Tonyray
Minister of Fire
Hardwoods here are at HD's and most box stores are mid 200's..the better stuff at dealers are more of course.
How many quit their pellet stove?
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OP here. I wasn't trying to talk anybody out of what's working for them, My shop isn't huge, 1050 sq ft and not an easy building to heat. It's a prefab steel structure with 3, 8x10 roll up doors, impossible to seal them as well as traditional overhead doors. I spray foamed the ceiling 5" thick and filled the 2' wall cavities with high density foam, but it's still lacking compared to a stick built structure with 4 or 6 inch studs. The Breckwell Big E is rated at 50K btu's, I doubt it's putting that much out, and there's almost zero radiant heat. I miss that from the wood stoves I've run in the past. I have a 35K torpedo heater that seems more effective. I don't think I'll switch to cord wood though. The safety of the pellet stove is hard to argue against, leaving it on for the night unattended never causes me to give it a second thought. I may enclose the stove into a smaller area to hang out in, and use the torpedo heater to warm the larger area for projects out there. If energy prices stabilize in the next couple years, I may hang a Reznor style propane unit in the future. I heat our living space with a mini split and a Jotul propane stove, but I only need to buy about 300-400 gal season to get through the winter.
I started with wood about 20 years ago, worked great if I was home to tend it but wasn't fun to come home after a 12 hour shift and temp is in the 50s inside. Went to pellet/corn stove in 2005 and for the house, managed to keep a USSC 6041 working for 5 years and when I moved put in an American Energy Systems Magnum Countryside that's been working great for the last 11 years. Still use a wood stove to heat the shop, plenty of free wood around and keeping it fed all day ain't that big a hassle.
That is a good reason. Just to let you know, there are plenty of stoves now with burn times of around 12 hrs or longer. (Not that it's smart to waste the investment you have running well for you now.)
Lots of outdated woodstove myths out there keeping people from making accurate comparisons or informed decisions. For example, my woodstove is epa tested at over 80% efficiency. Burn times over 24 hours on softwood. Dead silent.
Sure. But there are valid cases where a pellet stove can be the most suitable solution.
I have a wood furnace new and efficient it will burn 28 hour on a full load of
hardwood but it only will heat the main part of my home for 8 hours after
that the temp in the house goes down So the heat is up and down, up and down
My pellet stove on the other hand heats the 3 rooms I wanted it to heat
and keep the temperature at 72 as long as there are pellets in the hopper to burn
I use both wood and wood pellets why because I have all kinds of free wood to heat my home
and I like the pellets for the constant heat it puts out in the part of the house that has no other
heat source.
Well yes of course. That’s the comparison part. Comes down to garbage in garbage out.
bogieb
Minister of Fire
Just ordered 6 tons from HD since they have them on sale (178/ton if getting 3 tons). Even with delivery charges, <$4/bag. Delivery is next Friday as long as my road agent okays it since all roads in my town are posted at 6 ton limit.
Have you used those particular pellets before? I ask because when I got my first pellet stove 14 years ago I bought 4-5 bags each of several different brands. My experience then was that big box store pellets and even one brand that a local building supply still sells to this day were not the greatest. It seemed that brands were always subject to change and quality.
The last several years I got Granules LG from Canada from my dealer. $285/ton. Pretty good luck with them. This year I went with Dry Creek premium from that local building supply place. $289/ton. One ton at first but liked them enough to buy a second one.
I keep an eye out on forums just to see what other people's luck was with different products whether it's pellets or aftermarket truck accessories.
Mt Bob
Minister of Fire
She knows, and has been burning a long time, and has experimented with many pellets.
I wasn't questioning anyone's experience. I guess my question was more how do you know what's going to work well from a place like HD when the brands & quality seem to be subject to change fairly often? Especially buying 6 tons at once. Unless of course she's buying a brand from them that she's currently using or has used before. The post doesn't really specify.
I haven't seen big boxes carry the same brand year in and year out.
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
Our HD's carry same brand yr after yr. For 8 yrs it was stove chows. Now its Lignetics owned Green Supremes.. always guaranteed high ash middle grade hardwoods. Its why i stick to private dealers. Better quality and more choices
That's kind of the answer I was looking for. I haven't purchased from HD in many years. But it seemed at the time local HD & Lowe's brands changed from year to year and it was hard to tell what you might be getting. I seem to recall getting some at Lowe's or HD that were pretty darned good and then another time from the same store not so great.
Its also why I've stuck to the dealer where I got my stove for the most part, until I tried some from a local lumber company this year.
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
Our few lowe's box stores will mix it a bit.. meaning different brands come in but, always 1 brand at anytime
same with Tractor supply.. Walmart always sold crappy Penningtons.
still same as HD in quality... lowest BTU pellets but, at 250.00 price, most think it's bargain.
I pay bit more for good softwoods so the bargain price means nothing..[ although it did as a newbie 8 yrs go].
bogieb
Minister of Fire
Yes I have. They are GS Northeast blend (hw/sw). No, they aren't the greatest, but they aren't the worst. I usually get MWP's from the local TSC, so I'm used to burning middling pellets and my stoves have no issues with them. My P61 actually runs better with middling pellets (special circumstances that has nothing to do with the stove or setup itself). The P43 doesn't care what pellets I put in it either - but it gets to munch on the better pellets when I find them on CL.
bogieb
Minister of Fire
My spreadsheet says I've burned at least 36 different brands/names over the years.
Thanks. In my 14 years I've seen low budget pellets from Lowe's or HD that actually burned pretty good. But the next time I went to buy more the brand had changed. So I'd try 4-5 bags and didn't care for the new brand.
I've also seen costlier pellets that weren't all that great. At least in my stove they weren't. That's why I stuck with the brand that my stove dealer sells for several years up until currently. I knew they were good so I just paid the $289 and went with it.
The Dry Creek that I currently have on hand were as good as the stove dealer's Granules LG, but they also cost the same. The Dry Creek seller is a local lumber company and would deliver them for $15. So I chose them this year for the initial ton. Better than me hooking up a trailer and making a 20 mile round trip. Bought a second ton a couple of weeks ago.
This heating season is nearly over. Not sure what next year's plan will be but I'll probably stock up much sooner this year with the unstable fuel prices.
Mt Bob
Minister of Fire
Fuel prices are not unstable, they reflect expenses and the market.
High energy prices were predicted almost a year ago, along with inflation, high fuel prices, and interest rates.
High energy prices were predicted almost a year ago, along with inflation, high fuel prices, and interest rates.
Gasoline up 40 cents or more in 3 days is unstable in my opinion. Regardless, I’m not here to debate the economy with you. Troll someone else.
Mt Bob
Minister of Fire
Not quitting my stove anytime soon...$4.59 for heating oil per gallon, at the peak we were at $5.65, I just bought 4 tons of Green Supreme Allegheny's for next year... I offloaded all and stacked to weed out any wet bags and had HD swap them out. They cost me $179 a ton and I'll put up with a bit more ash to save 60%+ compared to my normal brands(Wood & Sons, Matra, Turman). My stove isn't picky in what it burns, seems like anything that has gone in there has burned fine. I have started to burn the green supremes and save the leftover wood and sons(2 tons) for the bitter cold season next year as they allow me to go 4 weeks without cleaning. I have to say for HD pellets the Allegheny hardwood Green supremes aren't terrible in ash output and seem to burn hot in the 52i.
mikey
Burning Hunk
I was considering ditching the Mini A that is in my family room wing of the ranch due to a 4 day empty and clean schedule, but then I paid up for the douglas fir cleanfires. I have run 5 bags through the stove and the ash box is barely 1/3 full.
Its amazing what cleaner pellets do....You probably could try some thing like Wood and Sons pellets , which are white pine and leave minimal ash as well while also saving some money. When burning those, I can go close to 4 weeks without cleaning my 52i insert burning 24/7 and the ash pan isn't filled at that point. Of course every stove has slightly different characteristics with air/fuel ratios and what pellets work best.
I haven't tried douglas fir yet as they tend to be 100+ more a ton here in CT. I bet if I tried them I'd notice even less ash.
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