Heat Stove.

[The Clk Man]

About 10 years ago I bought a $1500 wood stove (Brand New) at an auction for $50 it was August when I bought it . Anyways it's a pellet stove. I was at the farm supply today and saw this stuff called heating pellets. Has anyone here had any experience with these pellets? are they better than regular chopped wood? Discussion Please.

[Local2ED]

Originally Posted by The Clk Man

About 10 years ago I bought a $1500 wood stove (Brand New) at an auction for $50 it was August when I bought it . Anyways it's a pellet stove. I was at the farm supply today and saw this stuff called heating pellets. Has anyone here had any experience with these pellets? are they better than regular chopped wood? Discussion Please.

A pellet stove can not use logs and vise versa. Pellets are recycled hardwoods I believe. If its a pellet stove it should have an auger that feeds the pellets to a fire pot which burns the pellets by blowing air through the firepot. Pellets are OK but I believe corn produces more heat. I am not sure if all pellet stoves can burn corn though. I forgot to add that a pellet stove can run about 18hrs on one hopper full (depends on size of hopper) where as a wood stove needs periodic tending.

[elchivito]

I don't own one, but the people I know who do love them.

Less risk of flue fire. Virtually no smoke
No chopping wood. A ton of pellets seems to = about a good cord of hardwood
Less stove cleaning, very little ash
good heat, many have fans
no wood pile, pellets are easy to store but have to be in a garage or shed
pellet prices are more stable than wood prices. no surprises. Back east maybe wood is cheap, around here it's not. A cord of oak is 250 bucks.

I don't have fires till almost Christmas and I'm done with them by early February, so it's not an issue. My walls are 18" thick to nearly 36 inches in the oldest part of the house and it just doesn't get very cold inside. I burn about a cord and a half on average and don't have central heat. People around here are already building fires at night. Last night it was 37. Meh, I put on a sweater.
I think if I lived in a stick built house I'd look into one.

The downside: no happily crackling fire.

[elchivito]

You also don't need a chimney. You can vent right thru the wall behind the stove. EZ install.

[The Clk Man]

A friend of ours told us that our stove is a pellet stove, how do I know it's a pellet stove? the stove is odd. the place where you put the wood is only about 14 inches tall and just above that is another area with it's own doors that is only about 8 inches tall. The stove says Buffalo on the front. Any thoughts?

[elchivito]

Originally Posted by The Clk Man

A friend of ours told us that our stove is a pellet stove, how do I know it's a pellet stove? the stove is odd. the place where you put the wood is only about 14 inches tall and just above that is another area with it's own doors that is only about 8 inches tall. The stove says Buffalo on the front. Any thoughts?

Find a model number on it, then contact the makers of Buffalo Stoves.

Snyder Manufacturing, Inc
PO Box
Salamanca, NY 14779
Phone: 716-945-0354
Fax: 716-945-0114

[TwitchKitty]

People wanted to stack the pellets in the cellar like they always did with firewood. The manufacturers wanted people to buy the pellets month by month as they burned them. The supply of pellets was depleted as people filled the cellar and no pellets were available for most customers. The companies said it was the people's fault for hoarding fuel for winter, duh.

If you make a plan that in order to be successful depends on changing human nature you are setting yourself up for failure. Maybe the pellet people changed the way they do business. I would call before I go to the store looking for pellets.

[livefreeordie]

Originally Posted by Local2ED

A pellet stove can not use logs and vise versa. Pellets are recycled hardwoods I believe. If its a pellet stove it should have an auger that feeds the pellets to a fire pot which burns the pellets by blowing air through the firepot. Pellets are OK but I believe corn produces more heat. I am not sure if all pellet stoves can burn corn though. I forgot to add that a pellet stove can run about 18hrs on one hopper full (depends on size of hopper) where as a wood stove needs periodic tending.

Your close, it does blow air to ignite the pellets but it also has an igniter as well. There are some multi fuel stoves that will burn just about anything you throw in it. There are three blends of fuel, hardwood,hard/soft wood and soft wood. Hard wood will give you the most heat. We installed one last year and love it. Our stove puts out 50,000 Btu and heats the whole house; our furnace has been used twice in the past year and a half. The only down side to a pellet stove is if you have a power outage and you don't have a generator your screwed.

[The Clk Man]

My stove has no electrical parts, it might not be a pellet stove then.

[livefreeordie]

Post a picture

[livefreeordie]

If there are no electrical parts then its a wood stove.

[Daman858]

I had a very nice pellet stove for several years and used it regularly.

You do need electricity to use it which makes it unusable when you lose power in a storm which happened to me twice in 20 years.

It had two electric motors, one to feed the pellets and one for the air blower.
It had electronic controls to regulate the rate of feed and the blower speed.

I used about a ton and a half of pellets per year. At the time they were about $160 a ton when you bought them by the ton. A 40 lb bag would last about a day and a half at medium feed. Pellets were in short supply a few years ago but I see them everywhere now.

I could also burn corn in mine but never tried that.

You could not burn anything but corn or pellets, no wood or artificial logs.

[barry123400]

If a ton of pellets are about equal to a cord of decent wood they are now cost effective for a wood type burning appliance. Ideal perhaps for flues that would be marginal or dangerous with wood.

We always thought a cord of good wood burnt in a reasonably efficient wood appliance was equal to approx 100 gallons of oil. May be a little less oil today as the efficiency of oil furnaces has increased over the years.

Having watched pellet stoves burn the pellets seem to be glued together and I suspect the glue adds to the clean burn.

[The Clk Man]

Originally Posted by barry123400

If a ton of pellets are about equal to a cord of decent wood they are now cost effective for a wood type burning appliance. Ideal perhaps for flues that would be marginal or dangerous with wood.

We always thought a cord of good wood burnt in a reasonably efficient wood appliance was equal to approx 100 gallons of oil. May be a little less oil today as the efficiency of oil furnaces has increased over the years.

Having watched pellet stoves burn the pellets seem to be glued together and I suspect the glue adds to the clean burn.

Can you use pellets in a wood burning stove?

[elchivito]

No way to light them and keep them burning. A pellet stove has an auger that slowly feeds fresh pellets into the fire at a prescribed rate.

At best you'd have to stand by your stove pretty much all the time sprinkling pellets into the fire.