Which Enviro should I go with - Meridian or Omega

[johnnywarm]

I seen one on a website for 1670 amarican bucks. its like 269 more for the big window. shipping free.[/quote]

what stove?[/quote]


I'm sorry the Maxx

 

[enviro max sucker]

Hi all.
I paid $2499. Canadian for my Maxx. What a rip off.

 

[johnnywarm]

Hi all.
I paid $2499. Canadian for my Maxx. What a rip off.

Do you like it?? it looks like a nice machine.

 

[enviro max sucker]

It would be a good stove in a garage or shed. Where you could babysit it every minute of the day. I do like the big hopper and the 70,000 BTU's, but I DO NOT like the fact that it has a mind of it's own and either goes out (dead out) or overflows the burn pot and therefore goes out anyway. It got shut off one night and in the morning I woke up to a house full of smoke! I have had ongoing problems with this since December, when I bought it. Sherwood Industries still hasn't corrected the problems with this thing. I think it is going back, today.

 

[johnnywarm]

problems with this since December, when I bought it. Sherwood Industries still hasn't corrected the problems with this thing. I think it is going back, today.

That sounds like the smart thing to do. You will never trust now.

 

[enviro max sucker]

The Maxx goes back on Thursday the 21st. The dealer tells me that the Omega has its growing pains, too. I am going shopping on Friday for another stove, but I am not holding my breath. Probably going to make Esso richer for a few more years until these stoves get their problems ironed out.

 

[hearthtools]

The Maxx goes back on Thursday the 21st. The dealer tells me that the Omega has its growing pains, too. I am going shopping on Friday for another stove, but I am not holding my breath. Probably going to make Esso richer for a few more years until these stoves get their problems ironed out.

If I were you I would make the switch to the Omega and take advantage of the price you are getting it for.
Prices are just going up on stoves due to Steel prices and the weak American Dollar.

I have been using my Omega since Oct.
2 tons of pellet and only cleaned it out 1 full cleaning and 2 kind of fast dump the ash cleaning.


The only Growing pain my stove had was the Agitator was welded with the wrong kind of Welding rod
The send me a Cast iron one to replace the Stainless steel one.

I have had losts of stoves in my own home and even more in my Showroom
The omega has to be the easiest pellet stove to take care of.
No chipping out burn pots
No dumping the burn pot every few days
Ash pan will go for almost a ton of Normal grade pellets

 

[johnnywarm]

The Maxx goes back on Thursday the 21st. The dealer tells me that the Omega has its growing pains, too. I am going shopping on Friday for another stove, but I am not holding my breath. Probably going to make Esso richer for a few more years until these stoves get their problems ironed out.

If I were you I would make the switch to the Omega and take advantage of the price you are getting it for.
Prices are just going up on stoves due to Steel prices and the weak American Dollar.

I have been using my Omega since Oct.
2 tons of pellet and only cleaned it out 1 full cleaning and 2 kind of fast dump the ash cleaning.


The only Growing pain my stove had was the Agitator was welded with the wrong kind of Welding rod
The send me a Cast iron one to replace the Stainless steel one.

I have had losts of stoves in my own home and even more in my Showroom
The omega has to be the easiest pellet stove to take care of.
No chipping out burn pots
No dumping the burn pot every few days
Ash pan will go for almost a ton of Normal grade pellets

The omega sounds like a sweet Machine.

 

[Shelby]

I have to agree that the Omega is a great stove. I installed mine a month ago and it has run great since. Very little cleaning required compared to my last stove, Enviro EF3. My house is 5700 sq ft and the Omega is in the basement area and it heats the basement, main floor and upstairs no problem. We keep the main level of the house around 24.5°C. We have had some cold days and nights in Newfoundland since I have put in the Omega also. I haven't set it up using the thermostat control yet but I like the way the you can adjust the output. The large hopper is also great. We went away for a weekend for my son's hockey and we filled the hopper up on Friday afternoon and set it on a little above low. When we got back Sunday evening, it was still running. I was originally going to get the Maxx but they couldn't supply it until late February so I went with the Omega instead. I'm glad I did.

 

[johnnywarm]

I have to agree that the Omega is a great stove. I installed mine a month ago and it has run great since. Very little cleaning required compared to my last stove, Enviro EF3. My house is 5700 sq ft and the Omega is in the basement area and it heats the basement, main floor and upstairs no problem. We keep the main level of the house around 24.5°C. We have had some cold days and nights in Newfoundland since I have put in the Omega also. I haven't set it up using the thermostat control yet but I like the way the you can adjust the output. The large hopper is also great. We went away for a weekend for my son's hockey and we filled the hopper up on Friday afternoon and set it on a little above low. When we got back Sunday evening, it was still running. I was originally going to get the Maxx but they couldn't supply it until late February so I went with the Omega instead. I'm glad I did.

It looks like a great stove.

 

[hearthtools]

any updates on how everyones OMEGA is doing.
they only problem I had was the Agitator (burn pot cleaner) not welded with the correct welding Material
but that has been fixed.

 

[johnnywarm]

any updates on how everyones OMEGA is doing.
they only problem I had was the Agitator (burn pot cleaner) not welded with the correct welding Material
but that has been fixed.

Didnt that happen last year??

 

[hearthtools]

any updates on how everyones OMEGA is doing.
they only problem I had was the Agitator (burn pot cleaner) not welded with the correct welding Material
but that has been fixed.

Didnt that happen last year??

Yes and that is the only problem
I have burned almost 3 ton last season and did one cleaning last year in Dec.

and an annual service on it before my October start up this year
I took the the stove apart and cleaned flue, blowers and adjusted the Chain drive for the agitator (was loose so it made noise)
No other problems.

Im going to clean it today after i get home from work.
the wife has been home for the past 2 weeks because of surgery so we have been using it more.

The store demo unit has been doing great also.
we have only burned about 75 bags through it so far (since we installed it at the end of last winter)
because we burn other demos pellet units also
We keep the store Omaga full of pellets and set a Remote thermostat for it to keep the store warm when others are not running at night and when we are closed so our gas units that have thermostats wont come on.

 

[johnnywarm]

any updates on how everyones OMEGA is doing.
they only problem I had was the Agitator (burn pot cleaner) not welded with the correct welding Material
but that has been fixed.

Didnt that happen last year??

Yes and that is the only problem
I have burned almost 3 ton last season and did one cleaning last year in Dec.

and an annual service on it before my October start up this year
I took the the stove apart and cleaned flue, blowers and adjusted the Chain drive for the agitator (was loose so it made noise)
No other problems.

Im going to clean it today after i get home from work.
the wife has been home for the past 2 weeks because of surgery so we have been using it more.

The store demo unit has been doing great also.
we have only burned about 75 bags through it so far (since we installed it at the end of last winter)
because we burn other demos pellet units also
We keep the store Omaga full of pellets and set a Remote thermostat for it to keep the store warm when others are not running at night and when we are closed so our gas units that have thermostats wont come on.

I will admit! if you have been burning with a regular pellet stove for a year or more,the omega's specs look great.it looks easy to burn.


I wonder why no one has posted??

 

[westcafe]

We seem to be having good luck with our omega. Very little cleaning. This is our first season with the stove, so we are experimenting with air flow and different brands of pellets. Stove is in the basement of a 2 story home about 2000 sq.'. The basement is not insulated inside, but is fairly tight as the home is only 4 years old. The temp in basement is at 75 and the upstairs stays around 65. There is an open stairway going upstairs and 2 floor vents one in each end of the house. We have a box fan blowing at the stove at mid height about 5' away from stove and a small fan blowing down the stairs at mid height also. Does this seem like it is running efficiently? oh, we have the stove set at med. almost all the time. We are burning green supreme pellets now and they seem to burn real well with very little ash and decent heat. We had burned lg granules before and really liked these also, they seemed to have a little more heat, but we couldn't get any more. Seems as though everyone has had really good luck with there Omega's. Does it seem like we are running ok?

 

[westcafe]

I read the post about the omega heating 5700sq. with the stove being in the basement of a 3 story home, is this really possible keeping it at 24.5C? I can't get my home that warm and it's 2000sq. and only 2 stories! This is our only heat source we are using, is it theres? seems a bit out of reach.

 

[hearthtools]

I read the post about the omega heating 5700sq. with the stove being in the basement of a 3 story home, is this really possible keeping it at 24.5C? I can't get my home that warm and it's 2000sq. and only 2 stories! This is our only heat source we are using, is it theres? seems a bit out of reach.

Im confused with your question/comment.
Are you thinking you stove is not heating enough or you think the stove will not heat your house?

If you are running it on medium then you are only using half of its heating capability.
turn the feed rate up and you will get MORE HEAT.

Also you did not say if you are using a thermostat.
and if you are what mode OFF and ON mode or Hi low mode?

 

[westcafe]

I am running our stove without a thermostat and on Med. and we seem to be getting enough heat, but if I were to try and heat 5700 sq.' We would freeze. We need to run ours on a higher heat setting when it is really cold and we are only heating a small amount of footage compared to the 5700. Our stove is also in the basement as they stated theres is. Wasn't saying it couldn't be done, just seemed like a lot. Maybe we are not running our stove efficiently.

 

[hearthtools]

I am running our stove without a thermostat and on Med. and we seem to be getting enough heat, but if I were to try and heat 5700 sq.' We would freeze. We need to run ours on a higher heat setting when it is really cold and we are only heating a small amount of footage compared to the 5700. Our stove is also in the basement as they stated there is. Wasn't saying it couldn't be done, just seemed like a lot. Maybe we are not running our stove efficiently.

with the right floor plan where heat can travel evenly and min Heat loss from windows and poor insulation 60,000 BTU's could heat 5,000 sq feet. Im not saying to 80 deg but could keep the cold off.

Realistically 60k will heat a open floor plan of 3,000 sq feet. but again this all depends on Ceiling height, heat loss and how well the heat can move from room to room.

In your case im sure the basement gets a lot warmer that the main floor. this is because the heat can not get up to the main floor as well as if you had large open stairway so the heat can flow easy.

Like I said you are running you stove lower about about 32,000 btu's a stove that has a max setting of 32k will heat about 12 - 1,400 sq feet.

Most pellet stoves are in the 40,00 btu max output. and will heat about 2,000 sq feet but this all depends on air flow to the 2,000 sq feet.

I have customers that have 2 story homes that have an open plan and a stair well that is open. the heat rises so they are able to heat 3,000 sq feet with a standard 40,000 btu stove and burn about 3- 4 ton a year.
Granted our climate in warmer 20 -35 deg at night average 40-55 day average
but once you are below 40 deg everyone is cold and needs to heat the home up to about 68 deg to be comfortable.

 

[izula]

Here's an update:
I received my first Omega around October. We had some shipping issues that took about 4 months to work out with Sherwood, but it was complicated and they did the right thing. The original stove had a large air leak at the top of the door. We burned two tons in that stove. With nothing to compare performance to, I was hoping that a leak-free stove would burn a little better in terms of heat output and better combustion. The stove kept us very warm with little maintenance, just as it was designed to do. I can't imagine burning anything else.
A replacement stove arrived at the beginning of February. I promptly removed the leaky one and installed the new one. A few issues developed: the exhaust output of the first stove was 4". The new stove was 3". I could not use my 4" to 3" adapter so I had to go shopping (the exhaust is out the wall and up 7 feet). I burned the smoke out, and then attempted to set up the air rod position with a magnehelic. I could not get the stove to the correct readings, regardless of the air rod setting. There seems to be too much vacuum in the chamber. So, I set the rod by eye, and burned another ton in the stove. The end result is that the original stove burned hotter and kept the house more comfortable. I'm not sure why. Since it has gotten warmer, I will not be able to trouble shoot anything aside from a thorough cleaning. If I find out what is causing the poor performance or driving the elevated chamber vacuum, I'll post.
Even with all the 'issues', we love the stove and I am mostly satisfied. I'm a crotchety sort of guy, so mostly satisfied is about as good as it gets. The maintenance on this stove is very reasonable and operating it is easy. I would recommend this stove to anyone.

 

[flamegrabber]

Installed my Omega Feb 26. Remote t-stat running in on-off mode since the install.

Plenty of heat. Runs mostly on #2 and sometimes on 3, usually in the morning to give the house a quick blast of heat, then back down to #2. As an experiment I ran it on #4 when it was 15* out and got the first floor up to 80* in about 1 hour. My wife told me it was too hot and to turn it down.

I'm only heating about an 900 sq ft floor ( first floor of a 1800 sq ranch ) but it's quite drafty. The stove is in a 4 season porch that has over 200 sq ft of glass ( windows + skylights ).

Very low maintence and it throws plenty of heat and it burns many different fuels and the big hopper is great.

FG.

 

[hearthtools]

Installed my Omega Feb 26. Remote t-stat running in on-off mode since the install.

Plenty of heat. Runs mostly on #2 and sometimes on 3, usually in the morning to give the house a quick blast of heat, then back down to #2. As an experiment I ran it on #4 when it was 15* out and got the first floor up to 80* in about 1 hour. My wife told me it was too hot and to turn it down.

I'm only heating about an 900 sq ft floor ( first floor of a 1800 sq ranch ) but it's quite drafty. The stove is in a 4 season porch that has over 200 sq ft of glass ( windows + skylights ).

Very low maintence and it throws plenty of heat and it burns many different fuels and the big hopper is great.

FG.

can you say OVERKILL.
LOL

Good news I hear Enviro is in the works of making and EMPRESS cast iron style stove with the Feed system and Agitator burn pot as the Omega. at a normal 40k btu
they were going to send me a prototype to test. But NOW IM OUT OF BUSINESS.

 

[jtakeman]

I installed my Omega in February. I just love it. Heats my 1900 sqft. with no issues. I am running in on off mode with a programmable t-stat.

I have had more fun experimenting with the multifuels. Found the bark pellet's and switchgrass to be worth waiting for(wished they would become more available in my area)! Corn burns pretty well too! So if there is a pellet issue, I'm ready! Looking for grain's to try next. almost became a new hobby!

I bought this to replace a Breckwell BigE that just wasn't cutting it. And I am totally please with the stoves performance. It is almost overkill for me as well. I have not had the stove above the 3 setting! The heat off the heat exchanger is amazing! Even with some garbage wood pellets, I get some high heat in the 250° range. I could never get that from the BigE. Literally the whole house just feels warmer! And this place is drafty!

2 words described it in my book. GREAT STOVE! I would recommend an Enviro produce to anyone. A very good stove in the middle price level range that has many if not all the features of those pricey top of the line name brands. If your looking for a new stove. Go check out the Enviro line up. There a good value for the money your spending!

Sorry to sound like a commercial.
jay

 

[flamegrabber]

Rod,

I need probably 12-15k btu's to just overcome the draftyness of the room it's in. Besides I like overkill! And I like the low maintenence, multi-fuel, big hopper, etc. And the heat is just great. We come in from the cold and just stand in front of the Omega for about a minute to warm up. It's great.

Rod, what would you recommend for end of season maintenence?

I heard from a guy yesterday say it's better to just leave the stove after the burning season and not clean it until just before the next season begins. He said the ash content left in the stove protects it from corrosion, etc. Not sure if that's true.

I've also heard to clean it out and spray a coating of Pam in the firebox to keep the rust away, and to plug the exhaust with a rag, etc. There're too many opinions out there, hard to know which is best.

Also, I read a post of yours Re: your cleaning your Omega. You said you cleaned the flue. Does that mean the horizontal exhaust coming out the back of the stove or the vertical chimney/vent pipe? ( remove cleanout and run a brush thru the vent pipe dumping out the tee at the bottom, etc. ) I have a cleanout tee and about 12 feet straight up from that.

How long does your full cleaning take you? That may help me estimate how much time is required to do the job right.

Love the stove.

FG.

Installed my Omega Feb 26. Remote t-stat running in on-off mode since the install.

Plenty of heat. Runs mostly on #2 and sometimes on 3, usually in the morning to give the house a quick blast of heat, then back down to #2. As an experiment I ran it on #4 when it was 15* out and got the first floor up to 80* in about 1 hour. My wife told me it was too hot and to turn it down.

I'm only heating about an 900 sq ft floor ( first floor of a 1800 sq ranch ) but it's quite drafty. The stove is in a 4 season porch that has over 200 sq ft of glass ( windows + skylights ).

Very low maintence and it throws plenty of heat and it burns many different fuels and the big hopper is great.

FG.

can you say OVERKILL.
LOL

Good news I hear Enviro is in the works of making and EMPRESS cast iron style stove with the Feed system and Agitator burn pot as the Omega. at a normal 40k btu
they were going to send me a prototype to test. But NOW IM OUT OF BUSINESS.

 

[hearthtools]

Rod,

I need probably 12-15k btu's to just overcome the draftyness of the room it's in. Besides I like overkill! And I like the low maintenence, multi-fuel, big hopper, etc. And the heat is just great. We come in from the cold and just stand in front of the Omega for about a minute to warm up. It's great.

Rod, what would you recommend for end of season maintenence?

I heard from a guy yesterday say it's better to just leave the stove after the burning season and not clean it until just before the next season begins. He said the ash content left in the stove protects it from corrosion, etc. Not sure if that's true.

I've also heard to clean it out and spray a coating of Pam in the firebox to keep the rust away, and to plug the exhaust with a rag, etc. There're too many opinions out there, hard to know which is best.

Also, I read a post of yours Re: your cleaning your Omega. You said you cleaned the flue. Does that mean the horizontal exhaust coming out the back of the stove or the vertical chimney/vent pipe? ( remove cleanout and run a brush thru the vent pipe dumping out the tee at the bottom, etc. ) I have a cleanout tee and about 12 feet straight up from that.

How long does your full cleaning take you? That may help me estimate how much time is required to do the job right.

Love the stove.

FG.

I always clean my stove just before start up. Mostly because Im to bz working on other peoples stoves and problems.
Another reason to wait is there is a 90% chance you are going to find a bird in your pipe of blower and if you clean it too early you are going to have take apart again to retrieve the bird or bat.

The omega takes about 30 minutes to clean/service to hour at the most.

I Run a brush down the pipe and then disconnect the stove from the pipe and pull it away from the wall and turn it around to get to the goodies.
Take the sides and the lower back panel off.

The room air blower is EZ to remove. take it out and blow it out.
Compressed air or a leaf blower.

you dont have to remove the combustion blower because you can see and get to the blades from the ash pan.
but if you want to blow it out then feel free to remove it but you are going to need the gasket.

Use a vacuum and suck out all the dust bunnies from behind the stove, off control board and limit switches and off the two gear reduction motors.
Check the and adjust the chain for the agitator.

Pull the vacuum hose of the pressure switch on blow to clear the port connected to the combustion chamber.
Put back together and do a good cleaning to the inside of the stove.
If you wish you can remove the Cast back panel to clean ash that is suck to the side walls of the stove behind it.
Use a bottle brush and or a Potato brush to brush all nooks and crannies inside the stove.

I like to wire brush all the parts off the burn assembly to get the corrosion off. the top parts are just mild steel and they start to flake because of the salt content of pellets.

Also Use a small hose adapt on your vacuum and suck the ignitor tube and the two air intake hole to get all ash out of it.

Last trick
If you have help.
Get a $25 flat rolling dolly from you Local big box store.
Put the stove on it and roll it out side.
Clean out the ash in the stove with a vacuume and dump the ash pan
Remove the sides and the back.

Blast the stove with a Leaf blower and or compressed air.