Buyer's remorse

[obsessed penguin]

I just purchased a pellet stove to replace my wood stove.
Reason 1 because of how much work it is to burn wood
Reason 2 because it's safer
I didn't realize how much I would miss the radiant heat that travels in every direction AND the ambiance and smell of burning wood and I also didn't know all the required maintenance maintenance.
Anyone else had this experience ?

 

[Mt Bob]

No. Don't care about wood smell,get enough smoke from fires blowing in 3 months out of the year from west coast fires,don't need to smell more burning wood.My pellet stoves have nice big windows for viewing,as yours does.Your P68 puts out quite a bit of radiant,so much they even make special side shields for it.Run it in "fireplace" mode sometime and see,great for mild days."and I also didn't know all the required maintenance" this throws me,your stove is arguably the easiest and fastest stove to clean,and you should be able to burn 1 ton without doing anything but scrape the pot every day or 2.Although most of us clean more often,because we care a bit about getting every ounce of heat out of our stoves. But I do not miss the dirt,dust,bugs and mess,and carrying every stick of firewood 5 times, starting a fire and tending it while it grows.

 

[obsessed penguin]

Hi Bob
thanks for responding. Not sure if you have the right stove. I've only got one window. Also there isn't a fireplace mode and there's no such heatshield add on. The instructions that come with the stove lists many frequent maintenance steps. Review the manual online if you get a chance

 

[Mt Bob]

2 stoves,2 windows.However,some pellet stoves have 3 windows. i know your stove inside and out,i fix stoves part time.I rebuilt a P68 last year and gave it to my sister/BIL.They are heat monsters, and they are very happy with it,in their leaky old cabin,as they have to use their wood furnace much less.Looking at the cleaning steps is one thing,look at the chart for recommended times when to clean. To me,a standard P series Harman is the easiest stove to clean.Fireplace mode now seems to be a colloquial term now, it means you have a nice fire,but the convection (room) blower is turned off.The term was actually used and printed in the older Harman stove manuals.

 

[minux]

Yeah, pellets are generally a PITA.... The cost used to make them worthwhile. Now you buy them out of ignorance or as a luxury. Why did you buy one?

 

[bogieb]

Not quite sure how much more maintenance there can be for a pellet stove versus wood stove. Sure, the maintenance for a wi=ood stove is cutting, splitting, stacking, moving to burn location, feeding the stove several times a day, and clean up of all the bark/insects in the house (did this for 10 years at my old house). If you have a P68, that is an easy stove to maintain on a monthly basis, whereas with my previous wood stove I had to clean out the ashes on a weekly basis.

To be fair, since compressed wood bricks have become more mainstream,I have thought about getting a wood stove for the basement. But that is in case of power outage. However, I haven't had a lenghty power outage (more than 1-2 hours) in the 7 years I've been at this house and until the last 9 months, would not have been home to feed a wood stove regularly so it has never been a really serious thought.

 

[Dataman]

I switched from Blaze King King to Harmon XXV in 2018. Wow the workload is lots easier. No storing couple years worth of firewood. No Splitting. No Hauling in Wood with Bugs and Debris. Plus lots less smoke let into the house. I seemed to always let some smoke inside when loading the stove. Daily cleaning the pellet stove is easy. Scrape the Burn Pot, Clean the Glass. I can even do it when it's running. Few seconds to scrape and some newspaper to clean. Glass on Wood stove would take Oven Cleaner if I wanted it that clean. Or burn on High. House is more comfortable too. I would have to open the door to let heat out. Get up if it's -10f and reload stove in the middle of the night . Nope none of that now. Only downside is if I lose power Wood Stove would still produce heat. So I invested in AIMS 1250 Inverter and Couple of 100ah batteries for 12 hours of run time on the Pellet Stove. I figure I could run up generator to charge battery If I had to. Will invest in Inverter Generator oneday. Dust from wood stove is so much more than pellet stove. Happy in Newport Wa

 

[Washed-Up]

Harman P series are the easiest to maintain, I still get a bit of a wood smell whenever I open the door to scrape the pot. During the holidays I keep a large glass vase, holds 20lbs, full of hickory pellets and throw a handful in the burn pot every now and then....house and whole block smell of hickory. Here’s a photo and part number for the heat shields for a P68. Also a link on the heat shields

Harman P series heat shields. Info/Pics? Minimum clearances = yikes

Hello everyone. Nice to see the forum is still going strong and no one's put an eye out. One of my stoves is corner installed using Harman's minimum clearances. I found my IR thermometer buried in the junk drawer and decided to play with it. After running the stove at around 3/4 output for...

www.hearth.com

Harman P68 Hopper Heat Shield (2-00-06715B)

 

[gfreek]

I can let my Harman P38+ run a week with out cleaning, just daily quick scrape of burn pot and let it burn... Again it's different than a wood stove (for me coal & wood) in many ways. Takes some getting used to...

 

[tlc1976]

Mine will run a week or two on low without even opening the door. You can still see through the glass and no major build up in the pot. Clean the pipe every month or two. I have a stockpile of spare parts but after getting the initial bugs worked out I haven’t had to replace much on it. Pellets cost me money but they’re so much cleaner and I don’t have to worry about a chimney fire. They’re also cheaper than running my boiler. The house came with a whole house generac so power outages aren’t a problem. The stove always resumes operation after the generator kicks in. I can come home to a warm house and a hopper lasts 35-40 hours.

The maintenance of the wood stove was the reverse. I cleaned the firebox every few months but had to take the pipe apart and clean it every few weeks and get soot in the house. And replace it every couple years. I had a chimney fire start once but I got it out by the time the fire department arrived. The house wasn’t that great to begin with so I still had bugs but more with wood. I always had to build the fire and sometimes it was finicky and I was late to work. It was nice always having heat no matter if the power went out. And even at -20f the house stayed warm. Well except the back bedrooms because the stove drew air from the leaky windows. I always had a place to cut wood for free so all it cost me was saw gas, vehicle gas, etc. That was the only thing that saved me during lean times. Sometimes I enjoyed it but I did it because I had to.

Now I own the woods behind my house but I’m better off and I choose pellets. In the beginning I missed it but as the years go on I miss it less and less.

Oh and the smell, I didn’t mind it and at times it was comforting. But when I went to sell my house.... I cleaned the carpets and repainted and the house was empty. I didn’t even smell it anymore. But the wood stove smell was the #1 complaint people had. I told my realtor geez what do you expect from a house with a working wood stove? I ended up putting a few plug in air fresheners. In my mind it looked like I was hiding something but nobody complained anymore and the house sold pretty quick.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I have the wood to burn but I prefer a biomass stove for the convenience. One thing for certain and that is emitted particulates are substantially less with a biomass stove versus a wood stove, even with catalytic reduction.

I don't want to 'smell either'. Smelling it is inhaling particulates.

 

[minux]

Mine will run a week or two on low without even opening the door. You can still see through the glass and no major build up in the pot. Clean the pipe every month or two. I have a stockpile of spare parts but after getting the initial bugs worked out I haven’t had to replace much on it. Pellets cost me money but they’re so much cleaner and I don’t have to worry about a chimney fire. They’re also cheaper than running my boiler. The house came with a whole house generac so power outages aren’t a problem. The stove always resumes operation after the generator kicks in. I can come home to a warm house and a hopper lasts 35-40 hours.

The maintenance of the wood stove was the reverse. I cleaned the firebox every few months but had to take the pipe apart and clean it every few weeks and get soot in the house. And replace it every couple years. I had a chimney fire start once but I got it out by the time the fire department arrived. The house wasn’t that great to begin with so I still had bugs but more with wood. I always had to build the fire and sometimes it was finicky and I was late to work. It was nice always having heat no matter if the power went out. And even at -20f the house stayed warm. Well except the back bedrooms because the stove drew air from the leaky windows. I always had a place to cut wood for free so all it cost me was saw gas, vehicle gas, etc. That was the only thing that saved me during lean times. Sometimes I enjoyed it but I did it because I had to.

Now I own the woods behind my house but I’m better off and I choose pellets. In the beginning I missed it but as the years go on I miss it less and less.

Oh and the smell, I didn’t mind it and at times it was comforting. But when I went to sell my house.... I cleaned the carpets and repainted and the house was empty. I didn’t even smell it anymore. But the wood stove smell was the #1 complaint people had. I told my realtor geez what do you expect from a house with a working wood stove? I ended up putting a few plug in air fresheners. In my mind it looked like I was hiding something but nobody complained anymore and the house sold pretty quick.

Put some dryer sheets against your furnace filter, turn the fan on high, and let the air circulate for a bit. Relative chain smoker did that and no one at any showing ever said the house smelled like smoke. Sold same day listed. Buyer was surprised on the day of final walk through with the house smelling like smoke. Still bought it.