Just put a pellet basket in an old HearthMate

My fiance and I decided to try pellets this season and managed to find a pellet basket that would fit through the fairly small door (prob 12"x13") in her 30 year old HearthMate . Got the basket here... http://pelletbasket.webs.com/ . Holds about 13lbs of pellets.

Tried it for the first time yesterday and had good results. A full basket burns for about 4-1/2 hours and kept the house (about 1750 sq ft, 2 story saltbox w/small sunroom addition on back) at 72 degrees. House is a center chimney and the stove sits just off the stairway to the upstairs so the bedrooms stayed nice and comfortable all night. Filled it last night about 11 EDT and just let it burn out over night. House was 68 when I got up at 6 EST so 8 hours later.

Main reason for trying pellets is that after 4 winters of storms taking down lots of trees on our 2 acres so we had plenty of firewood, last winter nothing and we didn't want to buy wood plus fiance never liked the mess and bugs w/wood. We figured we'd try a basket to see how pellets heated our house before making a decision on getting a good pellet stove probably next summer.

We usually run the stove Fri nite-Sun nite as we're gone most of the day during the work week and used the stove to augment the electric baseboard heat the house has.

Bought a ton of pellets at our local Home Depot for $208, probably going to get 1 more as that should cover all the weekends through March and some colder weekday nites. The pellets burn hot, very little ash.

Sam

Sam,
you made the first step....now to really get the most out of those pellets, get yourself a proper pellet burner. No expert here, but I imagine you are not getting near the efficiency out of pellet fuel as you would by burning in a pellet burner, with the blowers and controls and burn pot. Your lifestyle seems made to order for a pellet stove...turn a switch and instant heat. Obviously you will see by reading this forum there is some level of maintenance involved in running these stoves, but dol your homework and this should be no problem! You will want to run it on low all day while you are gone and say goodbye to that electric baseboard heat...simply crank it up when you get home at night. Good luck to you and stay warm!

Yeah we knew we wouldn't be getting the most out of pellets using the insert in an old stove. But my fiance takes forever to reach a decision on anything, taking months to do research before she will commit to spending any large sum of $$. I figure if she likes they way they burn this winter it shouldn't be an issue to spend a couple grand on a good stove next summer.

Sam

Have you looked into Envi Blocks. They might be a solution for your woodstove. (http://www.pelletsdirect.com/Envi Block & Logs.htm). A friend of mine uses these and swears by them. And maybe adding a pellet burner to the area of your house where needed.

I tried pellets in my wood burner. Didn't work very well. I found using the blocks/logs worked better. And burned longer. Basket was OK for taking off the chill in the shoulders.

We bought a bunch of Bio-Bricks (about 40 8-packs from Tractor Supply) last year to augment the wood and they didn't seem to give off a lot of heat and seemed to burn fast. There is noticeably more heat from these pellets than the bio-bricks.

Sam

Well, I think Whlago is probably right. If your going to burn pellets you should invest in a pellet burner. It will burn pellets more efficiently and depending on hopper size it will run for a longer time withou needeing attention.

As I've stated we will most likely be getting one next summer. getting my fiance to make a decision, well you don't want to go out to eat with us, it can take her awhile just to order dinner

Sam

Been looking at the 55-TRPEP at AM-FM. $1250. Same stove is $2000 at Home Depot, $1700 at Lowes.

We have a 6" flue going into our chimney. Would a pellet stove liner be needed? Not sure on when one is needed.

Sam

Be sure to check craigslist for some decent, cheaper stoves. Could save you hundreds..

Sam, This depends on a few things. Are you going to intall the stove yourself, or hire someone? If self install, get it in and give it a trial run. If the stove runs with no problems I would say the 6" flue is fine. If there is a problem the stove should shut down and not operate. Then you will have to line the flue with a smaller pipe. My cab50 is venting into a 8" or 6" (can't remember) x 11" flue and does just fine. My Austroflam is vented into a huge flue, 1' x 1', runs like a champ.

Saw a few last night on CL (one was a Hudson River Saranac that needs exhaust blower for $600). Fiance walks up to me and asks why I'm looking at pellet stoves when the basket w/pellets in the woodstove is keeping the house at 74. Told her a pellet stove would be more efficient and we'd use fewer pellets over the winter. She says we're just using barely a bag a day when we run it and can't see spending any $$ for one. But I got a few months to talk her into one .

Sam

I'd be doing the install myself. Was a electro-mechanical/electronic/computer field service tech for 26 years, do most of my own car repairs &home projects, so working on a pellet stove wouldn't faze me.

Sam

Lay that foundation Sam