Newbie to pellet stoves, need assistance on purchasing

[bucknuckle]

Hello, My wife and I are thinking of buying our first pellet stove. We have propane heat now but would like a suplimental heat source. We live in a 7 yr. old single level ranch with a basement. The floorplan is 1500 sq. ft. We would like to put this pellet stove in our basement to just add a little heat down there and possibly help heat our upstairs floor, I do not believe that this pellet stove will be our primary source of heat. There is no carpet in the basement and just concrete block walls, its kind of a small workshop, I will have to bring my stovepipe up about 6' before I run it through my foundation (should I use 3" or 4"? Would I need double wall or single wall? ) I see that some stoves have a small fire box that pulls out and some seem to be welded in with an ash pan underneath, Which is better?
Now my next question is (and please be gentle on me, lol) what would be a good stove to get? I would like to stay around $1500-$1700 if I could. I have been doing research and I seem to find 50/50 reviews on some stoves. I have looked into US stove King 5500 and a pleasant hearth PH50

 

[Bioburner]

Have you looked at Englander or maybe the refurb units from amfam. I have very close to the same home and basement setup. We have a stairwell almost central that is a major heat and air channel. 3 inch venting should be fine considering you have a lot of vertical.

 

[Boomer Sailor]

In your price range, something slight used or refurbished is what you'll be looking at. Pellet stoves can be a bit $$$ as you may have already noticed and are well above your price range. (paid $3,999 for mine... plus installation.... plus chimney liner.... plus pellets of course.... plus the tax man gets his... and by the time all was said and done, I was up to about $5,500).

I'm biased about Harman, so, maybe if your Harman dealer has something refurbished or on consignment, that could be something to look into - versus buying a 'new' stove that is just really inexpensive (a.k.a. cheap junk that you'll regret in a few years).

 

[bucknuckle]

Thank you. I have looked at a small englander and I did like it but it maxes out at 1500 sq ft. That's all they had at Home Depot but I did like how the auger was right above the firebox. Some other stoves I seen the pellets seem to get thrown down a chute. Do most of the englanders have an ash drawer? How do those stoves with no ash drawer work? Do you have to go inside and vaccum?

 

[Boomer Sailor]

I'd stay away from a Home Depot / Lowes type of stove. I've seen them and wonder... who do you call for service!! If you plan on buring 24/7 when the weather gets cold (as I do considering I have electric baseboard heat), a larger ash pan will save your sanity! From what little I shopped around, some appeared to have very small areas for the ashes to go / small ash pans which would fill in a day! Yes, you would have to turn the stove off... wait for everything to cool and then vacuum out the stove! From what I understand... the bottom feeding system as in what Harman has is considered 'better' than the top feeding systems - although others may disagree. I believe that is why Harman says their stoves can burn any grade of pellets well or better than other stoves.

Not that I should suggest how you should spend your hard-earned money, but in the longer run, perhaps the smaller harman stoves could heat your 1,500 sq. without any problem. If you are able to charge everything on your CC, it will pay for itself in a 2 - 3 years, you will be happier in the long run and have fewer headaches! (unless you are planning on moving sooner rather than later, a good stove is worth the investment)

 

[CamperWill]

A couple of the Englander stoves have an ash drawer. Our 25-PDVC doesn't so instead all the ash goes to two pocket areas next to the burn pot, we simply vacuum it out every couple of days.

If you are handy then I would recommend a refurb from AMFM Energy, you just cant beat the price and the support has been great.

 

[BobMA]

A couple of the Englander stoves have an ash drawer. Our 25-PDVC doesn't so instead all the ash goes to two pocket areas next to the burn pot, we simply vacuum it out every couple of days.

If you are handy then I would recommend a refurb from AMFM Energy, you just cant beat the price and the support has been great.

I'm with Will....AMFM...options for about $1000 including shipping and full factory warranty

 

[Boomer Sailor]

I'm with Will....AMFM...options for about $1000 including shipping and full factory warranty

Oh absolutely! If you can get the full factory warranty, then by all means that's the way to go all things considered

 

[bucknuckle]

Thank you guys

 

[tjnamtiw]

There are quite a few on here who purchased refurbs from AMFM and are quite happy with the stoves and the service. There's no need to spend $5K for a basement dweller, especially if you're on a budget. Don't overlook the Quad's either. They are probably within your price range for a Sante Fe or Classic Bay. They are very easy to operate and are quite reliable. There's a big support group here for them.

While coal makes the most sense for you, the stoves are probably out of your price range. (Can't wait for the nay-sayers to come out of the wood work...... )

 

[Shawn S]

I'd stay away from a Home Depot / Lowes type of stove. I've seen them and wonder... who do you call for service!! If you plan on buring 24/7 when the weather gets cold (as I do considering I have electric baseboard heat), a larger ash pan will save your sanity! From what little I shopped around, some appeared to have very small areas for the ashes to go / small ash pans which would fill in a day! Yes, you would have to turn the stove off... wait for everything to cool and then vacuum out the stove!

I have an Englander 25-PDVC and I think it’s a great unit for the price. I hate when people give it a bad rap.

In the cold of winter last year, mine ran 24/7 quite often.

As for ash buildup, I shut the unit off and clean out the fire-box with a metal spatula once in the morning before I leave for work and once at night.

There is room on the sides of the firebox to dump this red hot ash and quickly get the stove started again in about 5-minutes.

Then on Saturdays, I completely shut the stove down and let it cool for about an hour.

I then use my Ash Vac (Powersmith) to completely clean the firebox and the piles of ash on the sides.

No need for an ash pan or long periods of “cold time” with this method.


Shawn S