Pellet Furnace Questions

When we bought this house years ago I told my wife I would never use the propane furnace. So far we haven't in fact its not even plumbed to a tank at this point. My intentions were to put a pellet furnace in however after I looked at the price of the Harman pellet furnace I decided to try getting by with the wood stove which we have done for 6 years at this point.

After this cold snap I'm ready for something to help lighten the load if we are gone for the better part of the day and the stove can't keep up.

Ran across a 7100 ameriblaze for $1500 boo. It says it can use wood pellets or corn and be ducted right into you ductwork. Looked like it was in decent shape on the outside. But I know the internals are the important part. What are you opinions on that unit good or bad and what do you think of the price?

I have also been looking at the Fahrenheit furnaces and the Harmans so any info on those brands would be great also pros cons or personal experiences.

As far as my house goes it is two stories with a full basement. Each floor is 1200 sq ft and it would be in the basement. I currently have no heat down there but would love to have some for working down there in the winter. I would be planning on tying this thing into my ductwork.

 

I visited a Magnum countryside dealer the other day, they are blowing out the 6500, 7500 furnaces. You can still get parts and support, but they are not manufacturing them anymore and focusing on the free standing models. Most parts interchange between the 3500 and the 6500, 7500. Don't quote me on this, but I believe the price is right in the ball park of the ameriblaze.

Burn corn, pellets or any other bio mass that it can feed. I looked at his setup in the basement and it was pretty slick. I think it can hold 300lbs of fuel.

I know one down fall to any is if you get a jam up from poor quality fuel, you have a heck of a time cleaning it out if you have a full hopper.

 

I have no experience with the Amaizablaze stoves. Some of those are corn only or may be able to be retrofitted for pellets as well.

I have a Fahrenheit. Love it. I got it used off CL a bit over a year ago. I paid $1000 for it and got some ductwork, cold air return box, extended hopper and some venting. Supposedly it will burn any biomass fuel, but I've only burned pellets. It's rated for 50000 btu max. I'd been considering a pellet furnace, and after reading about DexterDays install on a different forum, I started looking around and stumbled across the CL ad. It was 4 miles down the road from me as an added bonus.

Depending on how well insulated your house is it may work well or it may struggle. The convection blower is 800 CFM and may have a hard time moving air through all your ducts. I adjust dampers and what not come wintertime and it works fairly well. I'm heating about 2500 square feet total - 1700 on the main floor and half that in the basement.

I've seen the Harman PF100 in operation. Very nice unit from what I could see.

I have no personal experience with Harman either, just what I've read on various forums. The price tag scared me away when I first had thoughts of a pellet furnace years ago. I've never seen one pop up in the used market around my area, so people either keep them or they don't sell many new units. I'd guess a combination of the two.

If you don't mind used, there are deals to be had. I've seen SCF-50s for $1500 more than once, and those look to be decent as well.

All my babbling above can be summed up here: I don't know much of anything about pellet furnaces other than the Fahrenheit, but I'd recommend a Fahrenheit to anyone who doesn't need a monster of a furnace to heat their house.

 

I did notice the dealer had a damper set up on his hot air outlet side of the duct. Had that half way shut and then was running his main furnace blower.

I asked "what gives" response was that it gives the air some more contact in the heat exchanger and the furnace fan has a higher CFM and moves the heat well. Seemed to work well, being it was -5 outside and his home was 2400 sq feet. He had the heat setting on 2 out of 5.

 

Did lots of reading on the Fahrenheit last night and it seems like it gets really good reviews. Is there auto cleaning system really as good as they say it is where it deals with its own clinkers? How long can you go without reloading the hopper on a 20 degree day? I had never heard of them until here and had really only looked at the Harmans.

Dex, what size house are you heating if you don't mind me asking and will it keep up in this cold weather we have had recently? Also were you saying you knew of two that were for sale used? I looked for dealers around my but as normal there is nothing.

I am still planning on the wood stove being my primary but in this super cold temps it would sure take a load off to know it could run in the early morning or if we are going to be gone for the day, or just to supplement the wood stove in sustained below zero temps.

 

hey, Dex....are these wireless thermo sensors? Pretty cool

 

model number?

 

Would love to find a used Fahrenheit as I can't deal with the propane cost anymore. Any leads most appreciated! I'm in NH but I guess shipping would work if the price were right.

Thanks!!!

 

Welcome Carl.

Keep your eyes open on Craigs list.....daily. The way this past winter has been, any decent pellet furnaces that show up on there will probably get scapped-up quickly.

 

Good luck to both of you furnace seekers. I searched Craigslist high and low for several months, and didn't see much other than a few Harmans, all of which were pretty far from me.

I ended up ordering a St. Croix multi fuel furnace. 60K BTU, able to burn many different fuels, and a 1000 CFM blower. I don't have it yet, but should be able to pick it up in the next few weeks. I'll probably work on the install over the next few months. I'll start a thread when I actually get it.

 

Thanks I appreciate it! Figured those 2 were gone. Thinking Spring now but watching CL ;-)

 

Yes, I watch CL daily but not much there. Couple of Harman PF100s but I'm thinking one of those might be overkill for what I need as well as being HUGE. BTW, also use Searchtempest.com to broaden geography of CL that I search. If you haven't tried it, it's pretty good. Thanks!

 

The St. Croix Revolution is another one I could be interested in. Will look forward to your experience!

 

Don't discount one of those if the price is right and you have the room to install it. Always better off more BTU's than you need than less. .....you don't have to run the thing at full blast all the time.