To me personally, this design may look good for few months perhaps. In long term, something more classic will have a stronger appeal. In USSR similar looking wood stoves were made and boy where they ugly after a while!

That looks good? To eaches own.

If you arre looking to buy a pellet stove, first check out used ones. A lot of people who bought them aren't happy with their purchase, so you can often find them on Craigslist and similar on-line bulletin board classifieds.

I sold mine that way, and there were two others for sale at the same time. These things take a lot of maintenance, espeically with the iffy quality pellets that are around. I bought half a ton of pellets that were crap.

Like the comment above, these stoves need constant attention; the burners need cleaning and ash removed (this is a much bigger problem with certain pellets). Also, depending on your stove, you may experience feeding jams, especially if there are a lot of broken pellets. Also beware, if you are looking for emergency heat during a black out, be sure your stove has a battery backup that self charges, and will run for at least 24 hours.

"looking like olde-fashioned wood stoves that would fit in grandma's house but not in any self-respecting modernist's."

Well, you can keep your Crayola pellet stove, I'll take grandma's stove styling any day. Remember Avacado Green and Burnt Orange from the 70's? Yeah, your Sunshine Orange or Happy Face Yellow stove will look pretty dumb in 20 years, too. Better to stick with basic black (or white) for long-lasting and expensive appliances such as this.

I'll also take a wood stove over pellet. Buying pellets gets you the same problem as buying oranges from Florida or cranberries from New Jersey - lots of fuel and $ just to ship it. And lots of energy to make them, too. When demand gets too high the manufacturers end up making sawdust just to make pellets, instead of just using up sawmill leftovers which is supposedly their big benefit. Better to get hardwood locally with the minimal processing necessary to make it usable. I get most of my wood free! Wood doesn't run out like pellets did last year, either. Maintenance is less than a pellet stove, and it doesn't need electricity. Pellet stoves have their usefulness in cities, but not for the majority of the market I think.

Pellet stoves have their usefulness in cities, but not for the majority of the market I think.

Most of the world's population lives in urban settings. Same for the US (about 80% or more).

You have your numbers backwards. In the US only around 10% of the population lives in urban settings. 50% live in suburban settings, and 40% live in rural settings. A chart in the middle of this slide show supports my rough estimates:

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/urban_rs/PozziSmall2002_Istanbul.ppt

I found a full discussion of the graph in that slide show, and here are their actual numbers: "This demographic
classification would place 71% of Americans in suburban
areas, 25% in rural areas and 3% in urban areas in 1990."

http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/pdf/IEEE_PozziSmall2001.pdf

So my original postulation stands. 97% of the US population lives in non-urban settings where modern EPA-certified wood stoves are a more sustainable solution than pellet stoves.

RE: Shimotani Pellet Stoves:

Your question:

"Now why can't North American manufacturers do this?

Has been answered:

Snoqualmie Stove Works unveils award winning design...

http://snqstoves.com

Regards

Geoffrey Johnson
Snoqualmie Stoves
R&D