# pellet stoves-your thoughts??



## barnyardgal (Sep 21, 2009)

I had a house fire that burned to the ground & living in a small mobile home with electric heat..
I bought a used Golden Eagle pellet stove....cannot get it to run/burn right...got a guy coming out Wednesday to look at it for me-he said sounds like something with the damper not right...hope its a simple fix!!

What are your thoughts on using a pellet stove?? like them/hate them??? how efficient are they?? do they actually heat well?? this one is suppose to heat up to 2200 sq.ft. & won't even heat the front room & mobile home is 12x65.....the pellets are oak pellets but different sizes & am thinking maybe to big or to many different sizes?? gonna get another different bags of pellets today & see if pellets make a difference in burning to...

Would like any information you can give me on pellet stoves...which ones are good/bad & likes/dislikes about them???am thinking about putting one in new house when it gets built if i can find one that heats right!!

Thanks for any help!!


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## ycanchu2 (Oct 21, 2011)

I don't have one but have neighbors who do and they are real happy with them. Only downside I see to one is they have to have electricity so I would have a generator on hand in case the power went out......so you could still have heat.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

We have had a pellet stove in our basement for about 4 years now. We got it because it's much cheaper to install (did it ourselves) than a woodstove would be for us. We'd have to either re-line our chimney or install totally new stove pipe for a woodstove, plus they require more wall clearance than a pellet stove does. Pellet stoves are nice because it's very easy to vent them.

We were hoping our pellet stove would provide enough heat to really heat the house, but it's too small for that. It does do a nice job of heating the basement though, and we can definitely feel a difference if it hasn't been running.

It can be tricky to find a brand of pellets that works best for your particular stove. We had to try several brands before we found one we like. We burn Power Pellets now, because the other brands we tried left too much ash and didn't burn cleanly. It also takes some time to figure out the right speed for the pellet feed. Too many too fast and they don't burn all the way, so you'll get an overload in the little burn basket. Too few and the fire won't burn hot enough or will burn out. The different sized pellets won't matter. Just make sure you're using low ash pellets, and try a few different brands to see if you notice a difference with burn length, ash build up, clinkers, etc.

Also, depending on what stove you have, it may need to be cleaned out every few days. And yes, they do require electricity to run, but we have a small generator that would be great for running the pellet stove if we ever lose electricity (knock on wood, we rarely do). 

It's also convenient to load, and the bags of pellets are easy to move around. It doesn't require frequent loading like a woodstove might. Of course, we'd rather have a woodstove, but a pellet stove is a close second for us.


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## ycanchu2 (Oct 21, 2011)

There are some brands that will burn wood pellets or shelled corn. That would be a good option if corn keeps getting cheaper.


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## mikey_sf (Jan 2, 2014)

I've got one. Keeps our 2200sq ft log home reasonably warm. We do live in NM though and get a lot of passive solar that helps. The place came with the pellet stove, my choice would have been a wood stove. 

First off, there's several things that need to be adjusted with a stove to get it tuned up. Hopefully the guy coming over can help with that. They can be finicky. 

I like that the fuel takes up a small amount of space compared to what I'd need for firewood. You can also set it, and forget it so to speak. We were hovering right about 4 degrees last night so it was comforting to know that the stove would just do its thing. No need to maintain it. The stoves themselves are super efficient during combustion and the waste is a lot less than burning conventional wood. I have a galvanized pail (just a small regular one from the hardware store) and it can hold a months worth of ashes. I don't like that the stove takes electricity (currently working on a deep cycle battery/inverter plan) and is kinda noisy in my opinion. I grew up with wood heat though so I'm partial to the silent radiant heat from a good stove. You don't get that with a pellet. 

Next biggest thing is the pellets themselves. Yes, pellet choice is huge. I, like you went out and bought a few bags of super premium oak pellets. Then I did some research and found out that soft wood pellets actually burn hotter in the stoves. Surprising. But, they're all different. Check this website out (http://www.woodpelletreviews.com), poke into various stores and see what they carry. I bought a couple from Lowe's that were pretty messy. The stuff at Cheapo-Depot looked even more like garbage. Then I found the Rocky Mountian pellets made just north of here in Colorado. Great price and they burn awesome for me. Went right back and bought a pallet. Another thing I worry about is potential for fuel shortage. 

Overall, I'm happy with it, but still thinking I might stick a wood stove in this summer. The stoves are finicky creatures but once you get it dialed in, it should work extremely well. They're great for low maintenance ease of use aspect. I know if you chose to burn corn you need to clean the stove every other use. At least that's what mine says (Quadra-Fire Castile.) Good luck and let us know how it goes. !


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I have a wood stove and pellet stove. The good things about the pellet stove is the it runs on a thermostat, you can fill it with a bag of pellets and it will warm the house while you are away and it's good for just a bit of warmth, unlike the wood stove that is better a really putting out the heat.
The bad things are that it needs pellets, which are taxable, not always available, and needs electricity to run.


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## woodhogg999 (Oct 18, 2010)

HI,I ran across this site awhile back that may help on how to run pellet stove when power goes out (THE INVERTERSTORE.COM).
You can do your own setup with a couple golf cart batteries+pure sine wave inverter
that way you can unplug pellet stove from the outlet on the wall and not back feed the utility power lines,if i remember right the one from inverter store can catch the 
power outage quick enough so the stove does not shut down.


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## NC_hobbyfarmer (Dec 31, 2013)

Many drawbacks with pellet stoves.... Cost to install may be cheaper but cost of the stove can be WAY more $$$$$. Can only burn pellets or some other kind of processed fuel, i.e. cherry pits, walnut shells, corn and of course wood pellets. Some will burn all and be "quadra fuel" stoves which sound nice but try to find all 4 fuels in your area and at what cost? I will only ever have true woodstoves to heat my house with and in my opinion (which I am a Chimney Service) the extra work is way worth the reliability of regular wood burning.

PROS:
Can find wood for FREE even if not the best wood it will produce heat!
GET YOUR CHIMNEY LINED WITH STAINLESS STEEL (15yrs and never had one of MY customers have a chimney fire once I installed a liner!!!)
You can burn pallets ETC if you were in a true emergency which you can find free
Hot heat and can dry the air keeping it feeling warmer at lower temprature.
If it gets too hot you can open a window to let fresh air in and not have it cost you
A quality stove will provide heat for 10-12 hours

CONS:
Ash (will not be very dusty with liner as you will have great draft)
getting and stacking wood (pellets are best bought by the ton and you have to store them somewhere too so I call that a wash)
Carrying wood can be heavy but use a cart or take small loads and get the exercise
Clean your chimney yearly
Pests in your wood is something I hear but have never encountered


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## fixitguy (Nov 2, 2010)

Its sounds like you need the draft adjusted, very simple to do. I did mine just by sight, then had it tested. It was perfect. I have a harmon stove, I love it. I start per paiding my gas bill in july, and start buying pellets in sept., and march I am out of my pre-paid gas, and my pellets are just about out. They need cleaning every week, a shop vac with a filter bag works great, no dust.

I can burn and pellet fine, some stoves like a certian pellet, you just have to learn the stove


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## doingitmyself (Jul 30, 2013)

I wanted to revive this thread, I am seriously considering a corn burning stove this winter. I have used wood heat for years and to be honest the work is getting to be a bit much for me. Getting corn real cheap is not a problem for me. :thumb: I currently use LP. so nearly anything is cheaper.

It seems like corn and pellet stove manufactures come and go with every season, what are the good brand name i should be looking at? I have tried to look for reviews but info. seems kind of sparce, what say the kind folks here at HT??


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

They get the job done . . I have been thinking about a pellet myself . . But what is bothering me now is if times get real nasty will the supply of fuel (pellets) cease .??
Or become Super expensive. . .?? I would burn coal if I could get it up here in my neck of the woods . . .
Big argument/debate about burning "food"---corn.
Do you have a good very -local- supply of fuel . . ??

Yes . . big question about which one . . . . . .


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

doingitmyself said:


> Getting corn real cheap is not a problem for me. :thumb:
> 
> I currently use LP. so nearly anything is cheaper.


Problem with switching to a corn or pellet stove is exactly the problem with propane....you don't control the source of the fuel. What happens if in a few years corn or pellets become prohibitively expensive, or totally unavailable ?

You're right back to the propane problem, or fuel oil, or whatever.

I think money better spent would be on a new, high efficiency wood stove....that simply uses LESS wood. We switched to a Regency model that uses about 1/2 the wood we previously burned....they have gotten that much better.

Blaze King has a big one (the King model) that uses a catalytic converter (they make a steel one now that lasts a LONG time), 88% efficient, 1.7gr/hr emissions (like near nothing), and they claim will burn 40 hours (on low) on a single loading of wood.


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## simplegirl (Feb 19, 2006)

We have one that we heat a building with that houses our travel trailer. We lived in it one winter and it worked well for us. I like it and while it has a bit of a learning curve to get it burning right, I prefer it to wood. We don't have easy access to wood to burn and I can load the stove once a day and let it go. It does require daily cleaning although it doesn't take a lot of time (at least ours burns better if it is clean). 

Availability of pellet fuel is a bit of a concern but it has not gone up nearly as much as propane has in my area and I never have a problem finding it. 

Our stove was inexpensive and works fine. We will be using it as our main source of heat in our new house but will have a backup heat source as well for the times when we need to be away for more than a day as the hopper only holds enough for a bit over one day.


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## neverfear (Sep 26, 2006)

Pellet stove is last year discovery for me, they are the cats meow!


:rock:


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