Good afternoon everyone, great forum here.
I’m new here and this forum is nothing I expected. I came here looking for a second pellet stove for my house that was the best working stove (used or new) out there without buying some junk stove. With everyone here it’s a “we can get it working attitude” not you bought a junk stove and good luck getting it working.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading here looking for a stove and I found out why a few years ago I had a pipe freeze and burst. It was my fault not my stove, I didn’t install an OAK. I didn’t install one because I couldn’t figure out how to install one with an insert with a room behind my fireplace. I was relying on my air being pulled up through my vents in the floors from my basement for the stove. Well that didn’t work, it found another source for the air it needed.
My house has 2 concrete slabs on both sides that someone decided to turn them into additions to the house. On one side they put the baseboard heat on the main side of the house not the outside wall because you can’t run pipes through the concrete and that’s where the pipe froze. The concrete separated a little from the side of the house (between the baseboard heat and trim I couldn’t see it) and the air came through that crack for the stove. Every time the stove ran it was drawing cold air around the baseboard heat pipe that was not hot because I was using the stove for heat. I came home from work one night and nothing but water everywhere and a house full of steam. After that experience I’ve only ran my stove with temps of 20s and above.
After many of hours reading posts here looking for a good stove and the problems everyone’s having I found a post about using a fireplace chimney for both exhaust and fresh air. So an OAK is my first project this summer.
Now my second project I need some help with and I can’t think of anyplace but here for the help. I’m looking for a second stove for my basement. My problem is the BTU’s needed, I’ve read buy the biggest your budget allows but can I get too much BTUs? With a little drafty basement and auto start/stop will be cycling on/off too many times and burn out the igniter? With the stove staying on continuous burn on low for too long I might get a dirty burn? With all these new auto stoves it’s hard to choose a good stove.
My basement is about 1000 sf and ¾ of it is underground and unfinished and has a concrete floor (never will be finished), 20” to 24” thick stone walls with 2 rows of block between the stone and the house, 7’ high ceiling with no insulation, I have a vent from the basement to every room in the house with a staircase just off center of the room, and with my boiler and piping in the basement it’s in the mid to upper 40s during the winter.
I feel I can’t lose with a stove in the basement even if the heat doesn’t rise through the vents to the main floor of the house. With a warmer floor, warmer pipes and my insert (after the OAK is installed) my oil usage should be next to nothing.
My only real requirement for the stove is that it works keeping the basement warm and set it and forgetting it because at times I’m gone for the weekend so not filling the hopper daily or daily cleaning is a must. If that can’t happen I’ll just turn if off while I’m gone.
So I’m here hoping anyone, experts and users can point in the right direction or something I’m not seeing or forgetting in my decision in picking out my stove.
Thanks for a great forum and any help.
Fred
I’m new here and this forum is nothing I expected. I came here looking for a second pellet stove for my house that was the best working stove (used or new) out there without buying some junk stove. With everyone here it’s a “we can get it working attitude” not you bought a junk stove and good luck getting it working.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading here looking for a stove and I found out why a few years ago I had a pipe freeze and burst. It was my fault not my stove, I didn’t install an OAK. I didn’t install one because I couldn’t figure out how to install one with an insert with a room behind my fireplace. I was relying on my air being pulled up through my vents in the floors from my basement for the stove. Well that didn’t work, it found another source for the air it needed.
My house has 2 concrete slabs on both sides that someone decided to turn them into additions to the house. On one side they put the baseboard heat on the main side of the house not the outside wall because you can’t run pipes through the concrete and that’s where the pipe froze. The concrete separated a little from the side of the house (between the baseboard heat and trim I couldn’t see it) and the air came through that crack for the stove. Every time the stove ran it was drawing cold air around the baseboard heat pipe that was not hot because I was using the stove for heat. I came home from work one night and nothing but water everywhere and a house full of steam. After that experience I’ve only ran my stove with temps of 20s and above.
After many of hours reading posts here looking for a good stove and the problems everyone’s having I found a post about using a fireplace chimney for both exhaust and fresh air. So an OAK is my first project this summer.
Now my second project I need some help with and I can’t think of anyplace but here for the help. I’m looking for a second stove for my basement. My problem is the BTU’s needed, I’ve read buy the biggest your budget allows but can I get too much BTUs? With a little drafty basement and auto start/stop will be cycling on/off too many times and burn out the igniter? With the stove staying on continuous burn on low for too long I might get a dirty burn? With all these new auto stoves it’s hard to choose a good stove.
My basement is about 1000 sf and ¾ of it is underground and unfinished and has a concrete floor (never will be finished), 20” to 24” thick stone walls with 2 rows of block between the stone and the house, 7’ high ceiling with no insulation, I have a vent from the basement to every room in the house with a staircase just off center of the room, and with my boiler and piping in the basement it’s in the mid to upper 40s during the winter.
I feel I can’t lose with a stove in the basement even if the heat doesn’t rise through the vents to the main floor of the house. With a warmer floor, warmer pipes and my insert (after the OAK is installed) my oil usage should be next to nothing.
My only real requirement for the stove is that it works keeping the basement warm and set it and forgetting it because at times I’m gone for the weekend so not filling the hopper daily or daily cleaning is a must. If that can’t happen I’ll just turn if off while I’m gone.
So I’m here hoping anyone, experts and users can point in the right direction or something I’m not seeing or forgetting in my decision in picking out my stove.
Thanks for a great forum and any help.
Fred
