Pellet stoves
A water-carrying pellet stove does two jobs at once, and the total output tells you almost nothing about either. What a heating system is sized against is the water-side figure: the part of the output that leaves through the flow and return rather than through the case. On this shelf the same appliance can publish 18 kW total and 12.5 kW to the water, or 19.2 and 15.5 — the difference between them is what heats the room the stove is in, and it is not small. Two other figures decide how the appliance lives with you rather than how it performs: the hopper capacity against the stated run time, which together give the filling interval, and the noise level, which almost nobody publishes. The three below are ordered by how much of that set each one prints.
Every appliance on this page publishes a total output. The figure that sizes a heating system is the other one — the part that leaves through the flow and return.
The gap between them is what heats the room the appliance stands in. On a stove of nineteen kilowatts with fifteen and a half to the water, that leaves nearly four kilowatts in one room, which is a great deal if that room is a hallway.
Output decides what the system receives; the hopper decides how often you are in the room with a sack. Read it against the stated run time rather than on its own: forty kilograms against eleven to eighteen hours is an interval, forty kilograms alone is a volume.
Where a listing publishes a hopper and no run time — most of this shelf — the interval cannot be worked out from the page, and the product page says so.
A noise level. One appliance in this family gives a figure; the rest either call themselves quiet or say nothing.
That matters more on a pellet appliance than on a wood stove, because an auger and a room fan run whenever the appliance does. A stove that lives in a kitchen is one thing; a stove that lives where people are reading is another.
18/10 kW total, 12.5 kW water, 90.8 %, 40 kg tank
A water-carrying appliance that publishes both halves of its output, its efficiency, its hopper and its run time — and a subsidy claim with its own disclaimer.
Best for: A heating circuit that needs a stated water-side output and a hopper big enough to be left alone
19.2 kW total, 15.5 kW water, 138 °C flue gas, A++
Three figures, and they are the right three for a water-carrying appliance: total output, water-side output and flue gas temperature.
Best for: A heating circuit that needs the largest water-side output on this shelf and will take the rest from the maker
Water-carrying, majolica clad, A+
A water-carrying pellet appliance in bordeaux majolica whose listing publishes its own title, a product type and a brand — and nothing further.
Best for: A heating circuit where the model is already specified and the figures will come from the maker’s own documentation
Because it is what the radiators receive. The rest of the output heats the room the appliance stands in, which may be welcome or may be too much. A system designed around a total output rather than a water-side output is designed around a number that never reaches it.
Divide the hopper by the consumption, and prefer a listing that publishes both. One appliance here states 40 kg against a run of eleven to eighteen hours automatic, which is the only pair on this shelf from which an interval can be worked out. Where a maker publishes a hopper and no run time, the page says so.
Yes — an auger, a fan and an igniter all draw power, which is why a pellet appliance stops when the supply does. One listing in this family publishes its electrical consumption; the rest do not, and the pages record the absence rather than estimating it.
For : A heating circuit that needs a stated water-side output and a hopper big enough to be left alone
Main strength : Publishes the water-side output as well as the total, which is what a water-carrying appliance is specified on
Main limitation : The total output is printed as two numbers with no explanation of which is which
For : A heating circuit that needs the largest water-side output on this shelf and will take the rest from the maker
Main strength : Publishes the water-side output against the total — the split a heating system is specified on
Main limitation : Three feature lines on the most expensive appliance in this family
For : A heating circuit where the model is already specified and the figures will come from the maker’s own documentation
Main strength : Majolica cladding named as a material rather than described by adjective
Main limitation : The feature list repeats the title — there is no second source of information
Head-to-heads already published between two models from this guide or this aisle.
The models here come from the catalogue of this site. Specifications are those published by the manufacturer and on the Amazon product page; prices are what Keepa reported on the date below, and both move. The ranking uses declared specifications, the balance of stated strengths and limitations, and price. No product on this site has been physically tested, and nothing here claims otherwise.
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Wood heating is bought when the house is already cold, and that is the worst moment to judge a figure: demand for this shelf climbs through the winter and falls away in spring, so a struck-through price in November tells you nothing at all about what the same reference cost in June. UniverTrack keeps a weekly history for each retailer, so a discount is weighed against a figure somebody actually paid rather than one composed for the banner — and it says when ordering is genuinely the moment.
