Realistic useful life of a new pellet stove?

[dsp217]

My wife and I bought a house in Maine with a 2006 Englander PDV-25. We've coaxed it along ok, but it's pretty clearly on its last legs, and we've decided to upgrade. We're down to two options, one of which is (relatively) cheap and (very) ugly, the other of which is attractive and expensive. I'm only willing to spend extra to get an attractive stove if I can be confident I'll get a reasonably long life out of it, with regular maintenance and the occasional repair. The salesmen we're talking to say we should expect about 10 years. I managed to get 10 years out of the Englander, and I'd hope that if I upgrade to a good stove, and keep up on the maintenance and recognize that I'll have to swap out parts from time to time, I can be confident of 15 and hope to get through 20. Is that realistic? Or do they just tend to conk out after 10 years?

To be more specific, at this point we've pretty much narrowed it down to the Quadra-Fire CB 1200, for about $2,700, or the Quadra-Fire Mt. Vernon E2, for about $3,700. We've also considered a Harman XXV, but (a) it's a bit more expensive than the Mt. Vernon, (b) we think it's not quite as attractive as the Mt. Vernon, and (c) we're a little bit more confident with service from the local Quadra-Fire dealer. We could be talked into the Harman if it's going to last years longer, but everything we've seen around the forums so far suggests that Harman and Quadra-Fire are of comparable quality and lifetimes.

I'm not an expert, but I've gotten pretty good at tinkering with the Englander, so I'm confident that I can make minor repairs to whatever we buy as needed. We'll be religious about routine maintenance and an annual cleaning. How long would you think it should last?

 

[Maraian]

My wife and I bought a house in Maine with a 2006 Englander PDV-25. We've coaxed it along ok, but it's pretty clearly on its last legs, and we've decided to upgrade. We're down to two options, one of which is (relatively) cheap and (very) ugly, the other of which is attractive and expensive. I'm only willing to spend extra to get an attractive stove if I can be confident I'll get a reasonably long life out of it, with regular maintenance and the occasional repair. The salesmen we're talking to say we should expect about 10 years. I managed to get 10 years out of the Englander, and I'd hope that if I upgrade to a good stove, and keep up on the maintenance and recognize that I'll have to swap out parts from time to time, I can be confident of 15 and hope to get through 20. Is that realistic? Or do they just tend to conk out after 10 years?

To be more specific, at this point we've pretty much narrowed it down to the Quadra-Fire CB 1200, for about $2,700, or the Quadra-Fire Mt. Vernon E2, for about $3,700. We've also considered a Harman XXV, but (a) it's a bit more expensive than the Mt. Vernon, (b) we think it's not quite as attractive as the Mt. Vernon, and (c) we're a little bit more confident with service from the local Quadra-Fire dealer. We could be talked into the Harman if it's going to last years longer, but everything we've seen around the forums so far suggests that Harman and Quadra-Fire are of comparable quality and lifetimes.

I'm not an expert, but I've gotten pretty good at tinkering with the Englander, so I'm confident that I can make minor repairs to whatever we buy as needed. We'll be religious about routine maintenance and an annual cleaning. How long would you think it should last?

I just replaced a 1995 Easy Fire 5000 pellet stove by Sierra products that is still technically working, although not very effieciently. So 23 years aint so bad, and some here consider this stove to be "crap", but it works!
I replaced it with a Quad CB 1200 btw, and it runs great, throws out loads of heat and easily keeps the furthest bedrooms of my 1,700 sq ft home at 68 F during the last cold snap! ( the EF 5000 couldnt)! Although I was a bit dissapointed it cannot be run on a 12 volt inverter or a portable generator in an outage! The Easy Fire had a battery back up system, I never needed in five years ( it came with the house) but i can only image how dumb Im going to feel if the power goes out in the winter ( my house is all electric) and I am staring at wood pellet stove I cant run! I do have a home standby generator I can use to power it but at 1-1.25 gallons per hour its going to be like burning dollar bills to stay warm!

 

[Ssyko]

Still heating with my CB1200 FS. Bought it in 2001. Replaced 1 combustion blower and a couple snap disc’s. Refinished once.17years and it doesn’t own me a thing.

 

[zrock]

From watching forums their is no reason you cannot get 20 years plus out of a stove and more. It all comes down to maint and replacing parts when the time arrives, parts will fail and thats a fact. My stove is ugly but it works great and its was free.... well sorta $400 im parts but hey its warm

 

[DneprDave]

My two Whitfield stoves are 24 years old and still work great. I've had to replace the auger motor on one stove and the combustion blower on the other. I bought them used, so I can't say what other parts that have been replaced.

 

[Mt Bob]

My two Whitfield stoves are 24 years old and still work great. I've had to replace the auger motor on one stove and the combustion blower on the other. I bought them used, so I can't say what other parts that have been replaced.

Yep,them Whits have to be one of the best things made.

 

[Tim_M]

My 25year old Harman Invincible is a tank and runs 24/7 from Nov - Mar. It’s a basic no-frills design so I guess there are fewer things to go wrong. In my 8 seasons of burning I’ve replaced the ESP temp sensor and had the control board repaired. Other than that it’s all original parts.

 

[johneh]

My Enviro ef3 is 18 , runs and looks like new
Maintaining the stove to a high standard
keeps it working and looking as new
I hope to get a lot more years from it