I had a wood stove ran it for 50 years, in the beginning wood was plentiful went out in the woods cut and split my winters wood in a couple of days, years went by, a few years ago like 10 or so they quit letting you go on state land to get your wood. So i started buying logging truck loads and just saw and split and haul to the house. then it got expensive 12 to 1500 dollars for a winters supply. At that point i purchased a pellet stove , now 400 to 500 for winters supply much easier on me being old now no i love my pellet stove best investment i ever made.
I have been burning pellets in the same Englander stove for the past 18 yrs as secondary heat. When I first bought pellets they were around $2.00 now they are up to $6 + a 40lb bag.
I had two major injuries in 2019. after which I could not cut and split wood (or any other physical work) for over a year. So I had to replace my wood stove with a pellet stove. sure its 40lb bags. but if the need is required you can always get a big scoop, like from a farm supply, and use that to shovel your pellets in. Of course, yes you still have to get the bags to the stove. but much easier than splitting wood. also much easier for my mom to use too, as I put a pellet stove in her house as well. Of course I bring the bags into her house for her, and keep the stove clean. One plus, no bugs thawing out and running around your house from pellets, like they do from regular firewood.
I live in Western Massachusetts, and we get some really cold weather sometimes. Your video on this wood pellet stove sold me. Your presentation and narration is right on. Our studio is an old one, and the open spaces has rally cold spaces, So, can you provide a video on how to replace the fed mechanism and the burning/lighting mechanism. I follow every video that you make and follow you web page. THANK YOU for making these videos.
If you want an artistic look, the convenience of burning pellets, no mechanical moving parts to break, and also want to not be dependent upon electricity, check out gravity fed pellet stoves. We have a Wiseway and absolutely love it!
i have two wiseways, one is in my moms house. have used them for... 5 winters now i think. the worse thing, the pellets get caught or something and it stops feeding. then it goes out. daytime, np. but at night, this sucks. more so for my mom. I'm currently looking to replace her wiseway with a regular pellet stove.
@@AkornzStash Wiseway has plugging problems and I don't know if they ever completely had the issue solved? I made my own version of a gravity fed pellet stove and it worked pretty well to heat my home for about 10 years. Now since the price of pellets went from just over $4 a bag to just under $6 a bag, I use my natural gas furnace to heat my home now. I kept the pellet stove hooked up in the basement for backup if I need it (incase the electricity were to go out in the winter) I never considered the commercial pellet stoves because of the initial cost and electronics involved.
@@PainterD54 I've had a Wiseway in my moms house for about 4 years now, and I've used one about 3 winters in my house. We hadn't really had plugging problems, except for every once in a while the pellets would get stuck. But for some reason this winter they have both had this issue a lot. I don't know if it has something to do with the pellets or what. Even though I"m still using the same local brand of pellets since we got these. I wanted to replace my mom's stove with a regular pellet stove... but she won't let me 🙄 says she likes her stove the way it is. I buy pellets by the pallet/ton from a locally owned farm supply, and they are made by a local wood flooring company. With buying by the pallet, I'm getting each bag for around $4.50 this year. But they gave me a break because I buy several pallets at a time, as I'm running the stove in my house and my moms house. Each uses about 1 bag a day, my mom's stove sometimes takes a bit more. And by buying several pallets at a time, they also deliver them for me. I am seriously considering putting a regular pellet stove in my shop. I wanted a regular wood stove, but the roof on the shop is so high, I just don't want to deal installing that tall of a chimney by myself. Even a 4" one like the Wiseway uses. And my shop doesn't need heat all the time, it stays in the 40s and 50s most of the time with no heat. But it would nice to warm it up to 65 or so when I'm working over there.
Oh, one reason we went with the wiseway stoves, is because we live out in a rural farm area on a "dead end" power line. Anytime there is a storm or whatever and it downs some lines, we are always the last one to get power turned back on. Have been out for a week or more, several times in the past 10 years. could run a regular pellet stove on battery backup or generator, but still have to have fuel for those too.
My first pellet stove was a Harmon Advance pellet stove. This stove wasn't cheap but it was the best rated stove at the time. It lasted 14 years and paid for itself several times over because it was my main source of heat for my 1700 square foot, single story home in southern Maine. I did have to replace the auger motor and igniter a few times but they were very inexpensive and I could replace them myself. We recently purchased a new Harmon Allure pellet stove, which was a much more modern design and we love the look in our living room. I would definitely recommend this stove if you can afford it. We did get the 30% tax credit which helped a lot in regards to the total cost. The electric motor is a disadvantage during a power outage but we have a back up generator and a battery backup so his problem goes away for short term outages. I do believe a pellet stove is a great investment if you can use it for your main heating source.
Im running a Chubby coal stove, and a Pellet pro 130. I like both. I use the coal stove as my primary heat source. When It gets really cold, I run both and stay really toasty.
Just installed a Pellet Pro 130 this year. Been using wood for 20 years to heat.. Getting older and tired of cutting stacking and hauling firewood. Even at 40 lbs a bag you can still load your pellet stove easy enough if you can not lift that anymore. Open the bag and use a small bucket to transfer the pellets. Yes will take you more trips but my 72 year old mother loads her pellet stove this way and works fine.
I'm nearly 40 and grew up in a house with a wood stove. I bought my house and first year I put a pellet stove in. That was the coldest winter I ever had. The thing constantly burnt up auger motors. I had to keep one in stock. It also used quite a bit of electricity and was always loud. Went to a wood stove the following year. Silent, minimal things to break and no electricity needed. With that being said if people ask me wood stove vs pellet stove I generaly point them towards a pellet stove. More first time user friendly. They agree when I show them what a good vermont castings stove costs.
I've self installed 2 stoves and one pellet stove- haven't used grid gas boiler for 3 years. Love all of them in their own way. Pellet set & forget in morning/day without worrying if paper, cardboard, kindling, lighters all there & can do own thing. Stove- better infrared heat to get right into bones, better evening use, can cook on/in them too & can take tree down for fuel, so cheaper & longevity definately better though flue cleaning much dirtier to do.
A gravity fed pellet stove that can also burn wood beats both. Starting my 3rd winter with a Liberator Rocket Stove . I just dump pellets in most of the time but sometimes I need to clear the yard of fallen shagbark hickory branches. A 5 gal bucket of hickory sticks is enough to heat the house all evening & warm all night.
House I moved into had two breckwell pellet stoves. I kept the Big E and gave my father the nicer step down stove that looks more like a classic woodstove. Father in law has a Pellet Pro. Breckwell will set you back but much more serviceable yourself then pellet pros. Any sensors go out or troubshooting needed you just removed them from your troublshooting process and if the stove works without it, thats the $10 part that needs replaced. Circuit boards were $300 though. Otherwise we both heat about 1600 sqft all winter northern WI no problem with them. He has a ranch style home with stove on one end and uses his furnace a few times a day to circulate the heat better. I have a 3 story with a center open staircase with the big e at the bottom and distributes heat perfectly. Ive been playing with using my electric baseboard more because its actually cheaper with it being on peak heat but need the pellet stove for backup heat when electric is shutoff on off peak times. First year i went through 5 pallets of pellets not using any electric. At the time a pallet was $215. Now its $250 a pallet or like $5.29 a bag if you dont buy bulk. Last winter was warm but I used less then one pallet and just ran my stove on a lower setting using it in conjunction with electric heat. The Big E holds 3 bags or 120lbs of pellets and on setting 1 or 2 its uses either 1lb/hr or just over 2lb/hr. Could get anywhere from 3-5 days without filling at that level. Less cleanup too. I live 20 minutes from where they make the Indek pellets and out of 10 brands ive tried, they are the Best. Unfortunately i cant buy direct. I have to buy from menards or local hardware. I would still entertain a wood stove because of my free wood and need to use up my wood i already cut. Not having to tend a stove so much is great but I also enjoy it as im a seasonal worker and am home all winter.
we had a pellet stove for 6 years in my 'city' house. We had to clean out clinkers and stuff from the hardwood pellets every few days... not as much as the woodstove, but it's not fire and forget... I honestly preferred the pellet stove and the thermostat running the show, but with 25 acres of woods....
I have a hydro pellet stove with storage of hot water for the elements, I fire 6-7 hours every day to keep 2000 sqft warm. (I live near the arctic circle).
The cost of pellets, fragile circuits boards, blowers, auger motor, and constant need for electricity make a pellet stove a non-starter for me. I need heat when the power is out. Yes, they're more convenient and less messy than a wood stove. Oh, and you can burn pellets in a wood stove.
As an older single person, I was leaning towards a pellet stove but worry about the continued availability, and inflating price, of pellets. I also have considered coal stove _and_ outdoor wood furnance.
I love every aspect of handling wood. If you don't, then don't get a wood stove. There are a lot of aspects to operating a wood stove safely and efficiently and it's not for everybody. Do whatever you are comfortable with.
I like how quiet wood stoves are and with pellet stoves I like how they can operate 2 to 3 days without any attendance depending on the hopper size. My sauna is heated by a wood type of stove and my home with a pellet stove & natural gas forced hot water.
I bought a pellet stove last year to supplement the heat from the wood stove i have in my basement, which has always been our primary heat source, and i agree with everything you said about the wood stove being comforting and all, but after 25 years of running up and down the steps every 5 to 6 hours checking the fire im done. New pellet stove in my basement after this winter.
7:09 hahahaha I can relate this this!! The wife always makes it known when I forgot to bring in a bag and fill the hopper 😂 BTW I hardly ever have to “ push the button “ either. We literally run our pellet stove from October to April. Only stopping once a month maybe to chip creosote from the burn pot. Our ash pan holds 3 ton worth of spent pellets. Only empty the pan once a year. Harman p43. We’ve had it for 3 winters and absolutely love it!!
i have two houses with woodstoves, and both have fans. i never run the fans, because the noise is annoying and i don't notice the fans helping much. sometimes i run a ceiling fan, and that's a quieter way to get heat moving around, especially from high in a cathedral ceiling, where it isn't doing much good
I always loved burning wood the smell the crackling and heat ,my first place my wife and I lived in a rented house it had a big fire place it would heat up the whole house it was used during the weekend cause it was hard staying on top of it while at work so the furnace would kick on after getiing our own place I tried to get a wood stove to install but the parts were expensive and had to installed by a pro but propane where we live is expensive and the underground propane tank is owned by the propane co we cannot use another cheaper dealer so I found out by a friend from work about pellet stoves,since my fireplace insert was not for heating I found I could install without all the extra parts piping was cheaper and no creosote buildup to worry ,so far after 17 years it is still running and instead of paying almost 1000.00 a month for propane I comes out to 700 or lower for the whole year so 4 or 5 months I could pay up to 5000.00 dollars a year it comes close to 700 and I even installed one in my basement so that even the propane co asked us why our bill is less than 100.00 every few months we told them they were too expensive and that we had to take drastic measures so that we could at least buy food ,I still like the ritual of starting a fire it is very therapeutic and I love to see a fire growing but the pellet stove has been a blessing so far,the only con I can say is that the bags have to be stored in a dry place and safe if they get wet they will fall apart and then you have saw dust ,I buy 4 tons a year that is 200 bags its not easy to bring down to the basement and restack them it will take me 2 days to unload and restack them its a very hard job and a good work out lucky for me I still work out at age 61 its a challege and got to get mentally set up to do but 1 day you can do 2 tons wait a day or 2 and then the next 2 tons and now that I have mount pellet in my basement its nice to see and that I don't have to do it till next year again
I saw a review on Spackmann's channel for a hybrid pellet-or-wood stove. I think it's made by a company called Green Stove. That sounds like the way to go - because if you can have the option for either, then why not? Flexibility is an advantage.
ended up going with a progress hybrid soapstone. Hopefully offset the cost of propane usage for the whole house in a few years. Have a great hookup for cheap dry hardwood (amish wood working supplier) the wood is cut into small logs and moveable sizes. Super excited for it to be done! looked at pellet stoves, but the thought of lifting pellets upstairs to heat the room (bi level home) didnt seem to fun. The wood stove will be in the basement next to a intake register for the furnae to help move heat. Great video and points to consider!
Bought and installed the Englander from Home Depot 4 years ago. It's never given off a lot of heat. I've checked everything, and can't figure out if it's not running right, or maybe it's just a POS. I've gone into other houses with different brand stoves, and the heat output is amazing. At this point, I just use it once in a while, and mostly just use my gas boiler
Advantage of a woodstove: you can shove into it "whatever you want". Leftover pallets... wooden beams from a roof... planks... wood from someone's tree... briquets... you can even burn pellets. So, there's also the possibility to get some free wood every year. With a pellet stove: you can only burn pellets and you have to pay the marketprice. Advantage of a pelletstove: I believe you can program when it starts to burn, so it can be nice and warm when you get out of bed. With a woodstove: you have to get up in the cold and wait for the stove to heat up.
Nice video, as few viewers mentions wood stove depending of type and accessories have some other benefits too: cook, bake, hot water, power (pelet may have that but usualy do not). Plus for pelet stove are: more even heat output and more control over it.
My thing with the wood stove and I’ve had both, but the wood stove is more rewarding to me I like to go out and cut split and haul wood it feels rewarding to me because I produced my own fuel to heat my house. I’ve been doing this for 9 years now not ever turning on my gas heat unless I’m out of state for a few days or something. My family owns wooded property and we cut split and haul it together to heat two homes. It’s like a few hours a month to clear my mind. I just smack a log with an axe watch it break into free heat and it’s my outlet for letting out the struggle of working in the city dealing with stupid problems of others instead I’m back to being a man I hand split everything with an axe or splitting maul but mostly an axe. I added up my heating bill several years back I included fuel oil chainsaw chains files and everything and I heated my 1500 square foot house to be never cold for a whole year for about 150 bucks now that was during the times when gasoline was 1.80 per gallon but still pretty cheap when my brother was paying 400 per month for several months in propane to heat a similar sized house in the same climate. I don’t know if it’s just independence or freedom of it being my world but I love heating with wood. It makes me feel invigorated. I mean if I spent the same time at my job I could make double pay and pay a months heating bill in a day but I would rather go out and chop wood. It truly frees my soul. It’s a hard thing to explain I guess but I love it
Professional chimney technician. I've dealt with allot of different heating systems from installing to servicing to repairs. And pellet was always the most finicky. With wood it's strictly about your draft wood quality and ability to build a good fire. With pellet you need to have electricity, you need to have good pellets, you need to regularly clean them. You're supposed to clean them every 3 weeks. There's many different sensors and electrical components that can fail. Testing and finding the problem is difficult depending on the model. And to have a technician come in and service or troubleshoot you're looking at 250+ every time.
Personally, I prefer the exercise of using a wood stove over the pellet stove. We all need to stay active as we get older, so for me, this provides me a reason to move. Also, if you buy wood, or you buy pellets, you have to earn that money, so you lose time there, and don't necessarily get the exercise. HOWEVER, I would still buy a pellet stove for my wife's use, and for when I get very old. Both are great.
One additional plus for wood stoves is the ability to burn up certain things that would be thrown out. I have a carpentry shop and produce a lot of wood scrap. I suppose you could also think about Dexter Morgan.....Titanium does not burn.
Why do they make the pellet stove look like a square steel box? Why is the fire view, most times, a small window? I would like one with more fire view!
beccause a pellet stove once going at an efficient burm, does not make a huge visible fire. If you want to make a huge fire you can turn the feed rates up on the auger which will make a big yellow fire but when burning for efficiencyy your not gonna get a huge fire.
Wood stove costs are lower, pellet stoves cost more. Wood stoves must vent vertically through the roof, while pellet stoves can terminate horizontally and out if an exterior side wall is an option (less components). Good point. Costs can go either way, depending..
All the people who have pellet stoves in North Carolina and Tennessee wish they had a wood stove. It's not fun when you lose power. A good soapstone will last the whole night
At my age, I get up once per night to take a whiz so I put some wood in the stove (it still has orange coals to quickly light the fresh wood). When I get up in the morning, still has hot coals. It works out pretty well for me.
@@miller566 when i lose power, i run an extension cord in the window sill, pack a towell around to seal it off, and power my harman p43 that way. any small generator can handle it.
@FamilyHomeComputer Hopefully, you have plenty of fuel. A bunch of people i know in Tennessee and North Carolina in the boonies couldn't get out over a week. After they got out, they had to travel many miles to a working gas station for fuel. There is nothing like a good old-fashioned wood stove that you can even cook on or make a stew.
Only reason you have chimney fires with woodstove is operator error. If you burn wet or green wood it makes creosote as long as you burn dry wood and annual chimney cleaning. As far as temperature control the new air tight units are very easy to control burn rate and heat output. The older units not so much. We experience another supply chain issue you could have a problem getting pellets. That's not the case with woodstove.
Pellet availability/shortages and thus price gouging is why I went back to wood. I use a stove as a back up source of heat and the pellet stove is just a vulnerable to the infrastructure and corporate greed as my main source of heat (natural gas). In a “worst case scenario” where I live I can drive around for 15 minutes and find someone selling wood on the side of the road. I only use the stove in emergencies (no power from a winter storm) or when I just get the itch to have a fire though.
As long as we have a supply chain and things are good, pellet is nice. I prefer to be able to cut my own wood. Clean mine once a year with a rod system that used 4 foot sections and a ball at the end you put weed wipe line in, connects to a drill.
We had the store load the vehicle, then we used a shop vac with cyclonic filter to move the pellets out of the bags and into the house, into 55 drums in the basement. Could do that same to bring it up, but we use a bucket. Now wood, thats just A LOT of work and danger... but cheap.
I see you have a castle serenity pellet there... how do you find it? What problems do you have with it? How do you tune it? Does it start properly? Do you pull combustion air from outside the building? What is the flue like? We got one in 2018 & I have fought with the thing constantly since... I deeply regret the purchase. Castle are unhelpful & nobody seems to know anything about them...
Been great for me. I have 2 for a combined 11 years of use. Only had one problem the blower went. Replaced it for $80. Would buy another one in a second. I use the best pellets available and always keep it clean. Use it consistently too which helps.
My Harmon needs to be cleaned every few weeks. It gets inefficient because the heat exchanger gets covered with ash/soot. I’ve been using pellets for over 20 years as my primary heat. Also my Harmon weighs a lot between 300 and 350 lbs. A pellet stove heats more like a gas heater than a wood stove. Wood stoves require tons of work too. Stacking wood, cleaning up after you use your wood. Most people get green wood cut, split and delivered. You put the wood away. If you cut your own wood it’s a ton of work
You know what would be a crazy idea? Putting a Sterling Engine on top of the pellet stove and running the fan off of that. That way you wouldn't need any electricity. Maybe a car battery to get it started and up to temperature. That way you could tough out a long power outage or have a off grid solution.
So if a wood stove is like vinyl and pellet stoves are like CDs, is a gas furnace like...streaming? Because, like, the gas streams to it from a big natural gas 'server' that's somewhere outta sight!
Any recommendations for a reliable long term daily use pellet stove under $2,500 to be used 4 months of the year? At this price point the reviews aren't great, mostly reporting electronics and fans breaking after 2 to 3 months. Some people reporting problems at one year. Any recommendations are appreciated
Watch my review of the castle serenity. I personally used it for 8 years. 150 bags a year. Before I had to fix it. They go for 1200 or so plus exhaust. Keep it clean and using really good pellets is important. Consistently using it too.
I have a Whitfield that has served me for 21 years an the parts are still available on the Internet keep the stove an chimney clean an you are fine my stove runs as my main heat no insects from the wood are bark an dirt
I live in the mountains and I am strongly pro wood stove over pellet, for many reasons. Pellet stoves require electricity. If your electricity goes out you are now relying on an auxiliary power source to use them, defeats the whole purpose and benefit of a woodstove in the first place. With regular wood stoves which I've used from being snowed in, in the mountains with no electricity, I can cook on them, supply fuel that is all around me in the forest and readily available everywhere that is compatible to burn, whereas pellets have to be sourced and are purpose made, that have to be used in a stove with an electric source, which completely defeats all of the pros that come along with the self sufficiency of a regular wood stove. Even if you use a gravity fed pellet stove, the fact you have to use pellets is a major bottleneck and logistical nightmare if you are in need during a crisis and can't source pellets. I've been in blizzards, where there were states of emergency declared in the mountains in secluded areas and the last thing you would want in these scenarios is to have to rely on pellets, when you can source all kinds of fuel to use in a regular stove in these situations. If you are wanting to be self sufficient and self reliant, then there is no replacement for a good wood burning stove.
Just got a pellet stove for this winter and I'm planning install. So you mentioned it, " clean the pot and start it" - do you have to clean the pot everyday? Like you need an ash vac next to the stove for every morning to make it run better? What did you mean? I want to make sure I'm doing things right ;) update: but you mention cleaning monthly and dump the pot if needed later in the vid. Thanks bud
Ok so the pot isn’t the place the ash builds up. The pot is the spot the pellets drop into. It’s a small little metal dish with holes in it. What happens is a little ash builds up at the bottom of the pot, restricts air flow to the pellets and they won’t catch on fire. Basically you just pop the little dish out and bang it in the garbage a bit. The better quality pellets you buy, the less issues you’ll have in the pot. Hope that explains it.
Try burning dry wood, 16-18% moisture content, not more. Wet wood makes a dirty flue and residue build-up which is a fire risk if not regularly swept clean.
i had a wood stove installed 3 years ogo, i seriously looked at the pellet option before hand but decided on logs. pellets offer convenience but in a grid down scenario you cant go outside with a saw and gather pellets ! and most also need electricity to operate ! pellets also cost money on a continual basis, im in my third winter here in Scotland using a wood stove and logs and the costs are minimal as i get the wood for free or next to free with downed storm damage trees, yes i bought chainsaws, equipment , a new trailer but the amount of downed trees i have available on farms it has already paid for the equipment and is now paying off the costs of my pick up in wood costs that i no longer have (havnt bought wood since the first year) i use about 5 actual cube of logs which should cost around £800 locally and i also save around £1000 on mains gas each year now as i seldom use it.......whats not to like :)
Re: Each bag of pellets weighs 40 pounds. Exactly. Another great example is the weight of a bag of cement. Who do they think is lifting these things? And I don't care how big you are, you can still have a bad back. Or at least care about pulling your back. They should provide the option of a 25 pound bag.
Distracted by the baseboards. 😅 Edit. Theres a hydrant 3 ft off my property line and my house burned almost to the ground March 5th 2024. In town and the cops were there within a minute of me finding the fire, but the firemen were maybe 5/10 minutes later. We'll, it went like a Roman candle in thay brief time taking everything that matters shirt of my life and my cat's life. It's something that time will never heal.
I’ve had my power out for a week in the winter. Generator runs it fine. If you don’t have a generator and your power is out for a week, you’ve got bigger problems.
Smoke? First toss the window coverings then paint top to bottom, most of what you're smelling will be gone. Second wash the, windows, cabinets and woodwork its a GOOD idea even without smoke damage and it helps. Then clean or replace the flooring. Oils cut oils, pine oil cleaners on wood but don't use them on carpet nor fabric where pine oil will later collect dirt. These are things you should do anyway less maybe painting ceilings. The smoke smell should be gone or 99% gone. For anyone who burns anything in the house this will be better than good enough. Really sensitive??? If there's an area you can't get to easy like air ducts, attics,,, you can use an ozone generator, it will travel as a gas and get to everywhere the smoke went destroy it and any mold in its path. DO not breath air out of professional ozone generators. Its not good to leave small ones on in the house while occupied either. Smoke shouldn't have been an issue unless you want to move in ready house but you might find a better deal on a smoky fixer upper.
Nick this is all B.S. For those of us really using wood stoves for 100% heat, there is NO, repeat NO, smell of smoke. NONE. The flue, the way the stove is burnt, seasoned firewood, and...experience. That tiny pellet stove you have couldn't heat a mouse. Pellets: noise, power , break downs, little real heat, cost, availability, 40 lb bags to lift, etc....Yes, I am opinionated. Forgot, getting firewood keeps you in shape.
you'll spend more money on 2 stroke gas, premix, chains, files, air filters and upkeep on your chainsaws that burning wood quickly becomes wayyyyy more expensive. Not to mention you have to eat wayyyy more to replace all the calories your burning dealing with wood. I've burnt, coal, wood, and pellets. Coal was the easiest. Wood was the worst. Pellets are the most white collar friendly.
Pellets can be delivered, even to the boonies. If you shop right, the deliveries are free and the cost is the same as driving in to grab my own. Delivery driver drops the 40lb bag on the front porch, readily accessible for anyone with a disability. Kind of sinks the whole wood being easier argument which honestly? Was weird because you don't stoke a fire with a single piece of wood. Going back and forth multiple times for a person with a disability is not an easy thing either. Whereas a couple scoops of pellets can keep the fire going for a decent amount of time or even better? Fill a pail with some wheels on it from that front porch where the bag was delivered to in my example vs. having to go out to the woodpile and haul lumber in piece by piece. See where it falls apart?
Wood can be delivered and stacked on your porch too. So I personally don’t think pellets are easier. But to some it could be. I wouldn’t leave an open bag outside though.
@@NickMango Where did I say regular wood can't be delivered? Of course it can, most people don't cut their own wood. Most buy it by the cord and have it delivered. Some even have it stacked and cut for them. That's another charge for seniors or disabled people unless you are fortunate enough to have friends or family to do it. In some cases, like my neighbor, the supplier delivers it pre-cut. I made the statement because you ignored the fact that pellets can be delivered completely. Perhaps you were unaware, if that's the case, I informed you. As an aging person with a disability myself, the conversion to pellets is the only reason I can continue to heat with wood. Without that conversion I would have to switch/rely completely on my gas furnace or the kindness of others. I rather like my independence and besides, that switch would take a lot of "warmth" from my home, the kind that furnace heat cannot provide. My storage area for wood is not located near my front porch and a sufficient supply was much harder for me to carry/stock which is why I made the switch. I think you see where I'm going with this. Essentially a lot of things have to fall into place for regular wood to be easier for seniors or people with disabilities to be as easy as pellets. I'm not trying to be difficult or argumentative, I simply disagree with you and now you know why. I will agree on one thing...this fire is less "warm" than the well maintained/restored 100 year old ornate soapstone wood stove that came with the house. I miss it very much. Thank you for replying to me.
Pellet stoves has to have electricity to run . And you have to have pellets . I'll stay with my wood stove . I can burn twigs , wood chunks , split wood .
The kiss principle keep it simple wood stove would is available ,you dont have to buy it pellet stoves,mechanical and electric power goes out buy the fuel i live rural canada pellet stoves are for city folks
In a perfect world a wood stove with my own source of firewood say 50 acres up in the hills the reality 4.5 acres and I can't cut down most of my trees due to them being protected so pellet stove it is.
I looked at pellet stoves, did my research and decided against a pellet stove and I go with wood. Wood stoves are more work from install to gathering and processing the wood itself. Cost of pellets is more expensive than wood. Here is the PNW I would run a stove 8 to 12 hours a day and 24 hours/day during very cold spells so I would average 1 40 lb. bag a day so for me I would need about 275 bags of pellets/yr. If I could get my pellets a $7/bag that would be about $2000/yr for a year's supply and I get my wood at $1100/yr so pellet stove is more expensive. wood Stove maintenance is more work and sweeping the Chimney once a year is a hassle for sure. The main reason I settled on a wood stove for me was cost and ambience beauty of the fire and no need for electricity and I have trees I can cut down if I need wood but at my age, I just buy most but not all the wood i need. If I was a city dweller I would go with the pellet stove.
Pity the man who has to wear a hat indoors, insulation might be a better consideration. If moving a bag of pellets is already too much effort, then wood definitely ain't for you.
Anyone who's moved a wood stove before knows you remove the bricks before you move it. Gawd! The stove suddenly becomes very movable. Nobody ever built a cabin around a wood stove because it was too heavy. C'mon. And cigar smoke or any other smoke is a non-issue. Ozone generators will nullify those odors in less time than it takes to order one and have it delivered. I have 21 rental units that I have to deodorize every time I have a vacancy. A couple hours of ozone generation and the odor comes back to neutral..no smell. The information you are giving are just opinions without much merit I'm afraid.
A lot of gravity feed pellet stoves that look nice. Most people buy there fire wood also. You depend on others for almost everything these days, but not for pellets, come on.
I had a wood stove ran it for 50 years, in the beginning wood was plentiful went out in the woods cut and split my winters wood in a couple of days, years went by, a few years ago like 10 or so they quit letting you go on state land to get your wood. So i started buying logging truck loads and just saw and split and haul to the house. then it got expensive 12 to 1500 dollars for a winters supply. At that point i purchased a pellet stove , now 400 to 500 for winters supply much easier on me being old now no i love my pellet stove best investment i ever made.
I have been burning pellets in the same Englander stove for the past 18 yrs as secondary heat. When I first bought pellets they were around $2.00 now they are up to $6 + a 40lb bag.
Oh yes. We love our englander. Clean. Easy. Can set low to hi.
@@DougWilde-pc9rs
Do you get a lot of heat out of it? Mine barely heats the room it's in
I had two major injuries in 2019. after which I could not cut and split wood (or any other physical work) for over a year. So I had to replace my wood stove with a pellet stove. sure its 40lb bags. but if the need is required you can always get a big scoop, like from a farm supply, and use that to shovel your pellets in. Of course, yes you still have to get the bags to the stove. but much easier than splitting wood. also much easier for my mom to use too, as I put a pellet stove in her house as well. Of course I bring the bags into her house for her, and keep the stove clean.
One plus, no bugs thawing out and running around your house from pellets, like they do from regular firewood.
I live in Western Massachusetts, and we get some really cold weather sometimes. Your video on this wood pellet stove sold me. Your presentation and narration is right on. Our studio is an old one, and the open spaces has rally cold spaces, So, can you provide a video on how to replace the fed mechanism and the burning/lighting mechanism. I follow every video that you make and follow you web page. THANK YOU for making these videos.
Western Mass as well, where did you go to buy one?
@@kchilz32myself as well, following for info 🙏
If you want an artistic look, the convenience of burning pellets, no mechanical moving parts to break, and also want to not be dependent upon electricity, check out gravity fed pellet stoves. We have a Wiseway and absolutely love it!
i have two wiseways, one is in my moms house. have used them for... 5 winters now i think. the worse thing, the pellets get caught or something and it stops feeding. then it goes out. daytime, np. but at night, this sucks. more so for my mom. I'm currently looking to replace her wiseway with a regular pellet stove.
@@AkornzStash Wiseway has plugging problems and I don't know if they ever completely had the issue solved?
I made my own version of a gravity fed pellet stove and it worked pretty well to heat my home for about 10 years. Now since the price of pellets went from just over $4 a bag to just under $6 a bag, I use my natural gas furnace to heat my home now. I kept the pellet stove hooked up in the basement for backup if I need it (incase the electricity were to go out in the winter)
I never considered the commercial pellet stoves because of the initial cost and electronics involved.
@@PainterD54 I've had a Wiseway in my moms house for about 4 years now, and I've used one about 3 winters in my house. We hadn't really had plugging problems, except for every once in a while the pellets would get stuck. But for some reason this winter they have both had this issue a lot. I don't know if it has something to do with the pellets or what. Even though I"m still using the same local brand of pellets since we got these. I wanted to replace my mom's stove with a regular pellet stove... but she won't let me 🙄 says she likes her stove the way it is.
I buy pellets by the pallet/ton from a locally owned farm supply, and they are made by a local wood flooring company. With buying by the pallet, I'm getting each bag for around $4.50 this year. But they gave me a break because I buy several pallets at a time, as I'm running the stove in my house and my moms house. Each uses about 1 bag a day, my mom's stove sometimes takes a bit more. And by buying several pallets at a time, they also deliver them for me.
I am seriously considering putting a regular pellet stove in my shop. I wanted a regular wood stove, but the roof on the shop is so high, I just don't want to deal installing that tall of a chimney by myself. Even a 4" one like the Wiseway uses. And my shop doesn't need heat all the time, it stays in the 40s and 50s most of the time with no heat. But it would nice to warm it up to 65 or so when I'm working over there.
Oh, one reason we went with the wiseway stoves, is because we live out in a rural farm area on a "dead end" power line. Anytime there is a storm or whatever and it downs some lines, we are always the last one to get power turned back on. Have been out for a week or more, several times in the past 10 years. could run a regular pellet stove on battery backup or generator, but still have to have fuel for those too.
@@AkornzStash Have you tried other pellets/types, or just the cheapest?
My first pellet stove was a Harmon Advance pellet stove. This stove wasn't cheap but it was the best rated stove at the time. It lasted 14 years and paid for itself several times over because it was my main source of heat for my 1700 square foot, single story home in southern Maine. I did have to replace the auger motor and igniter a few times but they were very inexpensive and I could replace them myself. We recently purchased a new Harmon Allure pellet stove, which was a much more modern design and we love the look in our living room. I would definitely recommend this stove if you can afford it. We did get the 30% tax credit which helped a lot in regards to the total cost. The electric motor is a disadvantage during a power outage but we have a back up generator and a battery backup so his problem goes away for short term outages. I do believe a pellet stove is a great investment if you can use it for your main heating source.
Im running a Chubby coal stove, and a Pellet pro 130. I like both. I use the coal stove as my primary heat source. When It gets really cold, I run both and stay really toasty.
Just installed a Pellet Pro 130 this year. Been using wood for 20 years to heat.. Getting older and tired of cutting stacking and hauling firewood. Even at 40 lbs a bag you can still load your pellet stove easy enough if you can not lift that anymore. Open the bag and use a small bucket to transfer the pellets. Yes will take you more trips but my 72 year old mother loads her pellet stove this way and works fine.
It’s a good strategy and probably less trips than wood per day 👍
This is a really good video. Informative and easy to watch. Thanks
I'm nearly 40 and grew up in a house with a wood stove. I bought my house and first year I put a pellet stove in. That was the coldest winter I ever had. The thing constantly burnt up auger motors. I had to keep one in stock. It also used quite a bit of electricity and was always loud. Went to a wood stove the following year. Silent, minimal things to break and no electricity needed. With that being said if people ask me wood stove vs pellet stove I generaly point them towards a pellet stove. More first time user friendly. They agree when I show them what a good vermont castings stove costs.
I've self installed 2 stoves and one pellet stove- haven't used grid gas boiler for 3 years. Love all of them in their own way.
Pellet set & forget in morning/day without worrying if paper, cardboard, kindling, lighters all there & can do own thing.
Stove- better infrared heat to get right into bones, better evening use, can cook on/in them too & can take tree down for fuel, so cheaper & longevity definately better though flue cleaning much dirtier to do.
A gravity fed pellet stove that can also burn wood beats both. Starting my 3rd winter with a Liberator Rocket Stove . I just dump pellets in most of the time but sometimes I need to clear the yard of fallen shagbark hickory branches. A 5 gal bucket of hickory sticks is enough to heat the house all evening & warm all night.
House I moved into had two breckwell pellet stoves. I kept the Big E and gave my father the nicer step down stove that looks more like a classic woodstove. Father in law has a Pellet Pro. Breckwell will set you back but much more serviceable yourself then pellet pros. Any sensors go out or troubshooting needed you just removed them from your troublshooting process and if the stove works without it, thats the $10 part that needs replaced. Circuit boards were $300 though. Otherwise we both heat about 1600 sqft all winter northern WI no problem with them. He has a ranch style home with stove on one end and uses his furnace a few times a day to circulate the heat better. I have a 3 story with a center open staircase with the big e at the bottom and distributes heat perfectly. Ive been playing with using my electric baseboard more because its actually cheaper with it being on peak heat but need the pellet stove for backup heat when electric is shutoff on off peak times. First year i went through 5 pallets of pellets not using any electric. At the time a pallet was $215. Now its $250 a pallet or like $5.29 a bag if you dont buy bulk. Last winter was warm but I used less then one pallet and just ran my stove on a lower setting using it in conjunction with electric heat. The Big E holds 3 bags or 120lbs of pellets and on setting 1 or 2 its uses either 1lb/hr or just over 2lb/hr. Could get anywhere from 3-5 days without filling at that level. Less cleanup too. I live 20 minutes from where they make the Indek pellets and out of 10 brands ive tried, they are the Best. Unfortunately i cant buy direct. I have to buy from menards or local hardware. I would still entertain a wood stove because of my free wood and need to use up my wood i already cut. Not having to tend a stove so much is great but I also enjoy it as im a seasonal worker and am home all winter.
We have a small rancher air sealed super well insulated. Pellet stove on dead low keeps it near 80. Warm n simple. .love it
Four bags of pellets into my castle pellet stove and I absolutely love it.
4 40lb bags
@ that was 1 bag of 40lbs I had used 4 at the time this was posted. I am probably 60 bags up to this point and still very happy.
I like the fact my stove in the basement in the middle of the house has masonry sides & back around it eventually the masonry also heats up
we had a pellet stove for 6 years in my 'city' house. We had to clean out clinkers and stuff from the hardwood pellets every few days... not as much as the woodstove, but it's not fire and forget... I honestly preferred the pellet stove and the thermostat running the show, but with 25 acres of woods....
I have a hydro pellet stove with storage of hot water for the elements, I fire 6-7 hours every day to keep 2000 sqft warm. (I live near the arctic circle).
The cost of pellets, fragile circuits boards, blowers, auger motor, and constant need for electricity make a pellet stove a non-starter for me. I need heat when the power is out. Yes, they're more convenient and less messy than a wood stove. Oh, and you can burn pellets in a wood stove.
Wow, that was amazing!!!! SO thorough, thank you! :)
As an older single person, I was leaning towards a pellet stove but worry about the continued availability, and inflating price, of pellets. I also have considered coal stove _and_ outdoor wood furnance.
I love every aspect of handling wood. If you don't, then don't get a wood stove. There are a lot of aspects to operating a wood stove safely and efficiently and it's not for everybody. Do whatever you are comfortable with.
Can't you open a 40 pound bag of pellets and divide it into smaller bags or buckets for easier transport?
Yeah you definitely can. 👍
yep,just buy one bag at a time if you have to lol
AND opening and splitting bags outside relieves dust issues, too.
I like how quiet wood stoves are and with pellet stoves I like how they can operate 2 to 3 days without any attendance depending on the hopper size. My sauna is heated by a wood type of stove and my home with a pellet stove & natural gas forced hot water.
I bought a pellet stove last year to supplement the heat from the wood stove i have in my basement, which has always been our primary heat source, and i agree with everything you said
about the wood stove being comforting and all, but after 25 years of running up and down the steps every 5 to 6 hours checking the fire im done.
New pellet stove in my basement after this winter.
7:09 hahahaha I can relate this this!! The wife always makes it known when I forgot to bring in a bag and fill the hopper 😂
BTW I hardly ever have to “ push the button “ either. We literally run our pellet stove from October to April. Only stopping once a month maybe to chip creosote from the burn pot. Our ash pan holds 3 ton worth of spent pellets. Only empty the pan once a year. Harman p43. We’ve had it for 3 winters and absolutely love it!!
I will check that one out 👍
A lot of stores keep their pellets outside. Make sure you can get a dry bag for every water damaged bag you buy.
Pellet stove 1000% .I have a Comfortbilt hp50s and couldn't be happier.
i have two houses with woodstoves, and both have fans. i never run the fans, because the noise is annoying and i don't notice the fans helping much. sometimes i run a ceiling fan, and that's a quieter way to get heat moving around, especially from high in a cathedral ceiling, where it isn't doing much good
I always loved burning wood the smell the crackling and heat ,my first place my wife and I lived in a rented house it had a big fire place it would heat up the whole house it was used during the weekend cause it was hard staying on top of it while at work so the furnace would kick on after getiing our own place I tried to get a wood stove to install but the parts were expensive and had to installed by a pro but propane where we live is expensive and the underground propane tank is owned by the propane co we cannot use another cheaper dealer so I found out by a friend from work about pellet stoves,since my fireplace insert was not for heating I found I could install without all the extra parts piping was cheaper and no creosote buildup to worry ,so far after 17 years it is still running and instead of paying almost 1000.00 a month for propane I comes out to 700 or lower for the whole year so 4 or 5 months I could pay up to 5000.00 dollars a year it comes close to 700 and I even installed one in my basement so that even the propane co asked us why our bill is less than 100.00 every few months we told them they were too expensive and that we had to take drastic measures so that we could at least buy food ,I still like the ritual of starting a fire it is very therapeutic and I love to see a fire growing but the pellet stove has been a blessing so far,the only con I can say is that the bags have to be stored in a dry place and safe if they get wet they will fall apart and then you have saw dust ,I buy 4 tons a year that is 200 bags its not easy to bring down to the basement and restack them it will take me 2 days to unload and restack them its a very hard job and a good work out lucky for me I still work out at age 61 its a challege and got to get mentally set up to do but 1 day you can do 2 tons wait a day or 2 and then the next 2 tons and now that I have mount pellet in my basement its nice to see and that I don't have to do it till next year again
I saw a review on Spackmann's channel for a hybrid pellet-or-wood stove. I think it's made by a company called Green Stove.
That sounds like the way to go - because if you can have the option for either, then why not? Flexibility is an advantage.
Full time RV, have a mini cord wood stove, works great , for private property, pellets will be acceptable in an rv park. Thank you for your video
ended up going with a progress hybrid soapstone. Hopefully offset the cost of propane usage for the whole house in a few years. Have a great hookup for cheap dry hardwood (amish wood working supplier) the wood is cut into small logs and moveable sizes. Super excited for it to be done!
looked at pellet stoves, but the thought of lifting pellets upstairs to heat the room (bi level home) didnt seem to fun. The wood stove will be in the basement next to a intake register for the furnae to help move heat. Great video and points to consider!
Bought and installed the Englander from Home Depot 4 years ago. It's never given off a lot of heat. I've checked everything, and can't figure out if it's not running right, or maybe it's just a POS.
I've gone into other houses with different brand stoves, and the heat output is amazing. At this point, I just use it once in a while, and mostly just use my gas boiler
Look into a Pyro Classic from New Zealand. They're very efficient and can heat your house for 12 hours at a time.
Advantage of a woodstove: you can shove into it "whatever you want". Leftover pallets... wooden beams from a roof... planks... wood from someone's tree... briquets... you can even burn pellets. So, there's also the possibility to get some free wood every year.
With a pellet stove: you can only burn pellets and you have to pay the marketprice.
Advantage of a pelletstove: I believe you can program when it starts to burn, so it can be nice and warm when you get out of bed.
With a woodstove: you have to get up in the cold and wait for the stove to heat up.
Nice video, as few viewers mentions wood stove depending of type and accessories have some other benefits too: cook, bake, hot water, power (pelet may have that but usualy do not). Plus for pelet stove are: more even heat output and more control over it.
I've literally cooked steak dinners on my wood stove when we were snowed in and the power was out in a bad blizzard.
My thing with the wood stove and I’ve had both, but the wood stove is more rewarding to me I like to go out and cut split and haul wood it feels rewarding to me because I produced my own fuel to heat my house. I’ve been doing this for 9 years now not ever turning on my gas heat unless I’m out of state for a few days or something. My family owns wooded property and we cut split and haul it together to heat two homes. It’s like a few hours a month to clear my mind. I just smack a log with an axe watch it break into free heat and it’s my outlet for letting out the struggle of working in the city dealing with stupid problems of others instead I’m back to being a man I hand split everything with an axe or splitting maul but mostly an axe. I added up my heating bill several years back I included fuel oil chainsaw chains files and everything and I heated my 1500 square foot house to be never cold for a whole year for about 150 bucks now that was during the times when gasoline was 1.80 per gallon but still pretty cheap when my brother was paying 400 per month for several months in propane to heat a similar sized house in the same climate. I don’t know if it’s just independence or freedom of it being my world but I love heating with wood. It makes me feel invigorated. I mean if I spent the same time at my job I could make double pay and pay a months heating bill in a day but I would rather go out and chop wood. It truly frees my soul. It’s a hard thing to explain I guess but I love it
Professional chimney technician. I've dealt with allot of different heating systems from installing to servicing to repairs. And pellet was always the most finicky. With wood it's strictly about your draft wood quality and ability to build a good fire. With pellet you need to have electricity, you need to have good pellets, you need to regularly clean them. You're supposed to clean them every 3 weeks. There's many different sensors and electrical components that can fail. Testing and finding the problem is difficult depending on the model. And to have a technician come in and service or troubleshoot you're looking at 250+ every time.
Well done !
Personally, I prefer the exercise of using a wood stove over the pellet stove. We all need to stay active as we get older, so for me, this provides me a reason to move. Also, if you buy wood, or you buy pellets, you have to earn that money, so you lose time there, and don't necessarily get the exercise. HOWEVER, I would still buy a pellet stove for my wife's use, and for when I get very old. Both are great.
One additional plus for wood stoves is the ability to burn up certain things that would be thrown out. I have a carpentry shop and produce a lot of wood scrap. I suppose you could also think about Dexter Morgan.....Titanium does not burn.
It’s definitely a plus. I have one in my shop and it’s convenient.
I was a big Dexter Morgan fan,was so depressed when it ended.😢
Does it have a battery back up?
Not internal but I wonder if a big computer backup battery would do it. I should test it. Thanks
By Pellet smoker has pretty low pull and I've used my Solar generator with it. @NickMango
Gravity fed works without electricity.
Why do they make the pellet stove look like a square steel box? Why is the fire view, most times, a small window? I would like one with more fire view!
beccause a pellet stove once going at an efficient burm, does not make a huge visible fire. If you want to make a huge fire you can turn the feed rates up on the auger which will make a big yellow fire but when burning for efficiencyy your not gonna get a huge fire.
what is your cost per day in pellets
Tough to say. Depends how cold it is. Maybe $4.
Wood stove costs are lower, pellet stoves cost more. Wood stoves must vent vertically through the roof, while pellet stoves can terminate horizontally and out if an exterior side wall is an option (less components). Good point. Costs can go either way, depending..
Waking up a 2 a.m to refill woodstove gets old quick, pellet stove self feeds.
All the people who have pellet stoves in North Carolina and Tennessee wish they had a wood stove. It's not fun when you lose power. A good soapstone will last the whole night
At my age, I get up once per night to take a whiz so I put some wood in the stove (it still has orange coals to quickly light the fresh wood). When I get up in the morning, still has hot coals. It works out pretty well for me.
My Pacific Energy goes 8 hrs easy on Fir, longer if I can get Elm or Oak.
@@miller566 when i lose power, i run an extension cord in the window sill, pack a towell around to seal it off, and power my harman p43 that way. any small generator can handle it.
@FamilyHomeComputer Hopefully, you have plenty of fuel. A bunch of people i know in Tennessee and North Carolina in the boonies couldn't get out over a week. After they got out, they had to travel many miles to a working gas station for fuel. There is nothing like a good old-fashioned wood stove that you can even cook on or make a stew.
Only reason you have chimney fires with woodstove is operator error. If you burn wet or green wood it makes creosote as long as you burn dry wood and annual chimney cleaning.
As far as temperature control the new air tight units are very easy to control burn rate and heat output. The older units not so much.
We experience another supply chain issue you could have a problem getting pellets. That's not the case with woodstove.
Pellet availability/shortages and thus price gouging is why I went back to wood.
I use a stove as a back up source of heat and the pellet stove is just a vulnerable to the infrastructure and corporate greed as my main source of heat (natural gas). In a “worst case scenario” where I live I can drive around for 15 minutes and find someone selling wood on the side of the road.
I only use the stove in emergencies (no power from a winter storm) or when I just get the itch to have a fire though.
As long as we have a supply chain and things are good, pellet is nice. I prefer to be able to cut my own wood. Clean mine once a year with a rod system that used 4 foot sections and a ball at the end you put weed wipe line in, connects to a drill.
We had the store load the vehicle, then we used a shop vac with cyclonic filter to move the pellets out of the bags and into the house, into 55 drums in the basement. Could do that same to bring it up, but we use a bucket. Now wood, thats just A LOT of work and danger... but cheap.
Hey I’m looking at getting a pellet stove
How’s your Ram 2500
Nice tutorial
Both great
Pellet is nice, I own a tree service and have more wood than I know what to do with, so I burn wood.
Did you direct the godfather?😃. Great comparison. Thank you for a very thorough video
I see you have a castle serenity pellet there... how do you find it? What problems do you have with it? How do you tune it? Does it start properly? Do you pull combustion air from outside the building? What is the flue like?
We got one in 2018 & I have fought with the thing constantly since... I deeply regret the purchase. Castle are unhelpful & nobody seems to know anything about them...
Been great for me. I have 2 for a combined 11 years of use. Only had one problem the blower went. Replaced it for $80. Would buy another one in a second. I use the best pellets available and always keep it clean. Use it consistently too which helps.
My Harmon needs to be cleaned every few weeks. It gets inefficient because the heat exchanger gets covered with ash/soot. I’ve been using pellets for over 20 years as my primary heat. Also my Harmon weighs a lot between 300 and 350 lbs. A pellet stove heats more like a gas heater than a wood stove. Wood stoves require tons of work too. Stacking wood, cleaning up after you use your wood. Most people get green wood cut, split and delivered. You put the wood away. If you cut your own wood it’s a ton of work
Nick, I have a 800 sq ft space to heat, So you recommend this stove? Thk You Bob
Definitely. You’ll be wearing shorts. Buy a very good pellet. 100% hard, soft or mixed. No glue no cardboard. 👍
You know what would be a crazy idea? Putting a Sterling Engine on top of the pellet stove and running the fan off of that. That way you wouldn't need any electricity. Maybe a car battery to get it started and up to temperature. That way you could tough out a long power outage or have a off grid solution.
How long does a 40lb bag last , an whats the cost
Depends a lot on the quality, insulation, size of room etc.
lasts me about 8 to 12 hrs depending on temps.
So if a wood stove is like vinyl and pellet stoves are like CDs, is a gas furnace like...streaming?
Because, like, the gas streams to it from a big natural gas 'server' that's somewhere outta sight!
Any recommendations for a reliable long term daily use pellet stove under $2,500 to be used 4 months of the year? At this price point the reviews aren't great, mostly reporting electronics and fans breaking after 2 to 3 months. Some people reporting problems at one year. Any recommendations are appreciated
Watch my review of the castle serenity. I personally used it for 8 years. 150 bags a year. Before I had to fix it. They go for 1200 or so plus exhaust. Keep it clean and using really good pellets is important. Consistently using it too.
I watched it previously. I need something for a minimum of 2000 sqft@@NickMango
I'm running the pelpro 130 hold 3 bags of pellets ,heats 2500 square feet, and it is was 900 bucks 5 years of use no issues as of yet.
heat reclaimer needed for pellet stove?
Nope you just buy the unit and go.
My biggest thing is power outages...I'd rather have a coal fired stove. 1; 25 lbs bag of coal will last 12 hours
I have a Whitfield that has served me for 21 years an the parts are still available on the Internet keep the stove an chimney clean an you are fine my stove runs as my main heat no insects from the wood are bark an dirt
I live in the mountains and I am strongly pro wood stove over pellet, for many reasons.
Pellet stoves require electricity. If your electricity goes out you are now relying on an auxiliary power source to use them, defeats the whole purpose and benefit of a woodstove in the first place.
With regular wood stoves which I've used from being snowed in, in the mountains with no electricity, I can cook on them, supply fuel that is all around me in the forest and readily available everywhere that is compatible to burn, whereas pellets have to be sourced and are purpose made, that have to be used in a stove with an electric source, which completely defeats all of the pros that come along with the self sufficiency of a regular wood stove.
Even if you use a gravity fed pellet stove, the fact you have to use pellets is a major bottleneck and logistical nightmare if you are in need during a crisis and can't source pellets.
I've been in blizzards, where there were states of emergency declared in the mountains in secluded areas and the last thing you would want in these scenarios is to have to rely on pellets, when you can source all kinds of fuel to use in a regular stove in these situations.
If you are wanting to be self sufficient and self reliant, then there is no replacement for a good wood burning stove.
Just got a pellet stove for this winter and I'm planning install. So you mentioned it, " clean the pot and start it" - do you have to clean the pot everyday? Like you need an ash vac next to the stove for every morning to make it run better? What did you mean? I want to make sure I'm doing things right ;) update: but you mention cleaning monthly and dump the pot if needed later in the vid. Thanks bud
Ok so the pot isn’t the place the ash builds up. The pot is the spot the pellets drop into. It’s a small little metal dish with holes in it. What happens is a little ash builds up at the bottom of the pot, restricts air flow to the pellets and they won’t catch on fire. Basically you just pop the little dish out and bang it in the garbage a bit. The better quality pellets you buy, the less issues you’ll have in the pot. Hope that explains it.
Yes the fire hazard is absolutely the reason to pick a pellet stove over a wood stove - and I've had both !
Try burning dry wood, 16-18% moisture content, not more. Wet wood makes a dirty flue and residue build-up which is a fire risk if not regularly swept clean.
There's no fire risk if you maintain it properly and don't do stupid things like burn wet green wood and dont sweep your chimney once a year.
I’ve had both. I have pellets now because of a disability. Personally I like wood better.
I have lots of crappy pellets , too wet or too long and bridge in the hopper and 3 burnt out controll modules at 300 a pop
Yeah you need to use really good pellets. If not they don’t burn clean and causes problems.
you must have a stove and pellets from TRactor Supply lmao
i had a wood stove installed 3 years ogo, i seriously looked at the pellet option before hand but decided on logs. pellets offer convenience but in a grid down scenario you cant go outside with a saw and gather pellets ! and most also need electricity to operate ! pellets also cost money on a continual basis, im in my third winter here in Scotland using a wood stove and logs and the costs are minimal as i get the wood for free or next to free with downed storm damage trees, yes i bought chainsaws, equipment , a new trailer but the amount of downed trees i have available on farms it has already paid for the equipment and is now paying off the costs of my pick up in wood costs that i no longer have (havnt bought wood since the first year) i use about 5 actual cube of logs which should cost around £800 locally and i also save around £1000 on mains gas each year now as i seldom use it.......whats not to like :)
#1 wood stove if you work at a mill and get firewood for free
Re: Each bag of pellets weighs 40 pounds.
Exactly. Another great example is the weight of a bag of cement. Who do they think is lifting these things? And I don't care how big you are, you can still have a bad back. Or at least care about pulling your back.
They should provide the option of a 25 pound bag.
a big wood stove can put out 100,000 btus, if it gets down to -30 that is your heat baby.
Distracted by the baseboards. 😅
Edit.
Theres a hydrant 3 ft off my property line and my house burned almost to the ground March 5th 2024.
In town and the cops were there within a minute of me finding the fire, but the firemen were maybe 5/10 minutes later. We'll, it went like a Roman candle in thay brief time taking everything that matters shirt of my life and my cat's life. It's something that time will never heal.
Aside from the constant hum of the pellet stove motor,
a pellet stove flame and heat is not the same as a wood stove flame and heat.
Most Pellet stoves require electricity, big issue when power is out for a week or more
I’ve had my power out for a week in the winter. Generator runs it fine. If you don’t have a generator and your power is out for a week, you’ve got bigger problems.
I have a pellet & wood stove so we won't freeze if power goes out
I've got an England pvd 25 for sale with 15 bags of pellets and 200 dollars worth of new parts only reason for sale I'm too old to maintain it
Smoke? First toss the window coverings then paint top to bottom, most of what you're smelling will be gone. Second wash the, windows, cabinets and woodwork its a GOOD idea even without smoke damage and it helps. Then clean or replace the flooring. Oils cut oils, pine oil cleaners on wood but don't use them on carpet nor fabric where pine oil will later collect dirt.
These are things you should do anyway less maybe painting ceilings. The smoke smell should be gone or 99% gone. For anyone who burns anything in the house this will be better than good enough.
Really sensitive??? If there's an area you can't get to easy like air ducts, attics,,, you can use an ozone generator, it will travel as a gas and get to everywhere the smoke went destroy it and any mold in its path. DO not breath air out of professional ozone generators. Its not good to leave small ones on in the house while occupied either.
Smoke shouldn't have been an issue unless you want to move in ready house but you might find a better deal on a smoky fixer upper.
I relied on a pellet stove for my shop and then I couldn’t get pellets. I went back to a woodstove. That’s just me.
Warning : Never EVER put WOOD next to a Wood Burning Stove. EVER It only takes one time and one ember to burn your house, building down.
pellet stove until you have a power outage, then you have nothing, no auger, no fan, no workee
Generator 👍
Yeah my Generac takes care of that 🤣
Well I am honest I dont like pellet stoves as you need electricity My wood stove dosent plus you have to pay for pellets I dont have to pay for wood.
Nick this is all B.S. For those of us really using wood stoves for 100% heat, there is NO, repeat NO, smell of smoke. NONE. The flue, the way the stove is burnt, seasoned firewood, and...experience.
That tiny pellet stove you have couldn't heat a mouse. Pellets: noise, power , break downs, little real heat, cost, availability, 40 lb bags to lift, etc....Yes, I am opinionated. Forgot, getting firewood keeps you in shape.
I heat all winter in Northern half of Pennsylvania in the mountains, with a pellet stove. 1000 sqft.
Burn 3 tons of pellets a season
you'll spend more money on 2 stroke gas, premix, chains, files, air filters and upkeep on your chainsaws that burning wood quickly becomes wayyyyy more expensive. Not to mention you have to eat wayyyy more to replace all the calories your burning dealing with wood. I've burnt, coal, wood, and pellets. Coal was the easiest. Wood was the worst. Pellets are the most white collar friendly.
Pellet stove is way more convenient but they don’t heat close to a wood burner.
wood stove one peice of wood a time you open the door each time equals more smoke in house
Pellet stove uses electricity ,has a computer mother board has many parts that fail Very lame ,if goin pellet go non electric.
Pellets can be delivered, even to the boonies. If you shop right, the deliveries are free and the cost is the same as driving in to grab my own. Delivery driver drops the 40lb bag on the front porch, readily accessible for anyone with a disability. Kind of sinks the whole wood being easier argument which honestly? Was weird because you don't stoke a fire with a single piece of wood. Going back and forth multiple times for a person with a disability is not an easy thing either. Whereas a couple scoops of pellets can keep the fire going for a decent amount of time or even better? Fill a pail with some wheels on it from that front porch where the bag was delivered to in my example vs. having to go out to the woodpile and haul lumber in piece by piece. See where it falls apart?
Wood can be delivered and stacked on your porch too. So I personally don’t think pellets are easier. But to some it could be. I wouldn’t leave an open bag outside though.
@@NickMango Where did I say regular wood can't be delivered? Of course it can, most people don't cut their own wood. Most buy it by the cord and have it delivered. Some even have it stacked and cut for them. That's another charge for seniors or disabled people unless you are fortunate enough to have friends or family to do it. In some cases, like my neighbor, the supplier delivers it pre-cut.
I made the statement because you ignored the fact that pellets can be delivered completely. Perhaps you were unaware, if that's the case, I informed you.
As an aging person with a disability myself, the conversion to pellets is the only reason I can continue to heat with wood. Without that conversion I would have to switch/rely completely on my gas furnace or the kindness of others. I rather like my independence and besides, that switch would take a lot of "warmth" from my home, the kind that furnace heat cannot provide.
My storage area for wood is not located near my front porch and a sufficient supply was much harder for me to carry/stock which is why I made the switch. I think you see where I'm going with this. Essentially a lot of things have to fall into place for regular wood to be easier for seniors or people with disabilities to be as easy as pellets. I'm not trying to be difficult or argumentative, I simply disagree with you and now you know why.
I will agree on one thing...this fire is less "warm" than the well maintained/restored 100 year old ornate soapstone wood stove that came with the house. I miss it very much.
Thank you for replying to me.
Pellet stoves has to have electricity to run .
And you have to have pellets .
I'll stay with my wood stove .
I can burn twigs , wood chunks , split wood .
The kiss principle keep it simple wood stove would is available ,you dont have to buy it pellet stoves,mechanical and electric power goes out buy the fuel i live rural canada pellet stoves are for city folks
Noize
In a perfect world a wood stove with my own source of firewood say 50 acres up in the hills the reality 4.5 acres and I can't cut down most of my trees due to them being protected so pellet stove it is.
Wood is KING !
dudes....have pell stove chimney heat up a lill green house which also has a heat pump air to air in it...mmmmmm
I looked at pellet stoves, did my research and decided against a pellet stove and I go with wood. Wood stoves are more work from install to gathering and processing the wood itself. Cost of pellets is more expensive than wood. Here is the PNW I would run a stove 8 to 12 hours a day and 24 hours/day during very cold spells so I would average 1 40 lb. bag a day so for me I would need about 275 bags of pellets/yr. If I could get my pellets a $7/bag that would be about $2000/yr for a year's supply and I get my wood at $1100/yr so pellet stove is more expensive. wood Stove maintenance is more work and sweeping the Chimney once a year is a hassle for sure. The main reason I settled on a wood stove for me was cost and ambience beauty of the fire and no need for electricity and I have trees I can cut down if I need wood but at my age, I just buy most but not all the wood i need. If I was a city dweller I would go with the pellet stove.
Appreciate the analysis. Trade money for work. Completely understandable 👍.
Picked up a wood stove and lost 60 pounds 😅
bugs from the wood.
Pity the man who has to wear a hat indoors, insulation might be a better consideration. If moving a bag of pellets is already too much effort, then wood definitely ain't for you.
Anyone who's moved a wood stove before knows you remove the bricks before you move it. Gawd!
The stove suddenly becomes very movable.
Nobody ever built a cabin around a wood stove because it was too heavy. C'mon.
And cigar smoke or any other smoke is a non-issue. Ozone generators will nullify those odors in less time than it takes to order one and have it delivered.
I have 21 rental units that I have to deodorize every time I have a vacancy. A couple hours of ozone generation and the odor comes back to neutral..no smell.
The information you are giving are just opinions without much merit I'm afraid.
Huge house. Not very tite. Wood be fine. It would be far too hot here so Pellets it is
A lot of gravity feed pellet stoves that look nice. Most people buy there fire wood also. You depend on others for almost everything these days, but not for pellets, come on.
Good analysis, but lenghty.
no electricity no pellet feed no burn no heat....
Yes generator, yes pellets feed yes burn yes heat.
@@NickMango that is why I use wood....