A first time pellet insert buyer looking for opinions and perspective...

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quickrch

quickrch

Member
Mar 28, 2009
130
Northern, VA
We are considering buying a pellet insert for our home in northern VA. Not the coldest place but I am currently heating with propane. A little gimmick here is that builders sign off an easement to a propane company who then owns the tank and can take you for a ride selling you their propane because it is there tank. They tack on about $0.89 a gallon (a 40% premium) because it is there tank. I could either put in a second tank or supplement my heat with an insert. I estimate that our propane consumption will decline by 1,000 gallons or more. Either would pay for itself in 2 seasons or less depending on how I control costs of the insert. I believe pellets would fit our lifestyle the best.
We currently have a builder model of a majestic gas fireplace so not much heat but they did a good job on the black marble surround. It was installed with one of those bump-out boxes outside the house so at least I have a space to put a zero clearance insert and venting won’t be difficult. I looked in there and it appears to be well constructed and poorly insulated so it'll need a little work to complete. The floor has a 16" marble piece in front of it, then carpet and that appears to be the biggest clearance issue as some inserts stick out 12" and then want 6" of nonflammable material in front of them. Carpet is flammable right?
We went to our local dealer and they had a quadrafire they were pushing. It was a very nice unit with great features. However, with install about $6,000. Aside from being too much $$$ (even after the credit) for me right now my better half said it wouldn’t look good in our house. We have a more modern style and our fireplace area is not a hearth but rests on the floor with marble around it and white trim. It is won’t match the décor in our house that ends that discussion. There are other quadrafire units but they didn’t pass the looks test.
So I searched the forum and see that the Integra II is a respectable unit. There are no dealers near me so I would either order from the distributer or buy one of those without warranty. Actually the distributer has a 2009 model on ebay with a warranty too for a few hundred more than the no warranty ones so that is an option. I wonder if that pewter would look nice against black marble.
When I lived in a colder climate I installed a wood furnace in our home and tied it into the duct work. So I am comfortable with basic installation of a unit. I usually have a professional come by and check my work before finishing up but this saves me money and gives the satisfaction of knowing it was done well. I am slow but do work that is good. However, a wood furnace is not a pellet insert and while I am inclined to work on things at home and can replace/repair most any appliance if I have the correct parts this appliance would be new to me.
So my question for the forum is one of opinion from those that have been there (or here).
Am I going down a bad road by not buying from a local dealer?
Am I crazy to consider ordering direct?
Are there other pellet inserts I could consider with that modern look?
The lower end of heating capacity would be about 40,000 btu. I would prefer 50+. Anyhow, I am open to suggestions.
 
I have purchased three pellet stoves (2 Whitfields and on Harman) over the past 15 years. The on Whitfiled is an insert.

I bought the first Whitfield from a dealer 75 plus miles away although he promised to service the stove if anyting went wrong, he never ended up doing so. I purchased the Whitfield insert from another dealer who went out of business. Bottom line is that I had two Whitfield stoves and no one in the Cincinnati area to service them. This is not a good situation to be in.

My point is that you could probably be in the same situation if you purchased direct. Some dealers, not all, will not service the stove unless you purchased it from them. I purchased my third stove from a Harman dealer and love the service.

Im thinking about replacing my Whitfied insert with either a Harman or Quadrafire. In my opinion, the Quad's are much more attreactive looking inserts (Mt Vernon or Castile) compared to the Harman Accentra but I will probably go with the Accentra as the dealer is much better.
 
I did what you are looking to do with a pellet insert (Zero clearance install). You need to figure out the following:

1) Can you even pull your existing unit competly out without taking appart the front hearth. You may be surprised to find that when they installed the Fireplace they then covered it over with the facia. If so, to get the existing system out you will be replacing everything. This is the main reason I didn't take out the propane fireplace and decided instead to install it on the other end of the house with an entirely new install.

2) If you can pull out your fireplace, how much room do you actually have to the studs? This will determine the size of the fireproof box you will be able to put in there to surround the pellet stove. THIS WILL LIMIT YOU to certian size stoves and you MUST download the install instructions for ANY stove you are considering.

3) Once you download the instal instructions you need to see what modification you will need to make. Evey stove is different as to how far they stand off the floor. Usually this is the base of a fireplace so the inside of the fireproof cabbinette MUST be at the same height as your hearth. You will need to account for this or your stove will not fit.

4) How will you vent? Usually a zero clearance fireplace is a ventless or non pellet rated vented system. You will almost certainly have to replace all the venting to match the requirements of a pellet stove.

5) You will not want a wire coming out of your stove and running across the floor to an outlet. You will need to run a new plug that is hidden and out of the way but also outside the fire box.

6) does the stove you picked fit with all the MFG suggester clearances and does the surround hide the firebox? You do not want to find out after the fact that you need to install more stone that you will never get to match because you have exposed inside corners.

If you want you can see my install here and I'll happily chat abotu what goes into somehting like this.

Rick
 
If you want a more modern looking unit, and also would like to save some $$ by buying online, maybe this will fill the bill....this unit is a factory refurb of Englanders newest design. It can be bought as a freestanding unit, and then with the addition of a conversion kit, can be made into an insert for a zero clearance application. And it still qualifies for the tax credit too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/TimberRidge-pel...ultDomain_0&hash=item3a5fcdd5c5#ht_2139wt_907

This eBay seller is the same person I bought mine from, and is great to work with. Below is the link to Englander's site showing the unit and the insert. If you aren't familiar with this company, they do not have "dealers" as such, but they do have one of, if not THE best customer service in the industry.

http://www.englanderstoves.com/55-trpep_i.html
 
Thanks to all of you. I am still looking at some dealers in the area but as you point out they can go out of business at any moment.

Our bump out area is 24" out from the house, 40" wide, and 5 feet high. It is a standard box. You are correct on the gas stove however. I would have to dismantle it as it is built in. The top piece of metal would have to stay but would be hidden behind a new insert's surround.

I'll keep looking and thinking. I appreciate the links to other inserts. I am still leanding towards the Rika Integra II though the Englander looks pretty nice.
 
I'm just now joining the hearth.com community --- and started to search for my own needs but happened accross this post. I have the Rika Integra II in a stand alone model from 2006 and would be happy to answer any questions I can about the stove. I'm personally starting to look at upgrade options for the thermostat and such to expand it's feature set - so I'm digging into the unit specs a bit more... but we run ours as the main heat source for a 1450 sqft home for the last 4 years.
 
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