Cheap pellet stove?

[Mustang71]

Is there such a thing as a cheap pellet stove? I'd like one to heat my garage when I'm out there or to help get rid of some of the moisture that turns to frost on my concrete walls when it's real cold out. Its stays about 50 all winter. I know they make those cheap wood stoves for about 200 but I dont want to put in a chimney. I saw that tractor supply has a pellet stove for 599 but I dont need to heat a large space and I dont want to spend that much.

It's not really a must have I can keep using the torpedo heater when it gets cold in there. I'm just curious if they make a small cheap pellet stove.

 

[panolo]

I have a very basic Englander/Summers heat that is the 1800 sq ft model. Pretty bullet proof and easy to use. I also have a bigger one they make and it is more of a pain in the butt. I got the basic one of craigslist for a couple hundred bucks and the material for install was a couple hundred bucks.

 

[Mustang71]

I have been looking on craigslist for a used one. It's not a necessity so I'm not looking real hard and around Christmas with kids I'm not eager to spend money on one but I think it would be great garage heat. The kids and I were in the garage for a while today and it was comfortable and I think it was 34 outside so it's not to bad. When it starts to get to 10 for a week it gets cold.

I dont know much about pellet stoves.

 

[moresnow]

torpedo heater

These things make me sick. Headache creators! Gotta be killing brain cells
I leave a small ceramic electric heater on in my garage on low. $30 a month. No liquid fuel required. No vent system required. No stink.
Just a thought. If I need more heat I have a LP furnace out of a house I can turn on. Rare.

 

[Husky Man]

These things make me sick. Headache creators! Gotta be killing brain cells
I leave a small ceramic electric heater on in my garage on low. $30 a month. No liquid fuel required. No vent system required. No stink.
Just a thought. If I need more heat I have a LP furnace out of a house I can turn on. Rare.

The propane torpedo heaters don't stink like the Kerosene/Diesel ones do, and tend to be a lot smaller for the same BTU's.

Pellet stoves will still need a chimney or exhaust of some sort, unless they have changed a lot since I had one.

We had a Breckwell, in the Log Cabin a Girlfriend and I owned from 98-03, it was nice being able to get a couple days worth of pellets in the hopper, but that Breckwell was a money pit, I spent more time and money working on that thing, and the guy who designed it, never worked on them.


Doug

 

[Mustang71]

I have seen them direct vented out the side of the house and those kits are about the cost of 2 pieces of triple wall stainless.

 

[babybart]

The one at Tractor Supply is about the cheapest your gonna get new. Craigslist, Letgo or any other selling site would be your best bet, just not this time of year.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

How about a Toyo stove?

Reliable and sip fuel.

 

[Deleted member 150358]

The propane torpedo heaters don't stink like the Kerosene/Diesel ones do, and tend to be a lot smaller for the same BTU's.

Pellet stoves will still need a chimney or exhaust of some sort, unless they have changed a lot since I had one.

We had a Breckwell, in the Log Cabin a Girlfriend and I owned from 98-03, it was nice being able to get a couple days worth of pellets in the hopper, but that Breckwell was a money pit, I spent more time and money working on that thing, and the guy who designed it, never worked on them.


Doug

This was my experience. Even getting corn in trade labor arraignment. New exhaust fan after 1st season. Replacement gasket every time that fan needed cleaning. Mine was the one from Northern Hydrualics, Northland or something. It was good once I got it figured out. But the thing was higher maintenance then I would have ever guessed.

 

[blades]

For the price of one plus installation parts , on going maintenace ( all of them )and pellets- one of those hanging electric forced air spaceheaterss for work areas is a better bet. just type in garage heaters on Google .

 

[Husky Man]

I have seen them direct vented out the side of the house and those kits are about the cost of 2 pieces of triple wall stainless.

Sorry, I Missed that you are an HVAC Pro in your sig line, you probably have a Good Idea of venting requirements

In the late 90's early 2000's the pellets were are lot more affordable than they seem to be now, demand probably built when they WERE CHEAP, now I don't know just how cost effective they are compared to other options, Myself I prefer the wood stove, more work to get the fuel, but much more cost effective and Enjoyable, and a LOT less to go wrong with the stove itself.

Compared to new pellet stoves, I'm sure ours would be an antique, I believe a lot now have a grate system to empty the burn pot into an ash pan, we had to clean the burn pot itself of ash every so often depending on the burn rate, and the self igniting feature on the newer ones would be nice, but after my experience, I wouldn't buy another, and wood consider a wood stove more of an upgrade than a pellet stove if looking for a new home.

For You, it might be a better option, especially being an HVAC Pro, You would be more comfortable working on it, and get parts at a better price.

Those are MY Thoughts,
It's Your Money and Choice


Doug

 

[Deleted member 150358]

My neighbor heats his double wide with a countryside or something like that. It does well but he was gifted it from another friend who upgraded. It is virtually the same as the model I had but he uses more pellets then corn. Corn seems to burn hotter and probably contributed to the issues I was seeing. Frequent stirrer replacement and build ups in the exhaust fan housing.

Way off topic but...
Another neighbor has the outdoor boiler multi fuel burning corn. To date it has been trouble free. Be interesting to see how he likes it in 10 years. If corn stays cheap this would be ideal.

 

[blades]

Corn has a habit of forming clinkers that you need to chisel out. like any solid fuel it has to be dried to the proper percentage of moisture content. There in seems to be a problem on the mfg side, as well as qc on wood/ or other compressed fiber pellets.
I have a pellet stove sitting here at my shop that I was thinking about installing in my basement at home- going to be a couple hundred? dollars to install flue. Might just as well go electric for the amount of time I am down there. ( 2200 sq ft). and the avg. cost of a ton of pellets ( $250-60/T) wood stove or furnace down there not a viable option dollar wise due to flue construction from the basement up -nothing exists as the place is a early 90's build so furnace is out the side wall. Outdoor units way to pricey ( plus there is a county ban on OWB units as well) can't win. On a positive note the wood stove (NC30 ) on the main floor is heating the entire living area. Wasn't expecting quite that much performance based on previous 30 install in another home slightly smaller. I am guessing the the envelope of this home is much tighter than the previous one which was built in 1960.
Back to garage heat - propane / NG/ electric/ pellet/ wood stove + local codes & Insurance - best to get the last 2 items figured out ahead of any permanent install . Garages generally require any type of permanent heating option to be a minimum of 4 feet off the floor - except for radiant fluid type where the heat source is not located in the garage ( excluding those portable radiator heaters which might not be a bad choice either). Concerns are flamables such as gasoline ect.

 

[Mustang71]

Something like that toyoheater would be cool but I have never seen one.

I could do a lot of things for heat and most of them wont cost me much like an old furnace or something but I dont want to tap into my propane. Electric would be easy to do but the electric bill is already a lot. I thought a pellet stove would be nice efficient heat for the little bit I'd use it. I have the wood furnace and if I leave the door open between the garage and basement with a fan going it heats up out there. But I liked the idea of separate heat for the garage. Buy a few bags of pellets and I'm set for the winter. But it sounds like there's more to maintaining it than there should be.

 

[Husky Man]

Something like that toyoheater would be cool but I have never seen one.

I could do a lot of things for heat and most of them wont cost me much like an old furnace or something but I dont want to tap into my propane. Electric would be easy to do but the electric bill is already a lot. I thought a pellet stove would be nice efficient heat for the little bit I'd use it. I have the wood furnace and if I leave the door open between the garage and basement with a fan going it heats up out there. But I liked the idea of separate heat for the garage. Buy a few bags of pellets and I'm set for the winter. But it sounds like there's more to maintaining it than there should be.

It's been over 15 years, but as I remember it was, at least 2 Auger motors, 2 Blower motors and 1 mother board that I Replaced in less than 5 years of Seasonal Use, I don't know the exact age, but it was a fairly new unit at the time, but was already installed when we bought the house, and didn't get the paperwork for it

Soured me on Pellet Stoves in General, and Breckwell in particular


Doug

 

[Mustang71]

If I could take out a heat pump mini split it would be in my garage real fast. That's about as far as i would go with electric heat.