what stove should I buy?

[smg64ct]

Now that the winter is over I'd like to get a new stove over the summer. I currently have a freestanding Quadra-fire cb 1200. I hate this stove. I have a 2200 sq ft house with a open floor plan. I need a strong stove that can heat a large area. I don't like using the electric heat. I like the Harmon stoves, but not sure which one to look at. Thanks for your help.

 

[stoveguy13]

what dont you like about it?

 

[HarryBack]

Hates the Quads? Likes the Harmans? hmmmm..... https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/91621/ remember that comment, Stoveguy13? ;-P (Sorry, Stoveguy13, couldnt resist THAT one!) Anyhow.....


The largest freestanding Harman is 68,000 BTU/hr.......its appropriately names the P68. Being thermostatically controlled, you can turn it down if its too much heat for your area. If its too little heat, there isnt another free-standing pellet unit I am aware of currently which produces more heat. The p68 is autoignite as well. Good luck...

 

[stoveguy13]

its ok its hard to take anything to personal in hear the harman is a great stove i sold harman for years

 

[smg64ct]

thanks for the replies. I'll have to check out the p68. I had a Harmon insert in my old house and I thought it was well made. I had two stoves at my other house the other stove was a Quad Sante fe. I think the Harmons are more solid and build better. I also think the Quads are over rated as far as the BTU's that they are rated for. I was just curious which Harmon would be the best.

 

[stoveguy13]

be carefull with all manufacture rating wether it is for wood gas or pellet they tend to give the very best case that the stove cloud do the ratings are not accurate for the colder climate no matter what manufacture you look at and that is just the way things go in this wondeful world of stoves

 

[smg64ct]

Should I be looking at any other brands besides the Quad and Harmon? I've heard that the Mt Vernon heats well but could be troublesome.

 

[stoveguy13]

were do you live and how much space are you trying to heat

 

[smg64ct]

Hi,

I live in Connecticut. My house is 2200 sq ft and its an open floor plan.

 

[PAJerry]

Sounds like a good fit for a PE Summit. Get the best...forget the rest!!

 

[stoveguy13]

what didnt you like about the 1200?

 

[smg64ct]

what I don't like about the 1200. I find that to get a lot of heat out of it you have to keep it very clean. Adjusting the flame height is a pain. I just moved into this house last fall and this stove was here. I spent a lot of time cleaning this stove. I want a stove with less work.

 

[jtp10181]

You have to clean any pellet stove a lot... that's their nature.

 

[begreen]

That sounds odd. I found the 1200i insert a joy to maintain. Burning softwaood pellets, it only needed cleaning once every two weeks and heated our 2000 sq ft house pretty well until temps dropped below about 35. I would go sometimes a couple years before adjusting the feed rate (affecting the flame height) and that was only when I changed pellet brand. Something is wrong, perhaps poor pellets? Is this burning just wood pellets or corn + wood pellets?

 

[restorer]

Do you want to stay with a pellet stove? They do require cleaning and maintenance on a regular basis. Some here will tell you a wood stove is the only way to go, but there are advantages to the thermostatically controllable p-stoves. If I were looking for a new stove, I'd check out the Avalon, Lopi and England stoves also. Inserts and freestanders from Travis (the Avalon and Lopi) have some great features and capacities, they have been around for years and are very well respected. They are a little pricy, but very reliable. Englander stoves are known here as the best bang for the buck. Not only that they are a direct support company. Because they sell through non-servicing sellers like Home Depot and Lowe's the company handles parts and servicing questions directly. Their customer service manager is an active member of the forum and they recently hired one of our own as an engineer, check the archives for Corie's Job search and trip to Reno.

I suppose the analogy would be asking what new car should I buy? There are lots of choices and this group will give your their biased and unbiased opinions. You can automatically eliminate the small stoves, but there are some very efficient medium stoves that might meet your needs. Give us some ideas like sedan, sports car, pick up, SUV. If you get my drift. There are many more stove makers than Quad and Harmon. You can also consider multi-fuels and corn burners.

At any rate welcome to the Hearth, get comfortable you have a lot of reading to do.

 

[GVA]

Even the P-68 may not be enough for someone in New England with 2200 sf.
BG there could be a problem with the pellets or the stove...
But
Rule #1 Clean, Clean, Clean.........
The stove needs to be clean to transfer the BTU's to the room...

Harman says I can go "up to" 1 ton between cleanings......... I cut this # down to half ton for best "efficiancy"..
That is when I'm close to burning 25 bags I'll check the weather reports (which lie) and find the warmest day within 10 days this is stove cleaning day.... This keeps the # of pellets that I burn down..... and the heat where it is needed, Inside..
Bottom line you want a pellet stove, you will have to clean it.

EDIT
Stoveguy13 could you be a bit more vague in your location? :cheese: at least give us a state.... ;-)

 

[titan]

I'm not overly familiar with pellet stoves,yet I believe GVA is correct;is their really a pellet stove robust enough to comfortably heat 2200sq.ft. in Conn. on a "design day" mid-winter?If yes, what is it and how many lbs of pellets would it eat per day?

 

[begreen]

The 1200i has a pair of cleaning rods for the heat transfer tubes. I would give them a couple strokes with each bag of pellets, usually once a day. By cleaning I meant pulling out the shop-vac, vacuuming the ashes out and checking the burn pot for clinkers. But the complaint of adjusting the flame sounds like bad pellets or corn and pellets to me. Our stove's flame was about as steady as running on gas.

 

[restorer]

The 1200i has a pair of cleaning rods for the heat transfer tubes. I would give them a couple strokes with each bag of pellets, usually once a day. By cleaning I meant pulling out the shop-vac, vacuuming the ashes out and checking the burn pot for clinkers. But the complaint of adjusting the flame sounds like bad pellets or corn and pellets to me. Our stove's flame was about as steady as running on gas.

We have more opinions about pellets than stoves, so what 'ya been burning??

 

[GVA]

That's what I call cleaning too BG.
Daily I would scrape the burn pot when I got home from work (the nature of the bottom feeder).
Then between 20-30 bags I would do the full cleaning.
The Harmans don't have the scrapers built in but the comb blower and other parts start to accumulate fly ash and need to be cleaned too.
So for me half ton seems to be the best time to clean..

 

[begreen]

I always burned local softwood pellets. Lignetics, Blazers (WOW pellets), and Clean Burn (Manke) were the brands I used during the 5 years I had the stove. All worked well. The Lignetics were the cleanest burning by a slight margin. But all were good burners for me.

 

[smg64ct]

I've been burning ozark hard pellets in my stove.

 

[HarryBack]

be carefull with all manufacture rating wether it is for wood gas or pellet they tend to give the very best case that the stove cloud do the ratings are not accurate for the colder climate no matter what manufacture you look at and that is just the way things go in this wondeful world of stoves

yes, some truth to this, stoves are tested in a laboratory under ideal conditions....pretty rare in homes

 

[HarryBack]

Hi,

I live in Connecticut. My house is 2200 sq ft and its an open floor plan.

Im in Massachusetts, and I heat 2000 square feet, 2 floors, not totally open, with a Harman P61. I use fuel oil for hot water, but my heat hasnt been on in 5 years now. I burn 5 tons of pellets per year.

 

[HarryBack]

Do you want to stay with a pellet stove? They do require cleaning and maintenance on a regular basis. Some here will tell you a wood stove is the only way to go, but there are advantages to the thermostatically controllable p-stoves. If I were looking for a new stove, I'd check out the Avalon, Lopi and England stoves also. Inserts and freestanders from Travis (the Avalon and Lopi) have some great features and capacities, they have been around for years and are very well respected. They are a little pricy, but very reliable. Englander stoves are known here as the best bang for the buck. Not only that they are a direct support company. Because they sell through non-servicing sellers like Home Depot and Lowe's the company handles parts and servicing questions directly. Their customer service manager is an active member of the forum and they recently hired one of our own as an engineer, check the archives for Corie's Job search and trip to Reno.

I suppose the analogy would be asking what new car should I buy? There are lots of choices and this group will give your their biased and unbiased opinions. You can automatically eliminate the small stoves, but there are some very efficient medium stoves that might meet your needs. Give us some ideas like sedan, sports car, pick up, SUV. If you get my drift. There are many more stove makers than Quad and Harmon. You can also consider multi-fuels and corn burners.

At any rate welcome to the Hearth, get comfortable you have a lot of reading to do.

UR is right, in that you should also consider many brands, and winnow out what you feel is the wheat from the chaff. Corn in CT? C'mon.