Pellet Stove Rant

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vinny11950

vinny11950

Minister of Fire
May 17, 2010
1,794
Eastern Long Island, NY
They should sell pellet stoves with a Buyer Beware Disclaimer,

Saying there is a good chance that after initial install you will smell pellet smoke in your home coming from the new pellet stove. Furthermore, the dealer will give you the run-around and try to convince you it is all in your mind. Then after much bitching and moaning, they might come out to check it out and still be unable to fix the crappy initial installation. At which point you will be on your own, blindly doing searches on Google about pellet stoves. At which point, if you are lucky, you will find Hearth.com and people who will give you the answers the dealers, installers, and distributors don't give you.

Just saying, because I just spoke to the owner of a major distributor in the East Coast who said smoke is no big deal, can't really hurt you. I said, There is carbon monoxide in it. He responded, But not that much, can't hurt you.

At which point I realized I was talking to the wrong person, someone who doesn't really get it.

People complain about codes and regulations, but it is this kind of attitude that makes governments respond to peoples complaints. Also, this attitude makes the Pellet Stove market a niche DIY market because you are very much going to be on your own servicing the thing.

This is my case and I just wish the dealer and distributor had told me I was going to be on my own. At which point I would have ditched the distribution/dealer channel and bought the cheapest stove I could find and installed it myself.
 
Yep. Unfortunately, you don't know if you got a good one or a bad one until the smoke starts pouring out of the joints... Get references, call them and hope for the best.

Other issue, most use Simpson Duravent which is complete crap, IMO.

Selkirk Direct Temp or ICC pipe...FTW.
 
Just curious, do you know the price difference on the Selkirk vs. the Simpson DuraVent?

I have Simpson Pellet Vent Pro, and I had to tape and silicone every single joint... elbow bends, Tee joints, etc... otherwise it leaked horribly.

The pipe itself is silver and I wanted to paint it black... kinda hard to do that when I have to put silicone or silver tape all over it. I'm pissed about it, so if I can get my dealer to refund me (fat chance, I installed it myself), I want something better but don't want to break the bank.
 
does anyone else here have the excel pipe?


* oh. i see that that is the same as icc.
 
OP, I couldn't have said it better myself. I too have come to this realization as I fight with my dealer to fix their leaky install. I had to explain to the dealer that piercing the inner wall of pellet vent is not okay. Still waiting for a call back with his game plan.
 
lbcynya said:
Yep. Unfortunately, you don't know if you got a good one or a bad one until the smoke starts pouring out of the joints... Get references, call them and hope for the best.

Other issue, most use Simpson Duravent which is complete crap, IMO.

Selkirk Direct Temp or ICC pipe...FTW.
Click to expand...
First everyone hates my pellets now they hate my vent pipe too ....what am I going to do.
 
St_Earl said:
does anyone else here have the excel pipe?


* oh. i see that that is the same as icc.
Click to expand...


I have it and highly recommend it. Stuff is AWESOME. 1" to combustibles, easily paintable, easy install, easy, easy. Yeah it costs more but it's more than worth it to me.
 
celticsgreen said:
First everyone hates my pellets now they hate my vent pipe too ....what am I going to do.
Click to expand...

Now, now. No one said I/they/we hated your pellet choices. Just a bit curious on your selection. Who cares what we think anyway. As long as your toasty warm and still have cash left to play with. You did good! After all were in it to save money right? ;-) I too have Duravent pipe and took a couple of swings with the sealer to get it all sealed up and no leaks. Since then it does the job. Looks like heck though with all the goop I had to slathered on it. But it was all I could find in my area. I would have had to order anything else and wait. I'm not very patient and had to get it going quick like.
 
Yeah, I was just steamed after talking to the distributor this morning. All I wanted was to buy some gaskets and he is telling me to call a retail store because they are not setup to handle customer calls. However, last year when I first bought the stove and had to deal with his dealer, he was fine with me calling them up and getting parts and putting in Warranty claims directly through them, the distributor. I didn't raise a big stink because I thought the distributor was standing behind the product. Now I feel like they moved the goal post and I have no support. They are just going to make me go through the crazy dealership maze. But I don't trust their dealers if they messed up the job so badly the first time and didn't really understand or take responsibility the first time. I mean, they might come in and do more damage to the stove.

Madge69, I feel your pain. Good luck.

And to every one else, thanks for the replies.
 
vinny11950 said:
Yeah, I was just steamed after talking to the distributor this morning. All I wanted was to buy some gaskets and he is telling me to call a retail store because they are not setup to handle customer calls.
Click to expand...

We have an Enviro dealer in our group. His name is pelletdude. I bought stuff from him and he shipped it right to my door step. Look him up and send him a PM. He'll take good care of you!
 
Thanks, Jay, I will.

I was trying to replace the Exhaust Starter tube gasket at the back of my M55 FS steel. I bought some lytherm gasket material which works fine on other parts, but it seems the Exhaust gasket has to be extra thick. I tried stacking two of my cutouts but I am not sure it will work so I am trying to have a backup.
 
PJPellet said:
St_Earl said:
does anyone else here have the excel pipe?


* oh. i see that that is the same as icc.
Click to expand...


I have it and highly recommend it. Stuff is AWESOME. 1" to combustibles, easily paintable, easy install, easy, easy. Yeah it costs more but it's more than worth it to me.
Click to expand...

yep. luckily that is what the shop where i got my stove uses/ sells that for all their installs.
i had learned enough here in the weeks before i bought the stove to make a reasoned choice on that.
but i was not as well informed on pipe by that point.
we were also fortunate to get a great installer.
 
vinny

That stinks that you had such a bad experience. If you ever want a good tech and good customer service call bill at brick fix in center moriches. He carrys the Enviro line. I bought from him and was very happy. There are a few others using him, Cusnvin and Libirn. They will have there enviros installed soon so we'll have others to ask how well there installs went

.
 
kykel said:
vinny

That stinks that you had such a bad experience. If you ever want a good tech and good customer service call bill at brick fix in center moriches. He carrys the Enviro line. I bought from him and was very happy. There are a few others using him, Cusnvin and Libirn. They will have there enviros installed soon so we'll have others to ask how well there installs went

.
Click to expand...

I second that vinny....
 
celticsgreen said:
lbcynya said:
Yep. Unfortunately, you don't know if you got a good one or a bad one until the smoke starts pouring out of the joints... Get references, call them and hope for the best.

Other issue, most use Simpson Duravent which is complete crap, IMO.

Selkirk Direct Temp or ICC pipe...FTW.
Click to expand...
First everyone hates my pellets now they hate my vent pipe too ....what am I going to do.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter as long as they love your basketball team!!
 
And there's not even basketball to watch this year!

Thanks Kykel and Cuzvin. It's good to have a good reference on LI.

Sure are a lot of LI people here.
 
vinny11950 said:
And there's not even basketball to watch this year!

Thanks Kykel and Cuzvin. It's good to have a good reference on LI.

Sure are a lot of LI people here.
Click to expand...

Ya. Maybe next yer we can buy a few tractor trailer loads of pellets and split them up!
 
buyer remorse is somthing that occurs with most products , to the OP i feel for ya man, the statement about the smoke is almost criminal especially by a supposedly authorized dealer, while most auto ignite stoves will leave a faint "whiff" of smell when initially firing usually its gone as the fire pops up certainly it shouldnt pervade the whole time the unit is burning , this is a serious issue and should be dealt with in that manner. though most of the time its a pipe issue rather than a stove issue due to simple physics. pellet stoves are "negative pressure" units , in other words air is "sucked" through the stove and "blown" out the exhaust, therefore any leak prior to getting to the exhaust coupler air would be sucked in rather than smoke being blown out, once in the pipes however this reverses and with the pipe under "positive" pressure leaks will expell rather than inhale.

as for cleaning and maintaining , yeah , its part of the trade off, you get a heating appliance which saves most folks quite a bit of money in heating , the savings are "paid for" in "sweat equity" they have to be kept clean in order to perform at their peak and provide consistant operation. a large percentage of folks i deal with in my job have issues which are solved or could have been averted with proper maintainance, cleaning on schedule, good gasket maint. and the like. once you are familiar with the units operation and its needs it becomes almost second nature, a basic cleaning on most every pellet stove on the market takes just a few minutes and doesnt need to happen hourly , just every couple days to a week depending on model.

in short you can count on 2 things from a pellet stove. if you take care of it , it will be there for you when you need it, if you dont, you can count on it to let you down when you need it.

OP please dont take me the wrong way, im not scolding , im just trying to explain a few things about how they work to help you out on discovering the solution for your issue , this is what i do for a living (and for fun in here) i hope you get your issues with your dealer (who doesnt impress me by your post BTW) and you get to enjoy the good side of heating with pellet stoves, they truly are a marvel when all is as it should be.
 
stoveguy2esw said:
...most auto ignite stoves will leave a faint "whiff" of smell when initially firing usually its gone as the fire pops up...
Click to expand...

I'm curious to know more about this statement.
 
smoke show said:
stoveguy2esw said:
...most auto ignite stoves will leave a faint "whiff" of smell when initially firing usually its gone as the fire pops up...
Click to expand...

I'm curious to know more about this statement.
Click to expand...

if you pull apart an exhaust blower you will see that the hole the blower shaft passes through is not sealed airtight. on an igniter stove usually they smoke a bit heavier at the time just before starting the physical flame. during this time its not uncommon to smell a hint of smoke. this usually dissipates rapidly when the actual flame pops up. usually its not overpowering at all, and usually its gone in a very short time afetr light off. if its there constantly its a problem
 
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