.....just another day in paradise.......

Here in CNY I have a friend that gave up his wood stove for a pellet stove ...and he claims he does just as good of job. It kind of shocked me when he said that but I believe him...but his house is well insulated.

Done in CT I'm thinking a pellet stove would work well for you. the thing with pellets is that they're made from an always available waste product...as opposed cherry pits or corn..(sheeesh!) Many times in the summer you can get a deal on them too. They come in plastic bags you can store them neatly outside. why not check out the pellet stove forum before you make a decision?

"the thing with pellets is that they’re made from an always available waste product...as opposed cherry pits or corn.."

The sawdust is only available when people are sawing AND the dust is not already spoken for. Also, you can't make them yourself so you are a like a drug addict needing to feed their addiction. The pellet making equipment is not cheap. Rather than paying the propane bill you have to pay the pellet bill. You are still held hostage.

At least you can buy dry corn from a farmer.

I would rather pay a dealer for wood pellets or a farmer for corn than a propane man.

Pellets are not cheaper than wood, but are cheaper than gas. You need to time when you buy the pellets. People still want propane stoves, you might do well to sell it outright vs trade in: just like cars you really don't get much for things. Now is the end of the season, you should be getting a rock bottom price, did you shop around a bit to see what different dealers want for a pellet stove?
Finally, yes, pellets are better than gas.
They usually rely on electricity to work-is that OK with you?

Just my thoughts.

we debated on pellet or wood for a long time until someone pointed out to us if the power goes out the pellets don't drop we lose power couple times a winter so we went with wood

spiderina22 said:

:kiss: ...hello all, just found this forum....thank you in advance for the welcome! Went to my local stove store today.....ahhhh~ from where i am in the nw ct. hills it's 50 degrees, "spring is in the air"~~~anyway, ......(long_story-short)...purchased a propane gas stove to heat my 2 story 1800 sq ft' stick house...built in 1968 with electric baseboard heat, each room zoned with a thermostat.....yes, all installed when the house was built...(status post dinosaur extinction...ha ha.....) bought the nice new shiny black enamel propane gas guzzeler, { sure was pretty, fake logs and all..} ....lemme think, i believe it was in 2003, right before the cost of gas/oil per gallon rose ...like gold is now (if u r invested today)....did this because at the time it was a good idea which crumbled into sawdust before my very eyes.....couldn't afford to fill my 325 gallon tank enymore...[....had it installed initially for a generator, for "Y2-K.....another blitz...ha ha! ]....... to feed this screaming monster was becoming very expensive to say the least.....yikes! i guess i learned my lesson quickly.......burned (ate) about $700.00 in fuel in approx. 6 to 8 weeks ...and to think it all started because i wanted to get even with the ct electric company (and save money, of course!)......well, wasn't aware i could install a pellet corn combination stove in the same area of my home ..i was worried..........as i have a 2nd floor deck around my home and a huge cedar tree nearby.......am very happy now, and i hope in the future....

..i'm trading in the propane monster for a St. Croix combination corn and pellet stove.....burns cherry pits too! has enyone here heard or seen the clam-shell burning technology yet??

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??? by the way.......have a vermont defiant-log burner upstairs-catallytic converter...installed in my upstairs....living room....bought it in "89".....we chop wood......still goin strong, couldn't install it downstairs.....would burn down the woods surrounding my home......~* home heating sources ~* ~, looked around a lot for answers and help, just hope my good deal purchase today with a next weekend install of the pellet/ corn stove was a good decision, take care, stay warm....any feedback would be appreciated or if ya just wanna write, that is fine too!....thanks so much ......happy heat.....yep... ~ * ~ OpheelliyaFireKracker ~ *

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Hi spiderina 22, if you check out my signature line , you will see the pellet & wood stoves that I am burning.
I am damn glad I have my pellet stove , as it opperates at one tenth the cost of fuel oil,
& works with the push of a button when I am too tired to lay a fire, lite it and babysit the fire for 45 minutes until it chars off & is stabilized enough to cruse unattended. Feeding is a 5 min affair once every 2 days. if I burn 24/7 I get 24 hours continious burn from 1 -40 lb bag
that cost me $5.oo so it cost me $35.oo/ week to burn 24/7 non stop
I'm not far from meriden,ct & you up around cornwall ,I guess.
You wont need to run pellet stove 24/7 in march, more like 6 hr out of 24, if that.
I have two wood burners too 7 wood is cheaper, cant beat free wood, but if I paid myself for all the labor, cutting,splitting ,seasoning,storing, & wood movement, the pellets would be cheaper.
DONT STORE PELLETS OUTSIDE, THE PLASTIC BAGS THEY COME IN ARE PREFFERATED WITH MICROHOLES SO THAT WATER CAN GET IN AND DESOLVE YOUR PELLETS.
If you must store pellets outside,they should be up on a pallet & well covered by at least two
tarps, in case one tarp leaks water 7 the tarps must be attached so that out 50 + mph winds won't turn the tarp into a sailplane.
I keep my pellets in a rainproof shed ,up on a pallet, under a tarp. If you have an unused car, that makes a good pellet storage area, too, as long as it rain proof.Garage or basement are other good pellet storage choices.
BUY PELLETS AHEAD OF TIME ON SALE IN AUG OR END OF SEASON CLEARANCE SALE IN FIRST & SECOND WEEK OF FEB. Cheaper in feb on end of season sale than in aug.
Right now, you can't find a place in ct to buy pellets under $6.oo a bag as home depot & lowes sold out, so now is when the stove dealers & hardware stoves get $6 & $7 dollars a bag.
I like your choice of the tripple fuel pellet stove because if you cant get pellets (a rare & high er priced commody in march & april), you will have an easier time getting dryed corn or cherry pits from the feed dealer, which I hope you have one in the cornwall area.
Around meriden, no such thing as a feed dealer when you could buy corn or cherry pits.
I like burning wood, but it is also so much work. Burning pellets is as easy as pushing a button. I dont care about the power outage issue, I have a wood stove & a 4 kw generator.
One agrevation with burning pellets is having to clean out my pellet stove every 3 bags of pellets that i burn, so that is every 3 days in the winter or at least once a week if I don't burn 24/7.
Another thing with the pellet stove is the summer tear down of the stove , when you have to remove the motors to oil them & clean the ashes out of the squerill cage blower fins & the blower housings get full of ashes on the conbustion blower & lint/ dust bunnies on the room blower. & for reassembly, you need new blower housing gaskets.
If you don't do this every 2 years, you end up replacing a 190.oo--270.oo motor. If you do do it, you end up swearing, because of the position you had to get into to do the work yourself or the price of the service if you had the job done for you.
But it way ,way cheaper than replacing a motor. Some heavy users of pellet stoves do it every summer, which i think is the proper clean & lube interval. Two years is really streching it, but ok if you only use the pellet stove occasionally.
REMEMBER TO LEAVE EXTRA SPACE BETWEEN THE PELLET STOVE & THE WALL, SO YOU CAN GET IN THERE TO DO YOUR OWN CLEAN OUT & MOTOR LUBE.

I have a wood insert and pellets. I like the pellets because you don't have to do much more than fire them up and let them go. I go through like a bag and a half a day when running it full time.

I personally like the insert better. I hate paying for heat, wood is free when you can get it and pellets have been going up and up since I have been burning them.I guess I am lucky with the pellet stove ( it's some home depot thing ) at least that is what I was told the 1 time I had to buy parts for it. That was the only time I really had to do any work to it. The only drawback from the insert is obviously cutting wood and the mess it brings into the house. just my $.02

Welcome to the forum.

Around here lots of folks put in corn burners a couple years ago. The big push was the outdoor boiler. All was well when corn sold for $1.25 per bushel. However, at $4.25 per bushel it doesn't look quite as rosy now.

Also bear in mind these stoves aren't maintenance free. They must be cleaned pretty regular and I hear the corn burners are worse than the pellet burners. As for me, I'll stick to wood.