Considering an insert--will it be too warm?

[jtakeman]

Sales guy who came by yesterday was pretty good-just sells enviro products and gave me spreadsheets with references. I'm familiar with a couple of his customers so his installs must be pretty good. He made a couple of statements that I want to thro out. First, he said multifuel stoves are less efficient than pellet-only stoves so I would probably find I would use 2 bags a day with the Milan or Empress while I would burn 3 with the M55 cast insert. Also said multifuel stoves are noiser, and they tend to spill pellets--the tend to drop along the sides of the burner and fall unburnt into the ash. Not a lot of waste, but he said it is a problem you have with all multifuel stoves, regardless of brand. On my install, he said the M55 would require outside air so we would have to drill the chimney(not a problem for me cause I have to remove the gas pipe). For the Milan or Empress there would be sufficient air in the chimney cavity. I was figuring drawing outside air regardless of the stove I purchased. He had no reservations saying he is not to familiar with the m55--never installed one. Said there were some issues when they first hit the market. He has one now, which he is going to install later this week in his house to try out. His pricing is the best around here--the Milan installed would be $3200, the empress $3720. He didn't have the exact price on the M55 but said installed price would be about $4200. So, as much as I like a Harman product manufactured in Pa, any of the Enviro products would be at least $1000 less installed (after factoring in free pellets). So what do you all think about his comments regarding multifuel stoves and install?

He's full of horse poo on the multifuel statement. The Efficiency Rating of the M55 cast is 83.5%! The Milan and Empress are actually less at 83% efficient. Its more likely he has a better markup with the other 2 units! I would also bet the M55 is just as quite overall, Its been said to be the quitest unit available from Enviro!

I would check around, This dealer might be sketchy???? :red:

 

[flynfrfun]

Well, he is right on one thing. The M55 does tend to dump a few pellets out of the side of the burn pot liner. This only happens at startup. After it is going, it doesn't dump any pellets into the ash pan. In a week of burning (starting it once/day), I get about a half cup of pellets that have fallen into the ash pan. That is not enough to even worry about.

He is correct that the M55 had some teething problems at first. I had a noisy auger motor (it should be nearly silent when operating). Some had problems with the stove tripping the high limit switch (getting too hot). Enviro came out with an auger cover plate to cut down on how many pellets it would feed to cut down on the stove's internal temp. Then they came out with a higher output convection blower. THIS is the true fix to the high limit switch problem. With the higher convection output, it is holding the stoves internal temps in check and you can burn as many pellets as it will allow, even without the auger cover plate. Except now it is blowing all that hot air out into my house I have heard rumors that without the cover plate the stove is actually capable of 70,000btu input...but it hasn't been confirmed to my knowledge.

He is not right about the M55 being louder than other non-multi-fuel stoves. I did a lot of comparison shopping listening and watching stoves operate. The M55 was the quietest out there (at that time with the old convection blower). With the new convection blower, it is not the quietest any more. I'd say the Mt. Vernon now has that honor with the M55 coming in second.

Efficiency? Hard to say on that one. Enviro says 83.5%, but I'm skeptical. They used to have it advertised on their website as something like 75%, then one day it changed to 83.5% I emailed them to find out what changed...they never responded. Makes me think these numbers might be somewhat made up to help sales. But, I don't really know. Also, they changed it during the $1500 tax credit as I believe biomass burning stoves had to be 75% or better to qualify. Coincidence???

Hmmm...can't think of any others. All the new M55's are coming with all these updates. One nice thing is that Enviro has been very receptive to customer feedback and have been listening to what is going on and making changes. Not all stove manufacturers do this.