finally bit the bullet, realized how unsafe that 1261 really is

I bought a stove today. I bought a US stove country hearth 2000. at $600 the price was right and tractor supply is only 20 minutes away. my neighbor who does construction has a job he had to finish today. I went over to see if I could use his truck. he told me the job he was working on was only 5 minutes from TSC and I could go with him and pick up a stove. I will say I am not disappointed, what a nice unit for $600, I don't understand why people buy lopi, Harman, and Avalon for $3,000 when you can have one of these or an Englander for $6-700. I did not like my 5510 but this unit seems to be decent. there is a larger diifferencee between a Harman pellet stove and a cheaper unit, with wood stoves the differences are allot less noticeable I noticed that it had good reviews on this site so I decided to go with it. there was also another customer at TSC that said he has had one for 12 years and he's extremely pleased with it, being the only repair he has done in 12 years is new firebrick. I had a smaller fire and it still put out fantasic heat. I wanted to keep the temps down as per manual, says to avoid running it hard until paint has cured. I hope to have this great unit 20 years or longer.

with an EPA stove what should I set the draft control at? I had it cracked open a little to keep the heat in the stove but let the smoke out, is that correct?

as far as the 1261 goes it should be removed from the market as per being a very unsafe unit. running a modern stove I realize just how much safer they have become. the 1261 is impossible to control, draws flame up into the black pipe, makes the chimney much hotter, eats firewood like there is no tomorrow. how old is that design anyways? its terribly unsafe. im going to try to sell it but I probably lost my money on that piece of junk ($60 if I cant get it back oh well, lessons learned). I ran that modern stove and the chimney was warm to the touch, not hot. I never got it up to glowing temps with that 1261, I would never let it get that hot, but it was hotter then I would have liked it to be. I would rate this stove as an old, outdated, unsafe piece of junk. belongs in a museum then on the store shelves. the sad part is people still buy these things new. I noticed that the modern stove has fire proof material on the top of the firebox preventing flames from being sucked into the black pipe the 1261 has nothing to prevent this.

I know there are good older pre-epa stoves but the 1261 is not one of them. its an unsafe design. I decided after using it several times that while it did produce SOME heat, it seemed dangerous, I don't think I could work in my barn knowing that thing has a fire inside of it. didn't seem like a safe unit to be having a fire in, especially being that the firebox isn't sealed. another good point im going to make is that when you close the draft to burn the smoke inside the stove since the unit is not sealed it has a tendency to leak smoking into the building.. I quit smoking cigarettes, lol. I don't plan on starting up again.

I know that the stove I bought was made in china, but it does seem to be fairly well made. we will see how I like it over time. it fit my budget requirements, was easy to go pick it up (tractor supply was 10 minutes away), and this is not going in my home but my barn. I already had a fire in it, after running it I would not have minded it if it was in my house. seems like a very nice unit, especially for 600 bucks.

I never ran that box stove in my house, I didn't even feel safe working in the barn with it on; plus I would spend more time fiddling around with trying to keep a hot fire then I would actually doing anything else. it also would have chewed through my 2 chords of fire wood and the scrap wood that I have collected way to quickly. I think that box stove would have put more heat out the chimney then into the room. terrible design, only safe burning it in the middle of your back yard to burn trash, lol. glad its gone. now i will have safe as long as im smart about it don't pour gasoline on the stove, duh (common sense there). the us stove 2000 isn't as heavy as some of the better stoves im sure but its heavy enough; i'll have to report back after running it for a while, but its not an ornate or designer type of stove but it seems to built well enough to last a long time. when we moved into the house there was an old US stove circulator in the living room, the previous owners had constantly overfired, all of the firebrick were cracked but the stove was still in fairly good condition. if i had kept it i probably still could have used that in the barn but that was 3 years ago and i had junked it a while ago. the thing was probably 20 years old if not more. it was a circulator that had a glass window in it, i don't think they have made that in a while. for the $600 i don't think you can go wrong and if i have it 20 years i will be beyond pleased.

as far as what i use in my house, its a Harman P61; less fuss for the wife. i can load it up with pellets before i go to work; 14 hours when i come home its still running at the same temperature it was when i left it. i also have a thermostat to regulate the temperature so the wife can adjust it. my Harman was $2800. i hope to have both stoves for a very long time.