Choosing a Pellet Stove

15 years ago

Hello:

I live in SE Mass. My wife and I are having a 20' X 24' sunroom added to our house. We have a natural gas boiler with Hydronic heat. We intend on adding Radiant heat under the tile floor in that room but would like to supplement with a pellet stove.

I am reading so many negative reviews I am getting concerned. We had looked at an Avalon Arbor but I couldn't find any reviews on it. I went to another Avalon/Lopi dealer today and found out that Travis industries makes a twin to this unit called a Lopi Leyden and are identical except for a cosmetic decoration on the outside.

I was able to find plenty of reviews for the Lopi Leyden and non of them are good. I have been trying to select a brand and model that a majority of people are happy with. I read horror stories from all of the manufacturers - some with bottom feed and some with top feed. Some people can't locate parts. The list goes on and on.

We have had a wood stove in the past but were hoping to burn pellets now but I am concerned with the many moving parts.

I am torn between Harman, Quadrafire, Lopi, and Avalon and which brand would be better.I am flexible on exploring another brand that you may recommend.

We are able to install a natural gas fireplace instead of a pellet stove but I am worried of the cost to run it vs a pellet stove.

I would appreciate any advise you may be willing to give me.

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Comments (5)

SeattlePioneer
15 years ago
You raise some good issues.

As a now retired gas furnace and gas fireplace repairman, I have some biases towards gas fireplaces since you have natural gas. It's an excellent fuel and the equipment is quite good these days.

Also, gas fireplaces are the norm when selling a house. Pellet stoves are something of an exotic commodity I would suppose.

I specialized in maintaining and repairing gas fireplaces for a number of years, but I was never interested in learning or working on pellet stoves. Just not enough around to develope real expertise or make it worthwhile.

How likely is it that repairman in your area might feel the same way? Being able to get honest and competent service for your equipment over years and decades is very important.Even if there is one outfit available now to help you, you really want several outfits busy enough to be Xperts on pellet stoves so that good service will be available for decades to come.

Around here, even in a big city, that may be hard to come by.

Personally, I have a gas furnace for central heating and a wood stove for supplemental or back up heating if the power goes out. (how will your pellet stove operate with no AC power?)

For simplicity and as a back up heat source, I'd choose a wood stove or a gas fireplace that will operate with the power off.

If I wanted a supplemental source of heat to use a lot to avoid or minimize use of the boiler, I'd choose a wood stove, but realize this involves a big commitment of labor to make it work.

Just not a fan of pellet stoves. Too much of a Rube Goldberg device for my taste. Choose a pellet stove if you want to and are willing to learn to tear it apart to clean it and maintain it yourself most of the time.
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kframe19
15 years ago
I'm running into the same problem with my pellet stove choice.

I'd love to have either a fireplace or a wood burning stove or even a coal stove, but that's out of the question. It would require a far greater investment in money for the chimney and would require significant renovation to my house.

Gas is out of the question -- I don't have gas service at my house, and there's no where to put gas bottles.

I live in a townhouse with a larger than average back yard, but it's still small.

So, if I want the ambiance and heat of a stove, my only choice is a pellet or other biomass stove with the fuel coming in bags.

I'm very likely going to make my decision sometime this summer, but from what I've discovered so far, it's going to be a fairly daunting task to weed through all of the different styles, makes, manufacturers, and any related reliability issues.
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Don't Buy a Harman pellet stove. I Have a Harman and it gives great heat. But it is very unreliable. My Harman is four years old and I've replaced two control boards. Harman did cover the cost of the boards that were bad. But on both I had to wait to get them. So I paid cash out of pocket to have a spare. Yes, got a surge protector from my dealer when I bought the stove. And you should too. It gets better!!! As I write this my stove has been down for two weeks. Sat, Dec.30 It needs an Exhaust fan. Easy enough. I take the old one out, call my dealer he says come on down. 30 miles one way. "Sorry, after all I don't have that part, IÂll order it call me in about a week." Come on, itÂs winter in Maine. I said order it, I had no choice. One week goes by and stills no part. Lucky that week was warmer than usual. But this week is cold I need that part. Fri., Jan. 12 I call the dealer and he says I got your part yesterday. "I'll be right down", I say. I get there and he open his shipment up and no fan. 60 miles round trip. 120 miles of driving still no part. I have no idea when I'll get it. Wait!!! Still better news. Sat. Jan. 13 the pipes froze and are now leaking. Not directly HarmanÂs fault but it would not have happened if the stove was working. But my bad for relying on the Harman for the only source of heat in that area. Stop whining. Ok I was whining a little bit. So how about: Facts: 1. Harman wonÂt sell parts direct. You try before you buy at www.harmanstoves.com 2. I could not find an efficient way to contact the Harman company directly with my problem on their web site. It is almost clear they don't want to be bothered. Again, I suggest you try before you drop a few thousand on one of their stoves. In their Comments section about their website, I did recommend that they offer parts online with overnight shipping. Save a lot of driving around, which is more green friendly. I doubt they will take my advice. It doesn't really matter whether they do or not. In my opinion they make junk any way As Jim Cramer would sayÂÂ.. don't buy! don't buy! don't buy!!!!
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We built a garage last summer that required the elimination of several rather large hardwoods (big maple and several smaller red oaks). We had it cut into to 16" rounds and picked away at the pile last fall/winter. We did OK, but we weren't really serious about dealing with the bounty as we were otherwise occupied with DIY finish work inside the garage. We were on vacation last week and we spent 5-6 mornings in the company of our splitter to get the rounds split and stacked before it rotted on the ground. It wasn't unpleasant work at all. We managed to get nearly 4 cord put up for the '09/'10 heating season and beyond (we have seasoned wood put up for the coming season). We have a few more small piles of rounds to address in the coming weeks, but it's pretty much under control. And we had a good time doing it, laughing and joking as we stacked and finding an easy rhythm for the teamwork of splitting. OK, I'll get to the point. We have just under 3 acres that were wooded when we built our home in '91. Our "first major appliance" was our Woodstock Soapstone stove. In the years hence we've never purchased wood. We've simply used what was taken down for the house, garage, or landscaping projects. And we've had plenty for our needs. We set the thermostats at the lowest setting and use wood to keep the house as cozy as we want or to simply "take the chill off" when it's raw outside. We have a splitter and honestly, the hardest part of the operation is just DECIDING that we're going to deal with wood. Once we make the decision the work is pretty easy and the feeling of accomplishment is terrific. I live in New England, too. And there have been a number of stories of pellet manufacturers being stretched beyond capacity by the volume of orders. I'm all for eliminating the middleman whenever possible.
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I've got a Quadrafire stove, but on mine the burnpot "slot" goes towards the rear, where the chute comes down. My fire pattern sort of jumps all over the place. Do you have a local Whitfield dealer with a stove display where you can actually see one of their stoves burning and compare it to yours? You might find out that what you are seeing is normal...or abnormal - but it's hard to tell unless you either have the dealer take a look at it, or see another stove like yours burning.
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You should try posting your question on the Fireplaces Forum, or better yet at Hearth.com. Good luck.
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moonwandrr
15 years ago
Tech Support for a Pellet stove Distributor, 25 years in Lp industry: Pellet stoves (regardless of mfgr) are high maintenance appliances. These are alternative fuel heaters that provide little visual ambience. The glass will darken daily depending on the pellet quality, vent option, wind dynamics and how carefully you follow the maintenance schedule. This involves use of a high quality "soot vacuum", vent brush, and refrigerator coil brush. Do not shortcut on the venting, and be sure to pipe in combustion air. If you are serious about using alternative fuel for primary heat, but have chimney limitations, check out the "Leisure Line" offering the Pioneer model high efficiancy coal stoker to be used with a Field powerventer which a local chimney sweep or plumbing house can supply.
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mainegrower
15 years ago
I've been heating with wood for 30+ years and have never really understood the attraction of pellet stoves except for the "convenience" of pouring pellets into the hopper vs. handling cordwood.Among the many disadvantages of pellet stoves:

As others have noted, pellet stoves are high maintainence and touchy to operate.

Wood heat is never so important or welcome as when the power goes out. Without electricity pellet stoves don't work - battery backup is an expensive option with very limited utility.

With a pellet stove you're dependent on a manufactured product with the attendant price fluctuations, potential shortages, etc.

kframe19's comment about chimneys is difficult to understand. You need the same type solid fuel class A chimney for either a wood stove or pellet stove.

If you want a wood stove but don't want to deal with cordwood, there are products made from highly compressed sawdust - Biobrick is one brand - readily available by the pallet.

Lots of reviews of pellet stoves and wood stoves at www.hearth.com
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remodelzombie
15 years ago
Last time I had a pellet stove was 1996. Maybe they've improved since then, but I hated the thing! It was noisy when the pellets dropped and at one point, the pellets were not moving through correctly and I woke up in the middle of the night with a fire going up my walls.

I'm sure others have had better luck with pellet stoves, but personally I would never have one again!
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Choosing a Pellet Stove

Comments (5)

SeattlePioneer

kframe19

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moonwandrr

mainegrower

remodelzombie

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