Thinking about a wood stove makes some people want to curl up in a big chair with their favorite book and a hot drink. You might remember the cold nights at a remote cabin when you loaded the wood stove and felt the warmth radiate into your bones. The thing you don’t always remember or that may not come to mind is having to clean up all the debris that got tracked into your home when you brought wood in to burn in the wood stove. And then there was the ash you had to continually clean out of the wood stove when it was being used. Then, there is the constant feeding of the stove as the old fire died out and needed to be fed as you tried to keep the temperature constant.
At Hearthside Fireplace Patio, we might just have an answer to these problems: a Harman pellet stove. Pellet stoves like this are usually more convenient to use, less expensive, cleaner to operate, and can be safer to use than the typical wood stove. That being said, your location and circumstances may make it more beneficial to have a wood stove instead of a pellet stove. We have information about wood stoves and pellet stoves that can help you make your decision.
Convenient
Instead of hauling logs in to burn, a pellet stove consumes pellets that look like rabbit food. They are actually made from waste paper, bark, wood chips, sawdust, crop waste, and some organic materials. The pellets come in bags that weigh about 40 pounds and are relatively easy to move from one place to another. A full hopper in the pellet stove will usually hold at least a bag, if not two, of pellets which should fuel for the stove for more than one day. Once you fill the hopper you should be able to relax for a couple of days before you need to add more pellets because the stove is self-feeding.
Less Expensive
Because of the regulations that protect homes from burning down, wood stove venting can cost more than the wood stove itself. A pellet stove on the other hand can be freestanding or vented. When venting is required it only needs to go through the wall or the roof and doesn’t need all the venting the wood stove is required to have, which can save a considerable amount of money. Pellet stoves tend to cost less, on average, than the wood stoves.
Cleaner to Operate
Pellet stoves are much cleaner to operate than wood stoves. With a wood stove, you may have to clean up bark, wood chips, and dirt that are brought into the house when the wood pieces are brought in. You don’t even have to open the bags of pellets until you are right at the stove, making it impossible to make a mess in the house unless you track things in on your shoes. There is usually less ash to clean out of a pellet stove than you would have to clean out of a wood stove, and you would have to clean it out less often.
Safer
Because very little creosote builds up when a pellet stove is used, chimney fires are much less probable than with wood stoves. The temperature of the outside of a pellet stove doesn’t reach the temperature that a wood stoves does, which makes pellet stoves safer than wood stoves. They come in many different styles and colors to match any decor. If you live in an area that is without electricity often during the colder months, a pellet stove may not be the best choice for you because it needs electricity to function, unless you have an alternative power source.