I switched from BK King to Harmon XXV (Non TC Floor Model). Cleaner house. Lots less work. Downside I could get wood for nothing but work. $1100 for 5 tons of pallets. I will have 2 Tons left over this year. 1 from last year and 1 this year.
I spent about 6k getting everything up and running.
3500 - stove
600 - Inverter/Battery
170 - Another Battery
1200 - Install (Required for Insurance)
Plus 800 1st year pellets and 1100 2nd year. Next year will be less without having left over pellets.
Still get good heat like Wood Stove. But not massive heat like wood stove would put out. On 30f nights pellet stove just does what is required, wood stove we had to open windows some days.
I don't miss the work of wood. We haul up about 1 ton of pellets to back porch and I keep hauling all winter long. Wheelbarrel or 2. Same as Wood, but easier.
I got 500 for my log splitter and 400 for the stove. So it helped with costs.
Biggest downside is when we lose power pellet stove need battery backup or go without heat. Had 8 hour run this Winter. 6 hours on 100ah battery and then couple hrs on battery for generator until I killed it and saved what was left to start generator (just in case).
This year I doubled my batterys. Two 100ah batteries (Solar Gel Cell) with AIMS 1250 Inverter/Charger. For 12 hours at least of backup power for stove. Longest outages was 8 hours in 9 years. Before that last one it was 4 hours.
I have 7k generator to charge up batteries if I need to. Along with run pump and water heater and lights etc. Never done more than test it so far.
Cleanup is a breeze compared to Wood Stove. No hot ashes to carry out. I clean burn pot with scraper and wipe glass with wet paper towel. Once a month I do 1 Ton Maintenance.
My 1st choice was Cab50, but Harmon was prettier. Guess who was with me when I got stove. They had really good deals on stoves in April. 1k off Harmon and Cab50 was 1500 then (Country Homes - Local Store)
On Electrical Problems. I replaced the Distribution Fan. Sounded like motor had problems. Loud Buzzing when Cold. Seems screws were impacting housing. I have spare fan sitting now. Local Dealer I also ordered fan from under warranty. They were very slow. I gave up after 2 weeks waiting for response and just bought fan from
https://www.galco.com/buy/ebm-papst-Inc./55416.29089
I highly recommend you view Harmon Video on cleaning and maintenance.