looking for new pellet stove

[Joe from ct]

Good morning everyone,
Rookie here so bear with me. I am looking to purchase pellet stoves for my 1600 square foot ranch including the basement. I'm going to give as much detail as possible. the home is 1050 square feet on the main living level. 3 bedrooms at one of the house kitchen and living room at the other. the living room is over the garage the garage is insulated from the living room in the ceiling the garage is also partitioned off from the rest of the basement and insulated on the walls. The basement is underground on 3 sides with the garage on the open end of the foundation. The garage door is insulated. The pre existing chimney is on the end of the home that the bedrooms are on. Presently there is a wood stove there. There are registers in the floors in all 3 bedrooms the bathroom and hallway allowing the heat to come threw the floors. I want to switch it out with a pellet burning stove. I am looking for a work horse for down there. I don't care about how that one looks. I am looking for a stove where the quality is in the functionality and quality of the stove. I have done some research. I may be wrong but I'm thinking of going with a multi fuel stove. Reason being that I am looking for a burn pot actuator. Other than the big box store stoves and the enviro m55 and the maxx m I haven't looked at much. I am trying to stay away from the big box ones I'm not to sure about the quality if they make a good quality stove I am open to it . I have no duct work in the home. I want to hook it up to a thermostat I want one that can be put a high and low setting for the winter so it doesn't have to restart every time it calls for heat I also want a large hopper that can burn for a couple days in the winter I am at work for a day or 2 during snow storms. I also was thinking that I want a very small decorative one I can put in the living room over the garage that one is going to be a direct vent to the outside. So in the dead of winter when it gets real cold that room does get chilly. I can light it for those romantic evenings with my girl. I have not researched the small one yet. I am looking at a budget of about $4,000.00 for the basement. and about $2000.00 or so for the living room. Any suggestions and recommendations as what to get is greatly appreciated. I am not hard set on multi stove. I have just heard that the actuator helps if I can only get crappy pellets.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
Joe

 

[Mt Bob]

Suggest drawing of house,type of current heating system and heating costs over the winter.This will help out the stove experts,but I will give a few thoughts.A bottom feeder will burn almost anything,a pot cleaner system (mechanical) will burn cleaner longer,but in my opinion both these are less efficent,waste a percentage of fuel.I think the sliding grate on st croix's is an excellent design but more parts to wear out and noisy.Most stoves will cycle lo/hi on t-stat,and some are very good at keeping the room temp. steady with the right t-stat.

 

[Joe from ct]

Here is a blue print oh the home. this one dosnt show the walls between rooms but there walls between all the rooms. The house has electric heat that is the reason for the solid fuel burner.

 

[Mt Bob]

Gas electric heat?Basement?Registers?

 

[Joe from ct]

Gas electric heat?Basement?Registers?

Has electric heat typo. The stove is in the basement. The registers in the floor are grates that allow the warm air to naturally come up. I'm not sure if that's what you are asking.

 

[Mt Bob]

With the stove in the basement and floor registers you could put in one of the big pellet stoves,as the extra heat in the basement will not affect quality of living,unless you spend a lot of time down there.And the noise will not be as noticeable.For upstairs almost any smaller stove would be fine,perhaps look at the small englander.Don't forget about expense of providing outside air for stoves.The big enviros are supposed to be good quality units but have never worked on one.

 

[Joe from ct]

Thank you for your input. I have found a stove called the vista vf 170 it looks exactly like the enviro maxx and the tag on the back says both vista 170 and enviro maxx with the box for vista 170 marled is there a difference in the quality I found a place in New Hampshire that has the vf 170 for a very good price. I have attached a picture of the back tag

 

[stovelark]

Hi Joe- I can tell you, the VF170 is the sister to the maxx-1, no pot stirrer. The Enviros are a well built stove, they are durable but this unit is kinda noisy. If that doesn't bother you, they are fine heaters, one of the few that can rightly replace a wood stove's heat output. The M55 steel might be a good choice for you too, but it does have a smaller hopper. For upstairs, maybe an Enviro EF2 or perhaps a Quadrafire Santa fe is price is needed to be around 2K. Enviro (Sherwood industries) makes a lot of good stoves, for two or three other than themselves Mfrs, a Hudson River Davenport might be a good choice too, its a digital version of the EF2. Good luck on your search.

 

[Mt Bob]

I agree on the vista,I would own one,but do not know if he needs an expensive stove upstairs for a part time unit,but they are pretty.

 

[hyfire]

Heres a vid i found on a maxx, you would benefit from the duct kit.

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[peirhead]

Joe ..I wouldn't get the upstairs stove until you've spent a winter with the new big one downstairs...I suspect you may not even need it if you get good airflow through the floor registers.

You might find an Air Source Heat Pump to be a better solution for upstairs...no floor space taken up, and A/C in the summer!!...It will also keep giving you heat if the pellet stove runs empty...even around here with electricity at 15cents /KWh, pellets at $300/ton are actually more expensive to heat with, and a lot more work.

I wouldn't exclude other stoves for not having an autoclean system.....these stove all will take some work and many will burn a couple of days with little intervention....they all need regular manual cleaning and maintenance!! good luck!!

 

[hyfire]

The pellets at $300 a ton would equal 4689kwh of electricity at .15kwhr that equals $730 in electricity, not counting all the other fees, so the pellets are still cheaper. I did not factor in the 80% efficiency of most stoves. If he wants to be lazy he could go with a endurance 50F pellet furnace, it is self cleaning and multifuel capable, and the air is fltered.

 

[peirhead]

Remember the heat pumps are 3 - 4 times higher efficiency (COP 3 - 4) than resistance heaters on most new units down to 0F (-17C)

see Hearth calculator
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

 

[Arti]

While it is more cost effective for me to heat with my heat pump it is not exactly a fair comparison in my case.

When we heat with the heat pump we keep the house at 68 degrees. When using the pellet burner in the the living room we keep it in the low to mid 70's, If we light up the Pellet furnace then the whole house is in the low 70's.

Also we enjoy sitting around in the evenings and watching the fire burn.
The Heat Pump will heat my house for approx $1 a day when it is above 34 degrees so it is indeed more cost effective than the pellets, however we use the pellet burner more because we enjoy it !

 

[hyfire]

Remember the heat pumps are 3 - 4 times higher efficiency (COP 3 - 4) than resistance heaters on most new units down to 0F (-17C)

see Hearth calculator
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

I agree but you really can;t do direct cost per kwh comparison because you have so many other hidden charges in the electricity bill, it could be .30cents a kwh in the end with all those distribution charges running the heat pump.

 

[JohnD]

I think the Vista Flame VF 170 will work awesome for the basement. I also agree on the quadrafire sante fe for living room. Quads are well built and virtually idiot proof if you take care of it. You may want to wait on the sante fe though. The vista flame May heat the whole house!