Reviews on PE 'The Pacific' insert...

[kah68]

I would like to know from anyone who has on running how they like it? I am waiting on my heating guy to come install the chimney liner (has to be wet cert here for insurance) and finish the hook up, I will be buring hard maple, ash, birch, little bit of oak. It will be heating my main floor , living kitchen and bedrooms up stairs.

Thanks

Kirk

 

[jqgs214]

Give us some more detail on your set-up, who bigs the house, interior or exterior chimney etc. etc.

I burn that model insert and love it so far. I can get productive heat (blower on auto) for 8+ hrs if I pack it full of red oak.

 

[kah68]

Two storey house, 20x20 living room with 10-22' ceilings, two big fans, bacony above with doors to 3 bedrooms, kitchen, and den diectly off living room. Inside chimney to highest point of ceiling, 22' inside 3' outside, does this help?

 

[jqgs214]

Hmm,

How many sqft is the bottom floor and top floor. My guess is your gonna get alot of heat up at the peak being pushed down by those fans and not alot of heat in your periphery areas. But a stove is a SPACE heater and it should heat that 20x20 quite nicely just dont expect it to heat the whole house. How well insulated is the space, lots of windows?? Is the bottom floor floorplan open or is it cut off by doorways and headers?

 

[kah68]

I realise it will not heat the whole house, (2500 Sq Ft) but it is to keep most of the main floor and upstairs (open to below) warm and offset the huge oil bills. I pulled a propane stove out and putting this in as I know it will put out far more BTU's. We plan on buring from 5 p.m. to 5 or 6 a.m. and around the clock on weekends.


Thanks

 

[jqgs214]

exactly how we burn ours. Light it off at night when I get home from work, filler up again full round 9:00pm and she keeps it warm all night. Repeat.

 

[kah68]

Other main reason was power outages in winter, tell me, I have read a few other reviews and 3 people say burn time is only 5-6 hrs, you are getting 8?

K

 

[karl]

I think the stove might be a bit small to heat the whole house. The PE Summit would do it just fine. Either way, I'm guessing you're going to be sleeping naked alot this winter.

I also doubt the 8 hour burn time. Although the Pacific is known for having a good one. I have the bigger version and I can keep it hot enough to keep the blow on for 8 hours but the heat output does drop off after 5 or 6.

 

[kah68]

I think the stove might be a bit small to heat the whole house. The PE Summit would do it just fine. Either way, I'm guessing you're going to be sleeping naked alot this winter.

My existing fireplace is just big enough for the mid size, or I would have gone with the Summit, but it's supplimental.

 

[jqgs214]

When I chock the stove full at 8:30, and I mean full!! Right up to the baffle, The blower runs constant till 4:00am and then cycles on and off for at least another hour. I stil have plenty of coals after that too so 8 hours is conservative. Now I have only red oak, and the splits for overnight can be 5-6". That keeps my house when its 20-25 at night above 70deg till about 4:00am then to 65deg by 6:00am when we get up. And at 6:00am I can relight it with coals and the door open, sometimes I have to blow on it a little to get that first flame but once there is flame she takes off fine.

 

[Cearbhaill]

My two cents on my PE Pacific insert-
Basement installation, stainless steel liner in an exterior masonry chimney.
Main floor 1150 sq ft, basement 750 sq ft.

Love it- mine drafts perfectly and is easy to control- it is very responsive to how you manipulate the air intake. The blower circulates well and heats the room so quickly that I very rarely have it on full speed- it's just not necessary.

I am very fortunate in that my basement installation heats the main floor in my house very well- not all homes are conducive to the correct air movement to do so. My main floor is extremely well insulated with all new doors and windows and I think that has a great deal to do with it. My basement ceiling is just joists, and my stairwell is very near to the insert. I have a ceiling fan in the room at the top of the stairs pulling warm air up and a fan in the basement blowing directly at the insert.

My basement hovers around 75-77ºF and my main floor stays right around 69-70ºF.
This insert handles the heating duties for the entire house until the temperatures outside get down to below 23ºF or so, then my heat pump will kick on.
I think I could delay the heat pump even longer if I could manage to coordinate my overnight burns a bit better. I forget about it until it is too late, then I rush it and it smolders. Or I fall asleep while waiting for the fire to cycle into damp down mode and it burns itself up in high gear.

That's just user error- this is my first year burning and I expect to get better and better at it each year.
I would buy this thing all over again in a heartbeat.

 

[kah68]

My two cents on my PE Pacific insert-
Basement installation, stainless steel liner in an exterior masonry chimney.
Main floor 1150 sq ft, basement 750 sq ft.

Love it- mine drafts perfectly and is easy to control- it is very responsive to how you manipulate the air intake. The blower circulates well and heats the room so quickly that I very rarely have it on full speed- it's just not necessary.

I am very fortunate in that my basement installation heats the main floor in my house very well- not all homes are conducive to the correct air movement to do so. My main floor is extremely well insulated with all new doors and windows and I think that has a great deal to do with it. My basement ceiling is just joists, and my stairwell is very near to the insert. I have a ceiling fan in the room at the top of the stairs pulling warm air up and a fan in the basement blowing directly at the insert.

My basement hovers around 75-77ºF and my main floor stays right around 69-70ºF.
This insert handles the heating duties for the entire house until the temperatures outside get down to below 23ºF or so, then my heat pump will kick on.
I think I could delay the heat pump even longer if I could manage to coordinate my overnight burns a bit better. I forget about it until it is too late, then I rush it and it smolders. Or I fall asleep while waiting for the fire to cycle into damp down mode and it burns itself up in high gear.

That's just user error- this is my first year burning and I expect to get better and better at it each year.

Thanks for the review, sounds good, just wondering how cold it gets where you live, here it gets to -40F some nights in Jan and Feb. Also at the stated 23F how much wood are you using per day.

Thanks
Kirk

I would buy this thing all over again in a heartbeat.

 

[kah68]

Sorry, replied in your post, my question is how cold does it get where you live and how much wood will you burn in a day at 23F?


Thanks

Kirk

 

[Lumberjack]

I just finished installing a PE Pacific model in my basement (approx 400 sqft).

My goal is to heat the living area directly above the stove with a vent or two through the floor (approx 1000 sqft).

I went with the wrapped stainless liner and have installed a stainless block off plate which is insulated. So far so good. The stove heats up easily and the thermostat on the blower is nice.

One question, what temperature (surface of the stove) are you all burning at? I hit 550F tonight and was a little nervous...any thoughts?

thanks!

 

[Hogwildz]

Your fine at 550. you can run 200 degrees higher ans still be fine. Of course if 550 is a good spot for ya, then run her there.

 

[Cearbhaill]

Sorry, replied in your post, my question is how cold does it get where you live and how much wood will you burn in a day at 23F?

This is my first year in this climate so I don't know how to answer the "how cold" question. It's expected to get down to 5ºF this coming weekend but I believe that is about as low as we would normally go. I am Zone 6b if that's any help.
It was 18º this morning and I did hear my furnace kick on a couple of times in the night. It coincides with the fire burning down and my being too sleepy to get up and add wood. As I said this is my first year so I expect to refine my skills and get better at sustaining temperatures consistently rather than the up and down I am seeing now.

I don't have a clear answer on how much wood I use either, other than "a lot".
A wheelbarrow full a day sounds close.

 

[jqgs214]

I find the insert runs best over 600deg with the thermometer over the right hand side of the door. I've been near 800 a couple times on a full load of smaller slplits and she put out the heat like nones business, thats the only time I take the blower off low. The house will jump 3-4 deg 73-76or so in 30 min when she gets up that hot.

 

[timfromohio]

We're in the middle of our third winter using a PE Pacific Insert. The insert is installed in the bottom level of a 3 level split, 1780 square feet, built in 1970. Relatively new good Anderson windows, but attic insulation is not great (plan to add more after a kitchen remodel project). The insert is vented via a full SS liner in a masonry chimney that is not on the exterior of the house (outside wall of chimney runs through attached garage).

We are very pleased with the performance of the insert. Considering the fact that the house in not insulated all that well and it's a split (hard to make heat travel from the bottom level where it's installed, do a 180 degree turn, and then up to the bedrooms) it does a good job of being the primary heat source. My wife is a stay at home mom so is able to feed it throughout the day. We keep the blower on, a ceiling fan in the family room (where it's installed) running (reverse) either low or medium speed all day. Turn blower off at night and damper down stove. Have excellent coal bed in the morning. We burn mostly oak, some hickory (saving for cold spells - we live in NE Ohio by the way, so it can get quite cold with vicious wind), some poplar - really anything. I scrounge, so if it's free and hardwood then I burn it. Not particular (yet - remember, only my third year doing this).

Overall, we are very happy with the stove performance. We keep the thermostat set at 62F and it will cycle on around 4am on very cold/windy nights (must get 20F or lower outside). We are in the process of a kitchen remodel and will be installing a Napolean 1150P though, so I expect this time next year my heat (gas) will not cycle on at all. December gas bill was $19 (gas hot water too). It should have been slightly higher, I think we got a small credit for the previous month.

I expect you will be very pleased with your purchase.

 

[kah68]

Thanks for all the feedback; I was wrong on my sqare footage, the total house is 2400 if you include the finished basment, main floor (where the insert will be installed) and up stairs is 1750, I think 'The Pacific' will do a good job if my heating guy ever gets here to install it. Thanks for all your help people.