We are on our third heating season with a quadrafire insert. We heat the main part of our house--an area of approximately 1300 square feet. Noise was a consideration in our puchase (it is in our TV room) as was quality and looks. We have been extremely happy with our stove. We program the thermostat just like we would for our oil boiler. The hopper holds one 40lb bag of pellets. The burn pot is self cleaning. Once per week we thoroughly vacuum the burn chamber, clean the glass, and empty the ashes from the lower tray. We have it serviced annually. The amount of ash in the tray and dust in the pellets varies with the brand of pellets you burn. This year we found a dealer (in CT) that offered several different brands of pellets and detailed the wood and size of pellets. Our price for pellets was about $2.25 per bag--purchased by the ton. We will burn just over 2 tons. Quadrafire Mount Vernon insert. (60,000 btu)

Jim, I believe one of the false assumptions are the efficiency ratings of pellets stoves. They are not actually 84-87% efficient. (I have had several and love them, but those figures are manipulated- I will expand later). One of my biggest gripes with the industry is the rating of the stoves heating capacity using the btu input, in other words how many pounds of pellets it can burn in an hour multiplied by a generic (who knows what the manufactures use from company to company) btu per pound of pellet equals the btu rating of the stove. Most pellets stoves heat exchange efficiencies are in 45%-65% neighborhood, the dell point Europa is a notable exception that is into the +90%, and some of the real worst are even less than 45%. So how do the manufactures come up with 84-87% efficiency ? Well it is called an "overall efficiency" rating which includes; combustion efficiency, and some times electrical efficiency. For instance take a stove with 50% heat exchange efficiency, 99% combustion efficiency, and 99% electrical efficiency you would have an overall efficiency rating 83%. If that same stove was rated at 30,000 btu's you would only realize 15,000 worth of heat when turned all the way up. So I have owned 4 stoves this season of a quest for the most efficient, and my Harman advance seems to be the best so far, it has an extra heat exchanger on the back wall of the unit and even at full tilt the exhaust pipe is only at about 170 degrees, and the volume of air exiting the exhaust is very low, fair less then the heat exchanger. Mulesrider, It sounds sound like your Harman is having an efficiency issue, I think your dealer led you astray to say 1.5- 2 tons. I live in central PA and I will use about 3 tons this season for a pretty tight 1200 square foot house @ 73 in the living room 68 in the bedrooms. On an average cold day I will use about 50lbs a day. A few nights a it went down to 2 degrees with a 30mph wind and I used about 50lbs in 12 hours through the night, but it held the temp perfectly. If you have a Harman p38 you do not have a room temp sensor probe, however you do have you do have and exhaust temp probe, and from two of your comments it sound like that may be malfunctioning. 1.-The ash pan may not hold an entire ton worth of ash but it should be close, the fact that you say it is not even close makes me think the stove is over feeding, or not fulling burning the fuel. 2. The amount of fuel you are using for a 1400 square foot house seems really high unless you are trying to heat the house from the basement. What ever your issue is it sounds it is combustion related. Harman dealers are like any other dealer network, there are good ones and bad ones. The fact that the dealer led you to believe that you could heat a 1400 square foot house all season on 1.5 tons leads me to believe either they don't know their product, or they lied. Either way they don't seem like a great dealer. The p38 is a great stove, in fact at about $1700 new you could not find a better stove at the price point IMO. Sounds like yours need a repair. Savings, I had electric base-board heat, my savings (in reality not theory based on last year) will be about $600, but I am keeping my house at 74 degrees rather than 67 (new born in the house). If I tried to keep my house at 74 with electric I would guess my savings to be closer to $1000, and that is not counting the 20% electric rate increase this year, that would get my potential savings closer to $1200. Further, I have bought my pellets at winter prices ($215 ton), I will pre-buy this year for about $165/ton, putting my total savings over $1300/season.

"Seems to me Dave that you can not read to well. Here let me paste the original message here again for you. i just purchsed a harmon p38 pellet stove should i use my existing chimney or vent direct? Thats all the man asked. Dave by the way do you sell wood? sure sounds like it. Grandpa has purchased a pellet stove to avoid the work and the creosote. What don't you understand about that. I can tell you have never owned a pellet stove before because you do not have a clue. Your questions do not have anything to do with my last post. Do you have to practice at being an idiot or does it come natural? As for my P38 I have not had any failures due to a breakdown or power outage. I purchased a generator to be ahead of idiots like you. While your in front of your stove in the dark my house is bright I am watching HDTV and my P38 is just keeping me toasty. By the way my floors are clean also no bugs no dust or bark. Get a life and a job you be able to afford a few bucks more for a pellet stove. Just think if you spent less time tending your fire you could actually do some more reading and up your IQ... " And Jordan fades.... and swoosh 3-pointer! Nice. The reason dave_c keeps posting is because he knows forums like this one (heck there's only two *major* heating forums on the internet), are read by thousands and thousands of people across the world. If he keeps bashing pellet stoves, *someone* out there in internet world just might be convinced to buy something different than pellet. I can't blame the guy, if I sold heating appliances, and I knew I could sell just one more of my products each week becasue I was posting on an internet forum and pushing my type of product, I'd do it. Afterall, it's bread on the table. And in such a competetive area like the heating appliance market, every little effort makes a difference for your sales. It is funny though to see the dealers in action.

How do you store your fuel? My woodsy area is infested with mice. In fact I just went to a lot of trouble and expense mouseproofing my home (fingers crossed it works). The last thing I need is a huge supply of mouse food in my garage or basement. :)