Pellet Stoves vs Wood Stoves

[Peter Stahl]

What do you think of Pellet stoves vs wood stoves. Was thinking the Pellet stove would be easier then lugging and stacking wood. Any pros or cons? If you have and like them what brand would you suggest. Chimney is in good condition will be getting it inspected to be sure.

[Joe Pelonio]

I don;t have either, but my parents have a woodstove and a friend heats his shop with a pellet stove. To me it's the price of the fuel. Pellets are still about $5 a sack, while firewood has crept up to about $300 a cord
for split maple and fir. My parents by a truckload of logs and spend the whole summer cutting and splitting to save $.

[David G Baker]

Depending on where you live and the availability of wood vs pellets you may be ahead going with wood because the price of pellets can vary quite a bit and the sellers have you over a barrel. If you live in a agricultural area where there are plenty of crops available a multi fuel burner may be a good choice but as an example, a friend of mine purchased a corn burner when corn was around $100 a ton, two years later it was near $225 a ton. I live in an agricultural area of Mid Michigan and was very surprised at the price going up so high. Pellets and grains are much safer to burn, are a lot cleaner, you won't have to be concerned about bugs and snakes living in your grains or pellets. You can get a hopper and bin that can automatically feed your furnace so the only maintenance is cleaning the stove and getting the hopper filled as needed. If available, natural gas is still probably the best heating source at this time.

[Chuck Saunders]

With a pellet stove you have to cut your mistakes up into very small pieces

[Glenn Clabo]

The non-starter for me was that Pellet stoves/fireplace inserts require electricity. Wood or gas doesn't.

[John Shuk]

I have a pellet stove and in some ways it is good. I have a Harmon Accentra. I find that it is a real pain to clean compared to what owners of other stoves tell me. There are lots of spots the ash builds up that are hard to get to. About 2 hours to clean well and should be done every 7 to 10 days. Pellets aren't exactly inexpensive these days either. About $250 to $300 a ton around here.
A pellet stove probably has a lesser chance of burning down a home. You aren't likely to wind up with a nasty burn if you touch it while hot.
Wood is heavy and processing has safety concerns. Where I live gathering wood is pretty easy though. Personally I prefer the harder more physical work of dealing with wood. I would invest in a log splitter but there is still lifting, moving, stacking, and covering. Seems keeping the stove running is a bit less work.
Knowing what I do now I would likely have gone with wood in the beginning.

[Michael Wetzel]

With a pellet stove you have to cut your mistakes up into very small pieces

What mistakes? We don't make mistakes.... :rolleyes:


Pro & Cons for each:


Pellet -
Pro's
You don't need an expensive chimney
Smaller footprint since your spacing can be as little as 4 to 6" to a wall.


Con's
Bags of pellets can get expensive during peak use
stove is more expensive


Wood Stove -
Pro's
free wood if available
stoves are cheaper

Cons
Chimney or expensive SS pipe.
More lost space for "safe" area around the stove
Dirty compared to pellets

[Terry Achey]

Peter:

I've burned wood, coal and pellets over the years. It depends on your application. If this is intended to be your primary heat source for your home, I much prefer a high quality coal stove over wood or pellets. Feed it twice a day and have a very nice, even heat with little chimeny concerns. I burned wood exclusively for three years and find that even with so called air-tight models, they still are very needy in terms of regular feedings and chimeny concerns. Also, the type of wood burned makes a big difference in btu output and feed rate. BTW- no such thing as "free wood" when you consider chain sawing, trucking, gas, repairs, etc.

Pellet stoves are terrific. I heat my entire workshop all winter with a Harmon P68. Thermostatically controlled room temp; auto feed hopper; automatic stop-start ignition; thru the wall vent and outside comsbustion air in single vent pipe; and virtually no maintenance all heating season. I'm confused by what John stated that he nmust clean his pellet stove every 7 to 10 days. Something may be wrong with your stove John assuming you're burning low ash pellets (less than 1% ash). My stove runs pretty much non-stop from Oct/Nov thru to April without any cleaning. All I do is pour a bag of pellets into the hopper every day or two. At the end of the year I get less than one gallon of ashes from my pan. I burn about one ton of pellets annually which is 50 fourty pound bags @ about $4/bag.

I highly recommend a pellet stove for home or shop. If possible, buy a hig quality stove with auto controls and ignition. Using outside air for comsbustion is nice for shops with lots of saw dust, too. Check out the Harmon stoves. http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/products.asp?cat=stoves&prd=pellet-stoves

Terry

[Peter Stahl]

Not a primary heat source just something to warm the living room up during a really cold spell. Thanks for all the replies, keep em coming.

[Tim Morton]

Not a primary heat source just something to warm the living room up during a really cold spell. Thanks for all the replies, keep em coming.

going on my 4th season burning pellets...harmon xxv (sort of looks like a wood stove compared to most that look like black boxes.

The only disadvantage to pellets vs wood would be that you miss out on the smokey cozy atmosphere of wood burning stoves. Pellets are just as warm....just not as "warm" if you know what i mean.

Pellet stoves also have a fan that produces some noise...so if it is in your your TV/media room you will hear it and you may find that it bothers you.

[Chris Damm]

The best price I have seen for pellets was $209 @ ton, while dried oak firewood was about $75 @ ton ($130 @ cord). You are burning some expensive fuel for the convenience of using pellets.

[Doug Sewell]

I love my pellet stove. for me, i'ts easier to get the pellets than to get the wood. But if you lose power it gets ugly very fast. It uses a fan to supply the air to the fire. If the fan stops then the pellets that are in the firebox will just sit there and smolder. On my Breckwell stove there is small opening around the heat tube cleaner handle that smoke will come through if the fan quits. If I am around this isn't too big of a deal, I just have to take the firebox out. But if I'm gone it will fill the house with smoke. It's not dangerous just a pain. I shut down the stove about once a month to clean it. The more ash build-up that is in it means less heat out of it. I go through just about two tons of pellets to heat my house, cost about $450.00 (last years cost). I live in Atlanta for the past 20 years so 45 feels as cold as -10 did when I was living in NE Ohio. the

[Brad Wood]

we use a wood stove. Some friends down the road just replaced their wood stove with a pellet stove (well, before last season). He doesn't like it, he says it isn't the same type of heat (I dunno)

Anyway, we've contemplated switching but my wife likes the flame compared to the little torch flame you get from the pellet stove (our stove is a glass front, so you see the fire).

Wood is a pain in the arz and a friggen chore at the bottom of my list of things to do around the house... hate it. I also struggle with local sources providing properly cured wood... frustrating.

I'm on the fence. I like our stove, the type of heat it puts out, the "look" in the living room, etc... but I hate dealing with the wood.

[Jim Podsedly]

I love my pellet stove. for me, i'ts easier to get the pellets than to get the wood. But if you lose power it gets ugly very fast. It uses a fan to supply the air to the fire. If the fan stops then the pellets that are in the firebox will just sit there and smolder. On my Breckwell stove there is small opening around the heat tube cleaner handle that smoke will come through if the fan quits. If I am around this isn't too big of a deal, I just have to take the firebox out. But if I'm gone it will fill the house with smoke. It's not dangerous just a pain. I shut down the stove about once a month to clean it. The more ash build-up that is in it means less heat out of it. I go through just about two tons of pellets to heat my house, cost about $450.00 (last years cost). I live in Atlanta for the past 20 years so 45 feels as cold as -10 did when I was living in NE Ohio. the

I would think there would be a good market for a battery backup mechansim for these burners that require electric. Similar to a battery backup for sump pumps. Usually when you need the sump running is when there is bad weather and the electric goes out. Better yet for a sump backup is a pump that runs on water. Then you don't need to worry about your battery running out of juice.

jim

[Tommy Curtiss]

Yes I have one of these too,,we put it in our living room just for that ''old farm house'' look to our house ( it is only 4yrs old ),,we heat our whole 1 1/2 story house by running the heating unit fan,,just on fan only,,and it circulates heat thru the 2600 sf house,,we burn about 1 1.2 tons a yr at 225.oo a ton. wood verses pellets,,,,pellets,,the bags are 30lbs,,the wife can refill it herself:D

( I am in Iraq right now!!! so I'm not that lazy,,just far from home:D)

[Paul Atkins]

I was looking into a wind up motor - sort of a clockwork or old phonograph motor. My sister has a pellet stove and only electric heat otherwise and in a rural area that loses power every year for a while. You might have to wind it up every half hour or so. Any ideas on this?

[Rob Young]

going on my 4th season burning pellets...harmon xxv (sort of looks like a wood stove compared to most that look like black boxes.

The only disadvantage to pellets vs wood would be that you miss out on the smokey cozy atmosphere of wood burning stoves. Pellets are just as warm....just not as "warm" if you know what i mean.

Pellet stoves also have a fan that produces some noise...so if it is in your your TV/media room you will hear it and you may find that it bothers you.

Some of the pellet stoves offer ceramic inserts that sit on the front of the fire box to make it look a little bit more like a pile of wood. I've seen some that look great an others that don't. But I can't say now who makes them, I think they were offered as accessories by the stove manufacturer in most cases.

Another nice feature is a small air wash that blows up the front of the glass in the door. This does two things, first it keeps the ash from sticking to the glass and second it tends to cause any flames in the firebox to dance a little bit and "lick" the edge of the box as the wash pulls by. A little more entertaining than a glowing pile of pellets.

[Rob Young]

I was looking into a wind up motor - sort of a clockwork or old phonograph motor. My sister has a pellet stove and only electric heat otherwise and in a rural area that loses power every year for a while. You might have to wind it up every half hour or so. Any ideas on this?

Depending on the type of pellet stove, this may not work. I've seen several that use small diameter (2" inlet and 4" outlet) piping so they need a pretty decent motor and fan to pull air through the firebox. The room air which is not allowed to mix with combustion air is pulled around the outside of the firebox and through heat-exchange tubes before exiting back into the room. Again, because of the convoluted air path I could image there is some backpressure and so that motor and fan too need a little bit of guts.

I've also seen a few stoves where the room air blowers failed and the stoves overheat. Pretty tough on the paint and trim pieces of the stove. Not to mention your skin should you touch the stove... Properly designed, there should be an over-temperature cut-out switch installed somewhere in the firebox so that if it gets too hot, the stove stops feeding pellets (corn, whatever) and lets the fire die down. Some controllers are even a little bit smarter and will ramp up their firebox air blower to burn out the fire in the box and cool the stove with outside air.

The compact pellet stoves really aren't designed for true radiant heating, they need the forced air to work properly.

[Paul Atkins]

I was just thinking of the auger and forgot about the fans! I guess backup batteries and inverter might be the best in this case.

[Tim Morton]

The best price I have seen for pellets was $209 @ ton, while dried oak firewood was about $75 @ ton ($130 @ cord). You are burning some expensive fuel for the convenience of using pellets.

Here in VT we pay about $165 a cord for cut wood delivered dry....and it takes about an hour to stack a cord of wood...maybe less if you work at it.

We also pay about $275 for a ton of pellets...delivered and stacked int he garage.

For every 2 tons of pellets burned you would expect to burn 2-5 to 3 cords of wood... so $550 vs $500 plus 2 hours labor.

So yeah its cheaper to burn wood....just not...by as much as you are saying.

However ....in return i can fill the pellet stove twice a day at about 2 minutes per fill and not have to give it a second thought. I decied i was willing to pay the extra money to let me sleep thru the night;)

[Rob Young]

I was just thinking of the auger and forgot about the fans! I guess backup batteries and inverter might be the best in this case.

As far the the auger goes, some of the more highly controlled stoves start and stop their auger feed motors on a timed basis. The cup size of the auger and its continuous rotation rate meter the pellets. By stopping the auger you slow the feed rate, say for a lower heat or fire setting. This would be done in combination with reducing the fan RPM on the blower that is pulling combustion air through the chamber.

Clever, out of the box thinking with the clockworks. But I'm pretty sure it would make the whole contraption too complicated and convoluted. Steampunk engineering at its finest. :)

[Francis Robinson]

I was looking into a wind up motor - sort of a clockwork or old phonograph motor. My sister has a pellet stove and only electric heat otherwise and in a rural area that loses power every year for a while. You might have to wind it up every half hour or so. Any ideas on this?



I use a pellet stove in a hard to heat solar room on the west wing. The rest of the house is heated with a big wood furnace. The gas company really ticked me off a few years ago and I demanded that they disconnect it and remove the meter at once. I could switch the old furnaces to LP but it would be more costly than I want. I have been burning wood since 1965 in at least one building ever since. It is a hard habit to break. :) If not rushed I actually enjoy cutting wood. Even if we had to buy the wood it would still be cheaper than about anything else.
I have used 3 different pellet stoves and just put a new one in a rental house in the next county. They didn't want to get trapped into LP bills and just finished paying off last years electric bills. With the pellet stove they can know exactly where they stand at any time and can buy it slowly along where with LP that would have to pay a big bunch at once. They have been good renters so we bought the pellet stove for the house.
It is a Breckwell Big E just like the one I have used for about 6 years now. I can highly recommend one. I have had two England Stove Works pellet stoves (the second one was a bargain price but was not a bargain long term) and would not wish one on anybody. The ESW stove will only hold one 40# bag and will barely run overnight. They use about 2 pounds an hour on the lowest setting. The Breckwell will hold about 2 1/2 bags and will get all the way down to about a pound an hour on the lowest setting. We run it on the lowest setting most of the winter. The ESW units suck their warm air blower air right across the top by the front edge of the hopper. You have to shut the blower down and fill the stove quickly then turn it back on to keep it from sucking any dust in the pellets in the air stream and blowing it all over the house. The Breckwell pulls the same air in from under the stove instead. No dust problem. There are other issues with the ESW units, the biggest being that they gave constant trouble. The Breckwell has been trouble free. It is an excellent stove and quite inexpensive at around $1100 at some farm stores. I have a very good friend and close neighbor who is one of those guys that thinks that you always have to spend more to get something good. He has put about 3 to 4 g's in buying an expensive big name pellet stove 3 times now and has had all kinds of trouble with them. My old Breckwell seems to think it is the Energizer Bunny. :) I would buy another one tomorrow. It sure is hard to save much money spending that much buying high priced new stoves every year but he keeps trying.
Someday we will need to switch to a standard heating source as we get older but for now the alternate fuels save a lot of money and we feel like the exercise is good for keeping us going.
We have one storage room closed off upstairs but we are still heating around 4,000 sq. ft. in the house. I also use wood in the wood shop and the farm shop.
I have to have a wood stove in the wood shop. It is the only way I can pretend to ever keep it clean. :D
-
I got to rambling and forgot to answer the question... Several years ago I bought a power inverter big enough to operate the wood furnace blowers, the pellet stove and a light or two. I can hook it to the car, one of the trucks or any one of several tractors including a small 2 cylinder diesel that runs about three years on a tank of fuel at low load. ;) I could also hook it to the electric golf cart if needed.

[Peter Stahl]

This post has been great so far and hope to hear more on the stoves people like and hate. I hate putting out a lot of money for something I'll be stuck with. Keep the replies coming!:)

[Al Willits]

I've burnt wood but not pellets, but if I went back again, I'd go wood, considering it looks like they're gonna keep jamming ethanol down our throats I doubt corn is going to get any cheaper.

Wood needs no electricity, easy to clean ash pit out and if you burn it right, little maintenance on the chimney.

Wood can usually be found anywhere, any time of the year, you can even go cut it yourself, not so sure about corn being available and growing it is usually not a option for most.

Plus if you ever sell it, I'd bet it'd be easier to get rid of a wood stove.

Al

[Myk Rian]

You can get wood for free. You have to pay for pellets.

[Paul Atkins]

I looked into a pellet making machine for my wood waste - That is another whole production - just what I need, another job---