Looking for recommendations on new pellet stove

Good day all - we are looking into pellet stoves as an alternative to our propane furnace that we have, plus the spouse would like one for aesthetics.

I have been looking all over and there doesn't seem to be much information as to what options are reliable and reasonable.

Can anyone shed some light on brands as how they are seen in the market? (i.e. toyota, lexus, ferrari, etc)

We went to one of the few dealers who sell / install pellet stoves on they only had Lopi on hand which seems to be uber expensive. My wife likes the aestheitcs of the Deerfield model a lot but at 5500 installed, we aren't sure if we want to go that far.
Deerfield™ Pellet Stove | Lopi Stoves - for reference

It seems the more affordable options like Englander and US stove models seem to have iffy reviews and the feedback here and a few other sites seem to be they require a TON of maintenance. (cleaning them out a few times a week)

We want something that looks someone appealing but I think more importantly is efficient and is reasonably priced.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and providing any knowledge!
Have a good day!

Edit - Wanted to add that we will be moving into a 1500 sq ft log cabin. This won't be the primary heat source but given the crazy price of propane here, we may try to use it most of the time. This will go in our living room so I also want to be mindful on how loud this thing is so we can watch TV or entertain friends at the same time.

 

Many helpful people here. Someone should be along shortly. Never burned pellets myself but have been shopping for a used pellet stove for a while. I think I’m going to try to pick up a used Harman XXV. From what I’ve read, Harmans seem to be pretty reliable, accept a wide variety of pellets and pay for themselves in the long term. They are expensive. Not sure you can get great reliability AND reasonable price... do you have a basement in the log cabin? Any chance of putting a wood stove down there to heat from the basement and then use the propane savings to pay for a nice high end pellet stove? Good luck..

 

Thanks for the quick reply, no we don't have a basement, just a tiny azz crawl space. I am willing to hear about used options, I just don't know what to look at to make sure I am not getting a junk unit. I did see on FB marketplace there is a Harman XXV about 5 hours from me, they want 1700 which sounds like a steal.

 

You’re welcome. $1700 does sound good. Best I’ve seen is $1900 up here. I just don’t know how to evaluate a used stove. Someone could use it as their primary heat source for 2 years and that stove could have more wear and tear than a 10 year old stove that is only used on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes, people buying a house don’t want to burn and end up selling stoves relatively cheaply. If they are not replacing the stove, you could get the piping too.. If propane and oil prices rise, so will the prices of used stoves.. keep your eyes open and keep searching. You’ll get an idea of what is available and how long they stay on the market... might be worth making a trip to a couple dealers to listen to the store displays in operation to see how loud different stoves are.

 

First of all, welcome! Are you mechanically inclined? Pellet stoves are pretty simple beasts. Even if you replaced both the combustion and room fans along with the control board and auger motor, you would be well under $1000 in parts. Seeing as new stoves can be over $4000, if you bought a good used stove for a reasonable price and repaired whatever you had to, you would still be way less than the cost of a new one.

I had a cheap stove that I bought during the oil crunch when every pellet stove made was sold and the wait time was into the following Summer. I ended up buying one at Home Depot. I'm a retired mechanic and engineer so I wasn't worried about fixing it, I just hoped it was safe to use. Well, it was but it required daily attention. 12 years later I was ready to replace it. There are a few highly regarded stoves but the Harman seemed to have a cult following. I researched, talked to the local Harman dealer, and talked to people who had them. I decided I liked what I saw. As an engineer I liked how they were made and as a mechanic I liked how easy they are to clean.

I ended up scoring a 2007 Accentra II for $1000. I did nothing other than a good cleaning and some paint and ran it half of last year and a couple of months this year. Just recently I replaced the combustion fan and motor. Took me 20 minutes and cost $135. I am firmly on the Harman band wagon.

 

Don't go by the "reviews" that are usually dominated by people who didn't know how to maintain ANY brand stove. And as far as an Englander having to be cleaned a few times a week, that is more about the quality of the pellets you buy.

Don't make me dig into the archives and post a pic of my Englander that the door was never opened to clean it (on a bet) during a 61 bag run, and put out heat start to finish.

If you want to save some $$, buy a quality built stove made in the USA, then look through these refurbed and/or "scratch & dent" units. Full factory warranty, free shipping to a local loading dock. Some are on sale, some already sold, but still some bargains to be had. Mine was the 49-TRCPM multi-fuel:

TIMBER RIDGE - Brand New Factory Seconds or Manufacturer Refurbished S

 

Welcome Holle67
Try to find a Harman P61A or a P68, they put out a lot of heat and easily to clean, maybe a P43 might do the job!

 

I had harman and quadrafire pellet stoves. Harman's are imo so easy to replace parts on and there are lots of YouTube videos.
I liked the quadtafire for its clean ability and the way the burnpot opens with a lever to dump ash and clunkers directly into the ash pan. I also liked that I could run a thermostat wire to a programmable thermostat across the room. Auto temp increase before you get out of bed is really nice.
Both are reliable and parts are not cheap unless you buy knock off generic parts. But they are built like tanks and except for the electronics will last a long long time. Just clean well often.
Hope this helps. I have always bought used and got a list off any parts the previous owner replaced.

Good luck
RickF

 

I'm partial to Harman's (have two). Reliable, easy to maintain and clean and fill many of my needs. My P61a, which I bought new is a bit pricey, but worth every penny (and paid for itself the first winter when propane was over $5.5/gal). The P43 was bought used, it was lightly used, in good shape and a screaming good deal ($1,000).

Let me cut and paste my contribution to another post from not too long ago:

The best pellet stove is one that fits the needs of the owner. Several questions need to be answered such as

• How mechanically inclined is the person running it? You need an easy maintenance, little fiddling stove if the answer is "not very" - or at the very least a dealer close by.
• How often do you want to clean out ashes (some need it often because they don't have ash pans, some have smaller ash pans,, some have large ash pans)
• How long do you need it to burn between hopper fillings (smaller hoppers may burn too fast - my main issue with the Hastings I had years ago because on really cold days its burn time was ~13 hurs)
• How important are looks?
• How much room do you have to put it in, including the required clearance to combustibles and windows/doors (a P68 needs huge clearance compared to some other stoves).
• How big an area are you wanting to heat. Sure, having more stove than is needed is great, but you don't want a P61a for 600 sq/ft.
• Are you trying to heat a whole house or just a room or two (also pertains to the sq/ft area from above bullet)
• What is the budget for stove and exhaust
• Do you want all the bells and whistles (digital and/or WiFi etc), or are basic controls (knobs) acceptable/preferred

Once you answer all those questions (I may have missed some questions and others are sure to chime in), then you can really start zeroing in on stoves that fit the bill.

If looks are really important, Harman has some nice looking stoves that should be just as reliable even if they need cleaning and filling more often (smaller hopper and ash pans). St. Croix also has some fine looking stoves (like the Hastings). I don't know anything about Lopi's, so can't comment on them.

If looking at used, probably the best indicators of how they have been maintained is to look in the burn pot and back behind the ash pan at the exhaust fan. If either is caked with gunk, it's a good bet that the stove wasn't maintained well. If a stove is fairly clean looking (not saying no ash, just not gunked up or messy looking), even if it was used for primary heat, it was most likely well maintained because the owner needed it to be reliable. Also, if possible, go look at the exhaust outlet outside the house - if that is clean and not gunked up, it is probably a knowledgeable owner.

 

Love both my Harmans and had a few less expensive stove previous a lot less expensive ! So as mentioned above pellet stoves require maintance and depending on your availability of time it would determine how much you want to spend on a stove not entirely on your availability to maintain your stove but many other factors as again listed above.

I have family members who have both much less expensive stoves and yet another brand which is Quadrafire and they are quite happy with them but they are both inserts . So depending on your life situation members have given you a few options all which are coming from people whom are using or have used pellet stoves to supplement or most have used to heat their home with it being their primary heat as I do myself.

I wish you luck on your quest but have a feeling if you are using Propane for your heat once you have and install a pellet stove it will become your primary source of heat.

Good Luck

 

I have 2 englanders, I care for 3 (my brothers as well) and all 3 have been super reliable as long as i keep them clean. I have also worked on a few other brands including quadrafire. They all have good points and not so good "features". Quadrafires seem to make it easy to empty the burn pot by pulling a lever, but on my englander, i have to remove the burn pot, dump it and scrape it. My englanders have bigger hoppers. one the p25 pdvc has an extended hopper and a long long runtime. my main one, which i love has a built in large hopper, works on a thermostat. It can light itself when it calls for heat or raise and lower the burn according to the stat. I keep mine in on/off mode because i rigged it to a wifi honeywell stat and now i can turn it on and off with my cell phone.
Quads to me seem more finicky but then again people only call me when theres a problem. They dont call to tell me their stove is running awesome. I firmly believe that no matter what brand of stove you buy, the cleaner you keep it the better it will run and the more heat you will get for your money in pellets.

like the post above, list all the qualities that are important to you, and how much you are willing to upkeep it and how often. buy a stove that is closest to matching the list.

 

Well said......couldn't have said it better myself