from them.  Harman makes fine stoves.  One word of advice that i would give you (and others will disagree) Don't count on the pellet stove as your soul source of heat.  You need a backup (furnace baseboards whatever)  A pellet stove will work 90% of the time but when your waiting for your dealerto show up the next day (if you're very lucky) to replace a component you'll be mighty cold without some source of heat.


----------



## MountainStoveGuy (Jan 18, 2007)

Shane said:
			
		

> Whitfield & Lennox are the same.  stay away from them.  Harman makes fine stoves.  One word of advice that i would give you (and others will disagree) Don't count on the pellet stove as your soul source of heat.  You need a backup (furnace baseboards whatever)  A pellet stove will work 90% of the time but when your waiting for your dealerto show up the next day (if you're very lucky) to replace a component you'll be mighty cold without some source of heat.



I COMPLETLY agree. These stoves are not reliable enough for stand alone heat. You have to have back up heat, no option.


----------



## jryan10 (Jan 18, 2007)

Great advice, thank you! Whitfield/ Lennox are off the list. What other brands would you reccomend? How about Dell-Point, any good?


----------



## MountainStoveGuy (Jan 18, 2007)

im sure others will speak up, but the only ones im realy familer with are quadrafire. There worth looking at.


----------



## Shane (Jan 18, 2007)

Lopi, Avalon, Enviro, Quadrafire, Harman, Magnum, Thelin all are good stoves.  I've heard that the Dellpoint is a fine stove but very user involved as far as operation.  If your looking for more of a set & forget type of unit then I'd look at some others.


----------



## webbie (Jan 18, 2007)

Pellets are great as a renewable fuel, but if your bank account is not flush you may be better investing your $$ in a replacement furnace. Spending 4 grand on a Pellet stove and then spending more for your pellet fuel than oil or gas does not seem like a Suze Orman move.

Not trying to talk you out of anything, just don't want to see you go into debt for what is...in most cases, a luxury and recreational appliance.

Have you gotten a price on replacing your furnace?


----------



## CrazyAboutOrchids (Jan 18, 2007)

I am in CT as well. I had to replace our furnace this fall. A few words of advice - take them or leave them. 

Our furnace replacement, including a more energy efficient variable speed motor, a new water efficient whole house humidifier and an upgraded 4" pleated April-Aire filter ran about 1000.00 less than my wood burning insert and its installation. Go for the furnace.

When you do replace it, shop around, get a few quotes. Don't buy into the 'we do this all the time and we know what size furnace you need' line of baloney. Make them do a Manual J on your home. You will get a quote that shows the exact BTUs you need for heating and whatever cooling needs you may have. I had 6 folks come into my home. I have a 25+ yr old 2500 square foot home with an oil forced hot air heating system. I made friends with the folks over at HVAC-talk.com and read, read, read enough to educate myself enough to be a pain in the butt to the men who came into my house. My previous system was a 113,000 BTU furnace. I had quotes from the 90K btu furnace that was installed all the way up to a 150K btu furnace . Even my oil company who I dealt with for 8 years over sized my furnace quote. If you know anything about furnaces, oversizing is worse than undersizing as it will lead to a huge waste of oil which the oil companies will gladly turn around and sell you. 

The furnace I had installed was a ThermoPride oil furnace. It is a rock solid furnace if you are looking for an oil burning one, best option in the oil burning world. We were able to get by with a medium output nozzle once it was installed and tested which gives 72,000 BTUS of heat. That means that the largest furnace estimate I received at 150K btus was grossly, grossly oversized for my home. The folks that did my install hesitated not a single bit when I asked them for the manual-j and they were the only company that didn't give me grief over asking for it. Some men truly take offense over a woman questioning their sage advice! The manual J also proved that the company I went with for my install were the only ones who sized the furnace in their estimate correctly.

The manual J measures doors, walls, windows, takes into account insulation, attics, location, where your ducts are and how many you have. INSIST on a manual J - biggest word of advice I can give. 

My house is warmer, more even, and I am running MUCH less oil than I have in the 8 years I have lived here, yes we have had mild weather, but I have had one oil delivery of 162 gallons where my neighbors have had 3 or 4 fill ups so far, even with the mild weather.

One other word of advice, don't skimp on the furnace. The previous homeowners installed a cheapo furnace, it had a hot spot on the heat exchanger within the first few years. We've known since the first cleaning that we were going to have to replace it. It lasted us for 8 years, but we probably over burned a ton of oil in that time. If I knew then what I know now about furnaces, I would have replaced it sooner and saved not only on electricity, but on oil as well.


----------



## jryan10 (Jan 19, 2007)

I was trying to avoid replacing the furnace because there is asbestos in piping in the basement that must first be removed should we go in that direction. We received 5 quotes to remove the asbestos, and the cheapest was $2700. So that needs to be factored into the cost of the replacement furnace.


----------



## jryan10 (Jan 19, 2007)

SANDY, thank you so much for your furnace advice. VERY useful!


----------



## The Patriot (Jan 19, 2007)

Trot,

Keep in mind, if you do decide to buy a Harman that your dealer options are limited.  You can't go to a dealerthat's 100 miles away from you just because they offer financing.  Dealers have specific areas which they can sell to.  Go to Harman's site and do a dealer search for your area.  Then call these dealers to see if they offer financing.

If not, I'd look into a Home Equity loan if possible.


----------

