Wood Stove vs Pellet Stove

[grillmasterp]

Greetings,

My house came w/ a fireplace insert downstairs and a pellet stove upstairs. I use the wood stove all winter long; it's great. Never used pellet stove. I want to expand upstairs and have "a" stove in the new area to more effectively heat upstairs. Pellet stove is Whitfield, Serial # WH 24328; I don't know what model.

Questions:

(1) How can I determine model # from the serial #, if possible? How can I determine fair market value of it? It's in terrific shape, see pictures. I have an opportunity to trade for a Vermont Castings Wood Stove.

(2) Your thoughts on whether I should keep it and use in new space, or use a wood stove. I get all my wood for free (less labor) and have a great system for storing, etc., although it's labor too.

(3) Is operating pellet stove less messy than wood stove?

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Chief Ryan]

I have a pellet stove in my hunting cabin upstate. It's great for this situation because you fill it, set it and forget it. When we come home from hunting it's running and the house is warm. We used to have an old wood box (junk) that you would have to tend when we got back on top of having to start dinner, clean up ETC. It's just a a lot easier.

It sure would be cleaner, just dump the bag and your done. One bag goes for about 24 hours at the setpoint we have, maybe longer. The problem from what i've been hearing is the price of pellets. There going up (or went up) to the equivalent of oil. Now oil is down but i think pellets are not. If you get wood for free, Well that may be the way to go. It just may be a pain humping the wood upstairs and it's messy.

Good Luck

 

[Revig]

Good morning,
What you have there is a Whitfield WP-2 Advatage IIT, a 42,000 btu heater. This should be a great unit to use as a supplement heat source. Looks as if it could use a thorough service/cleaning. When comparing wood to pellet as far as convenience goes, pellet is certainly cleaner and easier, however both require maintenance - morso with the pellet as it has more moving parts. Cost to operate can vary depending on your needs/wants and preference, but theirs been excellent discussion on this subject in this forum. Value of this stove is a liitle hard to determine, but I always figure anything used is only worth what someone's willing to pay for it. As a example, I just purchased one of these used from a customer of mine that switched over to propane heat. I paid $500 for it and will recondition it for resale and it will be worth around $1500-$1650 depending on what all I replace/repair. I think that you'd be happy either way, what it boils down to is preference.

 

[Xena]

1) Looks like that has been answered already

2) Since you said you get wood for free, I would tend to lean toward trading for the wood stove
if I were in that situation and I was physically able to cut/split/stack/shlep logs.

3) Pellets are definitely easier and cleaner to deal with. A little dust in the bags
but if you get good pellets and pour slow, even that is very minimal.