Pellet Stoves / Wood Stoves

[John Dillinger]

I was having a discussion about pellet stoves and wood stoves at work.
I am using a pellet stove as the primary heat source in my shop. My coworker said that pellet stoves do a good job but wait until they brake down.
He told me that his needed a control board and it cost him $500.00 for the part and labor.
He thinks that a wood stove would be cheaper to maintain because he feels that there are no controls on a wood stove . I said that any more everybody is trying to make things idiot proof and that the new wood stoves probably are just as complicated as pellet stoves.
Do you all have any opinions.
Thanks John

 

[kmacht]

Are wood stoves less complicated and less likely to break than a pellet stove? Sure. That doesn't mean that they do regularly break down. I have had one for five years and haven't had to replace anything on it. His thinking is all backwards. I bet that his oil burning furnace is alot more complicated than your pellet stove. Maybe you should suggest he heat his hot water in a pot over an open fire pit in the back yard. It might be more reliable and a better option using his thinking.

Keith

 

[930dreamer]

The pellet stove does have a circuit board, when it goes, it gets cold. I'm wanting to get a stove for my house, pellets are cleaner to store and require little effort on my part. Wood stove has no electricial parts other than a fan, but require hauling/buying wood.

 

[LEVE]

I have two pellet stoves, one large stove heats a 2220 sqft house and a smaller one to heat a 3 car detached garage.

I bought each stove used knowing they needed work. It wasn't hard to figure out what parts they needed. I'll be danged if I pay labor for something I can do myself. If you're at all good at electronics you could find the problem, even on the system board of the pellet stove, if needed. Replacing parts at a component level is cheap. Having to replace the system board can get pricey. Fans also are pricey, and not often sourced for anything but that stove. They do fail over time. Yes there is a maintenance cost.

The other problem is that when the Power is cut to the house... the pellet stove doesn't work unless you've got a battery backup unit or a generator.

But, since I'm saving over $300 a month over the same cost to heat the house with electricity, I'll keep the stoves going. They've paid for themselves already in the two years I've been using them.

 

[jklingel]

see hearth.com if interested. lots of info there. j

 

[waltmcq]

pellet stoves aren't that hard to fix. The control board in a stove I had was 4 screws and a 4 wire plug. It took about 5 min. to change and I only changed it once in 15 years.

 

[jkeyser14]

I would be more concerned about the cost of wood vs. pellets. Where I am wood is free and in one day with a log splitter I can split and stack enough to last me a year. If you have to pay for wood, then the pellets might be more cost effective and less of a hassle.