Safe 24/7 stove pellet stove?

jayman81 said:

The other unit I researched was the Enviro Maxx-M

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I own the Omega, The Maxx M's older sister. My stove has gone over 45 days(50+ bags of pellets) without touching(opening the door to clean the glass or poke the burnpot ect) besides adding fuel. The self cleaning burnpot keeps the ash-clinkers-carbon from clogging the holes. I have burned some absolute crud and this stove has never once squawked or complained. Its was on auto/off and lite every morning and afternoon. I didn't need to worry if I was coming home to a cold house.

Harman Lover 007 said:

If you want to achieve all three of your goals above....suck it up and buy a Harman.

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Why, I didn't and I spent less ta boot.

And when there's no pellets(like last march), I can burn corn or other fuels.

jtakeman said:

I own the Omega, The Maxx M's older sister. My stove has gone over 45 days(50+ bags of pellets) without touching(opening the door to clean the glass or poke the burnpot ect) besides adding fuel. The self cleaning burnpot keeps the ash-clinkers-carbon from clogging the holes. I have burned some absolute crud and this stove has never once squawked or complained. Its was on auto/off and lite every morning and afternoon. I didn't need to worry if I was coming home to a cold house.

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Good to see you back J...
If my memory is any good, you also ran a Breckwell. I as well and 2 members of my family have The Big E. After switching to Barefoot super premium, I run 2 weeks without opening the door or dumping the ash, all with no OAK.

This year, my pellet dealer picked up the Breckwell line, and has Big E's for $1795.00 I would buy another (and I just might)

metalsped said:

My biggest concern is continual heat and ash. The reloading is not that big of a deal. I want something that I can just let run and not have my wife think a second about. Check it when I get home, and reload as necessary. You know?

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My first stove was used and a lemon that had 2 chimney fires in a 3 months period of getting due to the dampernot working wear the guy that sold it said that doesn't matter.well after doing months of research i went with a Haman p35i.its safety features are amazing.You can leave alone till you just need to feed her more pellets.Im more OCD so I scrape once or twice a day and a shut down cleaning once a weak.ash contents from what I found is based on lower priced pellets.So I'm not a harman salesman just saying that from the reseach I have done found harman to be the best for me.what ever you choose good luck

BrotherBart said:

Actually the lawyer's saying is don't ask a question at trial if you don't already know the answer.

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Also, don't give an auditor anymore than what they ask for...

Look at the Englander 10 CPM. It's a multifuel stove with an agitator. No pot scraping necessary. I've gone 2-3 weeks between cleanings, burning 1-2 bags per day during the heart of the season. Would be perfect for a basement stove if it had a larger hopper. 50 lbs isn't tiny, but sometimes certain pellets will hang up a little. Look at the AM FM energy site, cheapest place to buy an Englander. They're out of stock currently (49 TRCPM) is the model number, but they get more in pretty regularly.

When I was stove shopping I almost bought a mt vernon after comparing it to the harman I was actually mad cause I liked the mt vernon and realized that the accentra would be the better buy.not trying to sway you in any direction just advising you to do your homework on the stove you want. make sure it has everything you need and compare it to other stoves available to you.if I would have bought the mt vernon I would be kicking myself right now hope this helps.

metalsped said:

Since my other thread was derailed, let me try again (with a different topic now).

Thinking about a basement install. What is on the market for stoves that can:

1.) Run unattended for long stretches
2.) Wife does not even have to think about
3.) Can go a few days without having to dump ashes

I know pellets can hang up in any stove, but I am looking for something to reliably heat my basement area. The Englander stuff seems to require shutdown every 24hr or so for cleaning of the burnpot and dumping of ashes. Harman seems to be on the other end with the huge ash drop. Anything in the middle?

I'd like something that I can let go for a few days (even if I have to refill the pellet hopper... not a concern there) without having to shut down and de-ash. Does that make sense? Thanks

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You may want to look into the CFM of the heat blower to distribute heat depending on how big the area you are heating. It was a deciding factor for me, though I am a new pellet burner. Stoking 2 stoves several times per day wtih logs while dear husband was at work became too hard for me. I figure worst case scenario now I can scoop pellets with a small sauce pan if it comes to that. Oh, and a backup generator incase the electricity goes out. I wish you luck.

My 25pdvc just seems to, well, do that.

Example,
Wake up for night shift, light stove.

Leave for work, wife gets home, happy the house is warm, doesn't touch the stove.

12 hours later, I'm home from work. Fill hopper, go to sleep.

Wake up 8 hours later, house still warm,
Stove still on. Top off hopper, go to work..

Come home 12 hours later, stove still on...

Yes, this is an Englander. I'm burning Blazer Doug fir pellets. No clinkers, the ash is low, and the burn pot doesn't fill with ash?

Every four days on my first day off, I turn the stove off, and dump the remaining ashes in the burn pot. Turn it back on.

In two weeks, I'll turn it off long enough to take the vac to it

BrotherBart said:

Be interesting to see how the new Englander 25-IP stacks up with the requirements. 80 pound hopper and large ash pan.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Englander-Imperial-2-200-sq-ft-Pellet-Stove-25-IPS/203715820

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I was looking at this particular stove before i bough my Piazzetta and the fit and finish was terrible.

Big E said:

Good to see you back J...
If my memory is any good, you also ran a Breckwell. I as well and 2 members of my family have The Big E. After switching to Barefoot super premium, I run 2 weeks without opening the door or dumping the ash, all with no OAK.

This year, my pellet dealer picked up the Breckwell line, and has Big E's for $1795.00 I would buy another (and I just might)

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Howdy Big E,

Yes, I owned an E for a while. It did the job until it got really cold. I was afraid I'd warp it trying to run it balls out in the extreme cold. When I bought mine they were rated at 55K BTU's but in actuality they were not. So I opted to sell it before I wrecked it and bought the current stove.

To the OP,

Many stoves will do the week long burning deal. I see more people decide which stove to get by looks than functionality. And one key element that is often over looked is properly sizing it for the job at hand. Hopefully you'll get some use out of all these suggestions and try not to drink the cool-aide.

jtakeman said:

..........Hopefully you'll get some use out of all these suggestions and try not to drink the cool-aide.

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...that left a mark.....

709GADE said:

I was looking at this particular stove before i bough my Piazzetta and the fit and finish was terrible.

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Found a 2 yr old post about the 25ip and Jay said the heat exchanger basically suck's compared to heat tubes, that ends my interest.

Pellet-King said:

Found a 2 yr old post about the 25ip and Jay said the heat exchanger sucks basically, that ends my interest

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I'm not fond of any of the box type heat exchangers. Not enough surface area to extract the available heat. If you add heat sinks it can be made more a bit more efficient!

metalsped said:

Thinking about a basement install. What is on the market for stoves that can:
1.) Run unattended for long stretches
2.) Wife does not even have to think about
3.) Can go a few days without having to dump ashes

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Ive had good luck with the Heatilator in our basement. For me, does just what you described you wanted. I'm using it to keep the basement at 60 degrees. Of course, every house is different.

The PAH is a very solid workhorse in my opinion. Mine just moved to basement duty this week where I think it will do a great job. 120lb hopper so it holds a lot, burns anything you put in it (although like most stoves, will do much better with quality pellets) and moves a ton of air with a 250cfm blower. I like to keep the glass clean so I almost always shut down daily for a quick clean. Definitely not necessary though as I forced myself to let it go a few days in the middle of winter last year without touching it and it was still running great. No problems yet going into it's 3rd year of hard service. At $999 from AM/FM it's really a bargain.
When temps hit -15 here last winter, the PAH kept us warm running at 8 out of 9 on the heat range as our sole source of heat in our 1600ft3 ranch.
I don't have experience with any brands other then Englander so I won't say it's better then the alternatives, but it's certainly not a bad choice.

metalsped said:

That's a nice looking stove! I'd like to hear more about this model if anyone knows. I can probably search after work.

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I have the 25IP. Going into my 2nd year with it. Overall I'm happy with it. Here's what I worked out as a sustainable maintenance routine for it:

• During the season the stove is running full time in hi/lo mode on a simple thermostat
• Every night I stir up the burn pot without shutting down.
  • Takes about 30 seconds (don't go too long or you can kill the fire)
  • I have a bent and flattened pipe I use for this
• Every week I shut down and do a cleaning.
  • Dump and scrape burn pot
  • Brush the ash from all around the box, removing the baffles.
  • Empty the ash pan
  • Vac the inside out
• Monthly cleaning is basically the weekly cleaning plus removing the access plates and cleaning out the exchanger.
• Clean the flue about every other month.

I found that worked well for me. Obviously filling the hopper as needed. The ash pan is big enough to hold a weeks worth of ash, but it does pile up and you have to redistribute it to the center of the pan. Not a big deal as it's part of the weekly cleaning.

Not sure if that would satisfy your requirements, and one of the bottom feeders or a multifuel would probably reduce the daily maintenance further, but I don't find that procedure onerous and it did work well for an extended period.

Here's the main thread on this stove: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-55-trp-ip-s-aka-25-ip-s.113588/
And a couple others: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-25-ips-finally-installed.124063/ https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/cleaning-an-englander-ip.124373/

I found that with my Maxx-M and a low ash pellet I can fill ~every other day and clean once per ton. Only opened the door to clean the glass and satisfy curiosity.

I went with this model because I know what I'm like and it has met my expectations so far, plus (if I ever get the vent kit actually installed) I'll be able to move the heat to where I need it.

Good luck,
- Jeff