general overall attitude towards pellet stoves these days

[PassionForFire&Water]

IF you are heating your house with 2 or more high end pellet stoves, you have already spent more money on equipment than a boiler such as the BioWIN would cost.

Good catch. I know from where that one is coming

Keep up the good work!

 

[ironpony]

if you know you are going to heat with pellets and design and build the home accordingly you can heat 4600 square feet with a Harman Invincible RS.
I do.

 

[Stevekng]

Easy on Mark...he's foreign, it's in his nature to be misunderstood.

I guess I'm just one of those cranky yankees (not a baseball yankee) that you hear about.

 

[Stevekng]

IF you are heating your house with 2 or more high end pellet stoves, you have already spent more money on equipment than a boiler such as the BioWIN would cost.

Unless you don't have a hot water heating system. I have a FHA system along with what you guys call wasteful pellet stoves. If I decided to install a pellet boiler, I'm pretty sure the cost would be equal to a nice trip for my wife and I to Hawaii; drinks and beach time included.

 

[moey]

One of the problems I found when I looked at pellet boilers is for the cost I could get a ground source heat pump and not have to worry about the headaches of dealing with cleaning the beast and feeding it. I also got A/C which its hard to make a boiler cool your house.

 

[chken]

Yeas, I think that's where he was going. Mark is a good friend of mine. I have one of his BioWIN untis in my shop. Pellet stoves and inserts are NOT considered primary heating systems nor should they ever be. Many rely on them as such and thats where the problem lies and part of my frustration with people sometimes. iGet it. I kinda need that mentality so there are enough appliances out there to work on...over time, the adoption of these boilers will become more mainstream. Heck, wouldn't you like to fill your hopper 3 times a year and emply your ash bin 3 times....AND THATS IT.

IF you are heating your house with 2 or more high end pellet stoves, you have already spent more money on equipment than a boiler such as the BioWIN would cost.

I wish I had found out more about pellet boilers before I bought my stove this past Fall. I started looking into them a number of years ago, and the only one I could find back then was a MeSYS unit that had a Bosch-like pellet burner that attached to what looked like a Buderus. Actually, I think the burner was called a Janfire or Jasper or something like that. Anyhow, I'd have rather gathered my pennies for a BioWin or Kedel boiler, in hindsight.

 

[DBNH22]

I have to echo the sentiment of many of the previous posters. The issue with pellets appliances, whether it be stoves, boilers or furnaces is that most feel that there is too much work and maintenance involved. But let's not forget that most people would also rather spend thier time sitting on the couch for 4 hours every night killing their brain cells with reality TV and stuffing their pieholes with junk food as they grow more obese and less healthy by the minute.

Yes, owning a pellet heating appliance involves the owner undertaking some level of education regarding the operation and maintenance of that appliance. But I see that as time well spent. When you live in your home and spend a great amount time there, when your spouse and children live there with you, when your home is the greatest investment you've made by far........then why on earth would you not want to take the time to obtain some greater level of knowledge about your home and the systems within it? One would think that it would be nice to have a rudimentary understanding of how your home's heating system works so that if there was ever a situation where you were without heat due to a problem with your heating system that required a very simple solution you'd be capable of resolving the issue by yourself rather than sitting around like a dumb### watching the temperature drop while waiting for someone else to come save your bacon and bill you for it.

Pellet stoves are like many other things in this nation. They serve a definite purpose but are not a good idea for the masses of willfully ignorant and helpless.

That's my two cents on the matter.

 

[briansol]

Retail sucks.
Service Industry sucks.

Period. It will always be this way because people suck. When you deal with people every day, eventually it gets to you.


so, to the topic at hand, the 'attitude towards stoves' should actually be 'attitude towards people'.

the stoves don't yell. They never complain that you can't get to them. they just want to be fed and kept clean. Kinda like a dog. When's the last timeyour dog was angry with you? :D

 

[Stevekng]

Pellet stoves are like many other things in this nation. They serve a definite purpose but are not a good idea for the masses of willfully ignorant and helpless.

That's my two cents on the matter.

WOW! You need to get away from those pellets, man. They're clouding your view of the world. Masses? Whew! I haven't read anything like that since I had a class on Kafka.

 

[Bioburner]

My corner of the couch!

 

[DBNH22]

WOW! You need to get away from those pellets, man. They're clouding your view of the world. Masses? Whew! I haven't read anything like that since I had a class on Kafka.

I get away from my pellets plenty. I'm around people much more than I am around pellets and it's that experience of being around people, observing them and interacting with them that led to my previous comment.

There are far too many people in the world today that are:

A. Stupid and/or ignorant (stupidity and ignorance are two different traits but some people posess a superb ability to combine them)
B. Lazy (either physically and/or intellectually)
C. Greedy and self centered
D. Some combination of A, B, and C

Briansol hit the nail on the head when he said "people suck."

I think he may understand what I'm getting at.

Sorry for straying from the OP's topic but it is a topic that lends itself to rampant extrapolation.

 

[Ctcarl]

Am I a weirdo because I actually enjoy cleaning my Harman?i feel like I do after a wrk out like I accomplished something.Why would somebody have a problem tacking care of something that's so good to you and your family.I wrk in the medical field and do see people healthy in there 20 or 30 getting state assistance not wrking.yett they have nice designer bags and nice cars.i guess some of America has gotten lazy and brain Rot from to much tv.Better for us if every body had them pellet prices would be the same to propane.

 

[DBNH22]

And yet you sell these units you call wasteful. Do you let your customers know about attitude? I can't imagine that you would sell very many units if you do. The dealer I bought my Castile from had the same attitude that you have but stopped selling them or servicing them, rather than conflicting himself. I respect him for that. But I bet there are people who miss his service; it was top notch. My Castile is 5 years old and has yet to need service or parts. His install was class A+.

Steve, I bought a pellet boiler from Marc and he was very honest about the costs of different fuels in our discussions prior to my purchase. I don't think he's saying they're wasteful at all. What he is saying is that natural gas is a cheaper way to heat your home than a pellet boiler. Anyone with an ounce of intitiative can figure this out in two seconds of internet research so why lie about it? However when compared to oil, electiricity and propane, a high quality pellet boiler is the best choice to provide cost effective heat in your home. it so happens that many people live in areas where Ng is not avaiable so pellet boilers make sense for them. There is a market for these people with regard to selling pellet boilers.

A pellet boiler dealer admitting that NG is a better option for people who can go that route is just being honest and I appreciate and respect that honesty in the way that you respect the dealer you're speaking of.

 

[Stevekng]

There are far too many people in the world today that are:

A. Stupid and/or ignorant (stupidity and ignorance are two different traits but some people posess a superb ability to combine them)
B. Lazy (either physically and/or intellectually)
C. Greedy and self centered
D. Some combination of A, B, and C.

We shall all strive to be more like you and Briansol. It would be for the best.

 

[smwilliamson]

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[DBNH22]

Am I a weirdo because I actually enjoy cleaning my Harman?i feel like I do after a wrk out like I accomplished something.Why would somebody have a problem tacking care of something that's so good to you and your family.I wrk in the medical field and do see people healthy in there 20 or 30 getting state assistance not wrking.yett they have nice designer bags and nice cars.i guess some of America has gotten lazy and brain Rot from to much tv.Better for us if every body had them pellet prices would be the same to propane.

It's a shame that over the decades mainstream American culture has completely lost it's sense of pragmatism and self relaince. It's been replaced by crass, superficial materialism, levels of self-absorbtion that would cause narcissus to blush and an entitlement mentality which posits that it is entirely reasonable to expect that anything and everything your heart desires should and will come your way without having to make even so much as an ounce of effort as an individual on your own behalf. We've gone from the Greatest Generation which grinned and beared their way through the Great Depression to trampling one another to death on Black Friday so that we can save fifty dollars on the latest iPhone. This is progress?

Sorry for the rant but it just makes me so angry sometimes when I realize what kind of world my very young children are going to be forced to live in and every once in a while something, like this post, brings these thoughts to the forefront of my mind. Stepping down off the sopabox now.

 

[tjnamtiw]

It's a shame that over the decades mainstream American culture has completely lost it's sense of pragmatism and self relaince. It's been replaced by crass, superficial materialism, levels of self-absorbtion that would cause narcissus to blush and an entitlement mentality which posits that it is entirely reasonable to expect that anything and everything your heart desires should and will come your way without having to make even so much as an ounce of effort as an individual on your own behalf. We've gone from the Greatest Generation which grinned and beared their way through the Great Depression to trampling one another to death on Black Friday so that we can save fifty dollars on the latest iPhone. This is progress?

Sorry for the rant but it just makes me so angry sometimes when I realize what kind of world my very young children are going to be forced to live in and every once in a while something, like this post, brings these thoughts to the forefront of my mind. Stepping down off the sopabox now.

It is so ABSOLUTELY REFRESHING to see posted exactly how I feel as a father and grandfather worrying about my siblings! We have been driven like cattle towards total destruction as a nation and no one seems to care because they are caught up in their own little bubble of safety and can't or won't recognize the direction we are going. Thanks, Dana, for posting this ESPECIALLY from the heart of New England, which saw fit in every state there to vote us into oblivion.

 

[Delta-T]

Scott, my secret to weathering the storm is to grab the small bits of comedy when you can. Without a doubt at least a few people who call for assitance each day have no idea what stove they have (mind boggling to me). The most common thing they say is "it's the black one" to which I ask "is it the one with the glass door in the front?" which gets them all excited because clearly I know exactly which one they have..."yes, yes, that's the one!"..too much fun.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Scott, my secret to weathering the storm is to grab the small bits of comedy when you can. Without a doubt at least a few people who call for assitance each day have no idea what stove they have (mind boggling to me). The most common thing they say is "it's the black one" to which I ask "is it the one with the glass door in the front?" which gets them all excited because clearly I know exactly which one they have..."yes, yes, that's the one!"..too much fun.

TOO FUNNY! But PROBABY true! I don't know how many times I made house calls as a part time TV repairman to only find the set unplugged AFTER I asked them on the phone if it was plugged in!

 

[DBNH22]

TOO FUNNY! But PROBABY true! I don't know how many times I made house calls as a part time TV repairman to only find the set unplugged AFTER I asked them on the phone if it was plugged in!

So what would you end up charging them in a situation like that?

 

[chken]

So what would you end up charging them in a situation like that?

Well, as we all know, the black one with the glass door in the front is the most expensive model!

 

[MikeNH]

My emoticon lacked any expression and slightly aggrivated. I'm tired. Some of you who may have their own biz...or any teacher with 23 kids can relate....how many questions can you field in a day, in an hour, in a minute, in a second...and every day, every hour ,every minute, every second its the same one over and over and over again. My pellet stove is doing this, or doing that or not doing this but it never did that and why is doing this or that but not this.....I go home everyday completely exhausted. Seriously man....what's wrong with people....? THEY ARE SPACE HEATERS not MIRACLE WORKERS and they ain't the answer to not using the TSTAT. "I aint got no other heat", "Everyday you can't get here is one more day I'm spending money I shouldn't be" Seriously, this is what I deal with every day times 200.
I'm failing the entire world and industry because I stayed home an extra 15 minutes to put my kid on the buss or go home early to plow the driveway so my wife could get out and go grocery shopping. Yes, I'm talking about you the guy who's 26 year old stove you bought on CL for $350 that stopped working this afternoon and it's going to be minus 200 degrees tonight and your kids are sleeping at you mothers because I'm the jerk.
Thanks guys! I feel better now!

I like this post. I think from a dealer's point of view, it expresses perfectly what I was considering when I decided to abandon wood and move to pellets - that if I wasn't going to be able to learn the technology and repair my own stove, I wasn't going to bother buying a pellet stove. I have a great dealer here who is always willing to work with me and teach me how to service my own stoves. They do this for a reason - this saves us both time and it saves me money.

For those of us in northern climates, smwilliamson also has another great point that I wanted to expand on - if financially possible, we should have two sources of heat. It's common sense. For years, wood was primary for me, and oil backup. Now, pellets are primary and oil is backup. If my combustion blower dies, I still have heat until I get a new blower. As for maintenance, I do a hell of a lot less cleaning with my pellet stove than I did with my woodstove, and it's easy. 20 min per week and a good spring cleaning - if I converted my time to dollars, it's nothing compared to how much more I would spend in oil (plus the $150/year the oil company charges to change a nozzle and run a combustion test). I start my FHA oil furnace once per month and run it for 30 min. It's the same reason I run my generator once every 3 months under a load. In New England, or any northern climate, it's common sense to be prepared for winter suckage.

Switching gears - I've seen several posts arguing against the notion that pellet stoves can effectively heat an entire house. This is an over-generalization. My pellet stove heats my house, and it does it effectively. I sized it for my needs. 72 all around the first floor, 68 upstairs...in fact, we've never been warmer in wintertime than we've been since we installed it, and we'll recoup our initial pellet stove investment due to oil savings in May of 2015.

 

[tjnamtiw]

So what would you end up charging them in a situation like that?

If they were repeat customers, I just shared a beer with them and had a good laugh. First timers got charged for 1/2 a visit and I promised not to mention it to any of their friends!!

 

[smwilliamson]

TOO FUNNY! But PROBABY true! I don't know how many times I made house calls as a part time TV repairman to only find the set unplugged AFTER I asked them on the phone if it was plugged in!

I agree without people the world would be a very gray place