Considering buying used Harman PP38

[KyleThePlummer]

Hello Everyone!

This is my first post, and I'm still pretty new to the forum. I've been considering getting a pellet stove, and have done a little bit of reading, which has been very helpful. Thank you all! I wasn't planning on buying anything quite yet, but I recently came across what seems like a good deal on my local CL. First a little background. (If you'd like to just read my question, you can skip the next two paragraphs).

I own a two story, ~2200 sf, house with a ~1200 sf finished basement. The basement is heated by a propane wall heater, which does a fine job for what we need down there. For the main living area, I have a heat pump for the shoulder seasons, which is about 12 years old and works down to about 40 degrees. And then an early 90's cast iron Weso wood stove and electric baseboards for when it gets colder. I live along the mountain in west central PA, so I'm heating with wood and electricity for mostly all of Late November/December - March. My wife and I both like having a woodfire, and the wood stove we have works like a champ.

Usually the wood stove does most of the heavy lifting with only a small amount of supplemental heat from the baseboards. But my first daughter was born this past summer, so I didn't spend as much time as usual cutting and splitting wood. Plus this past winter was particularly long and cold, and I ended up running short on my wood supply. That meant more electric heat, which as you can imagine killed my electric bill. And seeing as I would rather spend more time in the future with my daughter, and less time cutting/splitting/stacking/hauling wood, I've been considering getting a pellet stove. I'd still keep the wood stove in place, which is situated in our family room along one outer wall of our first floor. It does a good job for the family room (obviously), and an ok job for my office and the kitchen which are directly off the family room (I can upload a layout later to help). But the living and dining room on the other side of the house are generally quite a bit colder. It also does a pretty good job of heating the upstairs bedrooms. With the exception of our bedroom and bathroom, which again are situated on the opposite side of the house as the wood burner.

So all that leads me to thinking of installing a pellet stove in the living room on the other side of the house as the wood stove. It could help carry the heating load, and would be easier for my wife to maintain while I'm working during the day. And while I was still planning on doing some more research and pricing, I came across an ad on CL for a used Harman PP38. The seller is asking $300 for the stove and hearth pad. They said it works great, is about 10 years old, and never had any problems with it. That sounds like a good deal to me, but really I don't know that much about them.

What do you all think? And sorry for the long first post!

 

[gutlo]

I bought a P38 that was seven years old and I ran it for another 4 years. Then it had computer problems and developed a smoke leak that was fixable with the investment of around $300 + the computer $. Traded it in on a P43 (2017) that is self starting, can be run on a thermostat, and has all the modern upgrades, but is essentially a better P38. $300 is an attractive price, but I would hold out for a used P43, especially since you want to minimize reliability issues.

 

[Don2222]

We just got a used P61 Today.
Needs cleaning, some paint and a swell latch.
It works in test mode but might need some other parts?
We just had to wheel it out of the basement back door up a grassy hill and around to the front of the house to the driveway and up the built in ramp I made for the trailer.

 

[KyleThePlummer]

Thanks for the replies. I decided to pass on the P38. What about the Harman Accentra? How does it compare to the P43?

 

[Don2222]

Thanks for the replies. I decided to pass on the P38. What about the Harman Accentra? How does it compare to the P43?

The Accentra has fire plates in the back of the fire box that need to be taken out and cleaned. Also the fan shroud behind the ash pan is much larger and very tricky to take out for cleaning. The sides and top do not get hot like the p43 so the P43 - 212 lbs heats a little better. The Accentra 370 lbs has a lot more cast iron that looks nicer but is a lot heavier to move when it comes time to install and service it.

 

[gutlo]

I suffered with an Accentra for 13 years. What a pain in the ass for cleaning. Took 1.5 hours and had to scrape the burn pot to remove carbon buildup every other day. Poor heat distribution. Replaced with a P43 which is far superior for cleaning and heat distribution. Scraped the burn pot every 3 months.

Please don't get an Accentra. Get a P43 and enjoy years of trouble free service.

 

[MCPO]

I`ve had my 2004 P38 for about 8 yrs now and it was used when I bought it. It`s almost bullet proof and almost heats the whole of my 2500 sq ft home. Unless you can afford a newer P43 I think you passed up a bargain in the P38.

 

[Don2222]

I`ve had my 2004 P38 for about 8 yrs now and it was used when I bought it. It`s almost bullet proof and almost heats the whole of my 2500 sq ft home. Unless you can afford a newer P43 I think you passed up a bargain in the P38.

Yes and you can easily upgrade it to a P43 like I did. Just remove the 2 knob Control Panel and put in the3 knob Panel with Auto Lite Circuit Board.
The next to last pic shows the hole I drilled for the auto/manual igniter toggle switch I drilled for the auto lite circuit board. Also shows the hole I drilled for the Igniter LED on light.
How does it look???
See pics

 

[KyleThePlummer]

Thanks for the additional information, very helpful! I actually ended up passing because the seller got another offer and didn't want to hold it for me an additional week when I could get there. But thankfully I have a lot of time until next heating season so I don't have to rush into any decisions.