Looking for opinions on a new small pellet stove purchase......

[Mdw1219]

Ok guys, my wife and i have a Thelin gnome that i am currently looking to sell (posted on forum), we are looking to upgrade to a new stove. We want something that will fit in the existing corner the gnome sits in. We are looking to stay with a small stove, looked at the harman p38 and definitely liked it. Basically we want a stove we can light and run constantly without any constant maintenance. Im all ears! Heres a picture of the corner we want to place the stove.

 

[john193]

That or a p43 should work great. That stove related to R2D2?

 

[MCPO]

Great choice the P38. Maybe better though the P43 with auto ignite.

 

[Mdw1219]

Hahaha r2d2 is right! Good stove, just a pain in the butt to maintain if you run it 24-7. Great for a small room for occasional use. Whats your guys opinion on the p38 or 43 fitting in that space?

 

[P38X2]

P38 all the way. 43k BTU's. You'll save $400 not getting auto ignite. Starter gel, hand sanitizer or propane torch...either way, it's ridiculously easy. It takes about as long to open a bag of pellets and dump em in as it does to light that stove.

Stove clearance to combustibles is 9"

 

[Hoot23]

P43. Can't wrong with auto ignite and the extra btu's

 

[john193]

Auto ignite is a very nice convenience feature.

 

[Bioburner]

P38 a good basic stove, period. One on CL here for $800 like new. The time for buying is now. A new pc45 for sale for 2500 on CL. If you really want to run 24-7 its quick change firepot-tray is hard to beat and ability to relight itself to economize pellet usage is a plus too, but can be had with the p43. Maybe a used Accentra to make the corner as fancy.

 

[P38X2]

Here's a pic of mine to give you an idea what a minimum clearance install looks like.

Also,..and I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but bring it on .....
Auto ignite is a $400 option. Let's assume your burning season is 6 months long. You decide you're gonna clean it every 2 weeks, which is probably the average users interval. This means yer gonna need to light the stove 13 times. Now, in 5 years you will have lit the stove 65 times. Using Einsteins famous equation, we arrive at $6.15 PER LIGHT! 10 years, $3 and change per light. At this point, it's likely igniter time. Another $100.

I understand some applications would benefit from having this option, typically those that require the stove to cycle due to the idle burn output being greater than the room/house heat loss.

I respect the opinions of those who prefer flipping a switch and getting fire. To me, it's simply not worth it. We're not talking the difference between having a starter in your car vs hand cranking. There's virtually no physical effort involved in lighting a stove and only a trivial amount of time used.

Going back to the bottom line $ figures, if every time you lit your stove, Bob Barker walked in and said he'd give you $6 to light it manually, would you? How bout $3? $1?....I would. I'm just offering some perspective here.

OK, setting deflector shields to full power!

 

[Xena]

Enviro Mini, St Croix Element are two that come to mind with a small footprint.

Enviro Mini

Element(broken image removed)

 

[Thaddius Wenderoth]

Here's a pic of mine to give you an idea what a minimum clearance install looks like.

Also,..and I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but bring it on .....
Auto ignite is a $400 option. Let's assume your burning season is 6 months long. You decide you're gonna clean it every 2 weeks, which is probably the average users interval. This means yer gonna need to light the stove 13 times. Now, in 5 years you will have lit the stove 65 times. Using Einsteins famous equation, we arrive at $6.15 PER LIGHT! 10 years, $3 and change per light. At this point, it's likely igniter time. Another $100.

I understand some applications would benefit from having this option, typically those that require the stove to cycle due to the idle burn output being greater than the room/house heat loss.

I respect the opinions of those who prefer flipping a switch and getting fire. To me, it's simply not worth it. We're not talking the difference between having a starter in your car vs hand cranking. There's virtually no physical effort involved in lighting a stove and only a trivial amount of time used.

Going back to the bottom line $ figures, if every time you lit your stove, Bob Barker walked in and said he'd give you $6 to light it manually, would you? How bout $3? $1?....I would. I'm just offering some perspective here.

OK, setting deflector shields to full power!

View attachment 92163

Auto ignite came standard on my 25-PDVC. At $960 for the whole stove I am at -$111 per light compared to the P38 ($2400). Not bad. My stove pays me $111 everytime it lights itself

 

[MCPO]

Auto ignite came standard on my 25-PDVC. At $960 for the whole stove I am at -$111 per light compared to the P38 ($2400). Not bad. My stove pays me $111 everytime it lights itself

I mentioned the P-38 cause the OP liked the one he looked at. Other than it`s toilet bowl appearance It`s definitely a better stove all around compared to the PDVC (I have em both) but if you consider the cost ,then I agree .The winner is the PDVC by a country mile.There`s just no way I`d pay $2400 for a Harman P-38 when I could buy a brand new PDVC for less than half, and the icing on the cake is the free lifetime phone service from Englander.

 

[Thaddius Wenderoth]

I mentioned the P-38 cause the OP liked the one he looked at. Other than it`s toilet bowl appearance It`s definitely a better stove all around compared to the PDVC (I have em both) but if you consider the cost ,then I agree .The winner is the PDVC by a country mile.There`s just no way I`d pay $2400 for a Harman P-38 when I could buy a brand new PDVC for less than half, and the icing on the cake is the free lifetime phone service from Englander.

Just trying to be funny. Epic fail.

 

[P38X2]

Auto ignite came standard on my 25-PDVC. At $960 for the whole stove I am at -$111 per light compared to the P38 ($2400). Not bad. My stove pays me $111 everytime it lights itself

Lol.

I'd say most stoves include that feature but in this case, Harman offers the same stove with an AI feature....for an additional $400. I agree, if yer stove comes with it, as most if not all other Harmans do, then there's not much more to say. To me, having the option of not having AI is like Harman saying "Here's $400 for not having an unnecessary item that WILL cost you more money down the road". $400 in yer pocket can go to whatever you choose but along the lines of stove maintenance, it could go to replacing other expendables that actually affect the bottom line operation of the stove.

Or beer

 

[Thaddius Wenderoth]

Lol.

I'd say most stoves include that feature but in this case, Harman offers the same stove with an AI feature....for an additional $400. I agree, if yer stove comes with it, as most if not all other Harmans do, then there's not much more to say. To me, having the option of not having AI is like Harman saying "Here's $400 for not having an unnecessary item that WILL cost you more money down the road". $400 in yer pocket can go to whatever you choose but along the lines of stove maintenance, it could go to replacing other expendables that actually affect the bottom line operation of the stove.

Or beer

That's ($400) like 8 kegs of Milwaukees Best! Screw auto-ignite!

 

[P38X2]

I mentioned the P-38 cause the OP liked the one he looked at. Other than it`s toilet bowl appearance It`s definitely a better stove all around compared to the PDVC (I have em both) but if you consider the cost ,then I agree .The winner is the PDVC by a country mile.There`s just no way I`d pay $2400 for a Harman P-38 when I could buy a brand new PDVC for less than half, and the icing on the cake is the free lifetime phone service from Englander.

Ya, it ain't the prettiest stove but I've seen worse...a hem..cough cough

I like my toilet bowl (the actual one). I wish it had an auto flush feature though. Reaching out and pushing the lever down is dang tiring!

 

[P38X2]

That's ($400) like 8 kegs of Milwaukees Best! Screw auto-ignite!

Idk, I may take the auto ignite in that case

Without having first hand experience, Master Chief PO and Thaddius Wenderoths cmments on the Englander make a good point. Never heard of anyone posting about a non-resolvable issue with an Englander. I suppose you could apply that to most stoves but most stoves don't cost what Englanders do, nor do they have a resident tech here on the forum.

 

[wwert]

What are the maintenance issues you are having? That stove has no ash pan but you will need to vacuum any stove you buy. Not sure what you achieve maintenance wise but AI is nice. If you want higher btu,s there are many good options. How about the new Ecotec stoves, some of them are sweet looking. The Thelin Tiburon is also very nice and will run 1 week on a battery just in case.

 

[Mdw1219]

Just an update, i spoke with my local stove dealer about both the p38 and p43, he recommended the p43 over the p38 for its auto ignite feature but more so because he said in the next year or so the p38 will be discontinued. He said the p38 has a different control board than the p43 which uses the same board as all the other p-series stoves, so the parts would be much more avail down the road, but he didnt see me needing parts because in his words harmans are bulletproof. Im curious though if the p38 is on its way out if i could get a good deal on it. Im not set on the whole auto light thing it would e nice but...... Not a major need.

 

[Bioburner]

Maybe Harman sees the writing on the wall that there is to much liability of having someopne try and manual light thier stove. I hear of some stupid ways of lighting stoves. Can't wait to get around the campfire this spring with other fire dept officers from around the country to swap the good the bad and the ugly stories.

 

[Mdw1219]

Oh i can relate to that i am nyc fireman, so i know all to well about stupid ways people do things when it comes to fire.

 

[Bioburner]

The other thing to consider on a self ligher is everybody that will using the stove be capable of lighting it safely?

 

[kinsmanstoves]

P43 will not do your wrong.

Eric

 

[P38X2]

If that's the case, we should all be thanking Big Brother for watching over us. They should make wood stoves and fireplaces illegal, or at least force the auto ignite issue. Heaven forbid we're left on our own to light our fires. Weber and Kingsford, you're next.

Has there EVER been a documented case of an attempt to light a pellet stove being the cause of a fire? Hopper fires, yes. Vent fires, yes. Starter gel?..highly doubt it. Could it happen?... sure, but you'd have to pull a real Griswold.

No disrespect was meant to the FD guys. You guys deserve 110% respect.

 

[Thaddius Wenderoth]

If that's the case, we should all be thanking Big Brother for watching over us. They should make wood stoves and fireplaces illegal, or at least force the auto ignite issue. Heaven forbid we're left on our own to light our fires. Weber and Kingsford, you're next.

Has there EVER been a documented case of an attempt to light a pellet stove being the cause of a fire? Hopper fires, yes. Vent fires, yes. Starter gel?..highly doubt it. Could it happen?... sure, but you'd have to pull a real Griswold.

No disrespect was meant to the FD guys. You guys deserve 110% respect.

Wow never thought I would see so much heat over an ignitor! But just to throw some pellets on the fire:
We should do away with starters in our cars too! If you can't crank your own dam engine you shouldn't be allowed to drive!