Pellet stove recommendations

[Jwil9522]

Looking to get a pellet stove for my new house. My aunt whom owns an ace hardware store is going to get me one. But I’m unsure what would work for my 1300 square foot home or what would be good quality. Thanks in advance for any input!

To help narrow down brand ace hardware offers are castle serenity 1500sqft, numerous sqft Cleveland iron works and englander blue ridge 2700 sqft. It has to be a brand available through ace due to her getting it at cost so significantly cheaper.

 

[bogieb]

I haven't used any of those brands, but beleive I have heard good things about the Castle Serenity. At the same time, common thought is to get the next bigger stove than what you think you will need. You can throttle back a stove, but you can't get more out of it than its capabilities.

I would look at each of the specs and understand the following:

• How much does the hopper hold - and if it is small, is a hopper extension available for it? If you are gone long stretches of time when it is -18* outside, then you need a bigger hopper. I had a great St Croix Hastings on my main floor, but the hopper only held 35 pounds and would run out when I was gone for 13 hours. My P43 with extension can go 1.5 days in the coldest weather.
• How big is the ash bin? some stoves actually have no ash bin so not only are inconvenient to clean out, but must be cleaned daily. Some people are good with that, just something to be aware of. The Hastings I mentioned above had a small ash bin, so I HAD to clean it weekly. My P43 can go 3-4 weeks.
• How difficult is it to go thru the maintenance required? If there are a lot of baffles and/or "ash traps", it will be more difficult to clean. My previous Hastings was a PITA to clean and picky about the ash traps being cleaned. The P43 is very simple and straight forward

 

[ARC]

What are you trying to do with the pellet stove? Heat the whole house or just supplement heat in part of the house? Pellet stoves are meant to be space heaters not whole house that said most owners do try to heat whole house and it gets cold in Maine (Caribou 4 years). I might be wrong but I think the Englander Blue Ridge series are wood stoves not pellet stoves. The Serenity is a well built quality stove but might be a little small if you expect it to be your only heat source. Cleveland works are a bottom rung stove, but they work the 130 is close to 40.000 btu's and is the highest btu's in Cleveland's line. If they are your only two choices you will have to weigh the pros and cons. My two cents Serenity is better stove but small. Cleveland is OK stove and more BTU's. Below are manuals for both stoves.