BOSCA PELLET STOVE OPINIONS, REVIEWS

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sscomo said:
does anyone have experience or knowledge of the bosca brand pellet stoves?
cant find any reviews or any parts for them.

dont they make some kind of chocolate drink too?
 
I was looking at them, I liked the design and look. I was told not to bother, dealer wouldn't go into details.
 
i wonder what the reasons were.......found a good deal on a new one$850, and comes with the 2 year electronic warranty and 7 year body warranty.....its the spirit 500.......i emailed bosca directy and have recieved quick responses to my questions, so customer service seems good so far......would like to hear from someone that owns one.........whatd you end up buying? i'm also looking at a used harman accentra 2 which sounds like a top of the line stove.....
 
I am looking at one as well.
I called the US head quarters out in Cali and they directed me to their
midwest dist. We spoke for several minutes and according to the guy I spoke with they
are the best pellet stove on the market....(that's his job to say that)
He quit handling Harmen stoves to sell these.(we all know Harmen is a good brand)
Said they are durable and are easy to get parts for and repair if needed.

...the post where the guy said "don't bother" concerns me.

Anybody out there own one?
 
I have a Bosca Classic 500; bought it three years ago. Have had good luck with it so far. Went through 2 low limit switches, which they covered fully. The one complaint I do have (as many others do as well) is the soot buildup on the glass. Just can't keep the glass clean long enough, I have tried playing with the air intake but to no avail. Three or four hours into a burn it starts sticking to the glass. Overall a good stove.
 
Thanks for the info........do you use your stove often? Also do you find that only two fan settings high/low is sufficient?
 
I use it everyday from about 5PM to 7AM in the morning. Need the gas furnace to kick back in during daytime hours to heat the basement. There are actually three fan settings. One for the low feed rate, one for step two and one for the other two feed rates.
 
sold them for a couple yrs... very dependable, other than a snap switch here or there (common component, happens to many brands) no mechanical problems to report. Smaller hopper than most stoves, but easy to access and clean/work on. pretty tolerant to many ellet brands. good stove.
 
A Bosca 500 owner just posted. The dealers I went to, 7 total I think, usually had 1 Bosca, either a wood burner or pellet. Didn't mean to sway your purchase. I was looking at purchasing one on line ( Ebay) before I went shopping. Changed my mind & prob getting a Harmon P38, even though there is a post of a new owner having major problems. .
 
I have a Soul 700 insert. my first pellet stove. i like it alot. throws out major heat, easy to maintainand looks good to boot. installed it myself. the only issue i had was the control panel started to delaminate, still worked fine just looked like crap. the dealer supplied me with an advance replacement so i would not have to go without a stove last winter.
 
Arent the Bosca's supposed to have an air wash for the glass? Do you have problems with the soul 700 and your glass getting dirty?
I hear harmans are among the best..have a chance to buy an accentra for 750..but its 5 years old.....not sure if its reached its lifespan on some components. supposedly its working excellent still though.
I'm still checking out my options.
 
I have two Bosca Spirit 500 Pellet Stoves and love them. They are very easy to clean, are very efficient (85%+) and are reasonably priced. No problems in just about 2 years of use.

The importer for Bosca is a Spokane based company and I did a lot of research before buying. There are 3 local dealer for Bosca and the only negative I've heard is that there aren't well known yet and thus cannot demand margins on sales (higher prices) that other "quality" brands do. Stove shops are businesses after all and as such want to sell high margin products as much as possible.

For those that don't know; the stoves are built in Chile with components made in the US. The construction of my stoves is top notch with heavy plate construction, continuous welds and very good fit and finish. The internal components are very common in the US and easily found. The stove measures 2' x 2' x 3' and is about 340 lbs without pellets. The Spirit model has unique hinged sides that allow for the stove to be opened up from top to bottom on both sides making it very easy to thoroughly clean and/or service. The only gripe would be that the heat exchanger cleaner is not real effective.

As for the glass issue described above....I do get some dirty glass (edges only) after about 20+ continuous hours of burning. I had some issues initially until I learned where to set the damper for each heat level.
 
BadgerState said:
Rooscooter, I have a classic 500. Am having issues keeping glass clean. What kind of venting do you use? Where is your damper set at for setting #2.

I'm not sure about the Classic 500....however I have the damper about 1/3 closed (or 2/3 open) for the 2 "middle" settings.

Both of my stoves are directly vented horizontally through the wall with one 45 and about 6' of pipe total. Both are vented exactly the same.

I was noticing that the glass on one of my stoves was getting dirty a lot more than the other toward the end of last season. When I opened them up to clean and took off the combustion fan I noticed that it was pretty "gunked-up" compared to the other stove. This year I now only get dirty glass on the edges after about 20 hours of continuous burning or so.

On my stoves the "air wash" is nothing more than a couple of holes in the front of the burn pot to allow a couple of "streams" of air to escape the pot and blow against the glass. The cleaner the pot and liner the more air that will get though. I clean out my burn pots and liners at least once a day.

I hope that helps.
 
We just got our new Soul 700 insert 5 days ago, so still learning to fly it properly.

First impressions so far:

VERY nice optics and design (that was the initial reason to go for a Bosca)
very sturdy, freakish heavy with 'tons' of welded steel - I like that and the style fits perfect
Fairly simple handling (minimal button operation) - no frills, and I like that, too
The price for this thing was great given the BTU output its supposed to have.

As for the burn, we currently run at setting 3/5 all day (aside from once daily cleaning), at ca. 25 F outside that gives us 69 F plus minus 3 in the house (upstairs, beedrooms, the usual heat gradient)

It heats the whole house - oil is the backup now ! I am assuming we will be able to improve on some stuff in the next time before I will list the downsides. We still have to install the upgrade kit that came with the stove (some improvements for smell, handling, breakdown stuff ect. - nothing real crucial). I experimentally took out a flame shield from the heat exchangers that looked more like shipping srews to me :), increased the heat output already quite a bit with no visible downside. The current feed rate to hopper capacity is unfavorable - we rarely get through the night with one fill. We go through 2 bags of InstantHeat a day (I know I am not the pellet aficionado, thanks).

I am happy so far and think the heat output can be further improved (we have two more feed settings to go if need be, but I like my sauna outside the house). I would recommend the stove.
 
Riddle Master Morgon said:
.....The current feed rate to hopper capacity is unfavorable - we rarely get through the night with one fill. We go through 2 bags of InstantHeat a day (I know I am not the pellet aficionado, thanks).

IMO, those Instant heat pellets aren't helping any.....2 bags a day right now is a LOT, IMO.

Take a look at this test by forum member Jay Takeman.....the IH pellets rank fairly low for heat output. Pellets with higher BTU output will allow you to turn down the feed rate some.

Just a thought.

www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/42511/
 
Thanks imacman,

I will have a look. I think its fair to say I am still learning how to fly this stove. So no current finding should be taken as criticism of the stove (yet). The air intake setting for example is kind of a mystery to me right now, shows almost no visible effect whatssoever ? But the weekend is long...Pellet testing will start next weekend after I got my four different brands from Agway - I am curious how softwood pellets will do, dealer said this thing is designed to burn softwood pellets...will see.
 
Riddle Master Morgon said:
....I am curious how softwood pellets will do, dealer said this thing is designed to burn softwood pellets...will see.

Hmmmmmm. Interesting that the dealer said that....do they sell both types? The stove manufacturer owners manual makes no mention of that. Who would I believe?

Gets right back to the testing you'll be doing....every stove & install burns differently.
 
Just fired up a Spirit 500 that I purchased that was very lightly used last season.. Found Bosca customer service great..You can call them and speak to a knowledgeable tech or they call you right back..spoke to them twice.. Find stove to be very well made and professional installer I had thought so as well. seems to work fine, is reasonably quiet. Very pleased so far , my opinion would be more meaningful if I had a few years experience though. Using Everex hardwood pellets, direct venting thru the ledger board outside without chimney. No problem with that arrangement..exhaust fairly cool.
 
So glad to see all the positive reviews of Bosca stoves.

Here's mine...
Got myself a Soul 700 (freestanding) back in the madness of '08 and couldn't find anyone on here that had one at the time. Mine didn't come cheap and I felt like I was flying blind a bit and taking a chance. But I absolutely loved the look of it ...has some sleek lines, but also looks like a furnace straight out of the depths of Mordor! (ok, at least I think so...) So I found one at dealer in my area and when I got my eyes and hands on it, I knew the thing was every bit the beast and solid as it looked. (I was given the decorative brick insert with purchase but have not installed it. No decoration required on this animal.)
It's also 370 lbs! Almost as heavy as our piano.

I have had not a single problem with the unit since purchase. Had to replace one gasket because the bonehead from my stove place trashed it - do my own cleaning and annual maintenance now, thank you... and think I've just come upon the ol' low-limit switch issue this week (which is why I popped on the forum after too long away!). So if this is all I've had to deal with in 3 winters, I consider that 'problem free'.

As for performance...
We've got 2400sf to heat, which is toward the outside of its 48000btu range, but the stove handles it nicely. I never run the thing on full bore. 3 on most days, 2 overnight. Run it on 4 when highs don't get out of the teens or low 20s outside. One upstairs bedroom requires a space heater boost on the coldest days, though maybe if I put the thing on 5 it would take care of it. (Rest of the house would be unbearable though!) I have never even tried the 5 setting.

I resolved the front glass soot build-up issue by changing the damper position (moved it just shy of all the way in, where I used to keep it pulled much further out). That move also resolved a clinker issue with mediocre pellets nicely. Now I can go through the entire 80lb hopper on any brand pellet with only marginal soot on the glass and ash build-up in the pot. I leave the damper in that position pretty much full time now. (Soot build up on the side glass panes remains heavier than the front pane, but I think that's because the air-wash system isn't as effective on those side panes. That air-wash feature is actually pretty cool, and definitely works well on the front pane.)

What else... has dual-speed blower fan, though with our space arrangement, I just leave the fan set on high.
The ash tray is huge - empty it once a ton.

Bottom line... this is my third winter in upstate NY not burning a drop of dead dino for heat and I couldn't be happier!
This stove is one of the best moves as a homeowner I've made.

Can definitely recommend a Bosca.
J
 
The air intake setting for example is kind of a mystery to me right now, shows almost no visible effect whatssoever ?

In my experience, you will see only the most marginal visible affect on the flame from moving the damper in and out.
I was also initially skeptical that the damper had any real effect, and played around with it extensively at first. Now I hardly ever touch the thing. I settled on leaving it about 2/3 out (open?), and was that way for the better part of a winter and a half. I then decided to move it to less than 1/3 in (closed?), and I have seen the difference. Much less soot. Less ash. Concluded that I just played around with it too much at first to see a difference. Leaving it for an extended period in one position, then changing to another... big difference.

I experimentally took out a flame shield from the heat exchangers that looked more like shipping srews to me

VERY interesting! To me it looks more like a plate than just screws, but never thought to remove it! (Wonder if I'm looking at the same part you were.) I took its purpose to be to reduce ash/creosote build up on the exchanger tubes... would love to know if you end up finding a problem with that, or any downside at all.

Good luck and enjoy this very excellent stove.
And keep us posted on your experience.
J
 
pics of bosca spirit install

3" selkirk pipe all the way up the chimney

2" outside air intake.

stove works well....heat output seems ok...thought it would put out more heat on the lower settings, currently running on "2"

damper has to be almost all the way out(closed) or it seems to smolder down.

it is 10 degrees out, and is keeping it around 64degrees inside.
 

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