I just wanted to drop you guys a note and say thanks for all the information that you have here. I have been reading these forums for the better part of 6 months before I got our pellet stove installed about three weeks ago.
So after reading all the forum conversations I could find, I ended up with the Heatilator Cab50. I know, some people don't like it, some have returned it, and some love it. I decided to go with the Cab50 because I wanted something that was in the 50,000 BTU range to reduce our oil consumption and would not break the bank. I also wanted something that my wife wouldn't have to mess around with when I am at work so the large hopper was a plus. She is home with our 7 month old right now most of the time (another reason we needed a pellet stove; so we could heat the house to a comfortable temperature!).
I couldn't justify spending the money on something like a Harman because we bought the stove to save money. Our break even on the stove, install, and two tons of pellets will be two years. Not to mention we will be living at a comfortable temperature during this time and not the 65 degrees we have been living with when we heated with just oil. I also liked the idea of being able to buy pellets a few bags at at time if we ran out.. $30 or $40 bucks on pellets is a lot different than buying 100 gallons of oil.
From what I have read, if you keep up with the cleaning of the pellet stove, you will be fine. I don't mind performing regular maintenance on the stove (in fact, I kind of enjoy it
) and I bought the ash vacuum that home depot sells. The ash vacuum is ok; you have to knock the ash off the first filter every time you use it or the suction is pitiful. So far we have burned through 3 bags of MWP's and 1 bag of Cornith pellets. I bought two tons of MWP's ($209 per ton) from Home Depot and had them delivered for $65. I still need to load the last ton from the pallet to my basement probably tomorrow.
Here are some pics of the install. The install went ehh, ok. I purchased the stove from McVety's in Yarmouth Maine and that was fine (paid full price). One thing that I was not crazy about was the subcontracted install. I guess I didn't realize that McVety's really has nothing to do with the install once you buy the stove. They pretty much just send some guy they know to your house to install the stove and you pay him directly. After the install, I never did hear back from McVery's to inquire how the install went or anything. The installer clearly knew what he was doing but a little rough around the edges and had a very.. adversarial relationship with his hired helper (maybe his son?). They did manages to scratch the crap out of the cheap hearth pad I bought when putting the stove on it.
I am running out of time here to write this up but will update on stover performance so far when I have some more time. Again, thanks for having this great resource, it really helped me out in making some key decisions when buying our first pellet stove!
Nate
So after reading all the forum conversations I could find, I ended up with the Heatilator Cab50. I know, some people don't like it, some have returned it, and some love it. I decided to go with the Cab50 because I wanted something that was in the 50,000 BTU range to reduce our oil consumption and would not break the bank. I also wanted something that my wife wouldn't have to mess around with when I am at work so the large hopper was a plus. She is home with our 7 month old right now most of the time (another reason we needed a pellet stove; so we could heat the house to a comfortable temperature!).
I couldn't justify spending the money on something like a Harman because we bought the stove to save money. Our break even on the stove, install, and two tons of pellets will be two years. Not to mention we will be living at a comfortable temperature during this time and not the 65 degrees we have been living with when we heated with just oil. I also liked the idea of being able to buy pellets a few bags at at time if we ran out.. $30 or $40 bucks on pellets is a lot different than buying 100 gallons of oil.
From what I have read, if you keep up with the cleaning of the pellet stove, you will be fine. I don't mind performing regular maintenance on the stove (in fact, I kind of enjoy it
) and I bought the ash vacuum that home depot sells. The ash vacuum is ok; you have to knock the ash off the first filter every time you use it or the suction is pitiful. So far we have burned through 3 bags of MWP's and 1 bag of Cornith pellets. I bought two tons of MWP's ($209 per ton) from Home Depot and had them delivered for $65. I still need to load the last ton from the pallet to my basement probably tomorrow. Here are some pics of the install. The install went ehh, ok. I purchased the stove from McVety's in Yarmouth Maine and that was fine (paid full price). One thing that I was not crazy about was the subcontracted install. I guess I didn't realize that McVety's really has nothing to do with the install once you buy the stove. They pretty much just send some guy they know to your house to install the stove and you pay him directly. After the install, I never did hear back from McVery's to inquire how the install went or anything. The installer clearly knew what he was doing but a little rough around the edges and had a very.. adversarial relationship with his hired helper (maybe his son?). They did manages to scratch the crap out of the cheap hearth pad I bought when putting the stove on it.
I am running out of time here to write this up but will update on stover performance so far when I have some more time. Again, thanks for having this great resource, it really helped me out in making some key decisions when buying our first pellet stove!
Nate
), than we would go with a Harman too. The whole idea behind this grand venture was cheap heat!
