Looking at the Castile for sunroom

[cocey2002]

Hello, I'm looking for a nice free standing pellet stove for my sunroom which is around 500 sqft. I heat our house with the hampton wood insert but we usually close the sunroom-too cold. We have an electric heater but it sucks and I'd like the sunroom to stay 73 or above. Also looking at the thelin which seems to have a lot of negative feedback and the pipe is off center which would drive me crazy. Also, the Upland 207 has great reviews with no owners to talk to. So the Castile looks to be my best option. I don't mind cleaning but how is the noise with this unit? I have read it can be noisy. Any feedback regarding this stove is much appreciated. I have two or three shops around my area that sale this stove so I will be looking to deal. Sunroom mostly glass with the foam type roof. Shop said venting is no problem through the roof.

 

[Jim H.]

I can not offer input on this stove but have a similar setup. We also shut our sunroom off when temps start staying in the low 40's and 30's. It is considered a 4 season
with electric baseboard heat but do not really want to run that.....whole house is electric baseboard from 1982 build. We use about 100 bucks a month year round as an average including wall ac and window ac in bedroom. Please keep us/me posted on your findings......always kicked around the same idea.

 

[cocey2002]

Yeah we have been thinking of adding a pellet for some years now. My sunroom is 40 degrees today so I don't think something like the Castile will blow out of the room. Having it on a thermostat with a nice swing is preferred. As of now there doesn't seem like many good deals on stoves. Quad has a $100 off which is kind of pathetic but it is what it is. I'll research and look at a few and probably purchase in March or April. Propane stoves would be another option for us but I don't think it will heat as well and propane is expensive.

 

[Jim H.]

When we moved in their was a propane fireplace and a propane stove (where my Harman is now). It did not heat very quickly and the costs were crazy ! Will never
consider propane again.......except in our travel trailer! LOL

 

[DMKNLD]

I have a first generation Castile free standing, 12 years old or so now I believe, so no surprise it has its share of rattles and harmonic vibrations, with a louder convection blower than the new ones likely do, but certainly not untenable if you don't mind the 'white noise'. Listening to the new Castile stove running at our local Quad dealer, it is definitely quieter than mine. It also is arguably one of the nicest aesthetic looking stoves on the market, IMO.

I'm heating about 1200 sq ft living area with it in our drafty 1870's New England farm house w/ no insulation in the walls, and only have to run it on high when it is well below zero to keep the house in the low 70's F temp range. So you should have no problem heating 500 sq ft. Keep it clean - burning quality pellets helps - and you should get many years of good service, given the Quad reputation.

 

[cocey2002]

Thanks for the reply and good information. Yeah I wish I could just put a nice wood stove in there but the clearances are too much and the pipe is much larger. Going to take the wife to look at the Castile later- I'm sure she will like it.

 

[DMKNLD]

Something to consider in the pellet stove vs wood stove system debate is your potential for extended power outages, especially in atypical winters like the one we are having in the East. We have a 30 yr old Vermont Castings Resolute wood stove that heats the 'middle house' L of our farmhouse, which I thought about replacing with our Castile pellet stove that heats the main part of the house, and then put a Quad Classic Bay where the Castile is now, given the CB's higher heat output capacity. If it's cold and windy out our Castile struggles to keep up, being at the upper end of its heating area capacity that we are using it for.

The pellet stove system is so much less mess and fuss than burning firewood; not having to fell / cut / buck / haul / split / stack outside / clean up / haul again / stack inside / clean up / start up / chimney sweep / clean up etc, assuming I cut it off my woodlot. And to buy a cord of seasoned firewood that is cut to stove length, split and delivered is a good bit more expensive than a ton of pellets up here in Maine, given there is less competition in the firewood business than in pellet sales.

That said, being fresh off of having no power for 3 days after the pre-Christmas ice storm, we were very happy we had the wood stove to keep the house from freezing up, as well as something we could cook on, heat up water, hang out around, etc. So our next emergency preparedness purchase will be a generator, but unless it is an expensive inverter or whole house type genset, the 'dirty power' that modified sign wave generators put out is bad for circuit boards and control boxes on pellet stoves. So I would probably end up having to heat the house with the generator running the oil furnace in the event of another extended winter power outage. We'll probably keep the wood stove as a non-power dependent backup, and get a 7 kw portable generator we can patch into the house power panel with a transfer switch.

 

[cocey2002]

Good post. We live in an area that loses power frequently. A generator is a must- I learned that from the wife early on. Most people around here have whole home generators powered by propane. I have a portable one but eventually will go the whole home.

 

[cocey2002]

I just wanted to update this thread as I finally got my Castile installed. We have run it the last two days on med/low and it made our room nice and cozy. Outside temps were around 30-37. I did get a skytech thermostat and like it a lot. The only thing is when it reaches desired temp and the stove shuts down it doesn't take long for that room to lose temp and the stove comes back on. I'll have to insulate the room a lot better. We are very please thus far.

 

[DMKNLD]

Good to hear back from a happy Quad owner! Sounds like the 'winter that won't end' will continue for the foreseeable future here in the East, so you should have the chance to tinker with your stove no doubt before spring finally shows up. Pics of your setup are always great !

Does your Skytech thermostat have the swing setting option, which would allow for less cycling of your stove ? The Skytechs get great reviews, but I know there are several different models with differing features. I believe tjnamtiw has a Skytech t-stat on his Castile, you could Private Message him and I'm sure he'd give you the scoop on suggestions for how to best set yours up.

I have the hard wired Quad thermostat on my Castile, but would love to have a wireless version to be able to move the sensor around in our drafty farmhouse, which depending on the wind direction and duration makes our north and west side rooms variably colder, so the option to move around the t-stat sensor would be great. Always something to tweek with on these stoves, but that's a good bit of the rewards of having one !

 

[tjnamtiw]

Yep, I have the lower end Skytech thermostat and it's nice to be able to move it to the coldest part of the room to sense temperature there or to where you are sitting. That's something you can't do with a wired one. I have mine set for a 2 degree swing so it doesn't cycle as much. Enjoy that pretty thing!

 

[cocey2002]

New Castile.

 

[cocey2002]

Yeah I will have to experiment with the placement of the skytech 3301p2. I have it set to a swing of 2 but it kicks on about every 10 minutes. I gave up and just run the stove on low/medium. My wife and I are used to being blasted by our woodstove so we haven't been overheated in the room at all. It's been in the 30's and on med/low it keeps the room at a constant 76 which we like. I like that the stove isn't all that hot to the touch too.

 

[tjnamtiw]

No, they don't really get hot at all. In fact, you should be able to lay your hand at least briefly on the exhaust pipe. Couldn't do that on the wood stove, I bet!

You must be losing a lot of heat out those windows to have it kick on every 10 minutes! Mine will kick on about once an hour or so on really cold days. I like that barn shed out back, by the way. Did you build it? I have to build one for my son this spring. I'm looking at about 12 x 20 or 24.

 

[cocey2002]

Nope, I purchased this from a Amish shed builder. Need to get something bigger. Toys add up.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Nope, I purchased this from a Amish shed builder. Need to get something bigger. Toys add up.

Darn, I miss Pa. The Amish really know how to build at a reasonable cost. My heritage is Amish and Mennonite from way back. Three of my ancestors founded Germantown. We do have a Mennonite restaurant in town so I get my fix of cakes and pastries!

What I REALLY miss is Lebanon bologna, ring bologna, scrapple, and Cooper sharp cheese. And no one down here has a clue about how to make a decent hoagie! The first thing they put on the roll is mayonnaise! OMG

 

[cocey2002]

I just wanted to update this thread as I know some guys were interested in using a pellet in their sunroom or seasons room. My room is drafty. I've improved things a bit but the sunroom is built on a deck so things can only improve so much. At night we always close off the sunroom from the house as I burn with wood and don't have a reason to heat the sunroom at night. It's been as low as 0 here and my castile has kept up. I usually have the remote turn on at 4 and when we get up at 6 or 7 the room is above 70. My sunrrom will get down below 30'on a cold night. A programmable remote is a must with these pellet stoves. I burn at high for a couple of hours then switch to low or medium. The swing temp doesn't work as this room cools down very quickly. I'd say this was a good choice for my arrangement as we have never been blasted out of the room. We are very happy with the Castile and the Logitech remote takes it to a new level of enjoyment. The pic below is from 7am this morning. 73 in sunroom and 15 outside. Even on high the cat loves to sit on top.

 

[cocey2002]

 

[DMKNLD]

Nice clean set-up, cocey. Thanks for the update. Pellet stove pets know where to hang when it's in the heart of winter !

My old Castile has had a work out this month here in Maine.

Stay warm !