anyone here have a pellet stove?

[mtquinn]

What are the things we should look for in a pellet stove? Is Lowes a good place to get one? I don't want to buy one over $1500, as we don't need one that would heat more than 1500 sq ft (even though our house is double that size we really only need that one room heated. we spend most of our time there). Plus, our upstairs is on a separate heating system.

Advice, please! Thanks.

 

[npmommie]

we have a Harman stove insert, we love it!
its this one
http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/products.asp?cat=inserts&prd=pellet-inserts

it heats our entire house, about 2000 square feet, upstairs and downstairs.
the heat it gives off is so nice, its much cozier and warmer to me than when we used oil heat.

we bought ours at a stove shop.
they came and installed it, and will service it too if needed.
you will love a pellet stove!

 

[3boymthr]

We have a breckwell and love, love, love it. http://breckwell.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=35 Our's is the insert. DH is in HVAC so installed the stove himself.

No matter what you will still have to do some maintenance yourself. The glass on the stove needs to be cleaned daily and the stove needs to have the ashes and clinkers cleaned out at a minimum of once a week. I do all that daily and it takes me about 10 minutes if not less. We have an old vacuum with HEPA bags to keep the dust down when I vacuum it out.

You can get an okay stove at Lowe's but I have to say we didn't think they were the best buy for the money - we got ours from a dealer in WA state and had it shipped here to MA for less money than the stoves cost at Lowes. We also liked the fact that the pellets on the Breckwell feed from the top instead of the bottom so less maintenance to keep the auger clear.

Our home is 1,400 square feet and the stove heats the entire house. The house is a lot of small rooms but only thing needed to move the heat from the living room where the stove is to the rest of the house is a small but powerful fan placed on the floor in the doorway of the living room (we have a vornado - it's amazing how well it works to circulate the heat).

Don't forget to investigate that $1,500 government rebate.

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

we have a Harman stove insert, we love it!
its this one
http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/products.asp?cat=inserts&prd=pellet-inserts

it heats our entire house, about 2000 square feet, upstairs and downstairs.
the heat it gives off is so nice, its much cozier and warmer to me than when we used oil heat.

we bought ours at a stove shop.
they came and installed it, and will service it too if needed.
you will love a pellet stove!

We have the same Harman stove (and also our neighbor). I would call around to different stove shops. We have 2 close by that were expensive, then we found a store 30 min away in NH that was much cheaper with installation.

Just an FYI, if there is ever a time when it is frigid, I mean like 5 degrees out make sure you run your nomal heat occassionally if you have baseboards (not forced hot air). We have baseboards and our pellet stove is in the family room. We had a night where it got down to 5 degrees and since the pellet stove was doing all the heating, the water wasn't running in the baseboards and stayed still in the pipes. There was a teeny draft in the basement where the utilities come in through the side of the house and froze the pipe under my dining room. Cost us $400 and we added antifreeze to our lines. The heating company said they see it happen all the time when it is frigid!

 

[formill]

We have two and love them- heats the whole house although we do have to make sure furnace comes on when it is really cold to make sure pipes in basement/under house don't freeze. There is some work/mess/dust to cleaning them but for us it is worth it and the hauling bags of pellets around. (40 lbs) We have also had problems at the end of the heating season buying pellets- we try and buy enough for the whole year in September or whenever stores get them in- this year we bought 300 bags and they take up one half of a 2 car garage. The one stove we have is auto ignition just push a button-the other you have to light- it is not a big deal but the auto one is nice. There is a whole forum on pellet stoves with lots of information. http://www.iburnpellets.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=300054&func=listcat and this one that is for corn burners but lots of discussion on pellets too http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=5477