I am seeing a ton of pellet stoves for sale, I don't get it.

[Don2222]

Hello

After the ice storm 2 winters ago around here, there was a real abundance of fire wood. I asked the stove dealers and they said they were selling more wood stoves than anything else! Even in more rural areas wood is cheaper and labor is cheaper so wood stoves are still selling. Also in larger cities where people are lucky to have Natural Gas, that is still the cheapest.

I am in a larger town and pellets are definitely the cheapest way to go by far! However I find that some people install them in a corner and it does not heat the whole house. So they see them only as a space heater that can be too hot at times. I have mine in the middle of the basement front to back as well as left to right and it really does heat the whole house! So for me with the big 3 box stores handy and competing for the lowest price, pellets rule and my oil thermostats have been turned off!

 

[rehabbingisgreen]

I'm not so sure I'd consider not wanting to do more than turn a dial for heat lazy... I still dream of the days gone by that we had forced air natural gas heat and I'd get up in the morning and turn the dail just a bit and yeah the warm air was like magic.

In our house the pellet stove is pretty much my deal. I clean it, fill it, start it. We both will do the yearly cleaning and the kids do bring in the bags for me. Right now we have only pellet heat. Winter came fast and we had to get something put together here or freeze.

I also kept the woodstove going before we moved here and we had wood heat only for about 6 years. We used to get our own wood and that was fine till the last day we ran into a hornet nest and that was it for me. I decided buying wood was easier than fighting off natures little creatures.

Now I like the pellet stove fine until the outdoors reaches around 30 or below and then this little guy has a harder time heating our house.

My biggest issue though of all is the same as when we had the wood stove. I feel tied to the house. I'd like to take a weekend or a week and go on a trip or visit family and I just can't do that and leave the house in the winter. LOL and if I leave the kids to tend it, the stress is more than it's worth to go!

We bought ours used. The family had lost their home and took it with them but were renting and no longer were going to use it.

 

[BillM2]

I just bought a pellet stove to supplement my aging oil burner. The stove cost around a grand from Lowe's, venting and supplies another $250 or so. Lowe's delivered the stove with a ton of pellets for $60. A friend and I installed it. My total cost is around 2 1/2, 275 tank fulls of dino. I'll still use oil for domestic hot water and to heat the house which is just over 100 years old. I think I'll save money and be able to pay off in less than two seasons. The pellets are a no brainer since I am used to using a fireplace insert. Logs are way more difficult plus the cleaning too is a bit of a chore. The reason I'm writing this is I looked at a couple of used units on CL and decided against them. Mostly because of the tax credit that expires in a few days. Thirty percent off costs (stove, vents, supplies, install). What people were asking for their old units with no warranty, etc, didn't make any sense dollar wise. Though if a seller took a third of initial cost, then it may have been worth the gamble.

 

[johnnycomelately]

Keep in mind that many of these people who have used stoves for sale are people who took advantage of the Income Tax Credit on the purchase of a new stove. Therefore, people with new stoves are trying to sell their old stoves as well. Just a theory.

 

[BillM2]

That too. So, I guess offer 20% off brand new warrantied retail would make the deal work!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

There are also a lot of folks that have or are losing their houses. They will sell a good number of personal property items before vacating.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I bought mine when I panicked after Obama's speeches about Cap and Trade and his promises to 'substantially increase' all energy costs. While it got shot down for now, it is inevitable that electric rates will go way up as they kill our main energy source, coal. I also bought them because I got the s*(ts of cutting, splitting, stacking, unstacking, hauling and debugging firewood after 35 years. On the first point, some people might have done the same thing and now in a short-sighted state of euphoria over Cap and Trade being killed, they don't want the bother.