Pellet Stove vs. Wood Stove Comparison | Find Your Ideal Stove in Elgin, IL

Your preference between a pellet or wood stove may boil down to which is easier for you personally to use and maintain. Since wood stoves are more common, their use tends to be more widely understood; plus, wood can be easier to find to burn. Pellet stoves, meanwhile, offer a unique alternative for people looking for a more efficient heating option. 

If you like the ability to prepare something and then leave it to do its thing, you’ll appreciate the distinct advantage that pellet stoves offer. They come with a pellet fuel hopper that holds the chips you’ll need for use for about a day or more. So when you fill your pellet stove with new pellets, you can rest assured that you won’t have to refill it imminently, as you might with a wood stove.

Which is more efficient, a pellet stove or a wood stove? Pellet stoves tend to be more efficient due to the way they burn their fuel — pellets can be fully combusted. Meanwhile, wood stoves tend to burn at a much lower efficiency, meaning that not all of the fuel in your wood stove gets consumed by the fire. 

To decide whether a specific stove, whether wood or pellet, is designed to heat your space well, you should take into consideration what British thermal units (Btu) your chosen stove is rated at. In general, a stove rated at 60,000 Btu can heat a 2,000-square-foot space, while a stove rated at 42,000 Btu can heat a 1,300 square-foot area.

What is the price difference between a wood stove and a pellet stove? Wood stoves can be more expensive because they need to be connected to a chimney or flue. Plus, purchasing wood can add to that cost. Meanwhile, pellet stoves can be direct-vented to the room they’re being placed in, which generally means a lower cost of installation.