Osburn hybrid 45 mf pellet stove opinions

[mikeesuee]

with raising fuel prices, we are thinking of getting one and was wondering what current users think about them TIA

 

[mikeesuee]

bump

 

[vetrik]

We just had a pellet stove insert installed on Friday. The cost of oil scared me so much when I did the math for next winter! We started researching pellet stoves about a month ago, and purchased early this month.

We looked at a lot of brands and visited a few different stores. We ended up going with a St. Croix insert from Fireplace Showcase in Seekonk. We got a good deal, and they have been good to work with. Unfortunately, I don't really know anything about the Osburn that you are looking at. Before going with the St. Croix, we had looked at Harman, Enviro, Lopi and Quadrafire.

 

[TomD]

I have bever heard of an Osburn. Harmon is considered King of the Pellet stoves and Quadrafire bought them out. I purchased a quadrafire becuaseI got a smoking deal on it from a friend that was selling it after a year.

Dealer support is most important. I do not trust my St Croix dealer so I did not bother looking at them.

Remember that price is not everything when it comes to these stoves. Do your research on whatever brand you decide to go with before you buy.

Good luck and keep us posted


Off topic

what part of RI are you 2 from?

I am from Westerly(moved to Nh in 91)

 

[Alexander]

We have two that we heat our house exclusively with. The first one we bought 12 years ago is a Breckwell. It still runs like it is new. We did have to replace the blower motor this winter, but that is it! It runs everyday from November through April. The second one we bought two years ago, it is a Country. This one is in the living room and is on and off as needed. This too runs great and have had no problems at all. We burn between 6 and 7 tons of pellets a year. At $200/ton, our heating bill is a grand total of $1200-$1400 for 6 months. Our house is never below 75 degrees all winter long. That is a far cry from my co-workers who have their thermostats set at 65 and are paying upwards of $600/month!

 

[vetrik]

I have bever heard of an Osburn. Harmon is considered King of the Pellet stoves and Quadrafire bought them out. I purchased a quadrafire becuaseI got a smoking deal on it from a friend that was selling it after a year.

Dealer support is most important. I do not trust my St Croix dealer so I did not bother looking at them.

Remember that price is not everything when it comes to these stoves. Do your research on whatever brand you decide to go with before you buy.

Good luck and keep us posted


Off topic

what part of RI are you 2 from?

I am from Westerly(moved to Nh in 91)

I agree about the dealer support. We visited 4 stores, and there were 2 that we felt comfortable buying from. Based on that, we had it narrowed down to Enviro and St. Croix, which were the brands that the 2 different dealers carried. Ironically, they were the 2 stores closest to our homes, the 2 stores were did not have personal recommendations for, and the 2 stores we visited last (we actually went to the store we ended up buying from solely because we were out looking at them all day on a Saturday, and they were the only ones still open when we got back to our area, then we ended up liking them the best).

I grew up in Western Coventry, and I moved to Cranston about 2 years ago. The Westerly area is nice - I don't get down to South County much, but my friend just moved to Richmond.

 

[angwill]

about how much does a pellet stove run?

 

[Alexander]

about how much does a pellet stove run?

We paid about $4800 for our Breckwell in 1996 and around $3600 for our Country in 2006. The Breckwell is so much better made than the newer stoves. It is has a lot thicker steel and is all around a better made stove. It doesn't have an auto-ignitor or a thermostat though. We don't expect the Country to last as long as our Breckwell has.

We looked at a Quadfire both in 1996 and 2006. The price was exactly the same both times, but in 2006 the stoves were not built nearly as well as they were in 1996. I guess to keep the costs from going up, they lowered the building standards.

 

[lck33]

Harmon P68 here and we absolutely positively love it. Got it last December, paid about $6,000 installed with all the extra chrome and a free ton of pellets. Live in the Hudson Valley in New York and heated our 2,500 square foot home with 5 ton of pellets this past year. The house stayed very cozy warm (73 - 75) all winter. We paid $225.00 a ton for the premium pellets so about a total of $900.00 to heat all of last year.

This year we just purchased 3 ton of pellets at $240.00 a ton and put them away in the garage for this coming winter. When they get more in, we will purchased 2 more pellets so we should be set for the heating season.

They are very easy to keep clean. My DH doesn't even need to touch it and I keep a ash bucket filled with pellets next to it, so that I do not need to lift the big bags of pellets. I do have DH keep that and the hopper filled though.

Good Luck with your decision.

Also, it is nice to watch the fire burning. We don't even watch the TV anymore in the winter.

Elsie

 

[angwill]

Thank you all for the info. I was wondering how we would make it through the winter paying for oil since if it goes up to $5 a gallon it will cost us $1200 a month for the coldest months. I don't know why I never thought about a pellet stove but I don't know anyone with one either. I found a dealer selling the pellet stoves close to us and we are going to look into them next week. With the prices quoted I figure we should come out even after about one winter plus it is a selling point if we do decide to sell in the next year or two.

 

[gilby]

we have a corn stove by st. croix and I love it, we can convert to pellets. we spent 2400 on ours and wouldn't hesitate in buying another one. It is a constant heat and you do get spoiled on how warm the house is. I bought two racks and dry my towels by it, so I save the money of running the dryer to dry big heavy towels.
Our highest gas bill, we have gas stove is around 30.00. Not too many can say that on heating a 2400 sq. foot house.

 

[GRAMPS2578]

installed the osburn pellet stove in january 08, very satisfied but the blower is a little louder than other stoves i have seen. my stove sits in the living room but we don't use this room because most of our time is spent in the family room. the other problem is that their are no local dealers to service if you have a problem. the price was good at $2200.00 . i understand the new models have a quieter blower but the price is around $2800.00. overall i am satisfied. cut my gas bill in half. good luck

 

[twoeeyy]

just bought an Enviro fireplace insert a few weeks ago. We paid just under 2,000 ( we will install it ourselves )

We paid 275.00 a Ton delivered and had 3 tons delivered and we already have them nicely put away in the basement.

 

[nelle]

Where/how do you store your pellets and how big is a ton?? Are they gonna fill up my garage or just a small box?? We have a Lopi wood burner that we use to heat the lower level of our house but it's not enough to heat the upstairs.
Thanks,

 

[nuzmom]

where does everyone have their pellet stove installed?

We have a fireplace in our family room that we'd like to convert. There's a flat screen TV above it. The bottom of the flat screen is about 4 feet from the top of the fireplace opening. I've heard that having a TV above the fireplace isn't "good". Does anyone else have this situation?

We also could unstall a freestanding model in our basement, but our kids have a playroom down there (DS12 & DS7). I assume the sides get HOT and that would NOT be a good idea?

 

[gullyf]

... I assume the sides get HOT and that would NOT be a good idea?

Actually our pellet stove exterior stays well below a temperature that would cause a burn. The only part that might feel moderately hot is the door and window area, and even that is just uncomfortable to touch on ours. It has never caused any burns, even though it is in the middle of our living area and people have to walk by it all day long. We have heated with it for something like 11 years now, and our twin 5-year olds never had an issue with it.

Certainly designs might differ in this aspect, but most pellet stoves seem to be designed for low clearance applications and therefore keep their exteriors cool.

 

[CherylA]

I'm in CT. Having a Harmon Accentra installed at the end of August. I just called around for pellets and the cheapest I found was $270/ton and that was if you take delivery by the end of July. Everywhere else was about $290/ton. I understand there were better prices (around $230-$250/ton) if you bought in April. I get my 4 tons delivered Monday. I was told the pallets are 4'x4' I bought all 4 tons at once because A) by buying them early I got a better price and B) the delivery charge was $65 1st ton and $15/ton thereafter. I'm excited about my stove but boy was it expensive! We'll be looking at about $4100-$4500 depending upon the type of install they have to do, plus the cost of pellets, still in less thn 2 years, if oil prices stay the same it will have paid for itself. Not a bad turnaround for return on investment IMHO.

 

[nuzmom]

Actually our pellet stove exterior stays well below a temperature that would cause a burn. The only part that might feel moderately hot is the door and window area, and even that is just uncomfortable to touch on ours. It has never caused any burns, even though it is in the middle of our living area and people have to walk by it all day long. We have heated with it for something like 11 years now, and our twin 5-year olds never had an issue with it.

Certainly designs might differ in this aspect, but most pellet stoves seem to be designed for low clearance applications and therefore keep their exteriors cool.

Wow - thanks. I need to check into this a bit more!!!

 

[twoeeyy]

Where/how do you store your pellets and how big is a ton?? Are they gonna fill up my garage or just a small box?? We have a Lopi wood burner that we use to heat the lower level of our house but it's not enough to heat the upstairs.
Thanks,

Each manfg. packs differently but our were 40 pound bags 75 bags per pallet for a total of 1.5 tons per pallet so we got 2 pallets= 3 tons.

We have them in our basement. Our pile is apprx. 6 ft long by 4 ft wide and is about 5ft high. It is actually not that big. I just made sure that we got them stacked nice and neatly.

 

[nuzmom]

where does everyone have their pellet stove installed? We have a fireplace in our family room that we'd like to convert. There's a flat screen TV above it. The bottom of the flat screen is about 4 feet from the top of the fireplace opening. I've heard that having a TV above the fireplace isn't "good". Does anyone else have this situation?

Does anyone have a TV above where their pellet stove is? Or, was anyone warned about having a flat screen TV too close to it?