Check out Hearth.com - LOTS of Pellet people over there!

I have a Harman P61A and here's my take (it's my second season with it):

1)Overall, I am pleased with my stove. It heats my uninsulated 2000 sf farmhouse well (I have wide doorways and ceiling fans, along with a vent cut in the ceiling of the room the stove is in to move warm air around). I burn a lot of pellets (6-7 tons), but I save a lot on oil- I am glad that it is not my only source of heat. I live in a pretty cold climate.

2)I do get a faint smoke smell from time to time, but that is because of it leaking in from outside- next year I'm going to seal around my windows a litte better- I think that will cut down on it greatly. I'd say that it's a lot less smoke smell than a fireplace.

3) For my situation, yes. We needed something that provided a more constant source of heat and a woodstove/furnace isn't really practical with our situation (that would have been my first choice). It's great to have a warm spot to go stand in and a room that is a litte warmer than the rest- especially when you come in from outside. We've been able to keep our house far more comfortable than we were with our oil furnace.

4) I have had a few problems, some were learning curve issues and some were parts issues. They were easy to resolve, and since I also have a furnace, if my stove goes out, I can always rely on that. I would pick a dealer carefully, though. Some of my problems were due to my dealer being a slacker and not knowing about the product he was selling and not getting real answers to my questions. I don't mind the maintenance and working on the stove (the couple of times I've had to) has been suprisingly easy.

5) My wife has allergies and asthma and no, it doesn't seem to aggrivate them. It does produce dust when you are filling it and cleaning it, but there are reasonable things you can do to cut down on it. That's been part of the learning curve for me. It does dry out the air- like most heating appliances, so we run a humidifier, too.

I would try to make sure that you have a steady supply of pellets in your area and I would not have it as my only source of heat. You can also check out iburncorn.com- they have reviews and good info, too!

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Good luck

We have a pellet stove in our family room. I was not thrilled to have it, to be honest. It wasn't the most attractive thing. However, it really makes that room cozy, especially in the cold mornings when we're snuggling with the kids! :) We had a problem with the circuit board or a sensor or something and it had to be replaced. I almost think it may have been some sort of recall.

The only other problem we've had is that if your electricity goes off while it's running, you have to make sure that you turn the fan on immediately when the electricity comes back on or the smoke will come back into the house. Also, occassionally if the wind blows just right, you might smell a faint odor of smoke because it blows back up the vent. But that doesn't happen very often.

I bought my pellet stove before fuel prices skyrocketed and price of stove went way up. overall I like it. Basement was always so cold in the winter but now is cozy. Similar to what someone else posted.

The down side of pellets stoves now is cost of getting one and installed is high and cost of pellets have gone up so much, I don't know if there is that much savings.

What I do now is set stove at lower setting so not to burn as many pellets and use natural gas furnace more. The first year I tried to keep house warm just with pellets and it did good but with cost of pellets now, I find it better as supplemental heat.
Jasper

frostydays,

1. I have a 'love-hate' relationship with our pellet stove :) It operates, for the most part, very well and heats our whole house (all 1100 sq.ft.).
2. The only time I have smelled smoke from it is when DH and I get lazy about cleaning it.
3.We have had this stove for about 5 yrs. now and like others have said the price of pellets have gone sky high! It is a Quadra-Fire and was expensive, I thought.
4. We have not had to replace any parts. Now the maintenance part is the 'hate' issue that I have. It requires alot(frequently) of cleaning and making sure you are using quality pellets or it doesn't work properly.
5. Compared to wood heat I think it is cleaner and less smoke smell.
Like the others I would use it for a supplemental heat (we also have baseboard heat). It is easier to deal with than wood, I think, not as messy and of course if you don't have access to wood or a place to store it pellet stoves are the way to go. Then this winter the prices went so high on pellets......it's a toss up! :)

First thank you all for your help but I'm still confused and need help. I want to buy a pellet stove, but a forty lb bag of pellets is around 5.00 here...to heat a 1500 sq ft. house to 70 degrees( well insulated and we never drop below zero) using a 32,000 btu unit How many bags per day will I use?...lol Anyone have the formula? thank Don123