Switching from wood to pellets

Hi folks. Haven't been around in awhile. How's everyone doing?

Thinking of making the switch to a pellet stove. No time to cut wood anymore between work and family. Been buying wood which is always a crap shoot on quality so thought I could simplify.

Looking for a 2500ft capability for under 2k. Large hopper size.

Looking at master forge, pelpro, comfortbilt. The basic ones. Any thoughts on these and any others, or should I be aiming higher for quality. I have a new lp furnace and a leaky old farmhouse. Will run the furnace too, but need to use some sort of stove to help out.

Any thoughts will be appreciated!

 

I don't know the setup of your house (it would be creepy if I did - LOL), so there are a few things to understand first:

• If your house is cut up in room placements (like older houses are), heat from a pellet stove will not reach them as well as heat from a wood stove
• Pellet stoves put out less btu's than your woodstove, so the heat may not be as "warming" . OTOH, since they self feed - they may be able to make that up by longevity of putting out steady btu's
• Unless you can situate the pellet stove to blow its air down a hallway, sometimes getting heat to move out of the room it is in can involve a few fans (each house and set up is different, and some get a nice convection current going by itself).

However, if you are planning on running your furnace too, the above may be okay. Actually, maybe even just running the fan to the furnace a few minutes every once in a while may circulate the heat well. Or, you may think about getting two smaller stoves, each in a different part of the house.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just want your expectations to be realistic. I love my pellet stoves, and once I got them to work well for my situation, I would not willingly go back to a woodstove (although during a 3 day power outage - it would have been super handy to have a wood stove).

• The cheaper stoves can work well for a couple of years. Sometimes it is a crapshoot though (from my understanding)
• If you are planning for this to be a long term thing, then I would go with a higher quality stove. To save money, you may think about finding a used one on CL or FBM.
• Before buying, make sure you go thru the manual and understand the maintenance involved, and how easy or complicated it is ()and if it will influence the placement)
• In that vein, make sure it is something the wife or kids could do if they had to.
• Oh, and understand the clearances - again for placement.

My go to will always be a Harman. Both of mine have been tanks (see my signature). The St. Croix I had was great too, but had drawbacks that I was unwilling to deal with in my particular situation.

I think a Harman P68 (maybe even a P61) would do well for you. I would plan on a hopper extension (although it already carries a lot). It has a large ash pan, easy maintenance, and is a tank. Drawback is that the P-series isn't the most beautiful stove out there. But, if you want a fancy parlor stove, you most likely ain't gonna get a large ash pan or hopper

I am unfamiliar with large stoves from other brands, so can't comment on those.

 

Having been around wood stoves all my life and recently dabbling in the pellet world there are a few things I have noticed.

With the pellet stove there are 2 fans that constantly run while the stove is in operation. Not terrible but there is a constant noise that I was not used to with the wood stove.

The “heat” is very different than the wood stove. With the wood stove you get that blow you out heat. The pellet stove has a constant warm air with less variation so there’s that.

The pellet stove requires more maintenance.

With the pellet stove there are more electronic parts that can fail. It was suggested to me to make sure parts are readily available for the stove you plan to purchase. And if you are not comfortable working on it yourself make sure there is someone local that will.

I have family with Pelpro stoves and they have been happy with them as auxiliary heaters in Maine for quite a few seasons. Personally I would stay away from box store stoves mainly because I had a problem with a stove, the store would do nothing and the manufacturer was difficult to deal with. Some friends have box store stoves and all have had problems with little use and parts have been hard to get.

I had to do a fair amount of running around and dealing with Craigslist/marketplace sellers but ended up with what I think is a decent stove cheap that had a problem, I was able to get it fixed with the help of a fella here. In all I’m into it for 600$. Around here 2k would get a great used stove if you want to put in the leg work.

 

As for the noise, there are some that are very quiet. I know the Enviro units tend to be pretty quiet, and in general, once you have the stoves a while, you don't even notice it anyway. My opinion is go a bit larger that you think....there's always those very cold spells. You can always run the unit at a lower feed the rest of the time. As for spare parts, probably an auger motor and distribution fan to start with, especially if buying a used stove.

Don't forget a REAL GOOD surge protector for the electronics in the stove. A lot of people use the TrippLite UltraBlok:

 

I agree the noise isn’t terrible and we have gotten used to it. It is something that I hadn’t thought about when making the decision to switch to a pellet stove. Thankfully ours in a room where it isn’t competing with a tv or something. If it were in our living room it would be a deal breaker for me. Everybody’s tolerance for such things is different I get that.

thanks for the surge protector recommendation, it’s been in the list of things to acquire.

 

I would maybe consider finding a better stove that was used in good working condition?

 

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the stove fans. Tells you how inured to them I have become. Some stoves are quieter than others, but none are silent. Neither of my stoves is particularly quiet. But, I don't have an issue with the P43 in the living room - I just turn up the volume on the TV. I understand that it can be a deal breaker for some people, but I don't have that issue.

The fan noise can come in two flavors:

1. You can run the stove on a thermostat (either embedded or a wall thermostat like mine) and the stove is set to shut down and start back up - just like a normal heating system. This is how I run my stoves at least 90% of the time (and some years 99% of the time - depends on the weather). During fall and spring there are long periods of silence.
   
2. Burning in a constant mode, so that the stove never shuts off. It (or you) would regulate temperature by adjusting the pellet feed rate and perhaps the distribution fan speed (the exhaust fan should always be a constant). I run the main floor stove in this mode when it is really windy and <10* or, when it is calm and in the negative digits - I actually go by if the P43 starts shutting down, then starting directly back up while in #1 setting.

Neither way is "right" or "wrong", it is whatever you prefer and what works for your circumstances. Some people say that #1 will wear out your igniter quickly, to which I say that both my stoves have original igniters. And igniters are cheap anyway, cheaper than either of the fans, which could wear out from constant running - whatch a fist fight start out from that statement

 

Former wood stove burner here. Wood stoves run during power outages, pellet stoves don’t. Make sure you have an inverter generator or battery backup (or both) for the pellet stove, just in case.

We have a P68 heating most of the house and a P43 heating a smaller section of the downstairs that was difficult to get heat to. Like them both a lot, simple to operate and require little maintenance, would recommend. Either can be bought used for < $2K.

 

There are no 100k btu woodstoves. The EPA list, Woodstove Database | Burnwise | US EPA , has the highest output stove at 84k and that rate for only for an instant. Most large woodstoves put out 15k -65k btu and it's just like that, a cycle, they have peak output and then drop off since they are batch burners. Where a pellet roaster makes a steady output. That p68 at full output is a constant 68k and beats all woodstoves.

 

Thanks for all the great responses. Next question. I have an 8 inch stainless triple wall chinmey that goes 23 feet, straight up and out the roof. Do I need to have a liner in that?

 

This was my adapter for the Englander up in NY...4" DuraVent to 8"...adapter & finishing collar needed.

:

 

When I had a pellet stove I found the most efficient for me was to run it low and constant as opposed to on and off. Also my thermostat had a feature that ran the fan 20 minutes per hour, two 10 minute cycles, circulating the air thru out the house.
This warmed all the objects in the house to the same temperature which actually allowed the temp to be lower but everything felt warmer.

 

Stove in the garage goes to a block chimney with a 6" round hole. so I bought a plug and cut a hole for the pellet vent pipe. Bead of black high heat RTV suffices fine to seal, and although the pipe gets hot to the touch they never reach temps like a wood stove sometime does.

I can also recommend the Tripp Lite UltraBlok. Like everything I do, I spent way too long researching before purchase. Going on 5 years of outages and interruptions on 3 stoves here.

 

Ah, wood vs pellets (actually a pellet stove IS a wood stove but we won't go in to that)

Pros of pellets

• Get fuel delivered right to your house
• No seasoning needed
• "Set it and forget it" if the stove has a remote thermostat
• Venting systems cost far less than wood stoves
• Most pellet stoves can also burn 50/50 pellets/corn if there is a pellet shortage
• Stacking pellet bags is easier and more compact than stacking firewood

Cons

• Pellets are dusty; while they don't make the mess of cord wood, they still create dust
• Requires power to operate. A wood stove doesn't care if there is electricity or not
• Pellet shortages: They happen. One of the worst was the winter of 2000-2001. There were no pellets as in zilch. There have been shortages in other years
• Pellet stoves have controllers, sensors etc that can go on the fritz and require replacement
• Some pellet stoves are prone to jamming and clinker buildup. This happens mostly with top-feeding stoves. A bottom feeder like Harman does not have this issue
• Prices have skyrocketed in recent years. I paid $2000.00 for a Harman P61A in 2004 and now that stove is going for around $5k. Facebook marketplace has a lot of pellet stoves but careful inspection is warranted before purchasing

 

Agree. I don't know what brand it was but a local Lowe's wanted $9.00 a bag/$450 ton.

 

Lots of good feedback here. I've been toying with the idea of pellets (still keeping/using my woodstove, just relying more on the pellets and using wood as supplemental) As it is, my woodstove only runs from 7am to maybe 6-7pm most days, as my wife doesn't want it raging overnight while we're all sleeping. She'd be fine with a pellet stove running overnight though. Years ago my wife wanted to switch to pellets but I didn't like the idea of buying my fuel. In my mind what's the difference between buying pellets versus buying home heating oil? But now that I'm selling firewood (low volume) that money would pay for the pellets every season. Another factor for me is that my oil furnace is ancient and I trust it less than gas station hot dogs LOL. So between the wood stove and the pellet stove, that should buy me more time with the furnace, and keep the oil truck out of my driveway even longer. It's just the upfront cost of getting a decent unit that has me hemming and hawing for now...