Pellet stoves are an interesting form of fireplace stove that can be popular because of their efficiency and heating abilities, as well as having the advantage of being a fully automated system where no user input is required during a fire.
Pellet stoves are more popular in certain countries than others and so traditional wood burning stoves can often be seen in many more homes compared to pellet stoves.
Pellet stoves can look very different compared to wood stoves and so what does a pellet stove look like?
Pellet stoves are solid fuel burning appliances but are typically found to be taller and larger compared to wood stoves. Pellet stoves are usually box-like units with a relatively small glass door on the front and can have more of a contemporary look compared to a typically traditional looking wood burning stove.
Our own pellet stove has a more modern style and box-like structure compared to our multi fuel stove, and there are a number of reasons why pellet stoves have such a different shape and size compared to other forms of stove.
We’ve therefore explained in more detail below using our own pellet stove photos as examples:
- What pellet stoves look like.
- Why pellet stoves look like they do and what components influence their design.
What Does A Pellet Stove Look Like?
Pellet stoves typically have the following distinct features that set it apart visually from traditional wood burning stoves.
- Tall
- Relatively thin frame compared to its height
- Box-like or rounded design
- Smaller glass door in relation to the total size of the stove, compared to wood stoves
- Can be found with more contemporary design features
- Can be found in a range of colours unlike the traditional black colour of wood stoves
- Typically sits on the floor with no legs
Pellet Stove Front
The front of a pellet stove is often found to be of a minimalistic design compared to traditional wood burning stoves.
The main features that you’ll typically find at the front of a pellet stove include:
- Door with handle and glass viewing panel
- Heater blower grille
- Metal coverings and sides
- Flat and low base
The combustion chamber of a pellet stove is where the fire is located and where the fuel will be burnt.
This combustion chamber will have door fronting it, with a glass panel in which to view the fire through from the room.
The combustion chamber can be reached by opening this glass door using the integrated handle. These doors are lined with a gasket seal to ensure that all airflow coming into the pellet stove is only through the dedicated air vent.
Doors to pellet stove combustion chambers do not need to be opened during fires as they would typically need to for wood stoves to add more fuel to the fire.
On the front of pellet stoves you’ll also typically find a grille where the hot air is blown out from the blower inside.
Pellet stoves rely less on radiating the heat through the body of the stove and more on convection of warm air. An integrated blower in pellet stove forces air out the front of the stove, which heats up as is passes by the combustion chamber within the stove.
As pellet stoves are electrical appliances with a number of electrical components much of the outer body of a pellet stove is hiding electrical components located behind.
In the case of our pellet stove, there’s a metal sheet located at the front of the stove below the combustion chamber.
This doesn’t serve any purpose apart from to hide the fume extractor components located behind for our particular model of pellet stove.
Pellet Stove Top
The main components that you’ll typically find in many pellet stoves at the top of the stove include:
- Hopper opening
- Control panel
The top of our particular model of pellet stove is fairly minimalistic in design and only has two distinct features which are the control panel and the opening to the hopper where the pellets are stored ready for burning.
Pellet stoves are very automated forms of stove and typically have a central control panel to control all of the features on the stove including when the stove automatically turns on and off to heat a room at set times of a day and on set days.
In the case of our particular model of pellet stove, this touch screen control panel is located at the top of the stove, towards the back.
Also located on the top of our pellet stove, which will be the same with many other models of pellet stove, is the hatch to the hopper where the pellets can be added.
Our pellet stove is a top-fed pellet stove, which means that the pellets (fuel) are added to the hopper located at the top of the stove and force fed down into the combustion chamber to burn when needed.
For our pellet stove, we simply need to remove the metal hopper hatch cover in order to get to the hopper to add the pellets.
The remaining area at the top of our pellet stove is simply flat space. However, this area still gets hot to the touch and so we don’t place anything on top of our pellet stove in line with the manufacturer’s recommendations for our particular model of pellet stove.
Pellet Stove Sides
The sides of a pellet stove typically won’t serve any distinctive purpose apart from to hide the components inside.
Our pellet stove has red accent sides with slats for airflow.
Pellet Stove Underside
Many pellet stoves, including ours, don’t have any form of legs on the underside of the stove.
This may be because pellet stoves can weight a lot and are quite tall and so a flat base is a better platform for such an appliance.
Our pellet stove simply sits on a flat metal ridge located around the bottom edge of the stove in which the weight of the stove sits on.
Pellet Stove Back
The back of a pellet stove typically won’t be seen when the stove is backed up against a wall of a home, and so the back of a pellet stove typically won’t have any design features but mainly functional parts.
For example, the back of our pellet stove is a plain metal sheet with the following components visible:
- Electrical socket
- Fresh air vent
- Flue socket
There are also a number of open slats seen at the back of our pellet stove, which vent fresh air to the blower that forces hot air out into the room.
Pellet stove are electrical appliances and need electricity in order to work.
You’ll therefore find the plug or power cord at the back of the pellet stove in which to plug the stove into a nearby standard electrical outlet.
All pellet stoves need to vent waste air out of a home and so on the back of a pellet stove you’ll typically find the flue socket ready to connect up to a flue.
Pellet stoves are enclosed systems where the airflow in and out of the stove only goes through certain vents for efficiency purposes.
Pellet stoves will therefore have a dedicated air vent typically located on the back of the stove. Depending on the local building codes and regulations, and manufacturer’s guidelines, there may need to be a direct vent going out an external wall of a home and connected to this vent on a pellet stove.
For more information we’ve covered venting requirements for pellet stoves in another article.
This article shows what our own pellet stove looks like on the outside, and other models of pellet stoves will look different and may have alternative features located on different parts of the stove.
For more information on what’s exactly inside a pellet stove see our other article on what’s inside a pellet stove.