Giving up on pellet stoves

FirepotPete said:

I just find it weird that someone would join a forum and only post 6 messages in the last year. None of the posts were asking for help or questions about getting any stove running. I understand that not all people are mechanically or electrically inclined, but, that's where a forum such as this one comes into play.

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Yeah, I was kinda thinking the same thing. Joined a year ago, 6 posts and one of them is to say goodby. Oh well, some people have trouble asking for help.

O.k., as someone who has dealt with wood stoves and all the work that goes with one. I now am amazed at the warmth and comfort I receive from my pellet stove. So warm, easy, and convenient. I love it! I suppose some day I may become burnt out, but not anytime soon. Maybe I'm on on my pellet stove honeymoon? I know there's some work involved, but nothing like my old wood stove. I'm amazed at how much heat and warmth one bag of pellets goes in heating my entire house. I'm hooked on my pellet stove and will use it even if other alternatives are cheaper. I'm just crazy I guess. Did I mention safety?

I moderated one that never even stated what stove also, so it went to the trash as when questioned they never responded.

Jake86 said:

O.k., as someone who has dealt with wood stoves and all the work that goes with one. I now am amazed at the warmth and comfort I receive from my pellet stove. So warm, easy, and convenient. I love it! I suppose some day I may become burnt out, but not anytime soon. Maybe I'm on on my pellet stove honeymoon? I know there's some work involved, but nothing like my old wood stove. I'm amazed at how much heat and warmth one bag of pellets goes in heating my entire house. I'm hooked on my pellet stove and will use it even if other alternatives are cheaper. I'm just crazy I guess. Did I mention safety?

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Couldn't agree more. Grew up on a farm with a coal/wood boiler system. Had to hookup the old Farmall, attach the buzz saw to the hitch, go way out to the woods, hook up the PTO, swat skeeters and blackflies, pile the 8' lengths, haul back to the yard, cut the 8' lengths, rank and pile, cover, haul it in, clean it up in the basement. Couldn't bring it in to soon or the insects would warm up and crawl around. And that was after waiting 2 years for it to dry properly. Crawling up on the roof, chimney cleaning every year, chimney inspections.

The only two good things with it was that it was warm, which I get with my corn burner and the ashes where great in the garden as additional fertilizer, which I also get from the pellet stove just not as much.

Chimney easy to inspect and clean or replace if needed. Corn very cheap here and I don't mind if I have to work on the stove. I prefer that I don't but it is an option I can easily cover.

going on 3rd year with Pellet stove.......
have zero complaints and tons of warmth... what's not to like...
carring a bag each day up from the basement is well worth it.. exercise helps too.

Let him have his propane. I'll give up my stove when you can pry it from my cold dead hearth.

FirepotPete said:

We have a dealer in the area that is terrible about that, locally called the pellet Nazi.

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I haven't heard that one reference for a while. Sting liked to use that phrase.

Geez, you'd think he was criticizing someone's political affiliation.


Maybe he'll wake up on the other side of the bed tomorrow looking for a welcoming place.
Maybe not.
As long as he's not also walking into the closet with a hang man's rope if he wants to travel down another road for a while it might be best. You can always change your mind tomorrow and try again.

billb3 said:

Geez, you'd think he was criticizing someone's political affiliation.


Maybe he'll wake up on the other side of the bed tomorrow looking for a welcoming place.
Maybe not.
As long as he's not also walking into the closet with a hang man's rope if he wants to travel down another road for a while it might be best. You can always change your mind tomorrow and try again.

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People here get testy about their pellet stoves lol , I bet the OP knows that !

billb3 said:

Geez, you'd think he was criticizing someone's political affiliation.


Maybe he'll wake up on the other side of the bed tomorrow looking for a welcoming place.
Maybe not.
As long as he's not also walking into the closet with a hang man's rope if he wants to travel down another road for a while it might be best. You can always change your mind tomorrow and try again.

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I'd be willing to read what he says. IF, it wasn't just critical, without information as to the problems he had. Any one coming here to look at getting an alternative heat source could come upon his post, read it and run!

Wet pellets? That's one thing posted! Ahh, maybe have a place to store them without the gully washer getting to them? Maybe buying from a good source that keeps the pellets in a proper storage area? To many questions without anyway to answer the poster.

I'm guessing he's an oil delivery guy or sells firewood and doesn't like his business taking a hit. Of course I'm not serious about this, but it is an option considering we have no other information from him.

I would hope he comes back and tells us more, even if he never intends to use a pellet stove again. The manufactures, dealers and users all can benefit from hearing what is good and bad, but not just the bad or good.

BYE

I bought a couple of old Whitfield stoves about four years ago. I knew nothing about pellet stoves, this site really helped me get up to speed.

I put one in the house and one in the garage/shop.

I needed a burn pot and an auger motor and they were good to go. I haven't had any problems with either. I clean out the combustion space weekly and do the leaf blower trick every ton and that's all the maintenance I do. They've been trouble free since I installed them.

I also have a wood insert, it came with the house, The chimney is lined with tile. I haven't ever had to clean it, the tile looks almost new with no creosote build up. I look down the chimney every year to keep an eye on it.

I also have a oil forced air furnace, all my heat sources compliment each other, I never use one exclusively.

My Harman P43 is almost set it and forget it. Not meaning to rub it in but I honestly clean mine about once a month, about 1 hour, and it runs flawlessly.

rcook430 said:

My Harman P43 is almost set it and forget it. Not meaning to rub it in but I honestly clean mine about once a month, about 1 hour, and it runs flawlessly.

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Same here. Shut it down around noon every 4th Sunday, do a thorough cleaning and good to go for another month.

Regarding the OP, when we were considering going to pellet heat I spent a long time on this site reading through a gazillion posts to try and learn everything I needed to make an informed purchase AND to understand just what is involved in owning/running a pellet stove. Being an electro-mechanical tech by trade the ability to do my own repairs wasn't going to be an issue when needed and I came to the opinion that spending the $$ for the Harman was going to be worth it in the long run. 3 years later I have no reason to question my choices.

Sam

Third season on the P61, it misfired exactly once when I stretched my cleaning cycle to four weeks as a controlled experiment . On the third week I got the misfire, the igniter compartment had too much ash in it. From that I determined not to go past two week intervals. Here in New England we mostly get ashy pellets, now and then we get an affordable treat of something like AWF pure White Pine which are super low ash and very hot burning. I envy those in other parts of the country who don't deal with the ashy pellets and the low ash ones like Douglas Fir are affordable. But in the end it's not a huge deal to clean the stove anyway, I have it down to about 20 minutes if I don't do the vertical vent. I don't even wait for a full shut down to occur to get started shortening the overall time as well.

I like to think of my stove cleaning as a part-time hobby! I can't say the actual cleaning is "fun" but the 6-8 days between my weekly clean is so wonderfully toasty! I compare my time cleaning to the days I spent tinkering with my car...changing plugs and filters, lieing on my back under the car, dropping the drain plug into the oil pan and then fishing it out later....and of course NEVER spilling a drop of oil on the driveway. Those days are done! But my stove, like so many tools, you take care of it and it will take care of you. Now if it would snow❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
Bill

bostonfan49 said:

I like to think of my stove cleaning as a part-time hobby! I can't say the actual cleaning is "fun" but the 6-8 days between my weekly clean is so wonderfully toasty! I compare my time cleaning to the days I spent tinkering with my car...changing plugs and filters, lieing on my back under the car, dropping the drain plug into the oil pan and then fishing it out later....and of course NEVER spilling a drop of oil on the driveway. Those days are done! But my stove, like so many tools, you take care of it and it will take care of you. Now if it would snow❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
Bill

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You can keep every flake up there in the hills of Vermont LOL ! I fixed my snow blower back in the first week of Nov, new bearing and new belts, made sure it ran normally etc), good insurance that it won't snow here !! But if it does I'm ready.

Eight years with my faithful Harman and minimal problems. Only thing turning it off is the price of heating oil which is now below my break-even point for pellets.

I think a lot of folks have similar feelings. But they disappear when they are paying $4.00 gallon for oil or $3.00 gallon for propane. Your willing to deal with the headaches now and then. Im glad we got our pellet stove its basically just backup in case we lose power now. Glad it saved us some money though for the 3 winters we used it.

Being new to pellet stoves, I am not an expert but it sounds to me like the wet pellets caused alot of the issues...jamming the auger etc. Where was he either buying or storing these pellets that they were wet? I have had mine stored outside under the wood rack covers for months now...through rain and nary a wet pellet.

My Harman eats anything I throw at it. Never tried wet pellets tho.

rcook430 said:

My Harman P43 is almost set it and forget it. Not meaning to rub it in but I honestly clean mine about once a month, about 1 hour, and it runs flawlessly.

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HARMON owners just rubbing it in the face of lesser stove owners... Just plain wrong!

F4jock said:

My Harman eats anything I throw at it. Never tried wet pellets tho.

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Well you have to put up a little more money for the pellet/hydrogen fueled stove. Just add pellets and water.