Hello Everyone,
I will be replacing a Jotul F400 with a pellet stove sometime in the near future and wanted some help and opinions on the most reliable (and safe!) pellet stoves. My budget is between $3-5k. Would like it to be on the lower end if possible without sacrificing safety and quality, but willing to dish out extra $$$ if need be. Harman and Quadra-Flame are names I know, but have zero idea where to start. Any recommendations and things to watch out for or options to get would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Fireman
I'm still running my Vermont Castings 2220 stove I installed in 1992. It's no longer made, listed then for like $4,400 as I recall, but I got a killer deal (
50% off) as the retailer wanted to get it gone as they just wanted to sell wood stoves, coal stoves, & inserts.
Way back in the '90s I stored pellets in my basement which meant hauling my own to the door & unloading and restacking myself. Then in early '04 I closed in two open sides of my carport and now I store them out there, dry. It's a shorter walk for a bag with no stairs, plus now I have that 2 or 3 pallets worth of space free in the basement. Now, if getting more than a ton, I let CO-OP deliver and they help unload on the carport. Just something to consider for you.
As to safety, if the door is opened or other leak occurs, the flame dies. If power fails, fans die & the stove will go out in a while ... but if power comes on and stove is still hot with embers hot, it fires up again. There is a fan that pulls air for combustion from a outside inlet through the firebox, the flame is in a vacuum. If I open the door to scrape the grate, etc, the flame dies down until I shut the door, so I turn it off by pressing the stop button so the auger doesn't feed while I scrape, then I just press the green button and away she goes. No smoke in house because of that vacuum.
New stoves have battery backups and some can burn other stuff besides hardwood pellets, but mine likes the Hamer Hot Ones sold as Statesman Premium Hardwood Pellets from a mill over in WVa. I have replaced the flue once completely, it's not cheap gas stove pipe either.
I need to maybe oil my fans though. Simple job. I did have a thermocouple die in the early '90s, and I have replaced the auger motor and it's reduction gear box once (
1/4 RPM), & I have a spare on hand. I'm sure I'll have to replace the stove in total someday. I hear good things of the Harmons (
likely my next one) as well as I once heard good about Whitfield Pellet Stoves.