First Impressions Pelpro PP 130

Have been heating with wood for almost 30 years and due to an insane work year (completed $800 million job moved to $300 million,I am a High Rise Construction Superintendent) I simply did not have time to process firewood. I usually burn about 10 cords of wood a year simply because i live in a 1860 farmhouse without a stitch of insulation with the exception of the 3 rooms I have restored. So three weeks ago I basically ran out of firewood and was SOL because of time restraints . I have a state of the art Oil system but in a really cold winter I was filling the tank 3 times a month which equates to $1200 a month and I simply do not like to support Oil producing nations whom could very likely be supporting Terrorism.
I have been burning wood with a Alpiner Matterhorn,one beast of a stove so I did not know what expect with a wood pellet stove. This stove will take up to 30" sticks and cranks out some serious Heat ! Sorry enough about me and my wood stove on to the Pelpro..

Looks well like an appliance not so much a wood burner but not downright Ugly, I mean i got my wife to buy in (amazing what you can do when they are cold)
Setup was a breeze very well written documentation and it setup without a hitch. Efficiency they claim is 86% and I believe them but cannot actually confirm as I need to generally run it at max to heat my house.
Hopper capacity is 120 lbs + and in addition to not having to load it as often it drys out the pellets waiting to drop if they have excess moisture. So far and I will list what I have burned to date will burn anything that you load it with it burns and burns well.
I clean it daily which is not a problem for me actually helps me keep my OCD in check, consist of cleaning the burn pot and a quick vacuum and restart.I
Cost a big plus as I only had to shell out $879.00 and so far its worked flawlessly.
They claim up to 50 k+ BTU and I believe they are pretty close. The thermostat works spot on as I did have a few days to use it as opposed to having to run it full bore.
Quite happy with the purchase and its performance but with this being my first pellet stove I really don't have much to compare it to. Here is a list of what I have burned in it to date less the hopper i just loaded with FSU which seems to be burning awesome to this point.

:Maine Woods Pellets = great heat average ash average fines $229 a ton from TSC re-bagged TSC Leominster
:Blackstone Ultra Premium= great heat average ash average fines $ 269 ton Powell Sand and Gravel Lunenburg MA
:Green Supreme good heat a little heavy on the ash $260 ton Lowes Leominster MA
:Geneva Hardwood great heat average ash $300 ton Powell Sand and Gravel Lunenburg MA
:Believed Green Supreme as its re-bagged for TSC (Dummy UPC) Good heat average ash $229 ton TSC Leominster
Glad to have found this forum a wealth of knowledge and experience here !
thanks

 

Welcome to the forum, Luneyberg!

 

Thanks man and noticed you live in the Hudson Valley , cut professionally in the beautiful Hudson Valley for 5 years ! small world . Lived mostly in Ulster county including Esopus , New Paltz , Rifton, Highland, Woodstock,West Park and a few more. Really miss the Hudson Valley great place to live.

 

I'm 15 min. south of New Paltz.

 

Welcome to FHC
Happy New Year

 

Thanks Guys here is what my wood stove use to eat every year plus more actually, liking this pellet change more and more. Always dropped,bucked,split and stacked my own firewood only had to buy one cord in 30 years . Been a while since i have used forums see if i can get this to post .

 

Nice write up!

 

Welcome Luney and thanks for the write-up on that stove. I have wondered about it in the past because it seems to get good reviews. Happy New Year and stay warm.

 

I did a job in Wallkill and remember traveling through a Town called Modena, apple orchid country and a nice quaint little town . Hudson Valley is one beautiful area !

Thank You ttdberg and IHP like your title I should have given it some thought and my would have certainly been I HATE ELECTRIC ! We have the fourth highest rate in the US.

 

Bingo!

 

Dont need an OAK yet as my house is so leaky there is a steady stream of fresh cool air at the floor level . There is no insulation throughout most of the house with the exception of the rooms i have restored and that includes the basement which is cold and wont be done for some time. The heat believe it or not on the first level helps pipes from freezing . I have insulated to the hilt the crawl space section of the house but the main foundation is all field stone with a 24" tall by 18" thick by 48" long granite cap pieces that the sills sit on (post and beam house) on top of field stone.
It is located exactly where the wood stove and no it does not come close to putting out what the old beast did which is around 150 k BTU . The good thing and especially in this old leaky house is the pellet stove runs continuous with the exception of daily cleaning,half hour shut down all said and done. On really cold nights i would have to get up and Stoke the wood stove to keep it fairly warm in the house .If we are away from the house for the day the oil burner would kick on after 6 hours or so when the wood stove stopped cranking heat, would be plenty of coals but not the same as having a fire cranking in the stove. It is a 1970's beast of a stove made by Alpiner who took all the good attributes from different stoves including fisher , timberline , ect.... and somehow ignored all the patents of the other stoves combined them into one stove, perhaps they got away with it because they are a Canadian company I don't know. Huge plus the burn time with the Pellet stove not having to tend / feed it constantly , load it and walk away !
My house has never been a warm house and will not be for some time but the pellets stove has been a relief for a lot of things including safety as I use to be concerned leaving each morning after having stoked the wood stove to the hilt and knowing my wife and animals were sleeping quietly . Never had an incident but being such a beast of a stove and capable of really cranking insane amount of heat it had to be kept controlled by someone who knows it well, not my wife.Feeling much safer cleaning , loading the hopper at 3 am before heading to work and not worrying about whether or not I left the damper wide open ect.....

Second is the lack of all the fricking dirt, dust , bark constant battle of keeping it all down as my wife has chronic asthma, I am loving that aspect of a pellet stove .

While I will miss the workout and nostalgia of cutting wood right now with work as insane as it is the pellet stove will allow me to get some work done on my house which is huge. Less time cutting splitting stacking means I can spend some time working on my house. Huge

Also nice to know that there is a community (FHC) that are supportive with different aspects of a relatively new heating source for me . Granted I have burning wood for 30 years and still am just in another form . Quite happy and look forward to learning more and appreciate the wonderful Welcome from everybody here !!

 

What Dexter says.

Sure, technically you don't NEED an OAK. But many people experience less drafts when an OAK is installed. I installed an OAK on my P61a one or two months after the stove was professionally installed. I immediately noticed less drafts on the main floor (that stove is in the basement). When I installed the P43 on the main floor, there was no question - I installed an OAK at the same time.

 

Point taken now all I need to figure out is how to get the piping to the outside as my stove is installed in an all masonry fireplace, not an insert but sitting on a brick hearth . Hmmm how can i get piping to outside air without it being exposed ....

Thanks Dex

 

Thank you as well Bogieb I just have to figure out how to get piping to exterior air .

 

But first this weekend I am going to take care of this as I gutted my stove room so I can insulate it,finish framing the ceiling and rock everything .
Yes have a few panes of glass to replace as well, as we are restoring the house as best as we can I have on order wavy glass to match the original glass.
Yes in the corner is the beast of a wood stove I have heated my entire house for the last 10 years great stove but hungry as hell to keep cranking .
Cedar lined chest to the right is my Pellet bin seems to be working out well, while I am letting the Stove cool down I fill this sucker back up so the pellets are sitting in a nice dry room before they hit the hopper .
Thanks again to everyone .

 

Well I was gonna give you crap about not buying a high end stove,at your income level,but after reading about hte old house you are resurrecting,I now have respect,doing what you can,when you cn,same as I did on my old log cabin out here.stay warm(our goal for this winter).Iassume there are exterior storm windows,if not,much heat can be retained(later).After reconstructing the prebuilt parts of this cabin,I reccomend sprayfoam for the walls.period.wish I could have afforded it years ago,here.And I love the fact you can run that stove that hard(wide open?) it seems to be one of the ones that can,it actually does the job.Keep warm back there,and best wishes,happy holidays,--etc LOL