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hossthehermit

hossthehermit

Minister of Fire
May 17, 2008
2,571
Maine, ayuh, by gorry
Hi, all, just found this place this weekend while doing some research on pellet stoves, gonna buy one soon and want some input.
First off, currently running oil forced hot air. Would kinda like to disconnect that from chimney, vent pellet stove into chimney, hook a plenum into existing ductwork. Any thoughts, pro or con?
Second, looked at Harmans in Palmyra, gonna go up and look at Big E at R.H. Foster sometime this week, I hope. I know Granville and Home and Hearth have some other brands I want to look at. House is log construction, 23 yr. old, 750 sq. ft. first floor, cathedral ceiling in half of it, other half loft, closed off in winter. Full basement, that's where oil monster lives.
Thirdly, a guy I work with has 3 Harmans, 2 in the house, 1 in the wood shop. He burned Corinth pellets last winter, said it was the worst mistake he ever made, really dirty.
Fourthly, if I'm gonna put it down cellar, don't really care if it's pretty. Any other brands I should look at? Looking for quality, but don't want to spend an arm and a leg if I can get something dependable, that works well, but maybe not so pretty. I ain't that pretty either, a lot I've seen seem to market their looks more than I care about. Thoughts?
Any input would be greatly appreciated
 
A stove is a space heater. Put it where you are going to spend most of your time.
 
hossthehermit said:
Hi, all, just found this place this weekend while doing some research on pellet stoves, gonna buy one soon and want some input.
First off, currently running oil forced hot air. Would kinda like to disconnect that from chimney, vent pellet stove into chimney, hook a plenum into existing ductwork. Any thoughts, pro or con?
Second, looked at Harmans in Palmyra, gonna go up and look at Big E at R.H. Foster sometime this week, I hope. I know Granville and Home and Hearth have some other brands I want to look at. House is log construction, 23 yr. old, 750 sq. ft. first floor, cathedral ceiling in half of it, other half loft, closed off in winter. Full basement, that's where oil monster lives.
Thirdly, a guy I work with has 3 Harmans, 2 in the house, 1 in the wood shop. He burned Corinth pellets last winter, said it was the worst mistake he ever made, really dirty.
Fourthly, if I'm gonna put it down cellar, don't really care if it's pretty. Any other brands I should look at? Looking for quality, but don't want to spend an arm and a leg if I can get something dependable, that works well, but maybe not so pretty. I ain't that pretty either, a lot I've seen seem to market their looks more than I care about. Thoughts?
Any input would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

Although I have a Harman , I`d seriously want to look at an Englander. From what I can gather it might be the best bang for the buck.
John
 
Think about how you want to use the stove. Do you need/want fully automatic operation? Or are you OK with starting the fire burning? Some stove will go down to 0 BTU's & light themselves when heat is needed (remote temp probe) and some stoves you have to manually light the fire, then it can adjust the temp (or you set the burn rate), from there. The more manual stoves are less expensive. We decided that we wanted a fully automatic stove & just ordered a Harman XXV. It hasn't been installed yet, so I can't give you any feedback on that. But we went with Harman for the quality & ease of operation. We want to use as little oil as possible & will set the thermostats a few degrees below the desired temp for backup (not sure how much heat will get to the bedrooms & they are a separate zone anyways). Our stove will be in the living room, so we wanted something that looked nice too & we liked the old style look of the cast iron stoves. With the cathedral ceilings you'll want to use a ceiling fan to push the heat that rises back down into the living space. We have cathedral ceilings in our great room & were told we should increase the size of our stove a bit because we'll lose some heat because of them.
 
I burned Corinth pellets this year and found them to have the lowest ash of any brand that I have burned so far. I did notice that even though the flame burns bright with now visible sooting at the flame tips, they did produce more soot in the stove and in the vent pipe than other brands. Adding a little extra air did not seem to change this.
 
mlwschultz said:
Think about how you want to use the stove. Do you need/want fully automatic operation? Or are you OK with starting the fire burning? Some stove will go down to 0 BTU's & light themselves when heat is needed (remote temp probe) and some stoves you have to manually light the fire, then it can adjust the temp (or you set the burn rate), from there. The more manual stoves are less expensive. We decided that we wanted a fully automatic stove & just ordered a Harman XXV. It hasn't been installed yet, so I can't give you any feedback on that. But we went with Harman for the quality & ease of operation. We want to use as little oil as possible & will set the thermostats a few degrees below the desired temp for backup (not sure how much heat will get to the bedrooms & they are a separate zone anyways). Our stove will be in the living room, so we wanted something that looked nice too & we liked the old style look of the cast iron stoves. With the cathedral ceilings you'll want to use a ceiling fan to push the heat that rises back down into the living space. We have cathedral ceilings in our great room & were told we should increase the size of our stove a bit because we'll lose some heat because of them.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah, full auto w/ battery backup, sometimes it takes a couple hours to get my old generator started. Also, just reading posts about venting into chimney, may need to reconsider that idea, go out thru the cellar wall instead., Still leaning toward the idea of tying into my ductwork, need some heat in the cellar so the pipes don't freeze. Planning on zero oil this winter.
 
Hello,
I just recently bought an Englander stove here in VA, have not burned anything yet but cannot wait.
Got it brand new from the factory liquidation of their blemished stoves, they call them blue dot, in all reality I do not see anything wrong with stove, it seems to work fine so far and is covered under their warranty.
check out ebay, a $1200 stove for $620 and $250 in pipe kit and I am ready!!! But I live near the factory and picked it up. Their freight is $90 which is included in your bid amount. But they are going up in price, you cannot get it that cheap anymore because they raised the starting prices.
I hope this is OK with this forum to suggest ebay if not then sorry but good deals I believe.
 
If you are talking about a furnace...and that is the best way to heat from the basement...you can look at others like Magnum, etc.

Also Breckwell makes one, Traeger also.....

I don't think Englander makes a pellet furnace....and using anything else from the basement in Maine is unlikely to do the job for you.
 
Webmaster said:
If you are talking about a furnace...and that is the best way to heat from the basement...you can look at others like Magnum, etc.

Also Breckwell makes one, Traeger also.....

I don't think Englander makes a pellet furnace....and using anything else from the basement in Maine is unlikely to do the job for you.
Click to expand...

No doubt living in Maine!! used to live in western PA and it gets real cold there. Just giving an inexpensive option.
 
hossthehermit said:
Hi, all, just found this place this weekend while doing some research on pellet stoves, gonna buy one soon and want some input.
First off, currently running oil forced hot air. Would kinda like to disconnect that from chimney, vent pellet stove into chimney, hook a plenum into existing ductwork. Any thoughts, pro or con?
Second, looked at Harmans in Palmyra, gonna go up and look at Big E at R.H. Foster sometime this week, I hope. I know Granville and Home and Hearth have some other brands I want to look at. House is log construction, 23 yr. old, 750 sq. ft. first floor, cathedral ceiling in half of it, other half loft, closed off in winter. Full basement, that's where oil monster lives.
Thirdly, a guy I work with has 3 Harmans, 2 in the house, 1 in the wood shop. He burned Corinth pellets last winter, said it was the worst mistake he ever made, really dirty.
Fourthly, if I'm gonna put it down cellar, don't really care if it's pretty. Any other brands I should look at? Looking for quality, but don't want to spend an arm and a leg if I can get something dependable, that works well, but maybe not so pretty. I ain't that pretty either, a lot I've seen seem to market their looks more than I care about. Thoughts?
Any input would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

Personally I`d leave the hot air system in place and try to heat all I could with 1 or 2 pellets stoves strategically placed upstairs.
A lot less money to lay out and you get to leave a good central heat system in place.
Unless the cellar walls and floor are finished you aren`t going to heat it effectively. The concrete floor and walls will wick all the heat you can produce.
John
 
Years ago my Parents installed a new chimney and an air tight wood stove in the basement.
They also had a hood fabricated over the stove and fed it to the cold air intake of their furnace.
It was a small house and would heat to about 68 through the whole house.

But, that was a wood stove. Not sure if even a 65,000 btu wood pellet stove would work.

It would be an interesting thing to try!!
Using the existing blower/ducts would address the problem of delivering the heat.
 
Webmaster said:
If you are talking about a furnace...and that is the best way to heat from the basement...you can look at others like Magnum, etc.

Also Breckwell makes one, Traeger also.....

I don't think Englander makes a pellet furnace....and using anything else from the basement in Maine is unlikely to do the job for you.
Click to expand...

web is correct we do not offer a pellet furnace that connects to a duct system. the brands web mentioned above i believe all carry such a unit and i believe harman does as well.

i would even think on maybe having a smaller pellet unit (freestanding) upstairs as well which would be better suited for heating the living space during the shoulder seasons (when freezing pipes arent a threat , this would be easier on pellets than the furnace might be (most furnace type units tend to use more fuel on average )as well as an added punch when the serious cold hits, you did say Maine didnt you?
 
Ordered a St. Croix Revolution today, will keep ya Posted
 
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