kyburnr said:
I read these to get info. What better sources than repairmen and owners. I dont think stating ones opinions based on expierience with a product is bad. It's what people are here for. Study the features and benefits on the Harmans and Quads vs some of the others. Then the price difference becomes more clear. My Harman comes with warranty and warranty work provided by my dealer. Thats important to some. TSC, Lowes, & The big orange box never offered me any thing like that. The stoves they have may be good, and maybe their support people can talk someone through a repair, thats not what everyone is looking for. I think Steve speaks from expierence and states the obvious..........If one brand is a third of the price...there is a reason for it. Thats what people read these forums for........TO FIND THE REASON.
You should also look to find the reason someone comments - if you're a hammer, your advice will always entail smacking a nail. Dealers tend to be very big proponents of the brand(s) they carry. They tend to overestimate the complexity and the value of the skills & services they offer (this is true regardless of the product being sold - it's not just a pellet stove phenomenon).
Consumers of a product have less varied experience (by and large) and will be proponents of what they have had success with - or detractors of what they've had bad experiences with. High priced goods tend to have overinflated positive experience ratings (can you spell Jaguar?) as the buyer attempts to justify (to himself or others) the high purchase cost.
What product features or functions or distribution channel methods & services have different values to different folks. Personally I have a bias toward practicality of value - stripping my purchases of value for things like gold or silver trim kits on my stove. I also tend to believe most people are capable of more than they are generally given credit for -- remember that many of the professionals you hire in the mechanical trades are the same folks who were smoking dope outside the cafeteria during lunch break in high school
Seriously, oftentimes the extra value is in their wider experience which may not be needed for a straight-forward installation or their familiarity with a task so they have more speed. I can tape drywall but not nearly as fast to get the same result as someone who does it every day so I'll pay someone to do something I can. I can change my oil faster than driving to the shop, waiting for my appointment, waiting for it to be done and then driving home again so I do it myself - ditto changing my brakes.
As for pellet stoves, I purchased mine online and installed it myself because my experience with 3 different "professional" stove dealers was poor (they demonstrably lied, misconstrued information, and generally were more interested in selling me what they had vs. what I needed or wanted). One dealer was great and I may have purchased from him but he didn't have product or reasonable assurance of product.
So, expect dealers to downplay customer installs or other products. Expect consumers to be overly positive or negative and ascribing their individual experience to all products by the manufacturer they're familiar with. Expect me to encourage people to do their own research, question opinion, ask for concrete data, and potentially install & maintain their own stoves.
No one is objective, we all have a filter we apply, look for the filter and decide if it adds to or detracts from the value of the message. Then make up your own mind. Don't listen to someone just because they're professionals & have been in the business for years (ask the folks at Lehman Brothers how that worked out) or because the are a consumer and have had great or bad experiences with the one or two stoves they've owned.
