Looking into pellet stoves.

[DIrtyJersey]

Hello all. I'm a new member here. Thinking of installing a stove. I had a wood stove insert that I sold 2 years back. And I also have a Hearthstone Heritage in the garage. That I pulled out of a house,that I was tearing down due to Hurricane Sandy. I was researching these after a friend of mine asked me about them. Which led me here. Looking for a nice heat output. So fire off on your suggestions on stoves. I will be installing this myself. I'm a mechanical engineer in the HVAC/R field.

Thanks,
John

 

[Harman Lover 007]

Hello all. I'm a new member here. Thinking of installing a stove. I had a wood stove insert that I sold 2 years back. And I also have a Hearthstone Heritage in the garage. That I pulled out of a house,that I was tearing down due to Hurricane Sandy. I was researching these after a friend of mine asked me about them. Which led me here. Looking for a nice heat output. So fire off on your suggestions on stoves. I will be installing this myself. I'm a mechanical engineer in the HVAC/R field.

Thanks,
John

Welcome John. You've come to the right place. Give us some more to go with such as your application ie house size, type, layout. Another key item is your budget. Do you want to do an insert or a free standing? Get back to us and sit back to get ready for numerous responses.....we're here to help.

 

[DIrtyJersey]

Thanks! I would like a free standing stove. I will be installing in my living room of a split level. Would have to measure up sqft to get the precise numbers. I'm open to options and prices. But best bang for buck would be nice too. would like to get something nice looking as to the misses will have to look at it. LOL!

 

[DIrtyJersey]

Here's is my house. I have fire place in my family room. Which is on the garage side. As you can see chimney. Will be putting stove in the room in the left of the picture.

 

[peirhead]

Welcome DJ ....the usual things to consider are dealer support....you sound like a pretty independent guy so after sales support may not be as important as to others.....checking out the local dealers will let you see the models available in your area...there are many different "looks" to the stoves some are like traditional woodstoves, some very ornate and others totally modern.you and the missus will likely find a style that appeals to both of you........make a list of the ones you like then give us a hollar and you will get lots of real user feedback on the pros and cons of each......hopper and ash bin size will determine how often you feed it.......your square footage and insulation levels will help determine what size/capacity you need! enjoy the process!!

 

[hyfire]

Remember pellets are expensive compared to a wood stove, but they offer constant heat and less hunting around for regular wood, but still a fair bit of maintenance. You can base them on an average 80 % efficiency and about 8000-8500 BTU per lb input. Based on those figures it has a similar cost to 5 cents kwh electric heat. Hopper size is very important you dont want to fill it up every few hours..I have my reasons for choosing my model in my signature. You can search all my threads to find out more info..

 

[alternativeheat]

It took me two months of research to come to the conclusion I did before taking out my old hand built coal stove I welded up more than 35 years ago. A lot of things about these stoves to consider but at least you have one of those nailed down. The fact that you want a free standing stove, that's what took me the longest to decide. My avatar shows the initial firing of the pellet stove, the very first flame early on actually..So other than deciding between free standing or insert, the choice I ( I should say we) made was based largely on ease of maintenance vs beauty , functionality and heat production vs a center piece in the living room. But certainly those options out there in one package as well if you want to look long enough.

The people here are very helpful, just give them something to work with and they will willingly help you out !

 

[hyfire]

Here is the harman brochure ...

 

[DIrtyJersey]

Thanks for all the great info. There are 3 fire place dealers near me. How ever only one had a pellet stove. It was a Hearthstone model like the Heritage I have in my garage. Other then that the ones that the Big box stores sell. Atleast I could see the ones at TSC. The mechanical aspect I should be ok with. I work on everything. Various sizes of boilers,HVAC,Refrigeration. Controls etc... So cleaning a stove will take me back to my apprenticeship days of crawling inside of boliers to clean LOL! There is a guy near me that is selling a Quadrifire Castille that was hardly used. So I might go take a look at it. I guess I will have to do a load calculation on the house as well. Once again thanks for all the useful knowledge you all are providingi

 

[hyfire]

If you need help with a BTU load calculation this might help...http://www.ccithermal.com/heatlosscalculator/ruffneck/imp/index.php

 

[DIrtyJersey]

Thank you Hyfire!

 

[DIrtyJersey]

How are the ones that are sold at TSC? Junk waste of time?

 

[alternativeheat]

How are the ones that are sold at TSC? Junk waste of time?

You are a mechanical engineer, I'm a 44 year veteran mechanic in heavy truck and general fleet experience. I'd say you know if you see something that is made very well vs less well. Do what I did, go look at all of your options, physically open doors, look inside at burn pots, think of the the design features and look at the weld quality. Go to the stove shops, even if not with the intention to buy and have the people there show you a maintenance routine, if even just the daily scrape down of the pot ( hint, some stoves you scrape the pot after the stove shuts down, some while it's still burning which takes less than two minutes and you are running late for work that morning ). You will be able to separate the good stoves from the bad. They all make heat, So in that sense to some degree there is no bad one, some are more efficiently than others and some with more maintenance, others with less. Some run for a couple of years and nothing but problems from then on. from what I read around here at the forum anyway.

Think about if you want radiant heat or just convection.

That said, I personally would take the Castile ( nice stove)over the TSC ( probably US Stove or Pleasant Hearth stoves etc) stove but didn't buy either based on my personal requirements as mentioned above in another post. Wanting a good bit of radiant heat put my choice into an all steel selection vs cast or enclosure type stove. Steel ramps up fast on recovery. Second, after seeing the daily procedure we settled on a brand. Then it came down to specific model. I'm telling you , it took me two months, I needed to know exactly what I was getting into as I already had a stove on the hearth. I drove out of town to see some choices ( well in my case off Cape but that's not unusual for Cape Codders, we do that all the time).

 

[hyfire]

How about something like this, maybe save some costs on your hot water as well?

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMBO-CORN-MULTIFUEL-FURNACE-BOILER-STOVE-70-000-BTU-/351001224712?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51b94da608)

 

[DIrtyJersey]

Alternativeheat. Thank you. All very good valid points! I do not want to cheap out. I have come across alot of cheaply made items,that were installed by others. Only to be ripped out due to constant problems. I will look on the web to see who carries them farther out from me. They seem to be new around here and just catching on. Being that most places sell gas and wood burning units. Hyfire that is a nice looking unit. Only if I had a basement. Which I don't. Time for more Home work!

 

[alternativeheat]

Alternativeheat. Thank you. All very good valid points! I do not want to cheap out. I have come across alot of cheaply made items,that were installed by others. Only to be ripped out due to constant problems. I will look on the web to see who carries them farther out from me. They seem to be new around here and just catching on. Being that most places sell gas and wood burning units. Hyfire that is a nice looking unit. Only if I had a basement. Which I don't. Time for more Home work!

One thing "she who must be obeyed" and I agreed on was we wanted a quality stove, no junk. We got past all the beauty stuff, the fake antlers ( logs) inside and got down to what is going to heat our house and stop the oil burner from coming on. Then an installer one day at a stove shop showed us the cleaning procedure differences and we both agreed on a model. Still not convinced , one last thing needed to be done, hear and see and feel the heat from the next size down from what we purchased, just in case and before we handed over the check. Definitely over thought this purchase !! We bought on a Tuesday, they loaded it on my little trailer and installed that Sat. The oil burner has not been on for our side of the house since, except on two cleaning days. We have a tenant , so he stays on oil.

 

[JBiBBs5]

The Quadra-Fire Castile is a really nice looking unit. That is a solid option if you can get it at a decent price.

 

[alternativeheat]

The Quadra-Fire Castile is a really nice looking unit. That is a solid option if you can get it at a decent price.

Yes and several forum members have them, who can be very informative.

 

[DIrtyJersey]

The gentleman selling it wants 2200 or best offer. Comes with hearth pad flue piping etc..

 

[alternativeheat]

The gentleman selling it wants 2200 or beast offer. Comes with hearth pad flue piping etc..

That's a bit pricy and not a very large stove, a good stove if it will heat your space. I would think more along the lines of a Mt Vernon at that price and with the pad and all. I know around here quality stoves generally run under $2000 used. You need to assess too if it's a fit for your house. You don't need exact sq ft but a rough estimate will do. That Castile is rated only 34,000 BTU and good for roughly ( roughly being a very loose term when it comes to pellets stoves) up to maybe 1600 sq ft. So much depends on house condition, layout and insulation of course, so that's not an etched in stone figure.

 

[hyfire]

Tell us more about your P61A and its output?

 

[DIrtyJersey]

I just did a quick measurement of the rooms in the house. Came to 1,422.5. could be a schoche more. I didn't measure my laundry room.

 

[hyfire]

I just did a quick measurement of the rooms in the house. Came to 1,422.5. could be a schoche more. I didn't measure my laundry room.

What about the R values, etc?

 

[alternativeheat]

Tell us more about your P61A and its output?

We bought the P61A because it appeared it would fit all of our needs and actually will heat more sq ft than ours. I like Harmans burn pot design. I could have bought a used one for $1500, cleaned it up and painted it but it was not auto ignite. We opted for a new stove with that feature ( thus the "A" designation). The P61 offers a fair amount of radiant heat, something I was interested in having in a pellet stove. I originally was not and thought I wanted more convection only but changed my mind mid search when I felt the radiant heat of my old coal stove. My house layout benefits from some radiant heat, I believe a good part of what comes though our dining room is radiant heat off the side of the stove. My thought in the end was if to burn pellets I want to shut up the oil burner and have won that battle. Our central heat thermostat is in that dining room.

The OP however, is looking for something more ornate, I believe, as a living room stove. Something he and the Mrs. will enjoy having around. The P61 is a bit bit more utilitarian in appearance. Nobody can really suggest the exact stove model without knowing more about house layout and sq ft.and overall plan . Meanwhile the Castile is a good stove but who knows if it is a fit or not based on what has been supplied for info thus far.

 

[alternativeheat]

I just did a quick measurement of the rooms in the house. Came to 1,422.5. could be a schoche more. I didn't measure my laundry room.

So for the sake of discussion lets call it 1500 sq ft. If this is pretty well insulated just about any stove out there will heat it, assuming a layout that lets air be distributed. For nice looking stoves that Castile would fit, a Harman Accentra would be a good match. Harman P38 or P43, less ornate but powerful stoves that are easy to clean . A St Croix Hastings ( more cleaning). Lennox has stoves in your size if you like their engineering. In those size stoves the cost of some new stoves is not hugely different from that used price you were quoted in some cases ( course no hearth pad or liner).

Me personally, my vote would be for the P43 or a free standing Accentra but it's not my house !!