Pellet fireplace reviews?

[Elite]

Wondering if anyone has a pellet stove? Currently bought a new house and have a natural gas fireplace insert upstairs but I am looking to add a fireplace downstairs now,

I grew up running and maintaining a wood stove and definitely miss the warm cozy heat they throw off, I am wondering if the pellet stove heat is a little more cozy and warming then the natural gas inserts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ralphie]

I don’t have one but several friends do. They are pretty close to the nice feel of a wood stove. Way better than a natural gas or propane fireplace.

 

[Rob960]

I heat a 1300sq/ft ranch house with a pellet stove. Nice and cozy. Prefer it over the hot water baseboard. Harman is probably one of if not the best for stoves and insert.

 

[VernAK]

Pellet Stoves are very popular here and many friends heat their homes with the pellet stove in this very cold environment. There is very little ash to dump and they do require occasional cleaning.

Friends usually have Home Depot deliver several tons of pellets each fall. There are also local pellet manufacturers in the area,

 

[cmahoney]

I heat my 2400 sqft house with one of these, on low. We rarely use the central heat. I probably go through a pallet and a half or slightly less a year.

I have to clean it about every 2 weeks during the winter which takes about 10 minutes. I’ve had it for 5 years and changed the ignihhter once, other than that I haven’t had any issues.

I had a wood stove in my last house and as much as I liked it, the pellet stove saves more time than the free firewood was worth.

The negatives are noise, and reliance on power to run.

https://www.harmanstoves.com/products/accentra52i-tc-pellet-insert

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gseith]

I had one years ago and went to wood due to the cost of the pellets. It was $125 a ton at first and slowly jumped to $250. The heat was nice. It maintained a 1200sf house in NE Oh.
My brother uses coal and I would use that after wood. The feeder is gravity fed so electricity isn’t necessary. And coal provides more heat using less material than pellet making it more efficient.
And it doesn’t smell like you think when burned through a good stove.
I can go on with more benefits if you want to hear more.

 

[Voyageur]

I had one years ago and went to wood due to the cost of the pellets. It was $125 a ton at first and slowly jumped to $250. The heat was nice. It maintained a 1200sf house in NE Oh.
My brother uses coal and I would use that after wood. The feeder is gravity fed so electricity isn’t necessary. And coal provides more heat using less material than pellet making it more efficient.
And it doesn’t smell like you think when burned through a good stove.
I can go on with more benefits if you want to hear more.

More please....

 

[12wander]

We’ve had a Harmon pellet stove for several years and does a great job at heating the entire house living area by turning on one ceiling fan to circulate the air.
The only cons for us is it doesn’t heat the basement so you need to keep an eye on the temp down there. We use a indoor/outdoor thermometer for that and put the outdoor probe in the basement and keep the display In the kitchen. It’s also reliant on electricity but is not a high voltage consumption machine and our generator has no issues keeping up with it and the other stuff that’s “needed”.

 

[Ewaragnar]

We have a Harman allure 50 in the basement that came with the house - can heat the whole house. I did have to replace the ignitor but maintenance is easy. Last place I put in a wood burning insert and loved it. I’ll still add a free standing wood stove at some point because the heat is just different… but the Harman will stick around and I liked it much more than I thought.

 

[Elite]

We have a Harman allure 50 in the basement that came with the house - can heat the whole house. I did have to replace the ignitor but maintenance is easy. Last place I put in a wood burning insert and loved it. I’ll still add a free standing wood stove at some point because the heat is just different… but the Harman will stick around and I liked it much more than I thought.

How well does the heat travel up stairs?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ewaragnar]

How well does the heat travel up stairs?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Much better than i thought! It is an open stairway without a door which makes a big difference. We sometimes turn our hvac fan on if we really want to move it around to all rooms.

 

[Gseith]

With a coal stove you get more efficiency with a hotter heat using less fuel, and it can easily be delivered in bulk. A small dump truck brings his and dumps it into a storage crate, which doesn’t need to be completely dry. It’s a rock and won’t absorb water. Burns cleaner in a chimney not leaving much creosote build up. His stove has a gravity fed hopper which he fills once a day, no need for electricity to work. He does have a blower that needs power.
His stove also can burn wood which is good for the shoulder seasons.
And a ton of coal is the same price as a ton of pellets.

 

[Backyard]

While not exactly the same, I heat a 1700 sqft split entry with a pellet stove that I burn kernel corn in.
It's in the lower level opposite the stairs. The heat travels up and heats the upstairs as evenly as the down, my up is LR, DR, and kitchen, all open with 2 BR's down a short hall. I have my furnace thermostat set to 68°, it won't kick on 'till it gets below -10 outside. It stays around 72° in the house.
Through an average MN winter I will burn about 6500 lbs.

 

[Danomite]

We had a Harmon insert installed a couple years ago and really like it. It heats most of a 3100 sf house well. I like that it can run all night and that my wife doesn't have to haul wood and start fires when I'm gone. We burn about a ton of pellets a year (in Albuquerque, so not super cold). We supplement with a wood burning stove on the other side of the house when needed.

 

[Rob960]

Also with a pellet stove you can use the ash as fertilizer.

 

[RS3579]

I’m looking into a pellet stove also. What it cost to purchase one? Say a Harmon vs a lower end one? 1850 sq for split entry home.

 

[bobr1]

I’ve been curious about them as well. How do you guys deal with power outages? Does it mess up the auger or system when power resets? I saw one post that mentioned using a generator. We have a wood mill like a mile from us and they make pellets and sell them at bulk.

 

[Backyard]

I’ve been curious about them as well. How do you guys deal with power outages? Does it mess up the auger or system when power resets? I saw one post that mentioned using a generator. We have a wood mill like a mile from us and they make pellets and sell them at bulk.

I have a St Croix, Auburn model. I (and my insurance co.) consider mine a "secondary" form of heat even though it is actually my main source. In the event of a power outage, I rely on my furnace running off my generator. I don't bother restarting my stove until I have power from the grid again which is usually less than 12 hrs or so. And no, it doesn't mess up the power board or auger. It just throws a warning light that tells me there was a power outage and shuts down. Start up is the same as any other time that I want to cold start it.
I really can't say how well it burns wood pellets as I haven't other than for starting it up. As I mentioned in my other post, I burn corn. I imagine that it's comparable though.

 

[Rob960]

For power outages I have a portable generator that I bought based on what I needed it to power. Basically the only thing I can't run is the central air and I believe the stove. I also installed a transfer switch in which I can balance the load out between the 2 phases. I used an online calculator to figure out the size generator.

 

[HiMtnHntr]

I have two quadrafires, a classic bay in the basement and a Castille upstairs. I rarely use the furnace. We live in a cold climate and burn from late August to mid June most years, 4-5 tons. In winter when they are burning a lot I clean 1x per week with ash vac. The waste ash is minimal, would fit in a small coffee can after a week of burning.