Insert vs freestanding pellet

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J

Jocko1

Burning Hunk
Feb 1, 2014
120
Jersey city,NJ
Greetings,
I have a 2600 sq ft home with a ton of windows an open floor plan and cathedral ceilings in various sections. I am looking to install a pellet insert in a fireplace that I don't use. I am considering the harman 52i due to the ascetIcs yet I am also thinking about using a freestanding unit the p 61 for higher btu. I need to modify the hearth in both situations. Any thoughts.
 
Free standing are easier to clean and provide higher btu's. I have an insert and wish I could have used a free standing. If you want looks then the insert will give you that but heat wise I think you will be disappointed.
 
Jocko1 said:
Greetings,
I have a 2600 sq ft home with a ton of windows an open floor plan and cathedral ceilings in various sections. I am looking to install a pellet insert in a fireplace that I don't use. I am considering the harman 52i due to the ascetIcs yet I am also thinking about using a freestanding unit the p 61 for higher btu. I need to modify the hearth in both situations. Any thoughts.
Click to expand...
A couple months back now I was trying to decide between the same two stoves. The beauty of the 52i kept calling me to it. Then one day the regular folks at the shop weren't in and their installer was watching the floor. We struck up a conversation about installs and general servicing and cleaning. He ran through the steps to cleaning the P61 and that was it. So easy, we have the stove running now and yes it really is like what he showed me. You have access to everything and more BTU. The decision came down to what are we trying to do. Beautify the house or heat it? The answer heat it and cut oil cost. With all that info at hand it then became a no brainer, in spite how beautiful the 52i is.

Seems to have been a good choice for us. We have had some single digit mornings since the install and my diniing room one morning was 75 when I left the temp up a bit over night. Generally I have that room, one room over from the stove room, hanging right on to 73. I'm coming up on my third cleaning and also my first ton of pellets burned. Happy happy with this choice!
 
Last edited:
Thanks,
I think I'll go with the free standing. My main goal is to heat the house not looks. Should I go with 61a or 68. I have tons of glass and sub par insulation in my house.
 
P68
 
Jocko1 said:
Thanks,
I think I'll go with the free standing. My main goal is to heat the house not looks. Should I go with 61a or 68. I have tons of glass and sub par insulation in my house.
Click to expand...
The P61 can chew some serious pellets but sub par insulation and lots of glass in 2600 sq ft makes me wonder. The P68 isn't much more money. I'd be thinking a bit on this and considering what I was going to do about heat loss issues. The P61 should more than do it with that resolved. The P68 offering added potential . It's a bit larger, have you looked at them?

I guess the bottom line is if it will be decades before you tighten the house do the P68. If a year or two the P61. Many here though will just say get the biggest you can. I'm just thinking that the P61 already can roar and chew up 3-4 bags a day if you crank it out. I average two bags day in and day out. But I keep my house at 73 even 74 deg too. We have good windows but insulation could be better especially in the south facing wall of the main house. Hope any of this helps, I'm not going to pick your stove for you !!
 
I have a 2700sf house with big open floor plan, lots of big 25yr old windows (some which have lost their seal), and tall cathedral ceilings. With the easy airflow across the bottom floor and easy/big path up the stairs, I heat my entire house with my 52i no problem. Sometimes I have to turn the feedrate up to 4 or higher when it gets to <20F, but other than that I can leave my feedrate down at 3ish. I can easily keep my downstairs at 73-74F and the upstairs will be around 70F.

I have may supplement the upstairs zone with my oil heat when it's <5F overnight.

I would say go for the P68 if you have the room as mo' BTUs is mo' betta, but don't be afraid of the 52i. It sounds like your house is setup like mine and I have absolutely no regrets about going with the insert.
 
The difference in BTU is a non factor IMHO. The P61 on max would burn through 4.5 bags per day. The P68 would be 5. Since the average user only uses maybe 2 bags a day. 3 in the coldest, you should have more than enough stove either way. I have not read anyone using over 3 bags per day.
 
IHATEPROPANE said:
The difference in BTU is a non factor IMHO. The P61 on max would burn through 4.5 bags per day. The P68 would be 5. Since the average user only uses maybe 2 bags a day. 3 in the coldest, you should have more than enough stove either way. I have not read anyone using over 3 bags per day.
Click to expand...
Someone back in the -20 weather mentioned 4 bags. But as you say, the P61 will do that and then some. I think there could be an argument that if the P61 can't heat the place then the P68 probably won't either. Both are powerful stoves. I know when I did my feed test on my P61 at feed rate 5 you wouldn't want to be sitting too close to it. And that wasn't quite maxed out yet. I run the stove at feed 4, rarely need any more than that.

What I have never read on here is anyone burning more than 4 bags per day, never mind 4.5 or 5 bags.
 
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I will offer my opinion and qualify the WHY

I have had tall chimneys with pellet stoves and cleaning them is a real PITA
Sadly these vents need cleaning quite often and an insert requires you to pull the unit out and then go about the cleaning process.

We have 3 pellet stoves in our home, and all of them have direct vent setups.
I can shut the stove down, let it cool, and then within less than 30 minutes have the stove completely cleaned, the leaf sucker run on the vent for a few moments to clear the ash buildup and good to go.

After having messed with the tall chimneys and such, the direct vent is wonderful.

Most new stoves run fine with this type of venting.

We have a Quadrafire 1000 and two whitfields running this way, and I would never look back.

The one Whit has about a 4 foot vent and the other Whit is less than 2 feet

We use our pellet stoves as our only heat source, since the house was built with 100% electric, which is ridiculously expensive.

This situation requires that we are on top of maintenance big time.

Many times during nasty weather, the stoves get what I call a "hot swap"
This is a "Shut the fire off " wait till the pot has no glowing coals, then clean it.

I use gloves to handle the hot parts and gitterdone.

At times I can get the stove back up in 15 minutes or less.

I don't even remove the ash baffles, just open the mechanical cabinet, unhook the vacuum switch hose to protect the switch, then use the leaf blower and suck everything.

Our stoves are situated such that they are fully accessible with the pipe connected.

This makes even a close encounter of the WORST kind easy to deal with. (Read this as any repairs that require digging into the inner workings and crawling around the unit)

Just some thoughts

Snowy
 

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Snowy Rivers said:
I will offer my opinion and qualify the WHY

I have had tall chimneys with pellet stoves and cleaning them is a real PITA
Sadly these vents need cleaning quite often and an insert requires you to pull the unit out and then go about the cleaning process.

We have 3 pellet stoves in our home, and all of them have direct vent setups.
I can shut the stove down, let it cool, and then within less than 30 minutes have the stove completely cleaned, the leaf sucker run on the vent for a few moments to clear the ash buildup and good to go.

After having messed with the tall chimneys and such, the direct vent is wonderful.

Most new stoves run fine with this type of venting.

We have a Quadrafire 1000 and two whitfields running this way, and I would never look back.

The one Whit has about a 4 foot vent and the other Whit is less than 2 feet

We use our pellet stoves as our only heat source, since the house was built with 100% electric, which is ridiculously expensive.

This situation requires that we are on top of maintenance big time.

Many times during nasty weather, the stoves get what I call a "hot swap"
This is a "Shut the fire off " wait till the pot has no glowing coals, then clean it.

I use gloves to handle the hot parts and gitterdone.

At times I can get the stove back up in 15 minutes or less.

I don't even remove the ash baffles, just open the mechanical cabinet, unhook the vacuum switch hose to protect the switch, then use the leaf blower and suck everything.

Our stoves are situated such that they are fully accessible with the pipe connected.

This makes even a close encounter of the WORST kind easy to deal with. (Read this as any repairs that require digging into the inner workings and crawling around the unit)

Just some thoughts

Snowy
Click to expand...

Nice setup!
 
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