Advantages/Disadvantages to Pellet Stoves

The main reasons why pellet stoves are in such demand is because they cleaner, safer, and more convenient than wood burning stoves. For environementally sensitive folks, the pellet stove produces less air pollution than wood stoves. Also, instead of having to carry heavy, dirty wood in from the outside for a wood stove, pellet stoves let you buy pellet fuel in clean bags and require only filling the fuel hopper once a day. The exterior of pellet stoves tend to stay much cooler than those of wood stoves meaning a less likely chance of being burned accidentally. Lastly, pellet stoves need a lot less cleaning on a regular basis versus wood stoves and the fire hazard associated with pellet stoves is much less. As for disadvantages to pellet stoves, the one big drawback is that they're complex appliances and the multitude of moving parts and motors require regular maintenance. You'll want to check with the dealer (or whoever you buy it from) to make sure that parts are readily available for the model you choose. Many experts also recommend that you purchase a service contract when you buy the stove because servicing a pellet stove can be difficult. Another concern with pellet stoves is that they require electricity (or battery backups) to run the motors, pellet feeders, controls and fans which can become a hassle when the power goes out for more than a day or so. One note in regards to pellet stoves versus corn stoves, several owners said that they developed mice problems in areas where they were storing the corn pellets for their stoves. That's another reason to stick with pellet stoves and eliminate rodent infestations from corn stoves.