is it a problem to have a stove oversized for the space?

[megregor]

Hi Everyone,

We're in southeast Kansas, switching from an old propane heater to pellets, heating a maximum of 1,500 square feet. I have a handy husband and we have available to us in our community the Englander 25-PDVC, Breckwell P22 and Big E Home Heater stove and will probably buy one of them but have a couple of concerns that perhaps someone can address.

1) The Englander and Breckwell P22 only hold 40lbs of pellets at a time. The pellet stove would be our sole source of heat and so would be difficult to leave for the weekend with such a small hopper. We might consider a different Englander or the Breckwell Big E that have bigger hoppers, but my husband is concerned that we would be too hot if we got a stove designed to heat 2200 feet or that we would have to run it on low all the time and we have been told that is not ideal. Any thoughts?

2) There's no ash pan on the Englander or P22 so it seems like it would be a real hassle to clean out the ashes unless we purchase a vacuum specifically for that purpose. Is it easier than it seems?

3) Just thought of another question - the room where it will be located is an interior room. We plan on venting it through the same chimney the propane stove was vented through since we don't have access to exterior walls. Any problems there?

We appreciate any comments you might have.

 

[Shortstuff]

It doesn't sound to me like the Big E with 2200 sq.ft. capability would be too big at all. My stove is rated at 1500 sq.ft. and I'm only heating one end of my house with it which is only 820 sq.ft. If I were in your situation, I would not hesitate to get the Big E knowing that if the temps get really low (around 0° fahrenheit) then I've got a little extra heating capacity available.

I also have a set-back thermostat on my stove and always run it on medium right now. I would suggest that you can run yours on medium all the time as well and kick it on a higher setting as needed.

Good luck!

Steve

 

[bigtrout]

I have the big Englander, the 25-PDV, works great, it is the one that heats 2200 square feet. I do not think it is too big, as I am heating 1500 square feet with mine, and you can throttle down the feed rates so that on low, it does not run you out of the house. I like knowing that at below zero temps, I still will not have to fire the oil burner up.

I just installed it a month ago, and the only bad thing about a large one might be right now when the temps are really not that cold. I just run it on the lowest setting at night for a few hours, works fine for my house.

You asked about the ash pan, on the 25-PDV, there is none. This is not the hassle that it sounds like. Every day I open the stove, dump the burn pot ashes to the side, there are pockets on the side to hold ash inside the stove. Once a week I let the stove cool and vacuum it out. In one week on the lowest setting, there was not alot of ash to deal with. I'd rather vacuum because I've burnt wood stoves before and carrying an ashbox thru the house always resulted in ash all over, or dust. I do not use a special 'ash' vacuum, I use a Craftsman shop-vac with a drywall filter, and no ash escaped the vacuum yet. In my opinion, I will keep the stove cleaner than if I had an ashbox, because while I have the vacuum out, it takes seconds to pull the baffle plate and vacuum the whole stove out real good. I work as an electrical and mechanical technician and with a mechanical item like a stove, cleanliness usually results in a much longer service life.

Another plus for the Englander that you may want to ponder. Being a technician who fixes large industrial machines, I had no rest until I tore the back cover off and looked over all the internals. The Englander stove uses standard motors for the augers and blowers( I have looked them all over and have part numbers already in hand), and they can be bought from Graingers and shipped UPS red in a day, alot cheaper than from Englander itself. If you are a fixit yourself kinda person, that is a big plus. My friend has a Quadrafire that uses special (harder to find) motors for the augers, sounds like a fun part to find in the middle of winter when Quadrafire is outta stock.

 

[Gumbo]

I run a harman P-68 in a smaller home. It's more stove than I really need but there's no problem with oversizing the appliance. You have more on/off cycles if the stove is automatic but maintaining temps seem to be no concern. I hate buying something and wishing I had gotten a different size or model. Buy once cry once I suppose along the that ol' chesnut you get what you pay for. Larger stove can maintain lower temps a easily as smaller ones.

 

[megregor]

Thanks for the responses - they were all very helpful. We invested in two tons of pellets on Saturday but haven't quite jumped for the stove yet. I think we'll go with the bigger stove so now a final question might be - any major difference between a Breckwell Big E and Englander 25PUF that would make one a better choice than the other? Our local farm store ordered a Breckwell Big E Home Heater (no ash pan) for us for $1,000 and have it in stock but no obligation on our part. From what I see on the internet for advertised prices, the Englander would cost around $1,500. Is it worth the additional $500 over the Big E?

 

[kyburnr]

Looks like kinglew may be the one to ask...he is using both

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/25201/

 

[heb80]

The problem with having a stove too big for a particular house is you might not be able to turn it down low enough to use when its not super cold. For example: I can't run my stove continuously (even on its lowest setting) unless the temperature remains <40 degrees. If it gets above 40 I have to turn it on and off to keep the house from getting too warm.

 

[crausch]

I wanted a stove larger than I needed as I was told to always buy large for my pellet stove. I took into consideration the BTU ranges. For example the Lopi that I was looking at was rated around 8,200 btu to 28,700 btu. The harman I bought was rated 0 to 48,000 btu.

Notice the low numbers. The harman uses sensors to lower the heat and even shut itself off, then back on when needed. You can get the same effect from others with the thermostat as long as you can hook one up to it. Otherwise, you are stuck with the stoves lowest btu output.

 

[heb80]

I wanted a stove larger than I needed as I was told to always buy large for my pellet stove. I took into consideration the BTU ranges. For example the Lopi that I was looking at was rated around 8,200 btu to 28,700 btu. The harman I bought was rated 0 to 48,000 btu.

Notice the low numbers. The harman uses sensors to lower the heat and even shut itself off, then back on when needed. You can get the same effect from others with the thermostat as long as you can hook one up to it. Otherwise, you are stuck with the stoves lowest btu output.

That is correct. My stove allows for a thermostat hook-up... but it only turns it up and down, not on and off.