We live just outside Portland, Maine and have had our stove for about a week and a half now.
We ordered it from a local stove shop months ago.
We've run it pretty steadily as our original plan was to use it as our primary source of heat this winter.
Our house is cape-style, about 1550 sq feet, well under the max. square footage the Lopi claims to be able
to cover.
I note above our "original" plan was to use it as our primary heat source. It is still somewhat the plan but
our oil boiler is back on again. (We recently filled up the oil tank with a bio-blend so we don't have to feel as bad
about using it, however, the pellets are probably still better for the environment).
I notice some other posters have had issues similar to what we've been experiencing.
The stove is off right now because I'm not convinced the door is sealing tight enough.
We've had a few instances where we've smelled some of the wood smoke coming into the house.
Our windows are just a little drafty so I've wondered if it could be some blow-back from the chimney which
sticks out about 3 feet, straight out of the front of the house.
Next, the glass viewing window keeps sooting up. At first, I thought it was due to high moisture content in the pellets which
came with the stove. Another type of pellets we bought (Nature's Heat pellets from Pennington Seed) seem to burn better
however, after about 30 to 40 lbs of pellets are burned you can see a little soot collecting on the glass but after 60 to 70 lbs the glass
really needs cleaning if you want a nice view of the flames. Burn a few more pounds of pellets and parts of the glass are virtually black.
Also, the pretty brick-style backing keeps getting covered with dark soot after every few hours. I've given up on giving it much more than
a quick brush at cleaning intervals and right now it's quite black. I don't care too much what that looks like but I'm thinking it should take longer
before it gets so sooty?
I'm now betting these three symptoms are due to the door not quite sealing tightly enough at the top. I used a piece of paper, the same size and
nearly the same consistency as a dollar bill, stuck it in the door on all four sides as I re-latched the door each time. On the left side I really couldn't pull it
out without using excessive force. On the right side, it was also nearly impossible to pull out, same with the bottom. But, for the top of the door, I was able
to pull the paper through without using much force. Could there be enough of an air leak there to cause extra sooting and some smoke to leak out?
I can easily adjust the silver latches on the right side of the stove so they tighten more but when I tried to adjust the hinges on the left side earlier tonight I cut my hand. The top bolt was easy to access and loosen but the bottom bolt is a problem. It's tough to fit a socket in there and tough to get a good grip on the
bolt head; this is why my wrench slipped. I think there's a weld there that sticks up quite a bit. I have to take a better look at it tomorrow.
I notice another poster had an issue with the stove vibrating a bit or being noisy at cool-down. So far I notice the vibration changes or goes away when the hopper is fuller vs. emptier.
Other noise issues are that if you do plan to heat more than about 600 sq feet, you'll probably need to run the stove and fans at the medium-high to high settings when the temperature outside goes below freezing. The noise from this is right on the borderline of being annoying (when you're in the same room). Then if you need to run more portable fans to move the air around your house, you have the noise from these and you can get cool air currents flowing which aren't fun.
On the brighter side, overall, we're having pretty good luck using the stove to greatly reduce the amount of heating oil we would otherwise use. It has only stopped working a couple of times and we can only guess that once it was due to power fluctuation and once due to an auger jam that cleared itself up. Plus, sometimes it is very relaxing to sit in front of the stove and get "toastier" than you could with anything else.
We've found it is entirely possible to heat the whole house with the stove but there are so many variables involved, especially when it goes below freezing, that it's easier to set the pellet stove's thermostat a little higher than the oil-burner's thermostat, then the oil burner just rarely comes on. Plus, then we can keep the stove's settings on medium or medium low which makes the noise less of an issue.
I'd like to note a couple of chimney concerns and a pellet question or two but won't make this any longer.
If it wasn't for the door seal, smoke, and sooting issue the stove would probably be running all night again tonight (we use the wall thermostat)...
Thanks in advance for any advice... I plan to re-post again as soon as I can adjust the left hinges then run it for another day or so.
Scott
We ordered it from a local stove shop months ago.
We've run it pretty steadily as our original plan was to use it as our primary source of heat this winter.
Our house is cape-style, about 1550 sq feet, well under the max. square footage the Lopi claims to be able
to cover.
I note above our "original" plan was to use it as our primary heat source. It is still somewhat the plan but
our oil boiler is back on again. (We recently filled up the oil tank with a bio-blend so we don't have to feel as bad
about using it, however, the pellets are probably still better for the environment).
I notice some other posters have had issues similar to what we've been experiencing.
The stove is off right now because I'm not convinced the door is sealing tight enough.
We've had a few instances where we've smelled some of the wood smoke coming into the house.
Our windows are just a little drafty so I've wondered if it could be some blow-back from the chimney which
sticks out about 3 feet, straight out of the front of the house.
Next, the glass viewing window keeps sooting up. At first, I thought it was due to high moisture content in the pellets which
came with the stove. Another type of pellets we bought (Nature's Heat pellets from Pennington Seed) seem to burn better
however, after about 30 to 40 lbs of pellets are burned you can see a little soot collecting on the glass but after 60 to 70 lbs the glass
really needs cleaning if you want a nice view of the flames. Burn a few more pounds of pellets and parts of the glass are virtually black.
Also, the pretty brick-style backing keeps getting covered with dark soot after every few hours. I've given up on giving it much more than
a quick brush at cleaning intervals and right now it's quite black. I don't care too much what that looks like but I'm thinking it should take longer
before it gets so sooty?
I'm now betting these three symptoms are due to the door not quite sealing tightly enough at the top. I used a piece of paper, the same size and
nearly the same consistency as a dollar bill, stuck it in the door on all four sides as I re-latched the door each time. On the left side I really couldn't pull it
out without using excessive force. On the right side, it was also nearly impossible to pull out, same with the bottom. But, for the top of the door, I was able
to pull the paper through without using much force. Could there be enough of an air leak there to cause extra sooting and some smoke to leak out?
I can easily adjust the silver latches on the right side of the stove so they tighten more but when I tried to adjust the hinges on the left side earlier tonight I cut my hand. The top bolt was easy to access and loosen but the bottom bolt is a problem. It's tough to fit a socket in there and tough to get a good grip on the
bolt head; this is why my wrench slipped. I think there's a weld there that sticks up quite a bit. I have to take a better look at it tomorrow.
I notice another poster had an issue with the stove vibrating a bit or being noisy at cool-down. So far I notice the vibration changes or goes away when the hopper is fuller vs. emptier.
Other noise issues are that if you do plan to heat more than about 600 sq feet, you'll probably need to run the stove and fans at the medium-high to high settings when the temperature outside goes below freezing. The noise from this is right on the borderline of being annoying (when you're in the same room). Then if you need to run more portable fans to move the air around your house, you have the noise from these and you can get cool air currents flowing which aren't fun.
On the brighter side, overall, we're having pretty good luck using the stove to greatly reduce the amount of heating oil we would otherwise use. It has only stopped working a couple of times and we can only guess that once it was due to power fluctuation and once due to an auger jam that cleared itself up. Plus, sometimes it is very relaxing to sit in front of the stove and get "toastier" than you could with anything else.
We've found it is entirely possible to heat the whole house with the stove but there are so many variables involved, especially when it goes below freezing, that it's easier to set the pellet stove's thermostat a little higher than the oil-burner's thermostat, then the oil burner just rarely comes on. Plus, then we can keep the stove's settings on medium or medium low which makes the noise less of an issue.
I'd like to note a couple of chimney concerns and a pellet question or two but won't make this any longer.
If it wasn't for the door seal, smoke, and sooting issue the stove would probably be running all night again tonight (we use the wall thermostat)...
Thanks in advance for any advice... I plan to re-post again as soon as I can adjust the left hinges then run it for another day or so.
Scott
