Trying to pick out a pellet stove looking for advice

Well,I personally only have experiance with a Harman,I know of others that have other brands....and that is one reason I did go with a Harman.
I dont have to scrape my burnpot every day...when i do,only takes a minute and you dont have to shut it down....put on welding gloves to protect from the heat....scrape,then close the door.
This think will pump out the same amount of heat with 200$ per ton pellets as it does with 300$ pellets,the only thing is...the cheaper pellets dirty it up quicker.
But like others have said...very important to use a good dealer.

It won't surprise anyone here that I would say go for the Harman. I have 2 of them, one of which is on it's 17th season of operation. They are very few of us here that can say they have run the same stove for that long. The PC 45 has a different burnpot with a "stirrer" in it to keep things "moving" in the event you are burning corn or some other fuel. It is considered a multi-fuel stove. I had one for 3 weeks, absolutely hated it and returned it for my present P61A. Looking back on it now, I probably had a lemon, which is extremely rare in the Harman world as there are many PC 45 owners here that are very happy. The stirrer runs quite often "grinding" up the ash, keeping the burnpot cleaner, longer. If you are going to leave the stove for several days, even with a big hopper you will probably run it out of fuel depending on the time of year. A Harman is the Caddilac of stoves. Its a true "you get what you pay for" purchase. The bottom feed auger, easy automatic operation, less frequent cleanings than some others, and overall quality of the product is what is making your poll numbers show Harman. Good luck, whichever stove you choose, and welcome to the Forum.

P.S. I am a charter member of the HarmAn spelling Police.

Charter member? I thought you were the President!

Didn't want to step on anyone's toes...some people have feelings around here.

Thanks for all the advice folks. Back to the dealer today, buddy there claims the Harman is a cleaner burning stove then the Enviro. It's an extra $800 for the P45, that's what one of the guys working there has at his house so that says something. However I think I'm going to put a deposit on a M55. I just like the look of it more & anything new should would decent, hopefully anyways! Pics to come, house won't be done till the end of Nov.

Good luck on your venture. Will look forward to the pictures!

I really love my harmun...

Here's a pic, overall I'm happy with it. Hard to tell in the pic but it's what they call chestnut in color, which I call brown. Optional side shelves were not ordered with the stove (dealer error) but are on the way. Has been running about a week, roughly a bag a day when it's in use. Have been using manual mode just letting it idle on heat setting 1, it's not -20C out there yet. Seems to throw plenty of heat when you crank it up. Only gone through about 5 bags of Eastern Embers so far, have yet to clean it. Still waiting for my Powersmith vacuum to arrive. That'll be a learning experience no doubt!

Have read this http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/enviro-m55-burn-questions.62424/ & watched the youtube videos. Any & all advice/tips greatly appreciated!

When buddy from the dealer installed it he used a mag gage. Wondering now after doing some reading on here if I've goofed up the feed & combustion air settings when I unplugged it to plug the stove into a surge protector? It's on multifuel, not sure about the feed rate will have to check. Don't find it loud.Have a ceiling fan so that helps keep the heat down. No OAK.

What do ya's think? My only regret is not having the stove pipe go through the wall directly behind the stove.

Fellow New Brunswicker here....nice stove, Joe789.

You can do better than Eastern Embers for pellets. Both myself and a member on this board from Nova Scotia are finding that this year's batch of Eastern Embers is seemingly lower in BTU content than, say, Canawicks, Granulcos, or LGs.
(See this thread for added insight: http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/...ill-getting-the-same-heat.95102/#post-1256182 )

I went through the ceiling with my exhaust as well. When it comes to firebox smoke evacuation during a sudden and unexpected power outage, you won't regret it.

Stay warm over there, Joe.

Steven

Nice looking install. A few feet of vertical pipe while not always appealing is a nice piece of mind to rid the small possibility of some smoke. Wish there was a dealer for the stove closer than 160 miles. Still wanting a backup and shouldering stove to put in kitchen-dining area.

Looks perdy!

How about a whole house pellet furnace like a Harman PF100, or PB100 ? Also, from a cost standpoint, a heatpump may not be a bad choice, depends what your electric rate is. Even if your rate is low, the heatpump is probably more expensive to run than pellet fuel, but the extra cost may be worth it (for a practically zero maintenence heat-pump)

Nope.

I think once you have a Harman, you'll always have a Harman. They are well built, innovative machines that perform.

Oh, and the pellet delivery/burnpot design is brilliant.

Are you out of yer mind? Not even the same league. The kinderhook is merely an over sized meridian in the shell of a maxx. To with the best of both worlds and get the Harman PC45 multi fuel

An Enviro Meridian is a very good stove and the Enviro Maxx is also a real good stove!

The Kinderhook has a very large ash pan and a very large hopper so there is less cleaning and feeding than the Harman. Also the Kinderhook is almost half the price of the Harman and works great on a Lowe's Lux T-Stat for $39.95

What does the Harman have that is bigger or better for all that more money and expensive repairs?

For some reason I can't update my 1st post to edit the thread title to say "updated with install pics", maybe a mod could do that for me please & thanks? Might get a bit more tips that way.

Anyone know what the factory settings are for comb air trim & feed rate? They're both at 3 now. Will have to call dealer & see if their install guy writes them down or remembers. I unplugged it once to plug it into a surge protector which after some reading on here may not be big enough anyways. The power also blinked yesterday enough to reset clocks/appliances/stove, was flashing #4 but I just turned it off & on again, and away it went. Must have been some unburnt pellets in there because the flame was huge! Have a few pics I'll post, will have to make a Youtube account so I can post vids.

As for the EE pellets, still have 45 bags to burn. Got 50 (1 ton) free when I bought the stove.Then I'll look into other ones.

Ash vacuum will be here Monday then I'll have to give it a cleaning. Can someone explain where or post a pic of the draft thing I don't want to bump?

These 2 pics are just after the stove came back on after a power interuption.

This is one after the huge flames died down a bit.

Joe,

The forum software doesn't allow changing the thread titles as it uses that as part of a url.

Your manual should tell you what the the controller does when it does a power on reset. Likely it goes to factory defaults but I don't know if yours does that. Some do some retain state.

I prefer the reliability of the Harman. Well built and easy to clean.

Maybe start a new thread for your M55 Installation, and ask a mod/admin to move the relevant posts from here into it???

Factory defaults are: Combusion air trim=3, feed trim=3. The stove typically will revert to factory defaults after being unplugged for an extended period.

Beautiful stove and install. I've always liked the Chestnut color.

cant figure out how to vote, but I love my M55.

My local dealer also sells the Warmland stoves and spoke very highly of them, but I take a salesmans advice with a grain of salt there might just be a better mark-up on the warmland.

I'm happy with my M55

Very nice joe, Hope the stove treats ya well and keeps ya warm! She sure is purdy!

She is a beauty, and she will keep ya warm thats for sure.