lennox winslow/whitfield profile pellet stoves

[kkduda]

My husband and I would like to buy a pellet stove to help heat our home this winter. We currently have a propane furnace and would like to supplement with a less expensive option. We were looking at the Lennox Winslow Pellet Stove and the Whitfield Profile. Does anyone have any experience with or opinion on either of these? Thank you for any info you can provide.

Karen

 

[Crabby]

i know that propane has went up, but so have the pellets, and i know some places around where i live they are hard to find. a friend of mine had one and it burned a bag a day, and they are about 5 dollars a bag. but they do work really nice.

 

[kkduda]

I have found pellets around here for about $4/bag. The place where I was looking to buy the stove has them for $190/ton. When I put last years propane price ($2.95/gal) into the calculators online and compare it to the pellet price it is still almost 3x as much.

 

[Crabby]

wow that cheap. yeah i know propane is rediculous. i know the pellet stoves will heat one big room really well and you have supplimental heat i would do it. pellet stoves do work nice.

 

[begreen]

Karen, how large an area are you intending to heat with the stove. Where would it be located? How large is the house and how well insulated is it?

I would also look at the Enviro Mini, Harman Accentra and the Quadrafire SantaFe (or Castille) pellet stoves.

Be sure to visit the stove stores on a quiet day, weekday mornings are usually best. Have them run the stove on various speeds for at least 10 minutes each and listen to them (especially high speed). A pellet stove is a small wood furnace. It can be noisy, so be sure you can live with the sound if this is going to be in a prime living space where you spend a lot of quiet time.

 

[Mr Whitfield]

I heat my home all winter using pellet, with the price of natural gas, it cheaper. I live in northern Ca. The temps at night can dip into the mid 20's but avg around 38 to 42. I'm a big fan of the Advantage II-T. This stove was discontinue this year, but you can still find them out there. Freestanding run about 2000. This whitfield is a work horse, in my home in the tahoe area this stove run's 24/7 in the winter. This stove is easy to work on, and parts should be around for years, I think the profile is not as good as the AdvantageII-T.

 

[kkduda]

We live in an ~12 year old cape cod. I think it's just under 2000sf, maybe 1900sf. It's insulated but I'm not sure how well because although our downstairs thermostat is set to 69 degrees the upstairs can drop into the 50's in the winter. I know it doesn't make sense since heat rises... Been thinking about having someone look at better insulating the attic spaces. We plan on putting the stove in a corner of our living room that will direct the heat out towards the rest of the house - the first floor plan is relatively open and should circulate well. We also have ceiling fans that could help with that. Also considering putting in ceiling/floor resisters in to direct heat upstairs.

We've looked at a few showrooms and had them light them up for us. The Harman that we saw actually seemed to be on the louder side while the Lennox/Whitfields seemed to be much quieter. I'm worried, however, because I've seen a thread or two where people said to avoid the Whitfields because of their photo-eye. I'm wondering if the Lennox Winslow has that photo-eye as well and how much of a problem it is. I saw that one guy was able to take his out, clean it, put it back in and all was well again. Not too difficult a fix. I also wonder if there are any other problems that people are saying to "avoid them like the plague" The dealer we spoke to seemed like the nicest of all the showrooms we visited, wasn't pushy and had the Winslow in his own home. He had another model in the showroom that we asked about and he said that he wasn't even going to sell them anymore because he had so many problems with that one that it was going back, which gave me the impression that he wasn't going to sell junk.

 

[begreen]

OK, your place is larger than I first thought. You might want to look at the bigger Enviros/Quads etc.

Do you remember which stove the salesperson was discouraging?

 

[kkduda]

Sorry, I can't remember the name. I just know it wasn't any of the big names.

 

[david Lee]

The Winslow does not use the photo eye. It is a Country Stoves brand . Country is now owned by Lennox. Winslow is a cleaner burning unit (glass) I'd go with the Winslow over the Whitfield.