Harman Pellet stove...with customer review.
Here it is full-on...keeping us warm & toasty!
Update...December 2008
We've had the stove for a few months now, and love it more each day. If you're even remotely entertaining the idea of a pellet stove, don't hesitate! This was a wonderful investment. We were somewhat skeptical that it would heat the whole house , particularly when it gets super cold, but we were pleasantly surprised. It keeps the house very toasty. The model we bought has a thermostat wire, which tones the stove down or perks the fire up, perfectly maintaining room temp.
More pros---
Asthetically this stove is very charming! It's small size and parlor stove look blends so nicely with any decor. I lean towards a gardeny/cottagey style, and it's just perfect for that. Because of it's dimutive size, this stove can be tucked tight into a corner without all the fuss of heat shields, mantels and heavy duty hearths. Harman makes a hearthpad for the Accentra we thought looked quite nice with the stove, and was very affordable, so we went with that. And, as you can see, the flame fills the room with a cozy glow.
Since the heat is pushed out the top front of the stove by a blower, the outside doesn't get screaming hot like a woodstove does. If you left your hand there for a long time, yes, you would get a burn...but this is a safer option for folks with children and pets. I was even able to put some handpainted galvanized cans at the sides of the stove to hold excess pellets, camouflaging the power and thermostat cords.
The comfort factor of this stove is FAR MORE even and consistent than the other forms of heat we have used. Forced hot air tends to be cyclically cold-warm-cold. Our woodstove heats nicely, but puts out so many BTU's that we are all sweating and opening windows and doors...what a waste! The pellet stove chugs out a consistently even heat that does not overwhelm the people that are in the same room as the stove.
There is not the mess of wood either. The pellets come in tidy 40 pound bags, which are relatively easy to carry, even upstairs. We recycle the bags.
The stove does require some maintanance in the form of cleaning, but nothing that can't be handled with a shop*vac.
Venting is done through a 3 inch stove pipe located at the rear of the stove, right out through the wall to the outside...no chimney needed.
Since we knew we would rely on our pellet stove for our main source of heat, we decided to go with electronic ignition. If you were going to buy for a camp or seasonal cottage, the gel ignited type would be sufficient.
Lastly, we did a lot of research...Harman stoves rated the very best everywhere I looked online and with everyone I talked to. We decided to pay more and get top quality.
The only con (if you can really call it that) is that pellet stoves need electricity to run the blower. We have a generator, which I know from experience (thank you ice storm 2008), is more than sufficient to power the stove.
We may put another of these in our basement...probably not such a pretty little unit as this, but definitely a Harman, and definitely a pellet stove. If you are considering a pellet stove, please feel free to ask questions.
Harman Pellet stove...with customer review.
Here it is full-on...keeping us warm & toasty!
Update...December 2008
We've had the stove for a few months now, and love it more each day. If you're even remotely entertaining the idea of a pellet stove, don't hesitate! This was a wonderful investment. We were somewhat skeptical that it would heat the whole house , particularly when it gets super cold, but we were pleasantly surprised. It keeps the house very toasty. The model we bought has a thermostat wire, which tones the stove down or perks the fire up, perfectly maintaining room temp.
More pros---
Asthetically this stove is very charming! It's small size and parlor stove look blends so nicely with any decor. I lean towards a gardeny/cottagey style, and it's just perfect for that. Because of it's dimutive size, this stove can be tucked tight into a corner without all the fuss of heat shields, mantels and heavy duty hearths. Harman makes a hearthpad for the Accentra we thought looked quite nice with the stove, and was very affordable, so we went with that. And, as you can see, the flame fills the room with a cozy glow.
Since the heat is pushed out the top front of the stove by a blower, the outside doesn't get screaming hot like a woodstove does. If you left your hand there for a long time, yes, you would get a burn...but this is a safer option for folks with children and pets. I was even able to put some handpainted galvanized cans at the sides of the stove to hold excess pellets, camouflaging the power and thermostat cords.
The comfort factor of this stove is FAR MORE even and consistent than the other forms of heat we have used. Forced hot air tends to be cyclically cold-warm-cold. Our woodstove heats nicely, but puts out so many BTU's that we are all sweating and opening windows and doors...what a waste! The pellet stove chugs out a consistently even heat that does not overwhelm the people that are in the same room as the stove.
There is not the mess of wood either. The pellets come in tidy 40 pound bags, which are relatively easy to carry, even upstairs. We recycle the bags.
The stove does require some maintanance in the form of cleaning, but nothing that can't be handled with a shop*vac.
Venting is done through a 3 inch stove pipe located at the rear of the stove, right out through the wall to the outside...no chimney needed.
Since we knew we would rely on our pellet stove for our main source of heat, we decided to go with electronic ignition. If you were going to buy for a camp or seasonal cottage, the gel ignited type would be sufficient.
Lastly, we did a lot of research...Harman stoves rated the very best everywhere I looked online and with everyone I talked to. We decided to pay more and get top quality.
The only con (if you can really call it that) is that pellet stoves need electricity to run the blower. We have a generator, which I know from experience (thank you ice storm 2008), is more than sufficient to power the stove.
We may put another of these in our basement...probably not such a pretty little unit as this, but definitely a Harman, and definitely a pellet stove. If you are considering a pellet stove, please feel free to ask questions.