Hi all... new to the pellet stove world as I moved (back) to Upstate NY from south Louisiana several months ago, and inherited a 9 year old Avalon Arbor with the house we bought. Stove was poorly maintained and not cleaned, and after much professional cleaning and servicing and consistent cleaning and servicing on my part, it's taken most of the season for it to finally behave as it should, or at least as well as it's ever going to - a lot of thanks to the wisdom on this forum. It does a decent job of heating my 100+ y/o 2000 sq foot house (I have supplemental baseboard heat on the second floor, but run it very low unless temps get down in the single digits or below), but it's not the most efficient stove and only has a 40 lb hopper (specs are 50 but really 40 is the limit).
So... now that we've just about made it through the season, I have a better idea of what my heating needs are and am looking to replace it. Closest dealer to me sells Quads so I was originally looking at the CB 1200, but I really would like something with a 3 bag hopper so was looking at the Heatilator CAB50 as well (dealer also sells/services those). Reason for wanting a big hopper is I have several pets (including elderly, indoor only cats) and want to be able to go away for weekends to visit family and such during the winter as needed without the pellet stove running out of fuel. I have a housesitter who takes care of my pets but she doesn't do pellet stoves. (I also have alarms galore that tell me if there's a problem and my closest neighbor is a volunteer fireman.) This winter I used space heaters on my first floor when my pellet stove was out of service or ran out of fuel, which was fine for this mild winter but won't work if it gets really cold. I got close to 28 hours out of a bag of pellets once when I filled it to the brim and set it on low, but would like something that can run up to 3 days if possible.
Anyway... I'm also looking at the Pelpro PP130 which shares some but not all of the Heatilator guts and is $1000 cheaper, and also looked at the Englander 25 (Summers Heat version at Lowes) which splits the difference between the other two. I don't need a real thermostat since the rest of the house isn't on a thermostat either, so the quasi-thermostat on the Pelpro would be OK for me. Benefits of the Heatilator are dealer support, Quad firepot and auger system, but not sure it's $1000 worth more since I'm pretty handy and can fix most things myself, and local stove shop will fix and service pretty much anything I can't even if they don't sell it (but if someone can make the case that it's worth that much more I'm open). Benefits of the Englander is their customer service, but cons include the weak fan in the unit compared to the other two.
Don't have an OAK currently but stove is along an outside wall and plan on putting one in with whatever new stove I get. Have 4 inch flue and should be able to reuse most of that with an adapter.
So throwing it out there for more advice - what are other pros and cons that I should consider, or are there other stoves out there I should be looking at? Or issues with any of these units that would take any off my short list?
Thanks!
So... now that we've just about made it through the season, I have a better idea of what my heating needs are and am looking to replace it. Closest dealer to me sells Quads so I was originally looking at the CB 1200, but I really would like something with a 3 bag hopper so was looking at the Heatilator CAB50 as well (dealer also sells/services those). Reason for wanting a big hopper is I have several pets (including elderly, indoor only cats) and want to be able to go away for weekends to visit family and such during the winter as needed without the pellet stove running out of fuel. I have a housesitter who takes care of my pets but she doesn't do pellet stoves. (I also have alarms galore that tell me if there's a problem and my closest neighbor is a volunteer fireman.) This winter I used space heaters on my first floor when my pellet stove was out of service or ran out of fuel, which was fine for this mild winter but won't work if it gets really cold. I got close to 28 hours out of a bag of pellets once when I filled it to the brim and set it on low, but would like something that can run up to 3 days if possible.
Anyway... I'm also looking at the Pelpro PP130 which shares some but not all of the Heatilator guts and is $1000 cheaper, and also looked at the Englander 25 (Summers Heat version at Lowes) which splits the difference between the other two. I don't need a real thermostat since the rest of the house isn't on a thermostat either, so the quasi-thermostat on the Pelpro would be OK for me. Benefits of the Heatilator are dealer support, Quad firepot and auger system, but not sure it's $1000 worth more since I'm pretty handy and can fix most things myself, and local stove shop will fix and service pretty much anything I can't even if they don't sell it (but if someone can make the case that it's worth that much more I'm open). Benefits of the Englander is their customer service, but cons include the weak fan in the unit compared to the other two.
Don't have an OAK currently but stove is along an outside wall and plan on putting one in with whatever new stove I get. Have 4 inch flue and should be able to reuse most of that with an adapter.
So throwing it out there for more advice - what are other pros and cons that I should consider, or are there other stoves out there I should be looking at? Or issues with any of these units that would take any off my short list?
Thanks!
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