I'm thinking of getting a pellet stove to heat my house. Right now I use a combo of electric baseboards in the upstairs and a 30,000btu propane wallmount in the finished basement.

From what I've read online the pellet stove looks good. What do I need to know, from those of you that have/had them. I can locate it near an extierior wall for a direct vent or can put it near an interior wall and got vertical through the roof, whatever is better for the venting requirements.

How many tons of pellets do you go through in a year?

Easy or hard upkeep?

Wish you did it earlier or wish you never did it at all?

What do you pay per ton of pellets?

Favorite brand of stove?

Run, Forest, Run!  Why would you buy a woodburning stove that you have to buy a special fuel for?

If your gonna run pipe and flue, just get a good airtight woodstove. You can burn ANYTHING in it including ANYTHING in it. As long as it fits. Why  one night on a good drunk I once burned a.....well, never mind. But serioulsy, dont limit your self to buying pellets.

Consider your pellet source in a shtf scenario. If you had an airtight you could burn just about ANYTHING!

They make airtights that fit in a fireplace too.

Get it?

ETA: just caught onto the fact that you don't already have a flue. The best way to do that is through the roof. You will need to get some triple wall flue pipe for the sections: from a ways beneath the ceiling and through the top of yer roof .  You need a single wall section with a flue damper too. And a cap fer the top of the flue pipe.

You can ask at a stove store. Be sure that you have a couple feet between the stove and the walls. Then you need to put something on the walls as a heat shield. They sell asbestos type board and I have seen people use 'panel brick'.

Last, you have to put down some type of shield on the floor, like bricks or something. They make iron frames that you can morter in fire brick to make a floor structure.

Man, I lived in the mountains of Montana for years and heated my cabin primarily with an old 'Majestic' wood cook stove. Wood heat is da bomb! It's radient heat.

Hope this helps.

my aunt paid 3k for the one she got and its had to have the feeder motor replaced 3 times in the 5 years she had it, the repair man said the failures were caused by the pellets sticking together and causing a jam that caused the motors to burn out, the model she's got heats her 2500sf house well though, and I think at one time she said the pellets run her a $150 a ton, don't know how long they last though, for the money you'd spend on one, you could buy a good wood stove and several years worth of fire wood, plus a wood stove will burn anything you put in it, for ex. you get snowed in and you have to use the furniture to get you through the spell.

Negative on the pellet stove...

Go with a traditional wood stove...you'll thank me later.


-Derek

My dad has a corn stove. I know, not the same thing but......
My dad loves it. Mom hates it.
It does a good job of heating, and seeing as hes a farmer he has no problem getting corn. But its kidna messy (Which pisses off his better half). The ash from it is a mess, and Pops aint the cleanest guy around so it ends up all around the stove.

Aside from the mess and fuss, during the wintertime unless it gets real cold out thats all he uses to heat the house.

Thanks for the replies.

I know a wood stove would be a bit cheaper, but I don't want the cutting splinting stacking unstacking, and stacking again in the house, summer and fall fun. We used to do that at my parents house. I simply don't have the time.

Anyone else have any feedback?

Quoted: Thanks for the replies. I know a wood stove would be a bit cheaper, but I don't want the cutting splinting stacking unstacking, and stacking again in the house, summer and fall fun. We used to do that at my parents house. I simply don't have the time. Anyone else have any feedback?

You can usually ask around and find somebody thay will sell you pre-split and stacked firewood by the cord. A cord is 4x4x8 or 128 cu ft. Should run in the neighborhood of $100.00 per cord. They will usually stack it for you for a few bucks extra. Especially if you buy 4 or 5 cord.

Do not buy the pellets stove at home depot..

They do not have a good quality motor pushing the pellets through to the burn box. When it fails the pellets continue to burn all the way back to the hopper setting all the pellets on fire. This is because the blower is still working feeding the fire with fresh air.

Get a brand name. Check for blower shut off switch.

My friends Bob and Dave weren't so lucky. Luckily they only had smoke and water damage.