St Croix Hastings - Used

axxell33 said:

Hello!

Brand new to the Hearth.com community.. I have learned so much here! So, first off.. thanks to everyone who takes the time to post and make this a great store of useful info!

I'm a first time homebuyer. My home is heated primarily by heat pump. There's one in the main part of the house, and another in system in an addition. The main part of the house has an old mid 80s zero clearance StovePlace fireplace with fan. Boy does this thing suck! It's just eating wood like crazy. Replacing it next season will be a big priority.

On top of burning a lot of wood during this crazy cold winter, I just got my last power bill and it was $500. The heat pump in the addition of the house just stays on constantly. So, I'm thinking of installing a secondary source to keep that sucker from clicking on. I like the idea of pellets..

I found a 6 year old St Croix Hastings. The seller says it needs servicing and she doesn't have time to do it properly. Her quote:


Her asking price is $800 and she says it's negotiable. After reading through all of the manuals and doing a little research, I'm pretty sure I can install the vent for this myself. I'm also pretty sure I can tear this thing down and give it a nice scrubbing. I've never had a problem with a wrench and I'm fairly mechanically inclined.

But all of that will be in vain if the Hastings is not a good stove. Anyone have thoughts they'd care to share on their experiences with this stove and whether this could potentially be a good purchase? The power bill is costing me enough.. I'd hate to throw $1000 away on something useless.

Thanks again!

Pic of stove..

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StCroix makes a good stove. The problems with them is pretty much as the owner describes, it requires cleaning type maintenance perhaps just a bit more frequently than some other brands. Yes do expect to scrape that burn pot probably daily but certainly every other day. This is typical with most pellets stoves anyway just some will limp along with a dirty pot, some almost seem to self clean but not quite and others will conk out with a dirty pot. You can go a long ways toward aiding in this by using good pellets and have the stove on a routine cleaning schedule... All pellet stoves need cleaning, some more often than others but all have to be done and should be done on a schedule. Some people don't want that hassle, others find a hobby in it. Lets put it this way, my dealer sold both StCroix and Harman. I asked what is the difference ? He said you will have to clean the StCroix more often. He didn't get into mechanics, heat displacement or anything to do with engineering. You could physically look at both stoves and see that both had quality written on them.

Nobody knows the true condition of a used stove till it gets worked on and put in service. It's probably a fine stove. I'd guess it will heat 1800 to 2000 sq ft well and grunt a bit to do more than that but it certainly would take the edge of that electric bill at any rate. The price sounds fair and the owner is probably correct in that it needs some TLC. Only you can decide the rest !

The St.Croix look to be a good stoves but if burning pellets they tend to fill the passages around the exhaust fan I am told by a reputable source. Was not much of a problem when burning corn as the ash from corn falls differently so the exhaust fan will be the main concern in its cleaning. New gasket of course when it gets pulled. That is a good price. Most of them in our area go for 1k

We love our st criox. I find with the versa grate we never have to scrape the burn pot. Just fill it and pull the rods twice a day. We shut it down once a week for cleaning. In the spring we pull the fans and use an air compressor to blow it out well and do a deep cleaning.

I find that they are an easy stove to work on. So far we have replaced the exhaust fan and repaired the firebrick and the proof of fire disk. It is in our 3rd winter with us, but we bought it used and it is a 2006 model

St Croix makes good stoves but the Hastings can be a pain to keep running well. There are a couple of owners on here who seem to have figured the out. Hopefully they will chime in

wwert said:

St Croix makes good stoves but the Hastings can be a pain to keep running well. There are a couple of owners on here who seem to have figured the out. Hopefully they will chime in

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I would say then, to stay away from Fireside Ultra pellets because they are burning dirtier than anything I've tried thus far in my P61. I feel like I'm abusing my beauty but it's taking it ok ! Fine when I mix them with Okan DF but that kills my DF's IMO. Everything ( all pellets I've tried) burns better with DF's in the mix.

In my opinion a 6 year old St.Croix Hastings for $800 is a good buy. Prior to installing, I would field strip the stove and clean it out. A compressed air gun works well to get to all the hard to reach places. If you are half way handy, cleaning an mainteance should not be a problem. Make certain that you check with your local building officials as you will likely need a mechanical pemit for installation. I would also recommend Selkirk pellet venting as it also serves to bring outside combustion air into the stove (so you do not have to install a seperate outside air kit "OAK"). I would recommend an "up and out" kit vs. going straight out the wall. The reason is that if you have a power outage, the hot venting will continue to pull the smoke out of the firebox so it will not enter the home. Also install quality circut protection to protect your board. Visit the St. Croix web-site, they have manuals online and troubleshooting videos. You may have a bit of a rattle from the versa-grate motor but, this appears to be a standard issue with all St.Croix stoves. I was able to "quite" my rattle by packing the gear box with more grease and cleaning and lubricating the bushings, cam, and linkage. Good luck to you.

axxell33 said:

So I went and took a look. The stove was filthy but appeared to be in great shape. She said she had it serviced every year but hardly cleaned it inbetween. The igniter was recently replaced as the ash had crystallized on it and burnt it out.

I asked her if she'd negotiate price.. Offered $500 and she accepted (was asking $800). Didn't quite realize how heavy this sucker was, so I'm going to go back in a couple of days with a buddy and load it up.

I'll post a pic of the final install after I get it cleaned and burning good. Thanks again for the help!

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That's great ! you should rent or borrow a two wheel dolly. That's how we got my P61 in the house and the coal stove out. In fact 35 years ago that's how I got the coal stove in !!

Good luck, keep us informed, very cool !

Grats to you!

axxell33 said:

So I went and took a look. The stove was filthy but appeared to be in great shape. She said she had it serviced every year but hardly cleaned it inbetween. The igniter was recently replaced as the ash had crystallized on it and burnt it out.

I asked her if she'd negotiate price.. Offered $500 and she accepted (was asking $800). Didn't quite realize how heavy this sucker was, so I'm going to go back in a couple of days with a buddy and load it up.

I'll post a pic of the final install after I get it cleaned and burning good. Thanks again for the help!

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That's a great deal on a great stove. Mine is 8 years old and performs like a champ. Just keep I clean and you won't be disappointed .

You got a good deal even if you find that you need to replace a few parts. A full service on my Prescott takes me about 5-6 hours and a half rack.

Half price of normally used price. Enough savings to get the pellet stash started to boot.

I have had my Hastings for 6 seasons now, not one issue. Pull the little doors that are on both sides, under the burn pot. They are just a flat piece of metal that hook in on the top edge of them. That is where you will build ash and affect your airflow. I pull those and vacuum with a flexible attachment weekly. Pull the top grate off and clean the burn tubes, scrape any crud off of the burn pot and you are good. That has been my routine and have never had an issue. If the flame is lazy then make sure the shaker grate lever is pushed hard all the way in and that the door for the ash pan is sealed good. I am religious about the once a week cleaning of those two little vents but other than that just a general vacuum of the stove and you are good. I have never scraped my burn pot in between cleanings, I will usually have a couple of little marble sized clinkers at the end of a week of burning but they don't seem to affect the burn so I clean them out when I clean the stove and move on. I use the T stat setting which idles down to 1 when the thermostat isn't calling for heat and I set it so that it goes up to 3 when heat is called for. I could not be happier with the performance and for that price I would say you got a steal!! I did my own install, any questions feel free to ask or send me a PM. Good luck with it!

Edited to add:
If you hear a squeak while it is burning then you need to lube the little cam that operates the versa grate. The factory grease collects dust and will squeal a little bit, I greased mine with some bearing grease that was recommended on this forum and it hasn't made a noise in 2 years!

axxell33 said:

Thanks again everyone!

I got the beast on the trailer and unloaded her in the garage tonight. She got the strip down and then the leaf blower treatment. Man, I was amazed how much stuff can blow out of a little stove! After that, I took all the pieces out, scrubbed them down, blew it out again, then put it back and wiped the whole thing down.

I loaded a couple handfulls of pellets into the pot, poured some into the hopper, and started it up. It took it a few few mins, but started smoking and then lit up.

My only major issue.. is that my auger is not turning to feed more pellets. After my priming pellets burn from the pot, the fire dies, I get a diag error on the control.. etc. I pulled the side panel and I can see the little motor torquing on the crank for the auger, but the auger never turns. I'm not sure why this is?

Otherwise, I need to grease the versa grate cam. It squeaked a little. I also noticed on the of the metal flaps that cover the holes under the burn pot is missing. There's a hole on each side and I have only have one cover. Big deal?

I've gotta dig and figure out the auger issue, grout my hearth pad, and hopefully tomorrow evening get her set and start running the vent pipe. I can't wait to get that warm heat in the house! Heat pumps are for the birds!

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Hopefully your missing piece of plate is not jammed in the auger. Otherwise you probably need to do some dis assembly and get that auger to turn manually. Don't keep trying to get the motor to turn it. It may be stuck from non use or there may be something stuck in it. I'll let the St Croix guys take it from here !

I don't know how much of a difference the missing trap door will make. I will say that if that found its way into the hopper then you have problems, it can't migrate there without some help! I assume you have an auger jam of some sort, my friend just had that yesterday with a St. Croix insert, before that I hadn't heard of it happening too frequently at all. He emptied his hopper but I'm not sure what the jam was from. I have heard a word of caution here and at my local dealer, if you have a jam make sure there is no power on when trying to clear it, the auger motors are powerful and will do some damage to your appendages if they happen to get stuck in there! Good luck, with it.

Ahh, the reason you got it cheap it was constipated.

Lookin' good!

You got a really good deal because someone didn't take the time to clean and service it like they should have! Hopefully you've got surge protection and a CO detector up. Welcome to the forum

axxell33 said:

Well, got her all finished. She's blowin some good hot air! So glad my heat pump is takin a rest..

Thanks again to all who helped me get started here!

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Fantastic, nice looking stove too ! Amazing what a little work and some paint will do with a non functioning unit. I got a commercial rated table saw ( still have it) for $50 because it appeared that the motor was seized. Turned out to be the belt was frozen to the pulleys.

That is a good purchase. You can take the screen out of the glass also. (St. Croix started doing it themselves a couple years ago) It allows a better view of the fire, and gives you a better idea of when to do a general cleaning (when the glass gets dirty)