OK, I have asked a few questions on this forum and searched for more answers than I can recall. what a great place for information. It is right up there with some of the tractor forums I am on. I bought an Avalon Astoria and it was installed by an independent installer 3 weeks ago with the OAK. We have a pretty tight house build in 2004 so the OAK just seemed to make sense. This is my first pellet stove but I used a wood furnace for 3 years when I lived in upstate NY. That furnace is the reason I didn't get a stove last year. Meanwhile one neighbor has a harman advance and the other a quadrafire.
I wanted to get it running quickly and picked up 3,000 lbs of penningtons @189 a ton without a coupon and 440 lbs of wood fiber.. I have not been too happy with the penningtons. The auger jammed after about 9 days of usage. So, I built a pellet vacuum like is shown in several threads here. Since, the auger has been fine but I still get clumps of ash sticking to the walls. I am heating about 3600 square feet with 9 foot ceilings and a 2 story foyer. When it gets down to around 25 the furnace and heat pump kick on some to help. I wonder if we are using the stove correctly to get the most heat out of it. Part of me thinks I just have a bad batch of pellets. I am in norther VA so it is generally not very cold here.
Yesterday I went to southern states and confirmed what I had read here: The southern states brand is made by Ha at least in Loudoun County VA. I just asked the manager "what plant makes your pellets?" He said..."well they are made by Ha". He pronounced it Hay-mer...I would have pronounced it Hammer so I suppose it knew what he was talking about. Good enough for me, and I picked up another 3,000 lbs (all my trailer will hold) of them at 229 a ton and headed home. While stacking the Southern States brand I had 2 broken bags (1 my fault and 1 theres). I ran the broken bags and immediately the stove had that too hot smell and turned it down. Also, it ran cleaner even though I didn't vacuum the pellets.
I worried that the stove might be getting clogged up so I took off the exaust fan and it only had a thin layer of dust on the fins. Then I cleaned out the chimney (just the horizontal setup) and it had about 1/4" of fine powder in it. No hard build up. Just sucked it out with a shop vac and put the ash in a metal can with a lid.
We are really happy with the stove. I have not really resolved the buzzing, it comes and goes.
With the current cold weather I may go with the Hamers for now then go back to the penningtons when the temps are above 30.
I wanted to get it running quickly and picked up 3,000 lbs of penningtons @189 a ton without a coupon and 440 lbs of wood fiber.. I have not been too happy with the penningtons. The auger jammed after about 9 days of usage. So, I built a pellet vacuum like is shown in several threads here. Since, the auger has been fine but I still get clumps of ash sticking to the walls. I am heating about 3600 square feet with 9 foot ceilings and a 2 story foyer. When it gets down to around 25 the furnace and heat pump kick on some to help. I wonder if we are using the stove correctly to get the most heat out of it. Part of me thinks I just have a bad batch of pellets. I am in norther VA so it is generally not very cold here.
Yesterday I went to southern states and confirmed what I had read here: The southern states brand is made by Ha at least in Loudoun County VA. I just asked the manager "what plant makes your pellets?" He said..."well they are made by Ha". He pronounced it Hay-mer...I would have pronounced it Hammer so I suppose it knew what he was talking about. Good enough for me, and I picked up another 3,000 lbs (all my trailer will hold) of them at 229 a ton and headed home. While stacking the Southern States brand I had 2 broken bags (1 my fault and 1 theres). I ran the broken bags and immediately the stove had that too hot smell and turned it down. Also, it ran cleaner even though I didn't vacuum the pellets.
I worried that the stove might be getting clogged up so I took off the exaust fan and it only had a thin layer of dust on the fins. Then I cleaned out the chimney (just the horizontal setup) and it had about 1/4" of fine powder in it. No hard build up. Just sucked it out with a shop vac and put the ash in a metal can with a lid.
We are really happy with the stove. I have not really resolved the buzzing, it comes and goes.
With the current cold weather I may go with the Hamers for now then go back to the penningtons when the temps are above 30.