Pellet stove for basement of 800 sq ft home

[Ahoragi]

Long story short, we have a Harman P43 upstairs. It's an alright stove and I'm not a super fan of it but it gets the job done. We have a wood stove downstairs in the unfinished basement. It's an Arrow stove from the 90's. It can't hold much wood and we have to get 12-14" cuts to use it properly. It does heat the basement with it's blower attachment but it's not efficient and it does not heat for long. We had LVT flooring installed in the basement and the company did not mention anything about it being temperature sensitive so we ended up with a bunch of warped tiles. They are saying it's because we are not maintaining a steady temperature. They are denying warranty and we are fighting it because they never mentioned anything regarding temps and we did not want to have a basement that's heated 24/7 as it's underground and stays at 55 or higher. If they had mentioned the temperature part we would have chosen a different tile. But ANYWAYS, now we have to keep the basement at a steady 65 or higher during winter so we are opting for a second pellet stove to use when we are not home to load the wood stove.
We had a Castle Serenity in the old house and loved that thing as it did not use alot of pellets and was super easy to clean but it seems the price that used to be $800 is now $1200-$1400.
I have not done extensive research on what's out there nowadays and our local stove shop closed up so I'm gonna see what you guys recommend. Should we go with the same Castle stove or try something else? Our budget we hope is no higher than $1500, but the lesser the better. We aren't looking for the best of the best as it's going to run only when we aren't home.

What would you guys recommend to heat a open concept basement to 65 or higher and not eat as many pellets as the Harman?

 

[johneh]

My first question is, is your basement insulated?
Or is it block or concrete walls and floor?
If it is just concrete or block, no matter what
stove you install it will use more pellets
Both block and poured concrete suck up heat
faster than a paper towel absorbs water
So in my opion buy a good used high-output stove
Harman, Envrio M55 or Max, there are others

 

[Ahoragi]

My first question is, is your basement insulated?
Or is it block or concrete walls and floor?
If it is just concrete or block, no matter what
stove you install it will use more pellets
Both block and poured concrete suck up heat
faster than a paper towel absorbs water
So in my opion buy a good used high-output stove
Harman, Envrio M55 or Max, there are others

It is block on concrete but concrete is now covered with LTV. I have been looking for used but not seeing anything except very old pellet stoves. I did see a Castle that someone wanted $800 for but that was 9 weeks ago and no response. It has been extremely cold last couple months so stoves are in a very high demand and so is firewood, which we have sold out so quickly (we process and sell).

 

[Ahoragi]

How about a Volgelzang VG5790? I see one for sale locally and includes a ton of pellets for $800. Person upgraded to gas in their garage is reason for selling.

 

[Ssyko]

Personally I prefer either an Enviro/Hudson river or quadrafire. But I work on any. Vogelzang brand is owned by USStove where I believe they are more get it done, not is it done just my .02

 

[Ahoragi]

Personally I prefer either an Enviro/Hudson river or quadrafire. But I work on any. Vogelzang brand is owned by USStove where I believe they are more get it done, not is it done just my .02

Can you clarify that last part about get it done? I am not sure if I understand 100%. Thanks

 

[Ssyko]

They care more about getting the product to retailer than they do quality

 

[Ricks]

My pellets stove is in my day light basement. The basement isn’t insulated except for the wood wall by the window and do. So 95% concrete.

The pellet stove keeps the basement warm. Depending how high we turn the stove up we go through one to two bags of pellets a day.

Would insulation reduce the pellet usage, yes definitely. But at a bag a day on the lower setting the basement isn’t insulated comfortable.

We also have a heat pump water heater so the pellet stove has to provide more heat do the the water heater.

 

[Ahoragi]

They care more about getting the product to retailer than they do quality

Thanks, I thought that's what you meant.

My pellets stove is in my day light basement. The basement isn’t insulated except for the wood wall by the window and do. So 95% concrete.

The pellet stove keeps the basement warm. Depending how high we turn the stove up we go through one to two bags of pellets a day.

Would insulation reduce the pellet usage, yes definitely. But at a bag a day on the lower setting the basement isn’t insulated comfortable.

We also have a heat pump water heater so the pellet stove has to provide more heat do the the water heater.

How big is your basement and what type of stove?

Ours is pretty small, only 23x35 and it's open concept and being 90% underground. Our little Arrow wood stove with a blower on the back keeps the basement a nice 65 degrees using black walnut unless we switch to burning oak or black cherry and then it goes up to about 70.

 

[Ricks]

My basement is L shaped. The long portion is 40 by 15 and the shorter section is 20 by 15.

My Quest stove has no problem warming the basement up. The stove would do even better if the floor and walls were insulated. I don’t have any fans to move the heat from my basement to the first floor.

I use the stove to keep the basement warm during the winter as well as heat my first floor. My water heater is a heat pump water heater so it removes heat from the basement. The first year in my house the basement would get into the low 50’s without the stove due to the water heater.