Pellet stove or wood stove?

[Bailey Guns]

If I was at the right website, it looks like Harman only offers pellet stoves now.

Ah...I didn't know that. We bought ours years ago so very possible. Lots of other good choices out there though.

[Bailey Guns]

Another thing I just thought of. Some wood stoves have the capability of burning coal. It wouldn't be my first choice in fuel but there are some advantages. If you're going to need a fire for a long time coal is a good choice. A big chunk of coal with burn/smolder for hours. It's very dirty and messy to store but it comes in handy on occasion.

[BladesNBarrels]

Just substitute coal

[kwando]

Bumping this, I think we’ve settled on a wood stove. Less things to go wrong. No moving parts like the auger on the pellet stove.

Now who can install one? Is it fairly easy to install?

[crashdown]

Don’t see any pellet stoves here in Alaska.... just sayin.

[Irving]

One guy made a gravity fed one, but I think he got bought out by a big company and they didn't make any. I don't really know.


I'm not trying to dissuade you from conventional wisdom, just something relevant that came across my feed recently.

[HunterCO]

I run both pellet and wood. I have a quadra fire pellet stove and two wood burners. I never use the smaller wood burner upstairs as the big one down stairs will run you out of the house. Wood stoves you have to baby sit so if your not home it is useless you cant keep feeding it wood. The pellet stove you can fill with pellets and it does its thing. The other thing with pellet stoves is getting premium grade pellets shit pellets create a lot of ash and you have to clean the stove often. I pay less for premium grade pellets than what home depot ect sell the shit pellets for i buy a ton at a time.

This is how I do it I run the wood burner when I am home and let the pellet stove do its thing when im at work it works out pretty well for me. My energy bill is never more than $80 a month. I normally burn about 2 tons of pellets a winter in Montana and about 2 cords of wood. Total cost is about $800 per winter it can very of course depending on how cold it gets. I guess it also depends on where you live and what wood and pellets cost. I can drive up the road and cut all the wood I could ever use for a $5 permit but I don't. I have a guy that drops about 1.5 cords cut split and delivered for $200 so thats what I do.

There is no wrong or right answer it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

[TRnCO]

Now who can install one? Is it fairly easy to install?

It's not really too difficult. I don't remember where I bought my stove pipe from, BUT they had diagrams showing several options and once a guy figured out the configuration that he was going to do, it was easy to see what parts were needed.
For instance, will you go up and elbow through the wall and then elbow straight up to the vent without going through an over hang on the roof, OR will you go straight up through a ceiling, through the attic, and then through the roof.

If I remember which website I used I'll let you know. But it showed all the options and then showed what pieces were needed and there's all kinds of instructions to be found on the web of doing installs.

I also found a guy local in Elizabeth that would do installs, but when he came to look at mine he wouldn't even give me an estimate. Not sure why, other than it wasn't a straight forward deal since I did a 45 degree run of pipe to get to an angled wall that I went through, instead of going up and doing a 90 through the wall directly behind the stove. So maybe the complex angles were what kept him from wanting to tackle my job. SO I had a good friend come help me do my install.

[MED]

I use two wood burning stoves as my primary source of heat, and burn 6-8 cords of wood per year. I have a 150,000btu stove in the basement that heats my whole 2,500sq ft house when the temps are above 10 degrees; below that, I need to fire up the second stove on the main floor. For any kind of DR or SHTF backup source of heat, definitely look at wood burning because you can easily get fuel. Good example; when covid started, people couldn't get pellets up here and were running out of fuel. Ace was kind enough to put their inventory outside their gate and let people take it on the honor system; they posted what they did on Nextdoor so people wouldn't be without heat. With a wood burner, you can get fuel just about anywhere in the state for free as well as store it anywhere on your lot under a tarp, which is optional. Yes, it requires work; but it's really not that bad. Goodrich Chimney did my basement install, and they've done my maintenance for years. They are out of Golden; not sure if they go out to your area or not, but I've been happy with their work. Depending on the height and configuration of your chimney, you can clean them yourself.

[eddiememphis]

Bumping this, I think we’ve settled on a wood stove. Less things to go wrong. No moving parts like the auger on the pellet stove.

Now who can install one? Is it fairly easy to install?

Western Fireplace Supply in the Springs. Huge store with many displays and the warehouse has everything needed to install. My cousin has worked there for twenty years. They can answer all your questions.