Excellent review. Not many people have both stoves at the same time to compare. Looks like the pellet was about double the consumption cost. Does it put out more btu’s than the wood stove?
Thanks, Harold. Excellent question about the BTUs. I should have included that info in the video. The consumption cost for the pellet stove for us is more than double the cost - since typically our firewood is "free" (time, labor, chainsaw, splitter, gas, oil, etc.) Harman P68 specs: Efficiency= 78.5% Emissions= 1.3g/hr Feed Rate= 1.7-7.8lb/hr Venting Size= 3" BTU/Hour: 15800 - 71200 Heating Capacity: 1500 - 3900 sq. ft. Hopper Capacity: 76 lbs Buck Stove Model 91 specs: 34-1/4" W x 23-3/16" H x 28-7/8"D Weight: 620 Lbs Firebox volume: 4.4 cu.ft. Firewood length maximum: :22" (front to back) 23"(side to side) Flue diameter: 8" Efficiency: 80.4% Heat capacity: 1,800 - 3,200 Sq. Feet EPA Tested Output BTU/H: 10,400-62,745 Emissions G/H: 1.9
@@PurpleCollarLife Did you look at just replacing the stove, the one i was just looking at was Efficiency 95%, Im sure most must be near that now, And the same with the wood stove, with new EPA laws the new version must be a lot more Efficient ?
A pellet stove is never going to throw more heat than a conventional wood stove. They are two totally different animals. Also the wood on your own property is not free. You need a chainsaw, axes and or wood splitter to process the wood and you need to be thinking years in advance because the wood you cut and split today is for use one to two years in the future. Also my time is worth something so all the time you spend cutting, splitting and stacking should be taken into account. Not to mention any doctors visits for the poison ivy you are going to encounter sooner or later. Heating with wood can save you money over time, lots of money but it isn't one of the easier things you will do in life.
That is the input Btu’s for the Harman, to get output you need to calculate loses for efficiency. A p68 maxes out around 56000 btu of output if running at peak efficiency.
Keep in mind that I've only used it for a couple weeks, that being said, so far so good ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM . Using it at 8 ft. by 8ft. deer blind that is insulated. I have to keep the door cracked for it to get enough air to burn, but that is very likely the wood I've used. Much better quality than I expected for the price. Now if I can just take it easy in the beginning it won't be 90 degrees in my blind. All in all it seems like a keeper.
I "upgraded" once from a woodstove to a pellet stove. The pellets were costlier and took up more storage space, the dust inside was unbearable, the pellet stove required electricity to function, and the auger frequently jammed in the middle of the night, leaving us to wake up to a freezing house. One winter of this thing and we put the woodstove back into the house, and moved the pellet stove into the shop.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I have heard that same story several other times - people give a pellet stove a try and after a year or two, replace it with a wood stove. But I've also heard of people who switch a wood stove out for a pellet stove for the convenience.
A wood stove that needs electricity omg when the power goes out and it will next month I'm trying to find a wood stove good too know one needs electric lol smh
Good thorough review. My house here in NE US came with a pellet stove. I swapped it for an American Eagle wood stove. I’m glad I did. A couple times the power was out five days . My home was toasty.
Definitely in a power outage - I’ll take my wood stove over our pellet stove any day. In fact, just the other day our power went out in an ice storm. I knew it would be out a couple hours, but not long enough to be worthwhile/necessary to start up the generator and switch the power over. Of course, the pellet stove went right out - but the wood stove kept on burning and easily kept the basement and 1st floor warm.
My parents had both pellet and wwod....when both needed updated....they abandoned both. My parents retired and went propane...huge $. But its instant heat. I really miss the wood stove. It was amazing for basement cleanup.....and wood stove heat was FANTASTIC.
Glad it was helpful! It is always our intention to provide valuable information. Thank you for leaving the comment and letting us know you enjoyed the video.
This is an awesome video, but I think the saddest part is hearing the price difference from you just two years ago.Today here in NH land of wood and even a pellet factory. I pay around $375/cord for seasoned good firewood. Pellets are $349/cord delivered. Insane how prices have gone up so much, I don't believe the reasoning is necessarily real and sadly this is pushing folks away from both and going back to oil/propane/heat pumps which isn't terrible but the suppliers are khurting their own markets. But again awesome info and such a well done video!
When I was a younger man, I chose a wood stove and loved it and would do it again. It took a lot of physical work to maintain the wood supply. Now in my 8th decade on this planet, I see my limitations. I will be getting a pellet stove when my addition is completed. I know a bit about solar and have the things needed to power the fan and auger when the inevitable power outages come.
BTW and FYI, I installed a propane wall heater this year for the first time, and so far, I'm loving it. Easy, convenient, not dependent on electricity, warms the room very quickly, just turn a knob and it's doing its job. I also put in a PROPANE LEAK DETECTOR, which is a MUST!
I have both a pellet stove and a wood/coal combination stove. Make no mistake, a pellet stove is a lot of work and can be temperamental. My Enviro has a lot of electronics and parts are expensive. Handling 40 lbs bags of pellets is not easy nor inexpensive. I cannot imagine my wife taking the pellet stove apart to do weekly and monthly cleanings. She could not handle acquiring the 40 lbs bags of pellets nor harvesting wood. Split wood could be delivered and she could deal with bringing a log or two in by herself if needed. I was really excited to get a pellet stove but I would no longer recommend a pellet stove.
I very much appreciate your comments and experience and recommendation. Since my original post a year ago, a propane stove was recommended, and I installed it. It requires no electricity, and after one full year, I am happy with it. With all our power outages here in central Maine, it saved me last winter, one time for 44 hours of no power in zero F temps. @@mepag102
You could not have done a better review. I was afraid this was just going to be another sales pitch for one or the other. I watched the entire report. I thank you for that.
We had a pellet in the mountains of western NC. I blasted two hours in the morning and two hours at night and the house was 75-78°. We got a ton of pellets in October and had about 120#, 3bags left over after winter. I think it's the better deal.
Hello Chad, I have had 2 pellet stoves for heating our house, now we have 2 wood burning stoves, and there is two more beneficial things over looked about the wood stoves over pellets. When power is out we can cook on our wood stoves, and 1 no longer belong to the local gym. As for fire starting, I start with a top down fire build theory and use wood shavings (noodles) from wood processing during the summer. As far as the size of mu fire wood, I split, I keep it mixed, small kindling, up to 4- 5 inch splits, and a few solid 6 inch pieces ( over nighters) never an issue with burning a wood stove! The pellet stoves had their place, but maintenance and supply of pellets and parts became an issue here a few years ago and we needed to burn more then our standard 6 ton, and were having to buy “bedding material pellets” (soft wood)! So if you own one of these pellet stoves, have an extra ton or two in storage if possible, and a generator with fuel and a camp stove for cooking ! If the power goes out, or even if in the worse time repair is needed, pellet stoves can become a larger hassle then the wood burning stoves, i have never had to replace any parts of my wood burners, but with pellet stoves, augers, sensors, and blowers have all let me down at the worst time!
Hi Pat - I love the idea of the top down fire build. I just can't get it to work. Maybe we don't have enough draft up our chimney? Using the noodles as kindling is a great idea!
@@PurpleCollarLife the way I do it is largest logs on bottom, and a layer of noodles, medium logs crossing in a “log cabin” style, more noodles and top with kindling, light the noodle and leave door open for a few minutes to create draft, then replenish firewood as needed!
Thanks for watching! A wood stove is certainly a nice way to heat a home. And it's nice to watch! Think about how many people watch videos on their television of fireplaces!
Hey Chad. Nice review! Could I respectfully suggest one thing? In your large addition room that contains the pellet stove, you should continuously run that big ceiling fan to distribute the ceiling heat throughout the room. Run on lowest speed pushing air up against the ceiling. The warm air will gently come down the walls to more evenly heat your actual living space. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip! I've actually tried using that large fan to push the heat down, but it makes too much draft and we actually gets chilly. I didn't think about pulling the cool air up and allowing it to move the hot air down the sides. Great idea!
@@PurpleCollarLife I also find if I run my ceiling fan pushing the heat down the draft created is a little chilly and if I reverse it the result is unnoticeable so I rarely use it. Very nice video by the way, I also have a wood stove in my basement and get free wood. I love wood heat and watching the fire, cutting ,splitting ,stacking , hauling and dealing with the mess not so much fun but the savings make it well worth the while plus the advantage of having heat during power outages.
Good analysis...we burn 3 cords of wood every winter and the satisfaction we get from good ol' fashion hard work cutting, splitting, and stacking our own peace of mind means when the power goes out our house is still warm and cozy
Thanks for a great review of stove types. We have heated with wood for 30 years but added a pellet stove about 15 years ago. The combo gives use a balanced heat, no cold mornings. Your video does well at hitting the pros and cons. I love heating with wood, domestically produced fuel and carbon neutral, it doesn’t get any better. Cheers!
This was a great review and comparison. I don't think there was a thing you didn't cover. I have two wood stoves, a Jotul and a Summit. I'm in southern Maryland and seldom need to use the Summit unless it gets really cold like it did last week. i have a heat pump and oil furnace. i filled up two months ago at $6.00 a gallon. i have enough property here to get my wood and now that i'm retired, i work it when i can. Thanks again for a great video.
Thank you for letting us know you enjoyed the video. I've often considered building a small off-grid cabin back deeper in our woods. Sounds like a great project!
Thanks, Jake. No doubt about that - if we’d insulate those basement walls, the basement and whole house would heat faster and stay warmer. Thankfully the basement is almost entirely underground (which helps keep those walls at least 55 degrees). The only thing I worry about if we insulate the basement, is moisture/mold building up under the insulation. Thanks for watching!
@@PurpleCollarLife You still have a huge heat loss with no insulation in the basement walls. If it is insulated/ vapor barrier properly you will not get mold from insulating.
Thanks for watching rom France!! I never would have imagined that we would be creating videos that people all over the world would enjoy. Thank you so much!
Great video and very helpful. I am familiar with wood stoves, but the pellet stove is what I'm considering in my shop. It will be very well insulated, and I seen one at Rural King - Cleveland Ironworks, which perked my interest. Thanks for making this video, it was very helpful!
Just say $300 extra dollars a month plus regular light electric bill, that would be costly to me. Think I would stick with regular wood stove at my location. Very explained video appreciate you taking time to go over all this.
I use just a couple of peace's of apple wood on 10 below 0. Apple wood is a hotter btu.; burning wood. Charry wood is also a hotter burning wood for btu's only just a couple peace,s. Though
Probably the best video that I have ever viewed for comparison between a pellet stove and wood stove. No fluff just the facts. Great job. Helped me to make my decision.
Great video, Chad. A few points.... Would a ceiling fan above the pellet stove help to move all the heat from up at the cathedral ceiling back down to the floor space?? And, I like to see that you are still using the "traditional" method of newspaper and kindling to get a wood fire going. All my favorite channels are going ROGUE. Mike Morgan uses that "fire-starter mix"... Northern Seclusion uses about a half-bottle of lighter fluid.... and Simple Alaska Living uses a small propane torch to blast the wood!!!! HAHA!.... Us newspaper/kindling friends must stick together and never give in to the new fangled fads!!! I can't believe there is so much maintenance and cleaning involved with the pellet stoves. Thanks!!
Hello! We actually do have a big 6-foot ceiling fan in the great room. The idea when we put it there was to blow the heat down out of that high ceiling. But we found it creates a chilly draft. BUT then - someone left a comment and suggested I run it in reverse, puling the cooler air up and pushing the warmer air down the slopes of the ceiling and against the walls. That method works great! Yes - we're still traditional paper and kindling people here. I watch a couple of those other channels too. It's certainly interesting to see everyone try different things. It looks like the stuff that Mike is selling is pretty good. But our method has worked for my entire life. I'm not ready to make a change to buying something to start fires.
Good video, we heat our house with a wood stove. We cut, split and store our fire wood and get great exercise doing that. Thanks for sharing this video.
Having both stove made for a great review. I can see how a pellet stove would be the best option for some people whereas the wood stove would be better for others. While I do have central ac/heating I never use the heating part, I have a huge wood stove in the main room and medium size wood stoves in each bedroom which are rarely needed since the main stove heats the entire house, I also have two workshops each with a medium size wood stove. Since I live on a farm with a tree farm too fuel is free. I do like the sound of that pellet stove though and would have like one in my last house.
My dad is tired with electric heaters. He used to use propane stoves but that stuff is expensive to run. He is researching for a good quality pellet stove. I still think wood would be better option.
There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to each pellet stoves and wood stoves. But overall - I prefer the heat from either of these sources better than electric, propane, or gas heat. Thanks for watching!
I've ran both and I prefer a wood stove. Mine doesn't break a lot but when it does it's really inconvenient to find the bad part, pay for it, wait a week or two for it to come in, then installing the part.
Thanks, Mike. Definitely wood pellets need to be dry. If they get damp - they expand and won’t burn. They also can clog the auger and system. Moisture in firewood makes creosote in the stove and chimney, and does not burn as hot. It uses some of the BTU to get the moisture out of the wood.
i love to hear the wood burning in my wood stove. friend of mine better off with pellet stove cause she get fuel instantly, she would never have wood ready that was seasoned. but yes, pellet stove very noisy.
Thanks for the review. The running cost is quite a bit more than I thought it would be. Seems like a mini-split heat pump may be another option to consider.
Very interesting, but I would like to know a comparison of cleaning the different stoves, plus installation cost comparisons, especially do you need a chimney or glue with a pellet stove?
I just have an Alcon 6 boiler,can burn wood,pellets,chipped wood, whatever u choose to throw inside it...,live offgrid,sunpanels,lifepo4,small windmill,boiler heats 2000 liter watertank,tubes/hoses in floors.
Very nice! We live in a rural area of NW PA. In fact, we didn't even have high speed internet until just before I started our UA-cam channel. But I think we all have a bit of us that wishes we were totally off-grid. Even though we live in the woods, I've actually thought about building a small cabin deeper in the woods that is off grid with a setup "for getting away". :) Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
DOnt be afraid to tear into that p68. They are not that complicated. DIY jim on utube has tons of vids to walk you through. COuld save you thousands vs calling a stove shop repairmen.
Interesting. Our wood burning furnace in Silicon Valley works well but it does take a few minutes to start up. There is a tree cutting place which leaves wood out on Arastradero road two or so miles away where I can get all the wood I need. It is free but the cost is the labor (Drive there, load the truck, drive back, unload the truck, split wood after it has sat long enough to dry). Most of the scraps are huge too big. To split wood, it needs to sit a few months to dry. When you see it cracking that's when it's splitable but still significant work which is noisy so if you hear neighbors enjoying being in their back yard you wouldn't want to split it then. Squirrel fans are noisy and that's what ours has. It's easy to have quiet fans. I'm sure Japanese engineers would take the trouble to use quiet fans. On a project which had 8 about 6" fans we replaced them with same size fans which moved the same air but were quiet so 8 of the new fans was quieter than 1 of the old fans. So noisy fans are just a sign of laziness and lack of disciple by the engineers who built the thing. Should remind salesmen to pester their suppliers to do a decent job and make it quiet. Quiet fans had more blades and were more carefully shaped for the RPM they run at.
Well a ton of pellets went up from $210 per ton from last year to $300 this year. I decided to put in my minisplit heatpump in my shop that I had from my old business. It will be 2.5 times cheaper to heat my shop with the heatpump vs pellets thanks to the cost going up. It would have been 2x cheaper if the cost was the same as last year so it would be worth it either way. There are a few nights of the year that drop. Below 5°f so I'll have to burn pellets at that point because my heatpump doesn't heat below 5f(or -5f since the user manual says either or) newer heatpumps can heat to -22°f but mine is 7 years old and I have only used it as an AC unit in the summer.
Thanks for sharing about the heat pump. I had no idea they were so much more efficient/cost effective than the pellet stove. You're right about the pellet cost. I think we just paid about $630 for two tons.
If you loose power your pellet stove fan will stop like you said, but if you extend the exhaust pipe up outside of the house it would provide the draft needed like a wood stove. You need a duct from the peak of that large room down to the floor with an internal fan to circulate that wasted hot air. Not sure if a ceiling fan would be able to reclaim that heat.
I lived in Pennsylvania and wanted a stove for auxiliary heating. One thing that impressed me about the pellet stove was that the exhaust was fairly low temperature, so you didn't need a full chimney with all the associated maintenance, but only a vent similar to what a clothes dryer requires. I eventually decided against the pellet stove, though, because of the power outage issue.
That is certainly a benefit of the pellet stove - a nice little exhaust and intake pipe right through the wall, rather than a full-scale chimney with foundation. I'm wondering if today's newer battery packs (solar generators) would be able to power the pellet stoves in a power outage situation. I may get one of the larger solar generators like the Jackery 1000 or the new Bluetti packs and see if they will power the pellet stove.
Purple Collar Life. I have to ask isn't/wasn't Pensilvania the centre of the US anthracite mining industry? Anthracite is like trying to light a brick, but the fires can be low tech, don't necessarily need fans and are also great for water heating and a wet central heating system. Are the mines all close to closing or has the price become prohibative?
@@COIcultist There were coal mines around years ago. There are still some in West Virginia. But locally - the only place to get coal around here is Agway, and the price is REALLY up this year. I know a family that heats with coal - and they’re trying to figure out different options for this winter - it would cost them over $800 per month for the coal they need to heat.
@@PurpleCollarLife Wept, that sounds expensive. I just looked up the figures, and it looks like that in 2020 NE Pennsylvania was still producing in excess of 4.5M tons of anthracite per year. In the 1980s I sold anthracite, manufactured fuels and bituminous coal to wholesalers in the UK. The technology has existed to burn bituminous coal smokelessly since the 1980s, but no one seems to want to go there. Anthracite doesn't have an attractive flame pattern, but boy does it bang out the heat.
Very nice review. Have you ever thought of putting in hot water heat in the house and using a outdoor gasification boiler? You could heat the shop and house all while keeping the mess outside. They are pricey though.
Yes I have! The problem is the up-front investment. Since our house is currently all electric baseboard, we would need to run all the piping throughout the house, and hot water baseboard heaters.
Hi Brian - I did mine a few years ago and I don't remember how I did it. It's underneath the stove, right? If I remember, I just had to unbolt it, bolt the new one in, and connect the power to it from the board/panel. It's been so long I can't exactly remember. I'll see if I can find those instructions.
I own both as well, that Harmon pellet stove and a Blaze King "King" wood stove. The PS first: I agree with much of your comparison. In essence, the PS is easier to live with and is possibly safer. The fuel is easy and clean to handle (other than the pellet dust), the PS can be hooked to a real wall mounted thermostat (which is nice!), but it is noisy, requires power, and fully cleaning it (and the ducting) once or twice a season is dirty and a PITA. Also, to get a lot of heat out it, it will go through pellet$ fairly quickly. Keep that in mind if you plan on running it at higher outputs. The other thing you did not mention is the amount of electricity it uses. While they aren't major electrical consumers, they are always pulling load as long as they are running, which is typically many months at a time. Again, this adds to the overall cost of use. The Harmon PS is possibly the best on the market. I've tried the cheaper box store brands, they run dirty and don't hold a candle to the Harmon's. thermostat
Excellent job. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved my wood stove when I lived in Ossipee New Hampshire. I’m 15 miles north of Kitty Hawk North Carolina now. Not really cold enough here for a wood stove. Also want to let you know that your videos have gotten better with each one. Keep up the good job and keep the videos coming.
Very cool! Thanks for the compliment, Richard. We do really enjoy making the videos. We took a trip up north through Vermont and New Hampshire last year with the 5th wheel camper. What a great area! I'd like to do that trip again sometime and spend more time there. North Carolina is a bit too warm for me for the summer time. I don't like to be too hot. :)
Nice video. I have the Harman xx in white. This is my 3rd season. Love it. Not sure if I missed if you mentioned the other disadvantage if a wood stove. You are constantly bringing bulky wood inside your house. Big PIA. Can make a mess. Could have ants in it. And this is compounded if you’re wood stove is in the living area
That's absolutely true. There is the added mess of any dirt (or bugs) with the wood. Thankfully our wood stove is in the basement, on concrete flooring, so it's easy to take a shopvac or broom and clean up the space. I will say though that I've made some pretty good messes during a thorough cleaning of the pellet stove. Taking all the piping apart, getting into the blower, and cleaning all the inside of the pellet stove has made a few pretty dirty days in the living room. I've had to get the carpet scrubber out a few times to clean up some ash messes that have ended up on the carpet. Thanks for watching and commenting!
The house my daughter bought 6 years ago has a pellet stove.......it’s been nothing but trouble. Sometimes it actually works but not all that often. So far it gone though 2 control boxes, 2 auger motors, 1 thermocouple and a few other things. I would NEVER recommend any pellet stove. Absolutely horrible.
They're certainly much more difficult and complicated to repair and maintain. Like I said, there are so many moving components and it has a board and sensors. Lots to figure out with a pellet stove.
Bonsoir mon ami 😉👌 You did and OUTSTANDING DETAIL review video Sir 🧐👌👍and I realy like the way you compare both of these heat source 👍👌😉 Full Watch Sir and Keep warm Cheers 🍻
Thanks! Appreciate the full watch and comment. We've got both the pellet stove and the wood burner going to keep us warm. What's the temperature there now?
@@PurpleCollarLife We have mixte precipitation ( 30f up to 35f ) it is going to be like that until early December, no real accumulation on the ground,,, Cheers
More: $180 a cord? For that amount the wood had better be cut, split, delivered, stacked...and gold plated. I pay less than half that figure...it’s just not stacked for me. Or gold plated.
Great information. In my research I found Wise Way makes a pellet stove that uses no electricity. Liberator rocket stove is non electric that can run on pellets, sticks and small split cord wood. I started to make a rocket stove that will run on wood chips Hopefully it works.
Thanks, Kevin. I had no idea there was a pellet stove that used no electricity. I’m going to look those up! That would be awesome. And it’s really cool that you are making a stove that will run on wood chips.
I own a Ashley pellet furnace and a US Stove works Hot blast wood furnace.Our house is a 100 year old victorian so insulation is a bit scant.The pellet stove is a good thing to have when its a cool day,When its cold in the house but not cold enough for a wood fire,And its good extra heat for really cold days if your wood stove isnt quite enough.But unless you have a well insulate easy to heat house your pissing into the wind with a pellet stove.As for cleaning the pellet stove is lots more clean up work as he says.My cost for pellets currently as of 10/15/22 is $5.50 a bag for 40 lbs and wood is $60 per stacked pickup load..Wood heat is much less cost in the long run and way more heat than a pellet stove,But if your looking for something for cool days and dont want to start up the wood stove pellet stoves are good for that.
New EPA certified Rocket Stove gravity feed uses pellet fuel heats over 2000 sq ft the GAP 2020 you should check it out. Perfect for anyone off grid or anyone else for that matter. Out performs any pellet stove.
You got it right I love my pellet stove and live in the woods where fire would be free and a lot of work,, so I spend a thousand bucks a year on pellets and burn a bag a day 3 to 3 1/2 ton a year so 150 to 250 bags a year I have a cheap Serenity pellet stove cost me a total of 1200 buck what a bargain that you home Depot and they make the pellets here in Western Pennsylvania so I support local jobs
I feel like pellet stoves are pushed because you cannot operate a pellet stove without continually buying pellets. With a wood stove, you COULD harvest your own wood. There is no money in that for businesses.
The biggest problem with the pellet stove is that it has more issues more maintenance. Also if you have no electricity then it will not work. So the wood-burning stove makes a lot more sense. If you have no electricity then you will have no heat. Most people have heat and don’t require a fireplace anyways. People have the gas ones for ambience for the look of it and that’s all a pellet stove is and it’s stupid. In my opinion it doesn’t make any sense. The wood-burning stove makes sense because if the electrical grid went down it would still heat your home you could heat water with it you could even cook with it!
We use the pellet stove and wood stove to offset our heating bill expenses. Since our house is all electric, the baseboard heaters would use a lot of electricity in our cold winters here in Pennsylvania.
My biggest complaint with your video is you stated that if you have trees then the fuel is free. This is completely wrong. You have to buy chainsaws, gas, oil, and maintenance costs. You also have to put in hours of backbreaking labor. I still think it’s the cheapest option but it is not free in the slightest.
That's absolutely true. I cover part of that topic here - where I talk about the cost of cutting firewood vs buying it. ua-cam.com/video/ykisaIzUd_c/v-deo.html
I have a Harmon P68 pellet stove as well..when they installed it, the tech mentioned to use cold fresh air from the outside to the inlet of the stove... More efficient and why use your room heat for that ... Besides, colder air aids in better combustion... Fyi..
That’s the best way to do it. Ours is installed the same way - pulls outside air in through an intake vent. Thanks for watching and leaving the comment. Many people may not know about the inlet for the outside air.
This is a great point. And I can only speak from my experience. The regulations may be different in different countries, states, counties and municipalities. In my experience, a wood stove needs a full chimney. Preferably brick (not cinder block) and with a foundation underneath it. With a clean out and proper casing/liner. A pellet stove, on the other hand (again, just in my experience) does not require a full chimney. Ours has a special kit that allows air into the intake, and has a vented exhaust. It goes right through the wall and outside. We did opt to have the bend and exhaust it upright (rather than straight out) so that it keeps the exhaust up away from the ground, where leaves and debris can accumulate.
Will not trade my pellet stove yeah I may like a wood stove or a fire place but who is to complain I have a castle serenity had it trouble free something like 3years now can brag a bit got it for $800$ new still in the box any place else it's gonna get you in the $$grands $$ Yeah carrying bags of pellets can be a bummer it's only me here to bring them in but over all it's pretty Kool first I have ever owned probably not the only one I will own But I am grateful for the one I have at the price I got it for and for the people I bought it from so many years back I to recommend a pellet stove saves big on the heating bill as compared to other heating fuels it still sucks pellets are a waste product and it is going up for some odd reason Still a nice thing on a cold day
Pellet stove, you need to buy pellets, plus the stove relies on electricity feed the pellets. Though I currently buy cord wood from a nice young man down the road, up until a few years ago I cut my own, and still could in an emergency. I always say, no matter what happens, no electricity, no gas, we will still be warm with the woodstove.
What is dry bone dry you don’t need little sticks crumple up a paper bag. Put it in between two logs and you don’t have to go through all this trouble. Mine takes two seconds to start boom done. Do you have to go through so keep anything simple of paper that you can’t find anymore people don’t need newspapers anymore so you can’t find newspaper
Thanks for watching. We still get the daily paper and using it as fire starter makes a good purpose for it after we have read the paper. We definitely need kindling to get our larger pieces going.
I heard that wood stoves were bad for people with asthma, so this is why I bought a pellet stove, and I don't have a wood supply around me! I'm 70 and don't really want to be chopping wood!!!
The one thing not factored in here is the chimney. The pellet stove is 3" or 4" depending on height, and can be installed just about anywhere on the house, or a liner run up an existing fireplace. The wood stove is either a 6" or 8" chimney, and not so easy to place, and not so easy to run up an existing chimney. I have two pellet stoves, just installed one in the basement and ran a liner. Total cost was ~$700. A 6" for a wood stove to run through the wall and up past the roof for proper draught, runs ~$1500 for the same length. Room size is also a factor here, your high ceiling will require more wood to keep warm in either stove. I have a 1500 BTU one in a 24x24 room with a 10' ceiling, and can run ~ 2 days per 40 pound bag @ 68* when outside temps are near 0F. Mine is a Comfortbilt with an Eco mode so it shuts off and turns on without touching it, the burn pot is removable, so easy to clean, as well as a removable ash pan. It has a cleaning rod to clean the ash build up from the tubes at the top and is Really easy to keep clean. A once a week, 5 minute chore with a shop vac. Keeping the glass clean is my only gripe. The one I just installed in my basement though, the verdict is still out. It seems to use at least a bag a day and is barely raising the temp above 65 and running constantly, so I have to do some work with it still. It may be the pellets too as I am seeing a lot of buildup I never did with the other stove.
All great points. There is no doubt that we lose a lot of heat to our high ceiling. And there is definitely a difference in pellet quality. We only use the Agway brand premium hardwood pellets now. I have tried the ones from Home Depot and the ones from Tractor Supply. I've even tried the less expensive ones from Agway. But the Agway premium hardwood pellets produce the least ash and seem to work the best for our stove. But I think all stoves vary.
@@PurpleCollarLife I'm finding pellet quality matters, and you get what you pay for. There's no agway by me, so I get what is available. Dejno's tends to have decent pellets with low ash, but they are over $6 a bag now, found some for $4.79 a bag from a different brand, but no info on what wood it is, however I can tell already after a few bags that it is not very good. I am getting a buildup on the firepot on the new stove that I never had with the other. I will run a couple bags of last years Dejnos and see if that continues, and if it does, the stove may need adjustment. I also need to move the t-stat on the back from where it is now, close to the floor to up higher since it will always be cold down at that level.
Have you thought about solar panels and a household battery system? Or just a house battery system on it's own? Even not for heat... or with...? I hate loosing power.
I actually have considered solar! But in northwest PA, we don’t get very many days of full sunshine. As the cost of solar continues to decrease, it may be an option I reconsider.
Great review. It's nice to have an honest review! Just one suggestion re the generator. Unsure how long it takes to kick in, but I put a small UPS on my heater so that it keeps running until my generator kicks in.
I have a battery backup on the Pellet Stove that will keep it running for 2 hours. Enough time to start a generator or pull out my Jackery. My pellet stove runs at 110 Watts when it is in Run mode. My Jackery should last about 8 hours on it. If I put the solar panels on during the day, it should run off the panels direct with the excess going to charge the Jackery, Pretty efficient.
I have one of each , the only way wood is cheaper is if you have a bush and cut your own , but even then you have to factor your time as money , I figure I burn about a face cord a week and about a bag of pellets a day , a face cord cost on average $150 and a bag of pellets is pretty much $8 , so pellets are way cheaper to burn 🔥
Wood stove all the way now all the new pellet stoves are not worth it and the get clocked so easy and so many fake pellet manufacturers that u get scammed of and still it’s more expensive wood all the way
There's definitely different quality of pellets. We've tried the ones from Home Depot, the ones at Tractor Supply, and the two varieties from Agway. The Agway premium hardwood pellets are our favorite - longer burn and less ash. But the wood stove certainly has advantages over the pellet stove as long as you have firewood available (or the ability to harvest, cut, and split your own firewood. Thanks for watching!
In a power outage we even cooked on a wood stove and had full heating. With a pellet stove you have electronics and high temps and dirt not sure this is a good idea.
So ... if both of the stoves needed to be replaced at the same time would you replace them with two wood stoves or two pellet stoves? I'm thinking this might be a good indication of your preference.
Great question - just off the top of my mind (6 seconds after you post the comment), I'd do wood stoves in both locations. The only hangup would be the amount of dirt/grime we'd be carrying into the living room area.
You can put a thermostatic fresh air damper on a wood stove. I put one on a Hearthstone and it's worked well for 15 years. It controls the heat and conserves fuel. It took a year to adjust it... I wouldn't have thought a pellet stove would be noisier than a wood stove.
Thanks for the tip! The pellet stove is definitely louder than the wood stove (at least the pellet stove we have, when compared to the wood stove we have).
We have our pellet stove running through a 1000va ups that protects it from electrical surges and will supply the stove with enough power to shut down properly when you power the stove off in a power failure.
That’s an excellent idea. I do have a UPS that is connected to my computer and our internet modem. I never thought of connecting one to the pellet stove. That would give us some more time to power it down properly. Any idea how long it runs the stove for? A few minutes? Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife Our stove( Enviro meridian) runs approximately 15mins after shutting it off so no problem with this size of ups, it would likely last about 30 mins. One thing to keep in mind if you run the stove at night you would need something to alert you of a power outage so that you can shut the stove off before the ups runs out of power,
So up to 15 dollars a day. x 30 = 450.00 per month on just wood. That's a lot of money. Wouldn't have been more cost effective to just run some nice big ceiling fans in the cathedral ceiling then it was to triple the cost by adding a pellet stove How much is electric heating costing you?
Thankfully we only have to use the pellet stove from October to March or April usually. On days like today (about 35 degrees F outside overnight) we use just under 1 bag per day. We don't use multiple bags per day until the coldest (below 0) days/nights. Being an all-electric house where all appliances run on electricity (range - cooktop and oven, hot water heater, baseboard heaters, clothes dryer, etc.), we have some pretty high electric bills. Using the wood stove and pellet stove in the winter certainly has a huge impact on reducing that winter electricity usage. I've done the math both ways, and I figure that in the winter months we save a couple hundred dollars each month.
@@PurpleCollarLife From what you are saying you could increase the savings even more by replacing pellets with logs. If the pellets are costing twice as much as wood.
Good question. We didn't really have much choice. We live in the woods in a rural area. There is not any access to natural gas unless we would have paid to have it brought under a roadway and then pay the per-foot cost to have it brought to the house. The cost for that was astronomical. That's why our house is all electric. For air conditioning, we have a few in-room air conditioning units that exhaust the hot air outside and supply the inside with cooled air.
Great review! We have a pellet stove and love it. We had a wood stove growing up and bought our own wood. Both are very nice but the pellet stove works best for us as we get older. Thanks for the video!
We used to burn almond wood in our wood burner. A beautiful wood to burn. Smells nice, almost no soot... I could go two year between sweeps when burning almond and then only get about two cups of chimney soot when I did brush. Pine was brushing twice a year and clearing the spark screen 4 times a year.
I think it probably depends on the year and your area. I know that there have been years that I've had friends spend thousands of dollars on propane to heat their homes.
very nicely done comparision. I installed the Harman ACCENTRA 52i PELLET INSERT back in 2015 due to the failing { 22 year old } heat pump system. INSERT is rated at 52,000 btu's. I've been heating a 2000sq" home for the last 9 seasons. in 2022 installed new heat pump system. i still use the insert on nights that the temp drops below 38 degrees and when we what warmer temps in the house during the daytime. {cloudy cold days} for start up mine usually takes 15-20 minutes till the distribution blowers come on. I use 1/2 to 2 bags a day for temps between 25-60 degrees in NC. like you stated a pellet stove required more maintenance than wood stove. A Daily scrap of the fire box before starting or when refilling hopper. A full clean takes me about an hour to an hour and a half including sweeping the exhaust duct flue. I dump the ash pan approx once every 2-4 weeks, or as little as weekly if in use full time . one thing not stated was the accessories needed to preform the maintenance . an ASH VAC , 3" and 4" flue brush set with 8-12 foot extention rods {for insert flue that goes up my chimmy}. for insert only a maintenance fixture so you can pull the insert out of fire place approx 30" to access and clean flue, plus mis tools. Harman dealers will normally know a chimmey sweep that will do the service for you. unit weighs approx 250-275 lbs. Also I purchased a heavy duty scraper from EARTH SENSE {on youtube / amazon} that works better than Harman's scraper. after all that I STILL LOVE THE HARMAN INSERT. NO WOOD TO CHOP, NO DIRT / BUGS IN THE FUEL . SET IT AND ENJOY THE HEAT. FEED IT ONCE /TWICE A DAY. one thing i learned was after lighting and the blower is on, move the IGN switch to off . the fire will adjust as needed, but will not go out. {unless it runs out of pellets or you turn it off} this allows the stove to adjust to room temp changes much faster and keep the room temp more even. EARTH SENSE also has several videos on operation and maintenace of pellet stoves to assist new onwers. thanks for your review. Harman does recommend a battery backup power source incase of a power outage to allow proper shutdown of stove. even a small generator {locate outside home} will allow you to run the stove to have heat in a powwr outage.
Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed comment. I totally agree about the fact that I should have mentioned the tools required for cleaning. Like you, I use a combination of the Shop Vac, extensions, brushes, Norwex cleaning cloths (Enviro cloth), and a good flashlight/work light. It's hard to see in all the nooks and crannies of the stove - especially back the inlet and exhaust. Interesting tip about flipping that ignition switch to off once the stove is running. I've never done that. Thanks again for watching and leaving a comment.
Having a boiler system would have been nice - but our house doesn’t have the necessary hot water baseboard heaters or all the necessary plumbing to send the water to those heaters in each room.
95% off ALL UA-cam videos on wood stoves show dirty glass. Why not take 5 min prior to making a video and clean the glass??!! Haha but seriously, the only other point I think you missed about cost....a wood stove also requires the chimney pipe. My setup at home, was roughly $1500 more to run the chimney through my attic and up through the roof. That can really really up the price of a wood stove depending on your needs and ability to do it yourself. Can be a 2 to 3k more in added expense.
I have done a video or two on cleaning the wood stove and the pellet stove - where I include how to properly clean the glass. But you're right - I should have cleaned it up before the comparison video. Great point on the chimney cost! Our pellet stove exhaust chimney was very inexpensive. Maybe a few hundred dollars. Our brick chimney for the house was several thousand dollars.
Excellent review. Not many people have both stoves at the same time to compare. Looks like the pellet was about double the consumption cost. Does it put out more btu’s than the wood stove?
Thanks, Harold. Excellent question about the BTUs. I should have included that info in the video. The consumption cost for the pellet stove for us is more than double the cost - since typically our firewood is "free" (time, labor, chainsaw, splitter, gas, oil, etc.)
Harman P68 specs:
Efficiency= 78.5%
Emissions= 1.3g/hr
Feed Rate= 1.7-7.8lb/hr
Venting Size= 3"
BTU/Hour: 15800 - 71200
Heating Capacity: 1500 - 3900 sq. ft.
Hopper Capacity: 76 lbs
Buck Stove Model 91 specs:
34-1/4" W x 23-3/16" H x 28-7/8"D
Weight: 620 Lbs
Firebox volume: 4.4 cu.ft.
Firewood length maximum: :22" (front to back) 23"(side to side)
Flue diameter: 8"
Efficiency: 80.4%
Heat capacity: 1,800 - 3,200 Sq. Feet
EPA Tested Output BTU/H: 10,400-62,745
Emissions G/H: 1.9
@@PurpleCollarLife Did you look at just replacing the stove, the one i was just looking at was Efficiency 95%, Im sure most must be near that now, And the same with the wood stove, with new EPA laws the new version must be a lot more Efficient ?
A pellet stove is never going to throw more heat than a conventional wood stove. They are two totally different animals. Also the wood on your own property is not free. You need a chainsaw, axes and or wood splitter to process the wood and you need to be thinking years in advance because the wood you cut and split today is for use one to two years in the future. Also my time is worth something so all the time you spend cutting, splitting and stacking should be taken into account. Not to mention any doctors visits for the poison ivy you are going to encounter sooner or later. Heating with wood can save you money over time, lots of money but it isn't one of the easier things you will do in life.
@@LawnJockey007 His pellet stove: 15,888 - 71,200 BTU/Hr. His wood stove:10,400 - 62,745 BTU/Hr.
That is the input Btu’s for the Harman, to get output you need to calculate loses for efficiency. A p68 maxes out around 56000 btu of output if running at peak efficiency.
Keep in mind that I've only used it for a couple weeks, that being said, so far so good ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM . Using it at 8 ft. by 8ft. deer blind that is insulated. I have to keep the door cracked for it to get enough air to burn, but that is very likely the wood I've used. Much better quality than I expected for the price. Now if I can just take it easy in the beginning it won't be 90 degrees in my blind. All in all it seems like a keeper.
Yes it does!
I "upgraded" once from a woodstove to a pellet stove. The pellets were costlier and took up more storage space, the dust inside was unbearable, the pellet stove required electricity to function, and the auger frequently jammed in the middle of the night, leaving us to wake up to a freezing house. One winter of this thing and we put the woodstove back into the house, and moved the pellet stove into the shop.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I have heard that same story several other times - people give a pellet stove a try and after a year or two, replace it with a wood stove. But I've also heard of people who switch a wood stove out for a pellet stove for the convenience.
A wood stove that needs electricity omg when the power goes out and it will next month I'm trying to find a wood stove good too know one needs electric lol smh
I wonder if you had a low quality pellet stove.
Good thorough review.
My house here in NE US came with a pellet stove. I swapped it for an American Eagle wood stove. I’m glad I did. A couple times the power was out five days . My home was toasty.
Definitely in a power outage - I’ll take my wood stove over our pellet stove any day. In fact, just the other day our power went out in an ice storm. I knew it would be out a couple hours, but not long enough to be worthwhile/necessary to start up the generator and switch the power over. Of course, the pellet stove went right out - but the wood stove kept on burning and easily kept the basement and 1st floor warm.
My parents had both pellet and wwod....when both needed updated....they abandoned both. My parents retired and went propane...huge $. But its instant heat. I really miss the wood stove. It was amazing for basement cleanup.....and wood stove heat was FANTASTIC.
We really enjoy the wood heat that our Buck stove puts out. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
FINALLY!!! A VIDEO I ACTUALLY ENJOYED AND GOT NEEDED INFO ON.. YOU DID AN EXCELLENT JOB ON EXPLAINING THE TWO!!! THANK YOU
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Glad it was helpful! It is always our intention to provide valuable information. Thank you for leaving the comment and letting us know you enjoyed the video.
This is the best review ever. Thank you so much for the time you spent making this video.
Thank you for the compliment! We always hope our videos are entertaining and informative.
This is an awesome video, but I think the saddest part is hearing the price difference from you just two years ago.Today here in NH land of wood and even a pellet factory. I pay around $375/cord for seasoned good firewood. Pellets are $349/cord delivered. Insane how prices have gone up so much, I don't believe the reasoning is necessarily real and sadly this is pushing folks away from both and going back to oil/propane/heat pumps which isn't terrible but the suppliers are khurting their own markets. But again awesome info and such a well done video!
I hadn't thought about that until your comment. The price of pellets and wood have REALLY gone up.
When I was a younger man, I chose a wood stove and loved it and would do it again. It took a lot of physical work to maintain the wood supply. Now in my 8th decade on this planet, I see my limitations. I will be getting a pellet stove when my addition is completed. I know a bit about solar and have the things needed to power the fan and auger when the inevitable power outages come.
BTW and FYI, I installed a propane wall heater this year for the first time, and so far, I'm loving it. Easy, convenient, not dependent on electricity, warms the room very quickly, just turn a knob and it's doing its job. I also put in a PROPANE LEAK DETECTOR, which is a MUST!
Thanks for sharing!
Bro... go mini split and use the woodstove on nights/weekends. Stacking wood will keep you young and warm. Pellet stoves are a pita.
I have both a pellet stove and a wood/coal combination stove. Make no mistake, a pellet stove is a lot of work and can be temperamental. My Enviro has a lot of electronics and parts are expensive. Handling 40 lbs bags of pellets is not easy nor inexpensive. I cannot imagine my wife taking the pellet stove apart to do weekly and monthly cleanings. She could not handle acquiring the 40 lbs bags of pellets nor harvesting wood. Split wood could be delivered and she could deal with bringing a log or two in by herself if needed. I was really excited to get a pellet stove but I would no longer recommend a pellet stove.
I very much appreciate your comments and experience and recommendation. Since my original post a year ago, a propane stove was recommended, and I installed it. It requires no electricity, and after one full year, I am happy with it. With all our power outages here in central Maine, it saved me last winter, one time for 44 hours of no power in zero F temps. @@mepag102
You could not have done a better review. I was afraid this was just going to be another sales
pitch for one or the other. I watched the entire report. I thank you for that.
Thank you so much for the compliment. We do our best to provide information to people doing research.
And that's an affirmative to a wood stove for us! Perfect video. Thanks for an amazing comparison.
Our pleasure!
We had a pellet in the mountains of western NC. I blasted two hours in the morning and two hours at night and the house was 75-78°. We got a ton of pellets in October and had about 120#, 3bags left over after winter. I think it's the better deal.
Hello Chad, I have had 2 pellet stoves for heating our house, now we have 2 wood burning stoves, and there is two more beneficial things over looked about the wood stoves over pellets. When power is out we can cook on our wood stoves, and 1 no longer belong to the local gym.
As for fire starting, I start with a top down fire build theory and use wood shavings (noodles) from wood processing during the summer. As far as the size of mu fire wood, I split, I keep it mixed, small kindling, up to 4- 5 inch splits, and a few solid 6 inch pieces ( over nighters) never an issue with burning a wood stove! The pellet stoves had their place, but maintenance and supply of pellets and parts became an issue here a few years ago and we needed to burn more then our standard 6 ton, and were having to buy “bedding material pellets” (soft wood)! So if you own one of these pellet stoves, have an extra ton or two in storage if possible, and a generator with fuel and a camp stove for cooking ! If the power goes out, or even if in the worse time repair is needed, pellet stoves can become a larger hassle then the wood burning stoves, i have never had to replace any parts of my wood burners, but with pellet stoves, augers, sensors, and blowers have all let me down at the worst time!
Hi Pat - I love the idea of the top down fire build. I just can't get it to work. Maybe we don't have enough draft up our chimney? Using the noodles as kindling is a great idea!
@@PurpleCollarLife the way I do it is largest logs on bottom, and a layer of noodles, medium logs crossing in a “log cabin” style, more noodles and top with kindling, light the noodle and leave door open for a few minutes to create draft, then replenish firewood as needed!
Wood stove is the obvious choice for my needs.
Thanks for watching! A wood stove is certainly a nice way to heat a home. And it's nice to watch! Think about how many people watch videos on their television of fireplaces!
Hey Chad. Nice review! Could I respectfully suggest one thing? In your large addition room that contains the pellet stove, you should continuously run that big ceiling fan to distribute the ceiling heat throughout the room. Run on lowest speed pushing air up against the ceiling. The warm air will gently come down the walls to more evenly heat your actual living space. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip! I've actually tried using that large fan to push the heat down, but it makes too much draft and we actually gets chilly. I didn't think about pulling the cool air up and allowing it to move the hot air down the sides. Great idea!
@@PurpleCollarLife I also find if I run my ceiling fan pushing the heat down the draft created is a little chilly and if I reverse it the result is unnoticeable so I rarely use it. Very nice video by the way, I also have a wood stove in my basement and get free wood. I love wood heat and watching the fire, cutting ,splitting ,stacking , hauling and dealing with the mess not so much fun but the savings make it well worth the while plus the advantage of having heat during power outages.
Hi Chad. Oh yeah. Had a a ceiling fan 7 foot from my wood burner. An my wood burner heated a 1300 sqare foot house real good. A ranch style house.
@@PurpleCollarLife try reducing the speed a bit.
Yes, I have a mini split A/C unit and I use the fan mode to pull the hot air down from the ceiling. It makes a big difference.
Great look at the two types of stoves and the pros and cons of each heat source!
Thanks for watching!
Good analysis...we burn 3 cords of wood every winter and the satisfaction we get from good ol' fashion hard work cutting, splitting, and stacking our own peace of mind means when the power goes out our house is still warm and cozy
Absolutely. People always say that firewood heats you multiple times (cutting, splitting, stacking, etc.). :)
Thanks for a great review of stove types. We have heated with wood for 30 years but added a pellet stove about 15 years ago. The combo gives use a balanced heat, no cold mornings. Your video does well at hitting the pros and cons. I love heating with wood, domestically produced fuel and carbon neutral, it doesn’t get any better. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing! I agree - having both types of stoves makes it nice to draw an informed comparison.
This was a great review and comparison. I don't think there was a thing you didn't cover. I have two wood stoves, a Jotul and a Summit. I'm in southern Maryland and seldom need to use the Summit unless it gets really cold like it did last week. i have a heat pump and oil furnace. i filled up two months ago at $6.00 a gallon. i have enough property here to get my wood and now that i'm retired, i work it when i can. Thanks again for a great video.
Glad it was helpful! I imagine the price of that oil will just keep going up throughout the winter, right? Happy New Year!
Thanks for the great insight! I am planning my future home that will not be over 800 square feet. I will be off grid capable.
Thank you for letting us know you enjoyed the video. I've often considered building a small off-grid cabin back deeper in our woods. Sounds like a great project!
Well done comparison. I think you would burn less fuel if you insulated your basement walls.
Thanks, Jake. No doubt about that - if we’d insulate those basement walls, the basement and whole house would heat faster and stay warmer. Thankfully the basement is almost entirely underground (which helps keep those walls at least 55 degrees). The only thing I worry about if we insulate the basement, is moisture/mold building up under the insulation. Thanks for watching!
@@PurpleCollarLife You still have a huge heat loss with no insulation in the basement walls. If it is insulated/ vapor barrier properly you will not get mold from insulating.
Thanks for all that info and comparison- Regards from Barbara in Brittany France - cheers and Happy New Year
Thanks for watching rom France!! I never would have imagined that we would be creating videos that people all over the world would enjoy. Thank you so much!
Great video and very helpful. I am familiar with wood stoves, but the pellet stove is what I'm considering in my shop. It will be very well insulated, and I seen one at Rural King - Cleveland Ironworks, which perked my interest. Thanks for making this video, it was very helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
Just say $300 extra dollars a month plus regular light electric bill, that would be costly to me. Think I would stick with regular wood stove at my location. Very explained video appreciate you taking time to go over all this.
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
I use just a couple of peace's of apple wood on 10 below 0. Apple wood is a hotter btu.; burning wood. Charry wood is also a hotter burning wood for btu's only just a couple peace,s. Though
Probably the best video that I have ever viewed for comparison between a pellet stove and wood stove. No fluff just the facts. Great job. Helped me to make my decision.
Thank you for letting us know you appreciated the video! This made our day. Glad it was helpful.
I too find that keeping a little bit of ash helps the wood fire.
Thanks for watching! Some people like to see their stove spotless after a cleanout -I agree that leaving a little of the ash in there is helpful.
Great video, Chad.
A few points.... Would a ceiling fan above the pellet stove help to move all the heat from up at the cathedral ceiling back down to the floor space?? And, I like to see that you are still using the "traditional" method of newspaper and kindling to get a wood fire going. All my favorite channels are going ROGUE. Mike Morgan uses that "fire-starter mix"... Northern Seclusion uses about a half-bottle of lighter fluid.... and Simple Alaska Living uses a small propane torch to blast the wood!!!! HAHA!.... Us newspaper/kindling friends must stick together and never give in to the new fangled fads!!! I can't believe there is so much maintenance and cleaning involved with the pellet stoves. Thanks!!
Hello! We actually do have a big 6-foot ceiling fan in the great room. The idea when we put it there was to blow the heat down out of that high ceiling. But we found it creates a chilly draft. BUT then - someone left a comment and suggested I run it in reverse, puling the cooler air up and pushing the warmer air down the slopes of the ceiling and against the walls. That method works great!
Yes - we're still traditional paper and kindling people here. I watch a couple of those other channels too. It's certainly interesting to see everyone try different things. It looks like the stuff that Mike is selling is pretty good. But our method has worked for my entire life. I'm not ready to make a change to buying something to start fires.
Good video, we heat our house with a wood stove. We cut, split and store our fire wood and get great exercise doing that. Thanks for sharing this video.
Certainly multiple times that firewood heats a person. Cutting, splitting, carrying, stacking, and finally burning.
Love your info,base on your experience. Great job thank you
Glad it was helpful!
The review was excellent
Thank you! We always hope that our videos are helpful.
I'm going to make a video on trying to make the P68 quieter not sure if it is going to work. I will try to let you know.
Can't wait to see what you come up with!
Great detailed comparison. Appreciate it
Glad it was helpful!
Having both stove made for a great review. I can see how a pellet stove would be the best option for some people whereas the wood stove would be better for others. While I do have central ac/heating I never use the heating part, I have a huge wood stove in the main room and medium size wood stoves in each bedroom which are rarely needed since the main stove heats the entire house, I also have two workshops each with a medium size wood stove. Since I live on a farm with a tree farm too fuel is free. I do like the sound of that pellet stove though and would have like one in my last house.
Thank you for watching and sharing your experience with the wood stoves! It certainly sounds like you have lots of options! :)
been thinking about getting a stove. I am also all electric. thanks for putting this out there. Bry
No problem 👍 Glad it was helpful. Thanks for leaving a comment.
My dad is tired with electric heaters. He used to use propane stoves but that stuff is expensive to run. He is researching for a good quality pellet stove. I still think wood would be better option.
There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to each pellet stoves and wood stoves. But overall - I prefer the heat from either of these sources better than electric, propane, or gas heat. Thanks for watching!
@@PurpleCollarLife Your welcom to watch your video. plus you are not far from me. I am in south centeral of pennsylvania
I've ran both and I prefer a wood stove. Mine doesn't break a lot but when it does it's really inconvenient to find the bad part, pay for it, wait a week or two for it to come in, then installing the part.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve had the same experience. Fixing the pellet stove is much more complicated and expensive than fixing the wood burner.
Wood stoves seldom need repair. Most everyone has one in my area, and none have built in blowers.
Thanks. Excellent analysis. I've often wondered about pellet stoves and how the moisture in wood affects the smoke in stoves.
Thanks, Mike. Definitely wood pellets need to be dry. If they get damp - they expand and won’t burn. They also can clog the auger and system. Moisture in firewood makes creosote in the stove and chimney, and does not burn as hot. It uses some of the BTU to get the moisture out of the wood.
i love to hear the wood burning in my wood stove. friend of mine better off with pellet stove cause she get fuel instantly, she would never have wood ready that was seasoned. but yes, pellet stove very noisy.
Thanks for leaving a comment!
Thanks for the review. The running cost is quite a bit more than I thought it would be. Seems like a mini-split heat pump may be another option to consider.
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting, but I would like to know a comparison of cleaning the different stoves, plus installation cost comparisons, especially do you need a chimney or glue with a pellet stove?
I just have an Alcon 6 boiler,can burn wood,pellets,chipped wood, whatever u choose to throw inside it...,live offgrid,sunpanels,lifepo4,small windmill,boiler heats 2000 liter watertank,tubes/hoses in floors.
Very nice! We live in a rural area of NW PA. In fact, we didn't even have high speed internet until just before I started our UA-cam channel. But I think we all have a bit of us that wishes we were totally off-grid. Even though we live in the woods, I've actually thought about building a small cabin deeper in the woods that is off grid with a setup "for getting away". :) Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
DOnt be afraid to tear into that p68. They are not that complicated. DIY jim on utube has tons of vids to walk you through. COuld save you thousands vs calling a stove shop repairmen.
Thanks! I'll check out DIY Jim's channel. It certainly is expensive to have the repair visits.
Interesting. Our wood burning furnace in Silicon Valley works well but it does take a few minutes to start up. There is a tree cutting place which leaves wood out on Arastradero road two or so miles away where I can get all the wood I need. It is free but the cost is the labor (Drive there, load the truck, drive back, unload the truck, split wood after it has sat long enough to dry). Most of the scraps are huge too big. To split wood, it needs to sit a few months to dry. When you see it cracking that's when it's splitable but still significant work which is noisy so if you hear neighbors enjoying being in their back yard you wouldn't want to split it then.
Squirrel fans are noisy and that's what ours has. It's easy to have quiet fans. I'm sure Japanese engineers would take the trouble to use quiet fans. On a project which had 8 about 6" fans we replaced them with same size fans which moved the same air but were quiet so 8 of the new fans was quieter than 1 of the old fans. So noisy fans are just a sign of laziness and lack of disciple by the engineers who built the thing. Should remind salesmen to pester their suppliers to do a decent job and make it quiet. Quiet fans had more blades and were more carefully shaped for the RPM they run at.
I've never heard them called "squirrel fans" - but that's a great description of them! Thanks for leaving the comment.
Very thorough, thank you
Glad it was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions I didn't cover.
Well a ton of pellets went up from $210 per ton from last year to $300 this year. I decided to put in my minisplit heatpump in my shop that I had from my old business. It will be 2.5 times cheaper to heat my shop with the heatpump vs pellets thanks to the cost going up. It would have been 2x cheaper if the cost was the same as last year so it would be worth it either way. There are a few nights of the year that drop. Below 5°f so I'll have to burn pellets at that point because my heatpump doesn't heat below 5f(or -5f since the user manual says either or) newer heatpumps can heat to -22°f but mine is 7 years old and I have only used it as an AC unit in the summer.
Thanks for sharing about the heat pump. I had no idea they were so much more efficient/cost effective than the pellet stove. You're right about the pellet cost. I think we just paid about $630 for two tons.
A ton of pellets here in Spain costs around 600€ now, about double last years prices.
If you loose power your pellet stove fan will stop like you said, but if you extend the exhaust pipe up outside of the house it would provide the draft needed like a wood stove. You need a duct from the peak of that large room down to the floor with an internal fan to circulate that wasted hot air. Not sure if a ceiling fan would be able to reclaim that heat.
Great point!
I lived in Pennsylvania and wanted a stove for auxiliary heating. One thing that impressed me about the pellet stove was that the exhaust was fairly low temperature, so you didn't need a full chimney with all the associated maintenance, but only a vent similar to what a clothes dryer requires. I eventually decided against the pellet stove, though, because of the power outage issue.
That is certainly a benefit of the pellet stove - a nice little exhaust and intake pipe right through the wall, rather than a full-scale chimney with foundation. I'm wondering if today's newer battery packs (solar generators) would be able to power the pellet stoves in a power outage situation. I may get one of the larger solar generators like the Jackery 1000 or the new Bluetti packs and see if they will power the pellet stove.
Purple Collar Life. I have to ask isn't/wasn't Pensilvania the centre of the US anthracite mining industry? Anthracite is like trying to light a brick, but the fires can be low tech, don't necessarily need fans and are also great for water heating and a wet central heating system. Are the mines all close to closing or has the price become prohibative?
@@COIcultist There were coal mines around years ago. There are still some in West Virginia. But locally - the only place to get coal around here is Agway, and the price is REALLY up this year. I know a family that heats with coal - and they’re trying to figure out different options for this winter - it would cost them over $800 per month for the coal they need to heat.
@@PurpleCollarLife Wept, that sounds expensive. I just looked up the figures, and it looks like that in 2020 NE Pennsylvania was still producing in excess of 4.5M tons of anthracite per year. In the 1980s I sold anthracite, manufactured fuels and bituminous coal to wholesalers in the UK. The technology has existed to burn bituminous coal smokelessly since the 1980s, but no one seems to want to go there. Anthracite doesn't have an attractive flame pattern, but boy does it bang out the heat.
Very nice review. Have you ever thought of putting in hot water heat in the house and using a outdoor gasification boiler? You could heat the shop and house all while keeping the mess outside. They are pricey though.
Yes I have! The problem is the up-front investment. Since our house is currently all electric baseboard, we would need to run all the piping throughout the house, and hot water baseboard heaters.
@@PurpleCollarLife Underfloor heating installed from a crawl space?
Well done on the video, very informative
Thank you!
I have the same wood stove. Love it.
I would love a how-to on replacing the blower. Mine died a few years ago, and I can’t figure out how to replace it.
Hi Brian - I did mine a few years ago and I don't remember how I did it. It's underneath the stove, right? If I remember, I just had to unbolt it, bolt the new one in, and connect the power to it from the board/panel. It's been so long I can't exactly remember. I'll see if I can find those instructions.
Us too! Much better than a stove we had prior to this one.
@@PurpleCollarLife The manual doesn’t seem to show much in terms of replacing it, which is frustrating.
Thank you for this video! Extremely informative and well edited.
Glad it was helpful!
Good comparison but you neglected to compare the costs of installation: full chimney for wood stove bs direct vent for pellet
Good point! Thousands of dollars in difference in that one single point.
I own both as well, that Harmon pellet stove and a Blaze King "King" wood stove.
The PS first: I agree with much of your comparison. In essence, the PS is easier to live with and is possibly safer. The fuel is easy and clean to handle (other than the pellet dust), the PS can be hooked to a real wall mounted thermostat (which is nice!), but it is noisy, requires power, and fully cleaning it (and the ducting) once or twice a season is dirty and a PITA. Also, to get a lot of heat out it, it will go through pellet$ fairly quickly. Keep that in mind if you plan on running it at higher outputs. The other thing you did not mention is the amount of electricity it uses. While they aren't major electrical consumers, they are always pulling load as long as they are running, which is typically many months at a time. Again, this adds to the overall cost of use. The Harmon PS is possibly the best on the market. I've tried the cheaper box store brands, they run dirty and don't hold a candle to the Harmon's.
thermostat
Thanks for watching and commenting! I just did the full cleanout on the pellet stove today. You're right - it's one of my least favorite tasks.
Enjoyed !
I will stick with my woodstove forever. Thank you.
Good choice!
Compliments on your beautiful family pictures. :)
Thank you!
Excellent job. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved my wood stove when I lived in Ossipee New Hampshire. I’m 15 miles north of Kitty Hawk North Carolina now. Not really cold enough here for a wood stove. Also want to let you know that your videos have gotten better with each one. Keep up the good job and keep the videos coming.
Very cool! Thanks for the compliment, Richard. We do really enjoy making the videos. We took a trip up north through Vermont and New Hampshire last year with the 5th wheel camper. What a great area! I'd like to do that trip again sometime and spend more time there.
North Carolina is a bit too warm for me for the summer time. I don't like to be too hot. :)
Nice video. I have the Harman xx in white. This is my 3rd season. Love it. Not sure if I missed if you mentioned the other disadvantage if a wood stove. You are constantly bringing bulky wood inside your house. Big PIA. Can make a mess. Could have ants in it. And this is compounded if you’re wood stove is in the living area
That's absolutely true. There is the added mess of any dirt (or bugs) with the wood. Thankfully our wood stove is in the basement, on concrete flooring, so it's easy to take a shopvac or broom and clean up the space.
I will say though that I've made some pretty good messes during a thorough cleaning of the pellet stove. Taking all the piping apart, getting into the blower, and cleaning all the inside of the pellet stove has made a few pretty dirty days in the living room. I've had to get the carpet scrubber out a few times to clean up some ash messes that have ended up on the carpet. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I saw a ceiling fan…why not turn that on clockwise very slow to spread the pellet stove heat?
We've tried this. It ends up making too much draft and giving us a chill. Good thought though.
TY. Mae my mind up tp gp bottled gas in a stove style. just too expensive for me to run
The house my daughter bought 6 years ago has a pellet stove.......it’s been nothing but trouble.
Sometimes it actually works but not all that often.
So far it gone though 2 control boxes, 2 auger motors, 1 thermocouple and a few other things.
I would NEVER recommend any pellet stove. Absolutely horrible.
They're certainly much more difficult and complicated to repair and maintain. Like I said, there are so many moving components and it has a board and sensors. Lots to figure out with a pellet stove.
Bonsoir mon ami 😉👌 You did and OUTSTANDING DETAIL review video Sir 🧐👌👍and I realy like the way you compare both of these heat source 👍👌😉 Full Watch Sir and Keep warm Cheers 🍻
Thanks! Appreciate the full watch and comment. We've got both the pellet stove and the wood burner going to keep us warm. What's the temperature there now?
@@PurpleCollarLife We have mixte precipitation ( 30f up to 35f ) it is going to be like that until early December, no real accumulation on the ground,,, Cheers
More: $180 a cord? For that amount the wood had better be cut, split, delivered, stacked...and gold plated. I pay less than half that figure...it’s just not stacked for me.
Or gold plated.
That was last year’s price. Now a cord of wood around here is over $200.
Great information. In my research I found Wise Way makes a pellet stove that uses no electricity. Liberator rocket stove is non electric that can run on pellets, sticks and small split cord wood. I started to make a rocket stove that will run on wood chips Hopefully it works.
Thanks, Kevin. I had no idea there was a pellet stove that used no electricity. I’m going to look those up! That would be awesome. And it’s really cool that you are making a stove that will run on wood chips.
I own a Ashley pellet furnace and a US Stove works Hot blast wood furnace.Our house is a 100 year old victorian so insulation is a bit scant.The pellet stove is a good thing to have when its a cool day,When its cold in the house but not cold enough for a wood fire,And its good extra heat for really cold days if your wood stove isnt quite enough.But unless you have a well insulate easy to heat house your pissing into the wind with a pellet stove.As for cleaning the pellet stove is lots more clean up work as he says.My cost for pellets currently as of 10/15/22 is $5.50 a bag for 40 lbs and wood is $60 per stacked pickup load..Wood heat is much less cost in the long run and way more heat than a pellet stove,But if your looking for something for cool days and dont want to start up the wood stove pellet stoves are good for that.
Thanks for sharing the prices where you're at!
New EPA certified Rocket Stove gravity feed uses pellet fuel heats over 2000 sq ft the GAP 2020 you should check it out. Perfect for anyone off grid or anyone else for that matter. Out performs any pellet stove.
Interesting!
You got it right I love my pellet stove and live in the woods where fire would be free and a lot of work,, so I spend a thousand bucks a year on pellets and burn a bag a day 3 to 3 1/2 ton a year so 150 to 250 bags a year I have a cheap Serenity pellet stove cost me a total of 1200 buck what a bargain that you home Depot and they make the pellets here in Western Pennsylvania so I support local jobs
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Thanks for supporting local.
I feel like pellet stoves are pushed because you cannot operate a pellet stove without continually buying pellets. With a wood stove, you COULD harvest your own wood. There is no money in that for businesses.
We do our best to harvest our own wood. But you're right - we buy 2-3 tons of pellets every year.
The biggest problem with the pellet stove is that it has more issues more maintenance. Also if you have no electricity then it will not work. So the wood-burning stove makes a lot more sense. If you have no electricity then you will have no heat. Most people have heat and don’t require a fireplace anyways. People have the gas ones for ambience for the look of it and that’s all a pellet stove is and it’s stupid. In my opinion it doesn’t make any sense. The wood-burning stove makes sense because if the electrical grid went down it would still heat your home you could heat water with it you could even cook with it!
We use the pellet stove and wood stove to offset our heating bill expenses. Since our house is all electric, the baseboard heaters would use a lot of electricity in our cold winters here in Pennsylvania.
My biggest complaint with your video is you stated that if you have trees then the fuel is free. This is completely wrong. You have to buy chainsaws, gas, oil, and maintenance costs. You also have to put in hours of backbreaking labor. I still think it’s the cheapest option but it is not free in the slightest.
That's absolutely true. I cover part of that topic here - where I talk about the cost of cutting firewood vs buying it. ua-cam.com/video/ykisaIzUd_c/v-deo.html
I have a Harmon P68 pellet stove as well..when they installed it, the tech mentioned to use cold fresh air from the outside to the inlet of the stove...
More efficient and why use your room heat for that ...
Besides, colder air aids in better combustion... Fyi..
That’s the best way to do it. Ours is installed the same way - pulls outside air in through an intake vent. Thanks for watching and leaving the comment. Many people may not know about the inlet for the outside air.
Something I am curious about is the different ways that the wood and pellet stoves have to be vented outdoors
This is a great point. And I can only speak from my experience. The regulations may be different in different countries, states, counties and municipalities. In my experience, a wood stove needs a full chimney. Preferably brick (not cinder block) and with a foundation underneath it. With a clean out and proper casing/liner. A pellet stove, on the other hand (again, just in my experience) does not require a full chimney. Ours has a special kit that allows air into the intake, and has a vented exhaust. It goes right through the wall and outside. We did opt to have the bend and exhaust it upright (rather than straight out) so that it keeps the exhaust up away from the ground, where leaves and debris can accumulate.
Will not trade my pellet stove yeah I may like a wood stove or a fire place but who is to complain
I have a castle serenity had it trouble free something like 3years now can brag a bit got it for $800$ new still in the box any place else it's gonna get you in the $$grands $$
Yeah carrying bags of pellets can be a bummer it's only me here to bring them in but over all it's pretty Kool first I have ever owned probably not the only one I will own
But I am grateful for the one I have at the price I got it for and for the people I bought it from so many years back
I to recommend a pellet stove saves big on the heating bill as compared to other heating fuels it still sucks pellets are a waste product and it is going up for some odd reason
Still a nice thing on a cold day
Thanks for watching and for leaving the comment!
Pellet stove, you need to buy pellets, plus the stove relies on electricity feed the pellets. Though I currently buy cord wood from a nice young man down the road, up until a few years ago I cut my own, and still could in an emergency. I always say, no matter what happens, no electricity, no gas, we will still be warm with the woodstove.
That's true. Thanks for leaving a comment!
What is dry bone dry you don’t need little sticks crumple up a paper bag. Put it in between two logs and you don’t have to go through all this trouble. Mine takes two seconds to start boom done. Do you have to go through so keep anything simple of paper that you can’t find anymore people don’t need newspapers anymore so you can’t find newspaper
Thanks for watching. We still get the daily paper and using it as fire starter makes a good purpose for it after we have read the paper. We definitely need kindling to get our larger pieces going.
I heard that wood stoves were bad for people with asthma, so this is why I bought a pellet stove, and I don't have a wood supply around me! I'm 70 and don't really want to be chopping wood!!!
Thanks for watching! The pellet stove is certainly easier if you don't have access to firewood.
The one thing not factored in here is the chimney. The pellet stove is 3" or 4" depending on height, and can be installed just about anywhere on the house, or a liner run up an existing fireplace. The wood stove is either a 6" or 8" chimney, and not so easy to place, and not so easy to run up an existing chimney. I have two pellet stoves, just installed one in the basement and ran a liner. Total cost was ~$700. A 6" for a wood stove to run through the wall and up past the roof for proper draught, runs ~$1500 for the same length.
Room size is also a factor here, your high ceiling will require more wood to keep warm in either stove. I have a 1500 BTU one in a 24x24 room with a 10' ceiling, and can run ~ 2 days per 40 pound bag @ 68* when outside temps are near 0F. Mine is a Comfortbilt with an Eco mode so it shuts off and turns on without touching it, the burn pot is removable, so easy to clean, as well as a removable ash pan. It has a cleaning rod to clean the ash build up from the tubes at the top and is Really easy to keep clean. A once a week, 5 minute chore with a shop vac. Keeping the glass clean is my only gripe. The one I just installed in my basement though, the verdict is still out. It seems to use at least a bag a day and is barely raising the temp above 65 and running constantly, so I have to do some work with it still. It may be the pellets too as I am seeing a lot of buildup I never did with the other stove.
All great points. There is no doubt that we lose a lot of heat to our high ceiling. And there is definitely a difference in pellet quality. We only use the Agway brand premium hardwood pellets now. I have tried the ones from Home Depot and the ones from Tractor Supply. I've even tried the less expensive ones from Agway. But the Agway premium hardwood pellets produce the least ash and seem to work the best for our stove. But I think all stoves vary.
@@PurpleCollarLife I'm finding pellet quality matters, and you get what you pay for. There's no agway by me, so I get what is available. Dejno's tends to have decent pellets with low ash, but they are over $6 a bag now, found some for $4.79 a bag from a different brand, but no info on what wood it is, however I can tell already after a few bags that it is not very good. I am getting a buildup on the firepot on the new stove that I never had with the other. I will run a couple bags of last years Dejnos and see if that continues, and if it does, the stove may need adjustment. I also need to move the t-stat on the back from where it is now, close to the floor to up higher since it will always be cold down at that level.
Have you thought about solar panels and a household battery system? Or just a house battery system on it's own? Even not for heat... or with...? I hate loosing power.
I actually have considered solar! But in northwest PA, we don’t get very many days of full sunshine. As the cost of solar continues to decrease, it may be an option I reconsider.
@@PurpleCollarLife You don't need full sun with newer panels. Im in DE and they can't install them fast enough. But what about just a house battery?
Thank you. I'm not in a very cold climatev but want an ongoing heat source as had it electric have become WAY to expensive.
I understand
Great review. It's nice to have an honest review!
Just one suggestion re the generator. Unsure how long it takes to kick in, but I put a small UPS on my heater so that it keeps running until my generator kicks in.
Great suggestion!
I have a battery backup on the Pellet Stove that will keep it running for 2 hours. Enough time to start a generator or pull out my Jackery. My pellet stove runs at 110 Watts when it is in Run mode. My Jackery should last about 8 hours on it. If I put the solar panels on during the day, it should run off the panels direct with the excess going to charge the Jackery, Pretty efficient.
That's great! What Jackery do you have? I have the Jackery Explorer 300, and just got a Bluetti EB3A.
@@PurpleCollarLife I have the Jackery Explorer 1000 with 2 solar panels.
@@kevin34ct Great setup!
I have one of each , the only way wood is cheaper is if you have a bush and cut your own , but even then you have to factor your time as money , I figure I burn about a face cord a week and about a bag of pellets a day , a face cord cost on average $150 and a bag of pellets is pretty much $8 , so pellets are way cheaper to burn 🔥
Thanks!
Wood stove is zero dependency on a supply chain.
That's true. I've actually wished that a local lumberyard would buy a pellet mill and make pellets out of their waste product from the saws.
Wood stove all the way now all the new pellet stoves are not worth it and the get clocked so easy and so many fake pellet manufacturers that u get scammed of and still it’s more expensive wood all the way
There's definitely different quality of pellets. We've tried the ones from Home Depot, the ones at Tractor Supply, and the two varieties from Agway. The Agway premium hardwood pellets are our favorite - longer burn and less ash. But the wood stove certainly has advantages over the pellet stove as long as you have firewood available (or the ability to harvest, cut, and split your own firewood. Thanks for watching!
In a power outage we even cooked on a wood stove and had full heating. With a pellet stove you have electronics and high temps and dirt not sure this is a good idea.
That’s true! I’ve heated water up on our wood stove in a power outage for hot chocolate. :)
Nothing will replace wood period. No pellet. No electricity no gas no propane. Only coal competes with wood
Thanks for sharing! I've never tried burning coal. Around here, coal is hard to find and very expensive right now.
So ... if both of the stoves needed to be replaced at the same time would you replace them with two wood stoves or two pellet stoves? I'm thinking this might be a good indication of your preference.
Great question - just off the top of my mind (6 seconds after you post the comment), I'd do wood stoves in both locations. The only hangup would be the amount of dirt/grime we'd be carrying into the living room area.
You can put a thermostatic fresh air damper on a wood stove. I put one on a Hearthstone and it's worked well for 15 years. It controls the heat and conserves fuel. It took a year to adjust it... I wouldn't have thought a pellet stove would be noisier than a wood stove.
Thanks for the tip! The pellet stove is definitely louder than the wood stove (at least the pellet stove we have, when compared to the wood stove we have).
We have our pellet stove running through a 1000va ups that protects it from electrical surges and will supply the stove with enough power to shut down properly when you power the stove off in a power failure.
That’s an excellent idea. I do have a UPS that is connected to my computer and our internet modem. I never thought of connecting one to the pellet stove. That would give us some more time to power it down properly. Any idea how long it runs the stove for? A few minutes? Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife Our stove( Enviro meridian) runs approximately 15mins after shutting it off so no problem with this size of ups, it would likely last about 30 mins. One thing to keep in mind if you run the stove at night you would need something to alert you of a power outage so that you can shut the stove off before the ups runs out of power,
So up to 15 dollars a day. x 30 = 450.00 per month on just wood. That's a lot of money. Wouldn't have been more cost effective to just run some nice big ceiling fans in the cathedral ceiling then it was to triple the cost by adding a pellet stove How much is electric heating costing you?
Thankfully we only have to use the pellet stove from October to March or April usually. On days like today (about 35 degrees F outside overnight) we use just under 1 bag per day. We don't use multiple bags per day until the coldest (below 0) days/nights.
Being an all-electric house where all appliances run on electricity (range - cooktop and oven, hot water heater, baseboard heaters, clothes dryer, etc.), we have some pretty high electric bills. Using the wood stove and pellet stove in the winter certainly has a huge impact on reducing that winter electricity usage. I've done the math both ways, and I figure that in the winter months we save a couple hundred dollars each month.
@@PurpleCollarLife From what you are saying you could increase the savings even more by replacing pellets with logs. If the pellets are costing twice as much as wood.
Why would you have chosen electric baseboard for heat? What do you do for air conditioning 🤔
Good question. We didn't really have much choice. We live in the woods in a rural area. There is not any access to natural gas unless we would have paid to have it brought under a roadway and then pay the per-foot cost to have it brought to the house. The cost for that was astronomical. That's why our house is all electric.
For air conditioning, we have a few in-room air conditioning units that exhaust the hot air outside and supply the inside with cooled air.
Pellet stoves are ok for a small area. They can not heat like a wood stove. I have had both and prefer the heat of wood.
Good to know! I tend to agree with you. But the pellet stove is much more clean in a living area.
Great review! We have a pellet stove and love it. We had a wood stove growing up and bought our own wood. Both are very nice but the pellet stove works best for us as we get older. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
We used to burn almond wood in our wood burner. A beautiful wood to burn. Smells nice, almost no soot... I could go two year between sweeps when burning almond and then only get about two cups of chimney soot when I did brush. Pine was brushing twice a year and clearing the spark screen 4 times a year.
Wow! It sounds like Almond wood is amazing! I wouldn't even know what the tree looks like.
What part of the world is there an abundance of almond wood for heating purposes? That sounds amazing!!
Great video, just the kind of comparison I was looking for. Good job.
Thanks! Glad it was helpful. It's always our goal to be informative and entertaining with our videos.
Your cordwood price is a lot lower than in my neighborhood in NH.
It's actually even higher this year. The last I checked - a full cord (8' long, 4' wide, 4' high) is about $250-$300 for good seasoned hardwood.
Having a wood stove is a good idea, but propane is much cheaper.
I think it probably depends on the year and your area. I know that there have been years that I've had friends spend thousands of dollars on propane to heat their homes.
very nicely done comparision. I installed the Harman ACCENTRA 52i PELLET INSERT back in 2015 due to the failing { 22 year old } heat pump system. INSERT is rated at 52,000 btu's. I've been heating a 2000sq" home for the last 9 seasons. in 2022 installed new heat pump system. i still use the insert on nights that the temp drops below 38 degrees and when we what warmer temps in the house during the daytime. {cloudy cold days} for start up mine usually takes 15-20 minutes till the distribution blowers come on. I use 1/2 to 2 bags a day for temps between 25-60 degrees in NC. like you stated a pellet stove required more maintenance than wood stove. A Daily scrap of the fire box before starting or when refilling hopper. A full clean takes me about an hour to an hour and a half including sweeping the exhaust duct flue. I dump the ash pan approx once every 2-4 weeks, or as little as weekly if in use full time . one thing not stated was the accessories needed to preform the maintenance . an ASH VAC , 3" and 4" flue brush set with 8-12 foot extention rods {for insert flue that goes up my chimmy}. for insert only a maintenance fixture so you can pull the insert out of fire place approx 30" to access and clean flue, plus mis tools. Harman dealers will normally know a chimmey sweep that will do the service for you. unit weighs approx 250-275 lbs. Also I purchased a heavy duty scraper from EARTH SENSE {on youtube / amazon} that works better than Harman's scraper. after all that I STILL LOVE THE HARMAN INSERT. NO WOOD TO CHOP, NO DIRT / BUGS IN THE FUEL . SET IT AND ENJOY THE HEAT. FEED IT ONCE /TWICE A DAY. one thing i learned was after lighting and the blower is on, move the IGN switch to off . the fire will adjust as needed, but will not go out. {unless it runs out of pellets or you turn it off} this allows the stove to adjust to room temp changes much faster and keep the room temp more even. EARTH SENSE also has several videos on operation and maintenace of pellet stoves to assist new onwers. thanks for your review. Harman does recommend a battery backup power source incase of a power outage to allow proper shutdown of stove. even a small generator {locate outside home} will allow you to run the stove to have heat in a powwr outage.
Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed comment. I totally agree about the fact that I should have mentioned the tools required for cleaning. Like you, I use a combination of the Shop Vac, extensions, brushes, Norwex cleaning cloths (Enviro cloth), and a good flashlight/work light. It's hard to see in all the nooks and crannies of the stove - especially back the inlet and exhaust.
Interesting tip about flipping that ignition switch to off once the stove is running. I've never done that. Thanks again for watching and leaving a comment.
No pellet stove for me! Regular wood is easier to come by and like you say, easier to manage in an emergency.
Very true! Happy New Year!
I think you slipped up by not having one that heats your water.
Having a boiler system would have been nice - but our house doesn’t have the necessary hot water baseboard heaters or all the necessary plumbing to send the water to those heaters in each room.
95% off ALL UA-cam videos on wood stoves show dirty glass. Why not take 5 min prior to making a video and clean the glass??!! Haha but seriously, the only other point I think you missed about cost....a wood stove also requires the chimney pipe. My setup at home, was roughly $1500 more to run the chimney through my attic and up through the roof. That can really really up the price of a wood stove depending on your needs and ability to do it yourself. Can be a 2 to 3k more in added expense.
I have done a video or two on cleaning the wood stove and the pellet stove - where I include how to properly clean the glass. But you're right - I should have cleaned it up before the comparison video.
Great point on the chimney cost! Our pellet stove exhaust chimney was very inexpensive. Maybe a few hundred dollars.
Our brick chimney for the house was several thousand dollars.
Also insurance company's charges are very high to have a wood stove
I don't know if we pay more in our home owner insurance because of our wood stove. That's a good question.