Pellet stoves

[Kubota Newbie]

Ha! Just noticed RCW's post and the pic of the dog. That's the only problem with our stove... everybody has to fight with the dog for the best spot in front of the corn stove on cold evenings! She'll (yellow lab) usually find a way to worm in between you and the stove.

 

[RCW]

Ha! We have many pictures of 2 different boxers......being boxers, there is often snoring and farting involved!


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[RCW]

Newbie- been a while, but I think I need fuel oil at ~$2 and pellets ~$200 to make a “push” for differential between the 2 sources.
Was close couple years ago, but otherwise pellets have been the more economical way.
I buy from a guy specializing in coal and pellets, and haul myself in my truck a ton at a time 12 miles.



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[Tooljunkie]

The harman is a nice setup, i have an older one with a damaged board. The auger incorporates a shutter that opens and closes. Adjusting the travel of the shutter controls the feed rate.

 

[Kubota Newbie]

RCW, yeah right now probably close on wood pellets but no contest with corn.
Price per 1,000,000 BTU
Corn @ 3.50 bu - $7.81
Pellets at 4.89/bag - $15.28 @ $180/ton - 11.25
LP @ $1.40 - $15.40 (could do better if you pre-buy, maybe 1.25/gal so $13.75 MBTU)
Oil (#2) @ $2.39/gal (Ohio Price) $16.96
#1 oil is $3 +/-
Pellets always price themselves into the relative heating fuel market, just the way it works anymore unless you buy off season. That's why corn has a pricing advantage/BTU it usually comes down in price around now.

 

[niteshiftfromkc]

We ended up going with the Comfortbilt HP50. Just got it delivered today and did the install. Luckily I already had my liner installed last year for the pellet stove, so I just had to put in the 3' of pipe and fittings to attach to the liner. We just fired it up for about 30 minutes just to test it out. The outside temperature here hasn't gotten to the freezing mark yet, so no need to have it running too much. I'm going to have to get it going again and open up the house to get the new paint smell burned off of it when everyone is gone. I bought a ton of pellets and had a hard time trying to find a place to put that many bags inside. Guess it was time to clean out the garage anyway.

I just hope this isn't like my snowblower purchase. The first year I got the snowblower I didn't even need to fire it up.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Having a little trouble dialing in my stove. Air for low burn isnt enough for medium burn when it calls for heat. So either it burns out or loads up.
Not a bag a day yet, i let it go out when im not in the house.

 

[Stmar]

I have my Whitfield set on high fan and pellet feed at med, it has high med and low settings.
I store my pallets of pellets in the barn but keep 20 or so bags in the garage, that usually lasts at least a month and I replenish as weather permits. I keep them in the middle between the two vehicles and I use a log/wood rack. Put a piece of plywood on the bottom and 3 bags fit across per layer.

 

[Tooljunkie]

14 bags left, then one ton totes from the local hutterite colony. Less than half price.

 

[RCW]

Frank - can’t get over the price....fantastic. You said you had a Harman with a bad board. Got one for mine for maybe $250 US?
I just did a clean on mine after about half-ton.
Don’t want to jinx myself, but it’s burning like a new one.
Has had ~90 ton through it.

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[Tooljunkie]

Rcw, that is a nice stove. The new kozi i got started to make some noise,a buzz from the fan at low speed. They sent a new fan, said chuck the old one. Vibrating was a piece of loose tin. Replacement had it too. A little strip of foil tape and its quiet. Plus i now have an extra fan.

 

[Ortimber]

We installed a Harmon last year and can't say enough good things about it.
Load pellets about once every 24hrs and forget it. Probably the only downside is the cleaning, but really it's not too bad, just a little messy.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Ash vacuum. Makes cleanup easy. Shop vac with a bag on a stone cold stove works too. I try to keep the burn pot cleaned out. I let stove go out quite often,so cleaning it is just a regular routine.

 

[Tooljunkie]

My old harman has 2 boards, i have yet to pull them and look for visible damage. Maybe i will fix it. That p61 is so quiet i miss it.
New fan in the kozi and its quiet.
Ran all night no issues.

 

[RCW]

My old harman has 2 boards, i have yet to pull them and look for visible damage. Maybe i will fix it. That p61 is so quiet i miss it.
New fan in the kozi and its quiet.
Ran all night no issues.

P61 is a great stove - seems similar mechanicals to the XXV, and 61k BTU is much higher than my 50k.

It has 2 boards? I think mine only has the one in the control box....I think...

I thought about repairing my old one, and kept it. Rheostat pots (right term?) were bad and control got funky. Blew them out with air - no go.

IIRC, might have been $10 in parts..but since it's our main heat, figured it was money well-spent if the repair didn't work.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Lightning took out pellet stoves. Two blown boards. Left them plugged in for the summer. Never again. One in garage one in basement. Could have been worse, neighbour lost his garage and vehicles that night. It was devastating.

 

[niteshiftfromkc]

I got the new smell burnt off of this Comfortbilt. I had an issue at first with the stove pipe allowing smoke to come out of it. I talked to the Duravent rep and he told me that he thought that there was a draft issue with the pipe. It only would smoke right at the first light up, and then once the flue pipe got hot it would stop smoking. I took it all apart and resealed everything, but it still smoked. I really wonder if they have their piping flow labeled correctly. It would seem to me that the pipe should be installed like bell and spigot for water where the flow goes from the female end to the male end. They have it going the other way which seems that the smoke could leak out of the exterior piping joints.

After talking to the folks at Comfortbilt, I was told that the igniter probably got moved around in shipment. I moved that out toward the burn pot and also increased the voltage on my exhaust fan due to the height of my flue pipe and there is a lot less smoke now.

I have to say that the people at Comfortbilt were real helpful. Hopefully I don't have anymore major problems with this unit. We aren't using the stove like some of you on here for our primary heat, it is just to take the chill out of the finished basement area.

 

[RCW]

Just an update on my Harman XXV:

Saturday morning of New Year's weekend, Distribution Blower shit the bed.

Was heading to Binghamton, NY anyway and Kitchen Hearth & Home, on Front Street was on route. Didn't buy my stove there, but they've always had the parts I needed. Will buy my next stove there if I need one. Great folks.

Got my other stuff done, and pulled in just as they opened at 9AM. Pulled out with new Distribution blower, and also grabbed a Combustion Blower while there as a spare.

The Distribution blower was $274, and Combustion blower was ~$140 with impellor/fan.

My stove has had ~80 tons of pellets through it - 2nd time I've replaced Combustion Blower. I think I'm on 3rd Combustion Blower, but one replacement was a PM item.

I did have a circuit board go ($200), replaced a vacuum switch and auger motor as a PM couple years ago. Auger itself is original.

I think all-in, I'm ~$100/year in parts, but the stove is 14 years old and running great. Obviously, I do all my own service work/maintenance, etc., so I don't pay someone to clean my stove/vent each year (~$100), so I'm okay with this.

The stove paid for itself in the first 2 years, and is our primary heat source now, over fuel oil.

 

[Kubota Newbie]

I have pretty good luck crossing part numbers for our Traeger/Earth Stove and getting blowers and motors from Grainger or other similar on-line suppliers. Usually at a considerable savings. Just replaced the auger gear motor (21 years, although I've done some work to nurse it along over the years, new bearings and etc.). I think I found one for $80, way less than the factory replacement. We'll be near the 4,000 bushel mark as far as amount burnt through it over the years by spring. I think that's around 111 tons of corn.
The room/convection air blower is the most common issue over the years. I pretty much quit having forced air draft fan issues when I finally found one with sealed ball bearings instead of bushings.

 

[sdk1968]

hey could some of you guys give us some links to a couple of good/proven stoves?

like that harmon or kozi whats ever?

when i just google fu search those dont show up in my area.

is it an area thing?

thanks

sk


EDIT NOTE: looks like a Harmon 300i is the version for us wood burning guys.. whooo eeee! that baby is pricey!