Starting to do homework for second stove need guidance

[Dlasure2]

Good day

I purchased a 3000 sq. ft. farm house in South Western Pa. 2 years ago that was vacant for about 5 years prior to my purchase. When I got there the house had a ancient coal furnace that was rusted through and not safe to use so I removed it and was left with no heat. After doing some research I decided to give a pellet stove a try and purchased a Breckwell P24 used that was for sale locally. Well I could not get rid of the Breckwell fast enough it was nothing but a headache I had to use gel to lite it and 2 weeks after I had it the circuit board went bad to the tune of $545 shortly followed by the blower motor.

This now brings us to my current pellet stove a King 5502M. I do like the stove much better than the Breckwell. The auto ignition and the 120 lb. hopper are great but when I purchased the stove I asked if it could be hooked up to a thermostat and they told me absolutely. They were correct but I assumed that meant the stove would shut off completely since it had auto ignition and relight when the thermostat called for heat. Regrettably it will not shut off only ramp down to a trickle mode until it calls for heat.

This is not my primary house so when winter hits I am there about every other day so a large hopper is a must and I would love auto ignition that actually completely shuts the stove off until it calls for heat. my plan was to move the King to the basement and run it on low and to get a new stove for the upstairs. What do you all recommend for a new stove and sorry in advance for such a long first post.

 

[johneh]

Can't help you with a second stove I use and like the Enviro others prefer Harman
and very few like the breakwell ( yes I misspelled ) or did I
Just one thing about shut down and auto relight it is very hard on the igniter
also depends how offend it cycles a friend of mine has that function and has
had to replace his igniter 6 times in the last 3 years .now his stove just cycles
down . My igniter is the original from 2002 and shows no signs of quitting
Just my nickel's worth

 

[railfanron]

In a house that you aren't there all the time I would choose a Harman. They can do a complete shutoff or if you flip the switch to stove temp it will ramp up and down. I don't believe the igniters longevity is always tied to the amount of times it's used. If the proper amount of air moves across it should last a reasonable amount of time. My stove is 3 years old and runs on a thermostat 80% of the time and it's on the original igniter. That means the stove comes on 8 to 12 times a day during most of the winter. When the high temp doesn't get above 15 degrees I switch to stove temp mode which ramps the stove. Harmans are an expensive stove but I let mine run 7-24s whether we're home or not. The thermostat is programmable so it changes to a higher temp at 4:00 in the afternoon and has never missed a start (unless I forget to fill it LOL) .
Ron

 

[NYBurner]

In a house that you aren't there all the time I would choose a Harman. They can do a complete shutoff or if you flip the switch to stove temp it will ramp up and down. I don't believe the igniters longevity is always tied to the amount of times it's used. If the proper amount of air moves across it should last a reasonable amount of time. My stove is 3 years old and runs on a thermostat 80% of the time and it's on the original igniter. That means the stove comes on 8 to 12 times a day during most of the winter. When the high temp doesn't get above 15 degrees I switch to stove temp mode which ramps the stove. Harmans are an expensive stove but I let mine run 7-24s whether we're home or not. The thermostat is programmable so it changes to a higher temp at 4:00 in the afternoon and has never missed a start (unless I forget to fill it LOL) .
Ron

Good info, and not to detract from your post but most of the newer stoves will do the same. I have an Enviro M55 and it is connected with a wireless 7 day programmable thermo and can be run in either 'simmer' mode or full shutdown. I'm sure there are many others as well.

3k sqft is a lot to ask for out of a pellet stove (especially an old farmhouse), especially if you let it cycle all the way off but I guess if it is working for you then that is what matters. I'd say overall with Harman and Enviro you are getting a good name unit with a lot of support and options. Also there are some newer units (brands) that sound promising and may be worth looking into.

 

[Highbeam]

I too am surprised that you would want it to shut off between thermostat calls for heat. A house that big, with old construction techniques, in that climate, should lose more heat than the pellet stove can make on low. For comparison, my wood heater does not shut off but burns steady for 30 hours. It does not overheat my 1700 SF house in a much more moderate climate.

 

[bogieb]

Harman P61a or P68 with a hopper extension. That will give you 2.5-3 bags. You can run it off the temp probe, or a thermostat (my basement stove uses the probe, the main floor stove uses a thermostat).

Don't worry about the igniter - both stoves cycle on / off and never had an issue (except that one time some plastic got in the OAK and messed with the air supply to the pot). Even if by chance the igniter goes, they are cheap ($40 or so). You can also put it in several different simmer type modes if you want to. Full Disclosure: there is about a month each year of extremely cold weather that I run the basement stove so it doesn't shut down (but the other 4-5 months it does shut down then autolight when needed.

 

[stovelark]

Hi Dl, welcome. Sorry to hear you had so much trouble out of the Breckwell, historically they have built pretty good stoves. Agree with everyone else, hard to go wrong with good name brands- Harman, Enviro, Quadrafire and many others. Ignitors can last months or years, my Empress (Enviro) is still on its original from 2007, but I run it manually on low most of the time, so I don't use the ignitor much. Good luck on your search. If you want a high capacity hopper, I'd suggest a couple more stoves, the Enviro Maxx (120 lbs), Osburn 7000 (120 lbs). Big heaters, but not really quiet operating.