What is the most important thing you have learned with the Pellet Stove Experience? (Share experien

[sydney1963]

Let us know your experiences and how you dealt with them.

 

[hossthehermit]

What was the question??

 

[sydney1963]

What was the question??

Is my poll that bad? Please let me know. I thought if people had a significant experience with a specific subject we could all learn from it.

 

[strangemainer]

Save money by making your own hearth and if possible installing the stove yourself.
I saved almost a grand that way.

 

[tumbles]

Need to adjust the damper with different pellets. Second, the type of pellets do matter!

 

[wilbilt]

In no particular order:

a) When dealing with an old stove without a manual, not everything is as obvious (or not) as it seems.

b) Fines suck.

c) Carbon deposits in the burn pot are the wages we have earned for all those things we did when we were young that nobody ever found out about.

 

[pelletizer]

It was well worth it for the heat amount I get out of the pellrt stove I would have to burn a lot more oil than last year,
I do still miss the quietness and crackle of wood from a wood stove.(never minded cutting and hauling wood)
But don't mind hauling and sifting pellets either...

 

[sydney1963]

My experience is... bought my stove after agonizing over, to go with a dealer or big box store (big box store won). --no regrets so far. Did our own install (including homemade hearth), saved tons. Have greatly appreciated all the knowledge on this website. Thanks all for your input, especially the independent stove company reps. Great web site!

 

[sparkydog00]

The most important thing I learned was:
Don't buy pellets in large amounts till you are sure about the product. Something I knew for years...but I let the pellet shortage scare of this summer to sway me into buying 3 tons of unknown (Maine Woods). Will never do that again!

 

[ablejoy]

I found clean stove like manual says and I agree with SparkyDog test the pellets before you buy a couple of tons and try and buy off season.
Love the stove cleaning is not a figure in cost of stove for me.

 

[Fire]

If you keep your stove clean, which includes cleaning the fly ash from lining the inside of the stove and periodically scrape your burnpot, your stove will run very efficiently. Also, as others have stated, use a quality pellet that your stove enjoys doing business with!

 

[Lobstah]

My experience?

1) Many dealers provide terrible customer service after the sale, and could care less because it's unlikely you'll be making another puchase of this sort in the near future.

2) This forum, and the people on it, are an invaluable resource.

And yeah...I don't understand your poll. What's the definition of a "specialist"? Do we need to take a test?

Seems like "I survived dealing with:" might be more appropriate?

 

[Souzafone]

Cleaning is the most important aspect of long term pellet stove satisfaction. Not frequency of, but thoroughness of. The manual is only good for about 75% of what need to be done, the rest must be learned here. I see a lot of people with problems who clean the burn pot and glass every day, but overlook cleaning fans, lubing motors, and various other maintenance of the machine the manuals don't dwell on.

 

[crausch]

I gues there are several important things that I have learned:

1. Read the manual. Get to know your stove and how it functions.
2. Keep it clean.
3. Frequent the forum and web togain additional information and learn from others experiences.
4. Repeat item #1.

 

[MCPO]

I`ve learned that burning pellets isn`t about being a less expensive fuel but that some folks can actually save money burning pellets . However it comes with a trade off. That is uneven heat and some rooms being colder than others and that isn`t necessarily a bad thing either since many of us already have central heating systems with zoned heating.

 

[slls]

I learned that it is a space heater, it will heat the whole house but not nearly as good as a 78K BTU oil fired furnace. Burning oil right now, 2 deg F this morning and windy. Right now it is a $3000 Christmas stand.

 

[hossthehermit]

I am the ASH MAN

 

[kelvin]

What I learned:

1. That I can control the worldwide price of oil. All I had to do to get the price to drop through the floor was to buy a pellet stove and 2 tons of pellets at a time of peak demand.

2. That the answer to every installation question (OAK or not? Horizontal vent ok or is vertical rise needed? screen the pellet fines or not?) is "it depends"

3. That, based on the prices charged by local suppliers, pellet piping is made from a rhodium-platinum alloy and has gold foil lining.

4. That pellet stoves are excellent stud finders. Just place the stove in your room exactly where you want it. Draw a straight imaginary line from the exhaust port to the wall. Behind the wall at that point is a stud. Most likely a double stud with electrical conduit attached. And next to a PVC waste line from the bathroom above.

5. That homemade hearth pads weigh more than the sum of their constituent parts (plywood, wonderboard, adhesive, tile, and grout). The grout curing process adds approximately 100 pounds.

6. That the fork lifts attached to pellet delivery vehicles do not fit in my garage.

7. That 6 year old boys like to put objects in pellet stove hoppers. Especially metal objects.

8. That my wife's carrying capacity is 39 pounds. Anything even just one pound heavier than that is my responsibility to lift.

Having said that, we are really happy with our stove so far. Buying online was no prob. Installation was pretty easy and it runs well. And this forum has been a great resource.

 

[slls]

I located my studs first, the truck bought a pallet dolly and fork lift.

 

[sydney1963]

What I learned:

1. That I can control the worldwide price of oil. All I had to do to get the price to drop through the floor was to buy a pellet stove and 2 tons of pellets at a time of peak demand.

2. That the answer to every installation question (OAK or not? Horizontal vent ok or is vertical rise needed? screen the pellet fines or not?) is "it depends"

3. That, based on the prices charged by local suppliers, pellet piping is made from a rhodium-platinum alloy and has gold foil lining.

4. That pellet stoves are excellent stud finders. Just place the stove in your room exactly where you want it. Draw a straight imaginary line from the exhaust port to the wall. Behind the wall at that point is a stud. Most likely a double stud with electrical conduit attached. And next to a PVC waste line from the bathroom above.

5. That homemade hearth pads weigh more than the sum of their constituent parts (plywood, wonderboard, adhesive, tile, and grout). The grout curing process adds approximately 100 pounds.

6. That the fork lifts attached to pellet delivery vehicles do not fit in my garage.

7. That 6 year old boys like to put objects in pellet stove hoppers. Especially metal objects.

8. That my wife's carrying capacity is 39 pounds. Anything even just one pound heavier than that is my responsibility to lift.

Having said that, we are really happy with our stove so far. Buying online was no prob. Installation was pretty easy and it runs well. And this forum has been a great resource.

Kelvin, that just about sums it up. Have a happy holiday anyway.

 

[sydney1963]

My experience?

1) Many dealers provide terrible customer service after the sale, and could care less because it's unlikely you'll be making another puchase of this sort in the near future.

2) This forum, and the people on it, are an invaluable resource.

And yeah...I don't understand your poll. What's the definition of a "specialist"? Do we need to take a test?

Seems like "I survived dealing with:" might be more appropriate?

After thought---would love to have been able to change to poll question but can't once you submit the New Topic. Sorry to all. It was meant to be funny (specialist)

 

[orangecrushcj7]

All I can think of at the moment that hasn't been stated above:

-Fans! use them to at floor level to blow the cold air out of a room - the warm air naturally replaces what you move out.

-on an Englander, make sure your baffle plate (impingement plate) is not leaning forward. You can get way more heat on lower settings out of the stove by bending the tabs so that it rests flat on the back wall.

 

[davevassar]

One of the things I've leanered is that pellets burn differently in different stoves. I have an Enviro insert, and my father has an Englander. He swears byu New England Pellets, I don't like them. I like Barefoots, he doesn't.

Different brand pellets burn hotter in some stoves then others etc.

 

[Wet1]

What was the question??

Is my poll that bad? Please let me know.

Yes, the poll is that bad.


I've been burning pellets since 2000. The first thing I learned was while pellets might be cheaper than "X", I quickly found it cost me more money in the long run to try heating the first floor with my pellet stove located in the insulated basement below. I went through a lot of pellets, electricity trying to spread the heat, and oil making up for the lack of heat upstairs... When everything was tallied, it cost me more than what it would cost just to heat with oil using the central heating system.

The next thing I learned was that a stove is a space heater. You'd never know this based on many of the posts around here, but space heaters don't give nice even temps throughout the house like a central heating system will.

Which leads me into the most important thing I learned right here... The BS runs strong and thick in this sub-forum. That's right, some people must be heating with nuclear pellets. Plenty of folks on here who claim they are heating 2500+ sq ft of house (in ME no less), the temps throughout the house are within 5* or so, and of course they only burn a bag of pellets a day. Yep, we have folks who live in the north that can heat their 1500 sq ft home all winter with <1.5 tons of pellets (no other source of heat needed) and have nice toasty warm/consistant interior temps. Hell, I even recall one member recently saying he lives in the mountains where temps routinly hit the single digits, yet all he heats his nice toasty home with is the solor energy coming through his windows during the day and 15 or 20 bags of pellets for the year. That's one well oiled machine right there folks!

 

[treehackers]

1.Lord loves a workin' man
2.Don't trust whitey
3.See a doctor and get rid of it.

One of the best all time flicks!