Cumberland stoveworks 3600

[Tyandmacsmom]

I just bought this new pellet stove, and have to say; I love it! It's really cute, although it's a little taller than I would have liked. My husband built me a hearth from porcelain tiles with a hard wood moulding around the edges, and after piping it in on Sunday we "had" to try it out. Not only did it throw awesome heat, the flame was really bright and it didn't soot up the glass at all. It is supposed to heat around 2000 sq. feet, and the area it is in is about 1200 square feet. Wish me luck in a cheap fuel season. (or cheaper than if I was only burning oil.

I burned cheapo Lowe's pellets in it, and it burned fine with not a ton of ash. I would like to buy four tons for next winter, but am scared to just in case they don't burn well in my stove. Any suggestions on what I should do? I'm scared to wait until fall to buy what I need, in case the prices jump more. :/

Thanks in Advance,
Miranda

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

I'm not sure what the temperature is there now but I would put a couple of bags through the stove just to make sure they do work well with it. If they burn OK with little ash and no clinkers then I would go for it now. Just make sure you have a dry place to store them.

 

[imacman]

Hi Miranda, and welcome to the forum. Conrats on the new stove. As we say here, "no pics = it really didn't happen" :lol: We LOVE seeing new stove installs.

As for the pellets, the word is that pellet prices are more than likely going to rise as the fall gets closer. You need to scour the area near where you live, and get some different brands to test burn before it gets too warm out.

BTW, what brand were the ones you got at Lowes? If you liked how they burned, and the price is right, you might want to get at least 2-3 tons now. 3 tons is usually enough for most homes to get through the winter, but you never know (for example, think back to last winter....most people burned at least 25% more than normal). But you're right about buying them.....don't buy any large quantity of ones you haven't burned in your stove

Then, over the summer and fall, watch for sales....keep an eye on Craig's List too.

Looking forward to some pics!!

 

[3650]

Wow you are lucky. I bought a 3650 and the glass wont stay clean longer then an hour. I had to replace the exhaust motor already and the auger is really making noise so I'm sure it's about to go out. Cheap Chinese parts. My stove is very tempormental. It takes for ever to get up to temp then if I make any adjustments it really goes wacky. Well good luck with yours and I hope mine improves. If you want it shorter you can take the legs off. They aren't necessarry. It says so on their website. The 3600 is a manual stove isnt it? How much of a nuisance is that to light? I think that is the only difference between yours and mine. I've been burning Somersets in mine.

 

[DexterDay]

There is a Forum member here named Turbo-Quad who has a Sister that just bought one of these stoves. I have done some research myself on them. Beautiful Stove.... I plan on buying a new "Multi-Fuel" Freestanding for my upstairs to replace the Quadrafire. This is possibly one of the candidates.

As far as what imacman said on the pellets. Try before you buy, If at all possible. Keep them Dry.. We Def used more pellets this year.

Cut our heating down to like 20-25% over what it was with Propane. (Along with other Insulating improvments)

Welcome to Forum. Many years of enjoyment out of that stove.....Make sure to post some pics.. "It didnt really happen" till we see them. LOL.

 

[DexterDay]

Wow you are lucky. I bought a 3650 and the glass wont stay clean longer then an hour. I had to replace the exhaust motor already and the auger is really making noise so I'm sure it's about to go out. Cheap Chinese parts. My stove is very tempormental. It takes for ever to get up to temp then if I make any adjustments it really goes wacky. Well good luck with yours and I hope mine improves. If you want it shorter you can take the legs off. They aren't necessarry. It says so on their website. The 3600 is a manual stove isnt it? How much of a nuisance is that to light? I think that is the only difference between yours and mine. I've been burning Somersets in mine.

Somersets are a great pellet (Big Box Store). Never heard of anyone having problems with that pellet. Seems to burn great no matter what its in. Does that stove have a Damper? Increase the Combustion air. Does it have a functioning "Air Wash"? Is the gap/holes clogged? Seems odd? Hope you get everything worked out. Those are a fantastic stove to look at.. Would hate for it to just be a beauty queen.

 

[smwilliamson]

Remember that a new stove or a clean stove burns much better than a dirty stove. Ash is an accumulative thing and your burning/ cleaning habits will directly affect the stove's overall performance come January 10th. Many folks think they can get away with their annual cleaning and they are good for the year,....but not if you are pushing 4 tons through it you aren't.

Cumberland Stoves are good heaters. Excellent draft chambers and ash traps....though you may want to consider a softwood if you are going to be using that many tons.IMHO

 

[3650]

I guess I was a bit harsh. I'm moody sometimes. I like the stove. It may in fact be dirty. I haven't cleaned behind the baffles yet. It does have an air wash at the top, I'll pull it off to see if it is plugged.

Just to be clear, I bought the stove used not new. I should have said that in my original post. I believe it was manufactured in 2007 so that may be the normal lifespan of the exhaust motor and auger motor.

The ash drop firepot is great! I really like that. I believe it could use a bigger room air blower. The stove gets really hot on the outside (like 400+), so it seems to me alot of that heat should be blowing out the heat exchanger tubes, no? Since I'm a natural born tinker-er, I'm going to see about getting a larger blower and try to get some of that heat off the stove and into the room. It is a very quiet stove so I'm sure that the larger blower will change that. I really shouldn't have complained like I did as I got the stove dirt cheap so why wouldn't it need a few things right? Would I pay what they are asking for one new.....Probably not as I am a tight wad!

 

[DexterDay]

If you got it used. Then you should have done a Full Cleaning with many brushes! Compressed Air, and a Leaf Blower. Very Likely that it has not burned great for you, from the get go. Stoves love to be clean. And my stove will be anywhere from 400-600 depending on settings and pellets burning. Good luck with that stove. There Beauty's.

 

[3650]

So the outer sheet metal will be 400-600 normally? I thought they were supposed to be cool to the touch for the minimum clearance. Seems a bit hot to me.

 

[wingman1776]

I have a cumberland 3800 on my stove on 1 -- 1 the surface temp is 200 - 250 depending on the fuel. Turn the stove up the temp goes up too most i have mine up to is 450 it was making ton of heat and ran me out of house fast .

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

Hi everyone, thank you for all your replies. I am posting a picture of both my new cumberland and my fireview. I've gotten to use the pellet stove a couple of times so far (although I didn't absolutely NEED to, I just wanted to.

The pellets I got from Lowes were Inferno's. They are all mixed sizes in the bag though, and the smell isn't unpleasant for me, but my kids said they smell "weird." I will note that I have to work the kinks out of the Cumberland-finding which ranges work best at what temp, etc. Good thing I have all summer, huh?

Does anyone know of a good, reliable and reasonably priced pellet supplier that delivers to Vermont? I've found a couple of places, but want to make sure I'm getting the best deal for the $. I don't mind spending a little extra money on good pellets vs. Lowes quality pellets, especially since from what I've read, they give more heat.

Thanks again,
Miranda

 

[DexterDay]

Inferno's are a Horrible pellet. Any other pellet (Pennington Nature Heat/sister pellet) Is money well spent. Those are the 2 lowest BTU rates pellets out there. Good luck and Nice Stoves. Love the Hearthstone line. All are beautiful...

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

Would it be safe to assume that since my stove is running fine on these crappy pellets, that I could order a couple of tons of "good pellets" without needing to do a trial few bags? (It's hard for me to find a place that has decent pellets that I don't have to drive a LONG ways to get to.)

Thanks
Miranda

 

[DexterDay]

The 3600 is a Multi Fuel stove. But does it have an Agitator or a Stir rod in the burn-pot? Inferno's are a terrible "heat" pellet. There are pellets that put out more BTU's. But create much more ash and clinkers. I always advise trying before buying. I bought 2 Tons of Easy Heats (new pellet) without "testing". But worst come to worst, I will burn them in the shoulder season. I trusted my Dealer. For the price, I couldn't pass them up. Always have a back-up. With the Fireview, do you plan on burning wood 24/7 still? Or is the wood a "back-up" plan?

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

I'll be burning wood 24/7, because I'm a student I'm home and able to tend the fire. Plus, I honestly can't afford the cost of oil! Last year between oil, propane and wood we spent $3000 to heat our home...I'd like to cut that back to $2000...still a lot of money, but less than last year and I bought oil last year at $2.72/gal.

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

The stove doesn't have an agitator, I just checked the paperwork.

 

[DexterDay]

Is there any kind of "Rod" that sticks through the burn-pot? That may "stir" the pellets (fuel) up? A pic of the burn-pot would help. I am sure someone on here knows. But anyways. A agitator or stir rod, would help you burn a terrible pellet. As long as you buy a Quality pellet, you should be fine. But prices are going up. If the pellet isn't Hot, burn'em in the Shoulder season. With Wood and pellets, you should be able to keep it under $2000. We used to average $4,000 in Propane. Now its about $1,000. That's with just pellets. I picked up an Englander 30-NC woodstove recently. So next winter should be below $1,000. I am heating 2,180 sq ft upstairs. The woodstove will be in an un-insulated 900 sq ft portion of my basement. The basement is the same size as upstairs, but sectioned off (tool room, bar, laundry) I an trying to only heat the area under the 3 bedrooms. Warm floors will be nice this Winter. I hate cold feet!

 

[imacman]

Miranda, as mentioned above, the Infernos are probably THE worst pellets out there....if the stove burned well on those, anything else will be a step up.

As for pellet suppliers that deliver to you, the only one I can recommend that MIGHT deliver to you would be WoodPellets.com.....try putting your Zip code in the start screen, and see if your area is included.

If yes, then report back on what pellet brands they have available to you, and the membership will give their opinions on them. Maybe even start a new thread about it.

OH, and BTW, great looking stoves!

 

[3650]

Nice Stoves! Mines just plain black, I like the gold high lights. It's probably going to be hard to judge how well those pellets will perform in the off season. The truth will come out in mid January.

I burn pellets on 4-3 until it gets going good, like for one hour. I then kick it down to about 3-4 and hope for the best. I've been told once you make a selection you have to give the stove some time as it will ramp up to or down to the selection you have chose. This works sometimes. Sometimes my stove just has a mind of its own.

This stove has no agitator. It has a rod connected to the firepot and after you burn a hopper full of pellets you have to pull the rod which pull the entire burnpot and dumps it in the ash pan (pretty slick, it sold me) voila you just performed your daily maintence on the stove. Dead simple. After a hopper full of pellets is burned I have about 1/2" of ash and really not much clinker. About once a week I'll pull the firepot out and run a rod through the small holes in it, and the base plate, dump the ash pan, and vaccum the small hole behind the ash pan. I think that hole is for the vaccum sensor and should be kept clear.

These stoves burns corn very well provided it is 13% moisture or less, otherwise mix in some pellets and it will burn corn that has a higher moisture content. You just have to dump the clinker out of the firepot after one hopper full. It just falls right out into the ash pan. I haven't burned much else in but I am itchin to do so. I'd like to get my hands on some cherry pits or wheat or nut shells but we don;t have any of that around here.

I'm definately going to put a bigger blower on it this summer. I saw on their website that they have a kit you can attach to the stove that lets it blow into the duct work. I like this idea but I dont think that blower on it has the ummmmph to do that kind of job.

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

I have only actually used my pellet stove three or four times, and for not more than 4-5 hours at a time. (Didn't NEED to use it, but I was a little chilled...and I wanted to. I only bought the cheap crappy pellets because they were available when I was at Lowes, and it wasn't actually for heating my home, it was just for trying the stove out. Mine is just going to heat the upstairs of my house, which is heated a little by my soapstone downstairs. We are going to install a through-wall fan in our downstairs area also, to hopefully move more warm air. I REALLY hope to get away from oil as much as possible this year.

Miranda

 

[3650]

If there is a Menards around they usually sell Somerset pellets (at least they do here).

After heating with the pellet stove for a while, you will probably get away from wood all together. When I was a kid we heated our house with wood only and I hated it. Cutting, splitting, stacking, moving, bugs. I find pellets much easier.

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

I live in a tiny town in VT...no Menards that I know of! I can't really get away from wood heat; my fireview heats my downstairs, and the pellet stove is going to heat the upstairs. Technically, my fireview should heat the whole house (or really has the ability to), but my house set up is dumb, and the air doesn't move efficiently.

 

[Turbo-Quad]

Cool another Cumberland owner. My sis has one. I really like it (I think). She got it late in the season and didn't burn alot but when she did I was pretty impressed. She has the 3600 too. She has a small well insulated house and it keeps it plenty warm (think I'll move in to her house, I have no insulation!).