I am marginally disapointed in pellet stoves at the moment.

[jtakeman]

MSG,

Just curious on how your making out with the stove?

Hopefully its keeping you warm enough too!

jay

 

[buildingmaint]

MSG I feel you pain! I had a 70K BTU wood stove. Doing all the math and asking several stove and HVAC guys. They recommended a 45K to 50K BTU pellets stove.

1st I replaced it with a 44K BTU Quad. House never felt as warm as the wood stove but heat was more consistent(and I didn't have to load the wood in early am.) We ran that stove for 9 years or so and only suffered on the extremely cold days. I would have to fire up the wood stove to help out the pellet stove.

My second stove was a 55K BTU Breckwell bigE and it just didn't perform the same as the Quad. We felt cold even on the 30º days. We only ran this stove for 1 1/2 years and could not stand it.( still trying to sell this one)

My 3rd stove(present) is a 60K BTU Enviro Omega. This stove was the ticket. We feel very close to the warmth as the old smoke bellowing wood burner. And I am using less pellets with this stove too. Due to a better designed heat exchanger. More heat in house-less heat out the flue.

My suggestions would be to add an OAK and reduce the size of your flue to 3 inches if you can or 4 inches max!(6 inches is to large for high altitude). If no change? Then you might want to get some more BTU's from a larger stove! Slide a P68 or an Enviro Omega in there! Bet you'd feel warmer then.

just my 2
jay

How come you can't sell your BIG E , I'm sure some one would buy it for the right price .

 

[jtakeman]

MSG I feel you pain! I had a 70K BTU wood stove. Doing all the math and asking several stove and HVAC guys. They recommended a 45K to 50K BTU pellets stove.

1st I replaced it with a 44K BTU Quad. House never felt as warm as the wood stove but heat was more consistent(and I didn't have to load the wood in early am.) We ran that stove for 9 years or so and only suffered on the extremely cold days. I would have to fire up the wood stove to help out the pellet stove.

My second stove was a 55K BTU Breckwell bigE and it just didn't perform the same as the Quad. We felt cold even on the 30º days. We only ran this stove for 1 1/2 years and could not stand it.( still trying to sell this one)

My 3rd stove(present) is a 60K BTU Enviro Omega. This stove was the ticket. We feel very close to the warmth as the old smoke bellowing wood burner. And I am using less pellets with this stove too. Due to a better designed heat exchanger. More heat in house-less heat out the flue.

My suggestions would be to add an OAK and reduce the size of your flue to 3 inches if you can or 4 inches max!(6 inches is to large for high altitude). If no change? Then you might want to get some more BTU's from a larger stove! Slide a P68 or an Enviro Omega in there! Bet you'd feel warmer then.

just my 2
jay

How come you can't sell your BIG E , I'm sure some one would buy it for the right price .

Hey buildingmaint, How have you been?

Actually It is technically sold(under deposit). I guess it just needed to get a little colder. I had it in the locals for 1k for the first week, Dropped it to $950 and took the 1st $850 offer! Now the phone has been ringing off the wall. Stove is very close to new. I only ran about 3 tons thru it. It will be a good stove for him. He has much less (1600sgft) to heat and a tight house with new windows.

I just needed the right person to come along. I guess I'm a little inpatient.

I'm happy now(check my sig) And I told him all about this forum. Plus all the great people we have hear. So he knows were to get support.

Take care.
jay

 

[smoke show]

big e @ the box stores around here sell for $950 brand new(on sale)

 

[jtakeman]

big e @ the box stores around here sell for $950 brand new(on sale)

Yeh yeh yeh, There $1600 to $1800 here new, Refurbs on ebay for $1250 or so. The guy that put a deposit on it was all over looking at the bigE's. Cheapest he found in Mass was $1595.00. He was going to buy that one but found mine just in time! He was happy to get it for $850.

All that matters is he bought it and is happy. Kind of like selling a car these days you get what you can get!

jay

 

[smoke show]

http://www.fleetfarm.com/mff/browse...0000000003067&categoryId=00249&navAction=jump

 

[jtakeman]

http://www.fleetfarm.com/mff/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=0000000003067&categoryId=00249&navAction=jump

Plus 189.95 to ship or drive to Wisconsin. Don't think thats worth it!

Keep trying. Your in a totally different area and Market. Your pellets are going for $150 to $200/ ton. Ours is $100 plus more.

Apples and Oranges man!

jay

 

[smoke show]

didn't mean to offend
please accept apology

 

[jtakeman]

didn't mean to offend
please accept apology

No need to apologize, No offence taken. Just explaining the fact's. Everything seems to be over priced here!

Not mad. Maybe just a little jealous! But you could send me some cheap prices. I only wish I could get things as cheap as you!

jay

 

[Jabberwocky]

LOL wern. Do you know how wood stoves are rated? They are rated in MAX btu.s They put out zero when cold, and max when fully loaded burning hot as possible. Take a 12 hour cycle, average that out and tell me what you get. My math tells me that is 50/hour average.
1=0
2=40
3=70
4=80
5=80
6=70
7=70
6=60
7=50
8=40
9=30
10=20
11=10
12=0.

This is how i burned my wood stove. I work and sleep, no time to keep the fire going at max potential. Post something constructive and prove me wrong, instead of insulting me. For people that have moved from wood to pellet, i do not think my findings to be that uncommon.

I have burned both. The pellet stove has not shown me anything to write home about as far as its heating capacity, and pure convection does not heat as well as a mix of convection and radiant.

I need to see more trigonometric equations and some heavy mutlivariant calculus showing how I'm losing money burning pellets .. then I know we'll have a hum dinger.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

honestly , i burned a 2000 ft rated cat stove for over a decade in my house, i needed it back when we bought th eplace , little insulation , single pane windows and leaks galore, i swittched to pellet cause my spouse couldnt build a fire in a woodstove with a gallon of napalm and a gun to her head, so i bit the bullet and went to pellet , it does a great job but then im not having to push the stove at all in my house now , (added insulation , working on window replacements currently. i like the pellet stove for its versatility i can control the heat output easier than i could with the woodstove.

i still stick to my theory about altitude affecting realized heat output differential between radient and convective heat sources though.

 

[slls]

honestly , i burned a 2000 ft rated cat stove for over a decade in my house, i needed it back when we bought th eplace , little insulation , single pane windows and leaks galore, i swittched to pellet cause my spouse couldnt build a fire in a woodstove with a gallon of napalm and a gun to her head, so i bit the bullet and went to pellet , it does a great job but then im not having to push the stove at all in my house now , (added insulation , working on window replacements currently. i like the pellet stove for its versatility i can control the heat output easier than i could with the woodstove.

i still stick to my theory about altitude affecting realized heat output differential between radient and convective heat sources though.

With my stove set at 70 F, the room the thermostat is in, never goes over 73 F, very efficient on pellet use.

 

[iceman]

looks like MSG left us for dead!!

 

[jtakeman]

looks like MSG left us for dead!!

Yep, He's probably dragged out the XXV and Stuffed in a monster wood burner!

 

[Bkins]

Bump back to the top.

MSG,

Are your impressions the same after buring the Harman for a while?

Bkins

 

[rbcss]

I agree, the wood fire will out do pellets. I went to pellets last year because the wood was getting to much to deal with. cutting and splitting stacking. I burned wood for 24 years but getting up in years it was getting tough to deal with. I had a hearth attack a couple off years backs and my wife shoulders are bothering her the kids are not around anymore burning wood was getting hard to deal with. the pellet stove works well with the low temp is at 15 degrees or higher anything below 15 the stove struggled. i didn't turn my furnace on until later in the season. if the outside temp was 15 or above my house stayed at 70 but if the weather outside got below 15 the temp inside was th the low to mid 60's.
there is less work and mess with the pellet stove, but this year will be the tell tail if I keep it or not. i would like to keep it but I'm not going to be cold.
I know what to expect with wood but I don't want to make another big investment and tring a coal stove.

 

[Vermont-XXV]

Mountain Stove Guy,

Wondering how you're making out with your pellet stove these days?

I finally got around to measuring the heat output. The air coming out of the top vent to warm the room is 260 degrees and when I turned the thermostadt down,the blower quieted and the stove heat went to 300 degrees on the top vent in front. That's with an OAK, temp outside 28 degrees and room humidity 60 percent. Burning Energex softgwood, out of Canada.

Looks like you have more weather than we do here. Still peak leaf, not stick season yet. Hope you're warm.

clifford

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

The stove is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It has been cold for weeks now and my furnace is still turned off at the breaker. I have changed some of my burning habits and i run the stove 24/7 in stove mode. The bedrooms are a little chilly (to be expected) but overall the stove is doing great. The stove so far has proven very dependable and easy to clean. I have burned about a half a ton so far. I should have updated this earlier, but my hearth.com time has been severely cut by my work load. Sorry to keep ya hanging!
-msg