Pellet stove purchase advice please.

[RankRam]

I plan to purchase a pellet stove to replace my free standing gas fireplace.



Does anyone have any advice for me?



Are there any brands I should avoid?



Any info will be greatly appreciated.



Thanks!

 

[BigEasy]

The only advice I can give is to make sure you can get enough pellets to last you thru the winter BEFORE you get the stove. We've been having serious supply problems here over the last few years... and I live within 10 miles of 2 pellet factories. What seems to work best is to get several people together and buy a full truckload together.



Around here, rice coal is the way to go... similar to a pellet setup, but the coal is only $45 a ton, as opposed to $200 for wood pellets.

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

The only advice I can give is to make sure you can get enough pellets to last you thru the winter BEFORE you get the stove. We've been having serious supply problems here over the last few years... and I live within 10 miles of 2 pellet factories. What seems to work best is to get several people together and buy a full truckload together.



Around here, rice coal is the way to go... similar to a pellet setup, but the coal is only $45 a ton, as opposed to $200 for wood pellets.

Local tractor supply sells them in Clarion now... I think its $180 per ton..... or by the #40 lb bag for... . ah, I dont remember now...

 

[Jeff H]

Ol man just ordered a corn boiler. Eight week back order. Plenty of farmers around willing to sell corn.

 

[Bob Wagner]

I've used a whitfield pellet stove for the past 14 years very high quality unit.



But Lennox bought out Whitfield a few years back so the stoves quality could be on the decline.



I worked with Jerry Whitfield and he was a stickler for quality and I know Lennox is much more profit driven.



I love heating with pellet's before that I was always out cutting cord wood

 

[CTait]

I went with a coworker to three different stores today. Each of them said that with the increase in natural gas prices that their only inventory was on the showroom floor. They said that they didn't expect to get anymore stoves until December. They said that there is a real difference in pellet quaility, ie some brands leave more ash than others. I use a Dutchwest brand wood stove with a catylitic burner. The local truss yards don't like paying the tipping fee at the local landfill and will deliver their 2x4 and 2x6 scrap ends to my place for free. The stove is so efficient that one load will last us a winter. We have a passive solar home and our only heat is the sun and our woodstove.