Abundance of used pellets stoves on Craigslist...............

MCPO said:

Never seen so many pellet stoves for sale at once. Sure it`s springtime but I can`t believe all those sellers are upgrading .

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There are always stoves on there, but getting one for a very good price is hard to do. I recently picked up a real gem. A 34K BTU Quadrafire Contour with the warming compartment ("Pie Warmer") for about $450 but so far it needs a new wire harness which I just got and still have to put it in. It is a super little pie warmer for the kitchen when working! Too bad they took out the warmer on the new Santa Fe model that replaces the Contour. :-(

Pic below is my working "Pie Warmer"

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MCPO said:

(western Ma) I`ve never seen so many pellet stoves for sale at once. Sure it`s springtime but I can`t believe all those sellers are upgrading .

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Lot of people subscribe to the " fill it/set it/forget allure of a Pellet stove and either thru laziness or not well informed,
do not maintain the stove as should be therefore ending up with problems down the road and blame it on the stove.
Not everyone runs a stove 24/7 keeping it Hot and Creosote free...
Only using it in the evening for 4-5 hrs is common..
Lot of people also do not have the optimal floor plan for any stove with rooms laid out in a way that they are Boiling in the stove room and not getting heat to other sectioned rooms.
These are couple reasons pellet [or wood] stoves get the axe.....
I think a good percentage of sellers fall into those 2 catagories while the remaining sellers are a Variety of reasons..
yeah, Although this past winter was an Eye opener for many of us testing the limits of our stoves, I doubt that they are all upgrades also. Can always see a used stove for sale on Craigslist or Local newspaper even in the summer months.

Maybe the abundance of pellet appliances is a result of frequent power outages all over the east coast this winter. Pellets dont burn without power, thats the sole reason we installed a wood burner.....

bobdog2o02 said:

Maybe the abundance of pellet appliances is a result of frequent power outages all over the east coast this winter. Pellets dont burn without power, thats the sole reason we installed a wood burner.....

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Could be. Though I Think they would spring for the backup power units made for those stoves 1st before dumping the stove.
Lot of us have Generators now [thanks to previous storms] so we can also kick on our oil or gas furnances meantime. [or P stove for that matter]..

All people see is the cost savings of pellets over heating oil. They probably don't grasp the extra effort pellet stoves require such as pellet storage, the fact that most stoves will run a day or less between refills and that they require weekly cleaning at least.

Oil furnaces require power too. Pellet stoves, in my opinion, are much easier to use with backup power sources such as batteries and generators.

While pellet stoves are not set and forget, they are alot closer to this that wood stoves.

A few years ago I could pick up a nice pellet stove off Craigs for $200, but now the prices folks are asking has headed into the ozones.

I saw a 92 vintage Whitfield the looked like a train wreck, the ad copy said it did not work either.

They wanted $1000 for the pile of junk.

I DON'T THINK SO

Another possible reason could be that people decided do to the recent pellet "shortage" might as well deal with one headache oil/gas heat instead of two.

Tonyray said:

Not everyone runs a stove 24/7 keeping it Hot and Creosote free...
Only using it in the evening for 4-5 hrs is common..

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I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around why it is worse to run a stove for 4-5 hours in the evening when we are home instead of letting it stay in maintenance mode with a low fire. In these shoulder months I would think you would have less creosote by having a good hot fire for a few hours a day rather than a little fire all day long.

frogee said:

I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around why it is worse to run a stove for 4-5 hours in the evening when we are home instead of letting it stay in maintenance mode with a low fire. In these shoulder months I would think you would have less creosote by having a good hot fire for a few hours a day rather than a little fire all day long.

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In these shoulder months I would think you would have less creosote by having a good hot fire for a few hours a day rather than a little fire all day long.
That's correct.......
I should have specified " low flame" fire as opposed to big and hot..
I have seen what happens to my burnpot when on room temp/auto, I get high flame/low flame no flame thruout the course of running it. Hot/warm/cool etc...
seems to build up hard deposits lot faster than when I keep it on Stove Temp.. could thrown in "Crappy pellets"' as a problem also but that's a givin most would agree.

Snowy Rivers said:

A few years ago I could pick up a nice pellet stove off Craigs for $200, but now the prices folks are asking has headed into the ozones.

I saw a 92 vintage Whitfield the looked like a train wreck, the ad copy said it did not work either.

They wanted $1000 for the pile of junk.

I DON'T THINK SO

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Same thing here, Snowy! Prices on craigslist for used AND ABUSED stoves are ridiculous. There are a lot of them on Atlanta and Athens, Ga. I guess they found out what others have said about required attention. It's almost like baby sitting but without the diapers, THANK HEAVENS!

I still need to climb up on the roof and brush the flues. Might give the leaf blower thingy a go just for sheets and grins.

Few month's ago picked up a 1995 Advantage 3 with the 1 peice glass for $250, all it needed was a good cleaning, owner said....It filled the house up with smoke!, last june there was a free whitfield freestanding..missed that one...grrrr
Prices are too high, because of this past winter

TimfromMA said:

All people see is the cost savings of pellets over heating oil. They probably don't grasp the extra effort pellet stoves require such as pellet storage, the fact that most stoves will run a day or less between refills and that they require weekly cleaning at least.

Oil furnaces require power too. Pellet stoves, in my opinion, are much easier to use with backup power sources such as batteries and generators.

While pellet stoves are not set and forget, they are alot closer to this that wood stoves.

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My 30k BTU LP gas fireplace will light right up on 2 D-Cells during a power outage. Only one problem, We never had a power outage since we purchased the heat-n-glo 5 years ago!

Just saw a 2 year old harman xxv for 2250 in my area. Includes a pellet pail and half a ton of pellets. Good deal?

john193 said:

Just saw a 2 year old harman xxv for 2250 in my area. Includes a pellet pail and half a ton of pellets. Good deal?

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Considering where you are, a MUCH BETTER DEAL would be a used Keystoker or Liesureline coal stoker. Never mind the BS comments about dirty coal that are sure to follow. Do your homework on btu's/ $.

john193 said:

Just saw a 2 year old harman xxv for 2250 in my area. Includes a pellet pail and half a ton of pellets. Good deal?

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I just saw this one now. It looks VERY clean.

AddictiveStew said:

I just saw this one now. It looks VERY clean.

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Yes it does. Unfortunately not in the market for one now. Is been thinking of putting a pellet stove in my basement when I finish it, but after doing some reading I'm thinking of going with a mini split so I can cover heating and cooling. My basement is completely underground and is 55 to 60 year round.

john193 said:

Just saw a 2 year old harman xxv for 2250 in my area. Includes a pellet pail and half a ton of pellets. Good deal?

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/161258724950 is a better deal!

Yip, been scouring C/l each day after work, looking for a second small nice looking stove for up stairs