Shopping For A Pellet Stove

I'm shopping for a pellet stove.

I didn't want to this year, but because the Solar Heater BROKE, I have to have some form of heat out in the work shed. I can't let that machine sit idle another year. It was way too pricey to just collect dust.

So anyway, the solar heater was supposed to get us through the beginning and ends of the heating seasons, and hopefully through it all, eliminating the need for any other heat source. With it being trashed for at least this year due to my autumn vertigo starting up, I need another heat source.

Sigh.

So, I stopped at a local HVAC place that sells all sorts of stoves - nat gas, wood, coal, pellet. They have a single pellet stove. Breckwell The Big E. Never mind that it would heat 2 of our houses, much less the 300 sf of the shed, it's the only one they sell. I'd prefer a bit more selection.

And then, I get the numbers. Meow wow. Forget how much it burns per day that would be completely wasted. 800 to install? 325 for the most basic hearth pad? 2600 for the stove itself?

I started shopping elsewhere.

I didn't find any good reviews of this particular stove, so am not inclined to buy it anyway. But if I were, I'd be buying it online. I found it for 1950, with free shipping. All of the stuff that goes with it - thermostat and pipes, I found for far less than the combined difference in price plus their install. The only thing that was nearly identical in price was the hearth pad.

So I've emailed a second "local" store. Not one I can just drive to and look around and drive home without getting dizzy for a week, but close enough. They have a huge selection. Plus, steered me to two different makes that would work well. I checked them out, found reviews, and have pretty much made up my mind which one. It's a Dansons Glow Boy. It has a much smaller maximum btu hourly rate, and a lower starting btu rate. That's good. Far less waste.

Now all we have to do is get down there to buy it. That'll have to wait until my sister comes up to visit the middle of this month. If I wait for Mom, she'll procrastinate until they're all sold out. She wants something else. What else, no one really knows - including here. But because it wasn't her idea, she doesn't want the pellet stove. Too bad. I'm buying, so I'm choosing. And I'm the one who will be maintaining, so I'm choosing.

I've decided - The Dansons Glow Boy. More good reviews.