1st post---St Croix or Regency

[Burntcrispy]

Hi friends, This forum has been the go to for about 4 years of back and forth in researching a pellet stove. Thank you all for some great posts.

New York is about to have, so they say, another winter like last. We barely made it last year. My Wife and I have been on the fence about a stove for a while now and we're just as confused as ever.

My local and respected stove dealer sells St Croix and Regency. We're looking for a smaller unit so the Element and GF-40 are our choices, respectively

can anyone offer any opinions as to whether one is better than the other? repairs, ease of cleaning overall build quality, etc..... They are running $3049.00 & $2571.50, again in that order.

install may run between $800 and $1000 plus a pad, which I am apt to build myself for the right look.

I appreciate anything anyone has to offer as i think we're about to buy

all the best

 

[TimfromMA]

I can't speak for the Regency, but I love my St Croix. It heats my 1800sqft main level wonderfully and after 5 full heating seasons, it still has all its factory original parts.

 

[Burntcrispy]

I can't speak for the Regency, but I love my St Croix. It heats my 1800sqft main level wonderfully and after 5 full heating seasons, it still has all its factory original parts.

thanks much for the input. I get the impression that the St Criox may be favored over Regency...based on what I can find.

 

[bogieb]

My St. Croix Hastings was great. If I hadn't fallen into a great deal on the P43, I would still have it since I wasn't actively looking to replace it (I'm a serial peruser of CL - LOL). It needed cleaning and ash pan dump about 1x/week. However, I don't run really good pellets, so I'm unsure what a really low ash pellet would do for that time line. I also had to clean out the "clinker" once a day. not a big deal, but I did make sure it was shut down (not cold, just no flame) before doing that. Once again really clean pellets would probably negate that.

I don't know anything about Regencies, hopefully someone who has experience will chime in.

Looks like the Element has a larger area heating capacity, but it also has a smaller hopper. Both of those you should take into consideration; do you have a larger house? The the SC would do better it seems. Will someone be available to fill hopper when needed? If you need a longer run time, the Regency might be better. I would worry about sq/ft of hating first though - just MHO.

 

[Burntcrispy]

Our house is fairly small and we live mostly on the lower level where the stove will be. Upstairs has it's own thermostat, we run natural gas. The winters here are so miserable we mainly want something to take the chill off and make it all more pleasant. We're not intending to be above 72 or so. We have been running the gas furnace at 65 until February when we can't take it any longer and boost it to 68. Having a radiant heat in our main room would be nice.

I intend to burn hardwood pellets if I can find them, otherwise the best of what is available

I also work at home so can tend to the stove

 

[corkman]

My St. Croix Hastings was great. If I hadn't fallen into a great deal on the P43, I would still have it since I wasn't actively looking to replace it (I'm a serial peruser of CL - LOL). It needed cleaning and ash pan dump about 1x/week. However, I don't run really good pellets, so I'm unsure what a really low ash pellet would do for that time line. I also had to clean out the "clinker" once a day. not a big deal, but I did make sure it was shut down (not cold, just no flame) before doing that. Once again really clean pellets would probably negate that.

I don't know anything about Regencies, hopefully someone who has experience will chime in.

Looks like the Element has a larger area heating capacity, but it also has a smaller hopper. Both of those you should take into consideration; do you have a larger house? The the SC would do better it seems. Will someone be available to fill hopper when needed? If you need a longer run time, the Regency might be better. I would worry about sq/ft of hating first though - just MHO.

For that price you may be better off looking at a harman p43 if there is a dealer in your area. Ive had two enviro stoves in the past. The regency line is a sister to the enviro stoves and are both made by sherwood industries. Im not a fan of the combustion fan and room fan running in cordination with each other. If stove is set to heat at heat level 1,then room blower will run on 1 and so on.harman p series stoves are easy to clean and easy to work on. Replacement parts are much cheaper for harman than regency parts

 

[stovelark]

As a dealer for St. Croix and Enviro (Enviro as mentioned makes the burn engines for Regency) we sell many more Enviros. But, the Hastings and Element are very nice stoves, espec the Hastings. I think Enviro stoves are easier to work on and clean, but St Croix makes a fine stove. Replacement parts in the future are a bit more for the Enviro, in my experience. As for the convection blower and feed rate being operated in conjunction, most computer ran pellet stoves are (Corkman's reference). The EF2 and EF3 from Enviro (their older analog dial designs, which I do like) are still available for the person who wants to run independently the feed rate and convection blower output. The design engineers obviously was trying to make the stoves easy to operate and stay within operating limits of heat produced/heat stripped off the heat exchangers by tying the feedrates and convection blower in unison. Anyway, to answer your question, both MFRS make a quality stove. IMO.

 

[Burntcrispy]

Nice info, all. Thanks much. Looks like the St Croix will do nicely for the price. Harmon is further away and may be difficult for warranty service because of that. I expect to learn to repair myself, though/. We also like the look of the more utilitarian/modern designs.

I like the ash drawer and ash screen of the St Criox. seems to make daily cleaning easier. I think the entire package including install and self made stone pad will run just under 4k.

Now I need to figure out a battery backup, no doubt we'll lose power this winter

thanks again

 

[TimfromMA]

Nice info, all. Thanks much. Looks like the St Croix will do nicely for the price. Harmon is further away and may be difficult for warranty service because of that. I expect to learn to repair myself, though/. We also like the look of the more utilitarian/modern designs.

I like the ash drawer and ash screen of the St Criox. seems to make daily cleaning easier. I think the entire package including install and self made stone pad will run just under 4k.

Now I need to figure out a battery backup, no doubt we'll lose power this winter

thanks again

I did this:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/index.php?threads/Homemade-Battery-Backup.125698/

 

[TimfromMA]

Our house is fairly small and we live mostly on the lower level where the stove will be. Upstairs has it's own thermostat, we run natural gas. The winters here are so miserable we mainly want something to take the chill off and make it all more pleasant. We're not intending to be above 72 or so. We have been running the gas furnace at 65 until February when we can't take it any longer and boost it to 68. Having a radiant heat in our main room would be nice.

I intend to burn hardwood pellets if I can find them, otherwise the best of what is available

I also work at home so can tend to the stove

Softwood pellets tend to burn hotter and have less ash than hardwood.

One of the nice things about pellets stoves is that you don't have to babysit them. Load with pellets, set the thermostat and walk away. Reload with pellets as needed which is usually once or twice daily depending on usage and give it a good cleaning every couple of weeks. That's all you should have to do.

 

[Burntcrispy]

Softwood pellets tend to burn hotter and have less ash than hardwood.

One of the nice things about pellets stoves is that you don't have to babysit them. Load with pellets, set the thermostat and walk away. Reload with pellets as needed which is usually once or twice daily depending on usage and give it a good cleaning every couple of weeks. That's all you should have to do.

wood stove thought does not apply with pellets? My family always burned hardwood in the woodstoves. It was said that it creates less soot. I'll need to educate myself with pellets

Thanks, TimFromMA. I'll need to study thatthread

 

[TimfromMA]

Hardwood logs burn hotter in traditional wood stoves because they are denser. When pellets are made, the wood is ground into sawdust then compressed into pellets at a specific density. Hardwood pellets have the same density as softwood but the softwood tends to burn at a higher temperature with less ash.

 

[bogieb]

wood stove thought does not apply with pellets? My family always burned hardwood in the woodstoves. It was said that it creates less soot. I'll need to educate myself with pellets

Thanks, TimFromMA. I'll need to study thatthread

Yeah, hard to get used to the hardwood vs softwood thinking when going from a wood stove to a pellet stove

 

[Burntcrispy]

I have an opportunity to get the St Croix used by 2 years. It would save me a grand. I'm imagining this is not recommended because I have no way of knowing if it was used and maintained properly....Or not so much

Any thoughts on this?

 

[TimfromMA]

My Hastings is starting it's 6th heating season and it still runs as good as the day it was installed. If you are worried, take it to a stove dealer and have them look it over.

 

[bogieb]

I got a Hastings that was 6 years old. Although it did need cleaning (especially the ash traps), it worked great. If the one you are looking at is only 2 years old, unless it was under water for a couple of months, I can't imagine that it could be in too bad a shape. It WILL need a thorough cleaning before you try it out, but those are really solid stoves. If you are even somewhat handy, I don't think you can go wrong. If you run into any issues, you will have plenty of input from TimfromMA and me. Hey, and try to talk them down a little - can't hurt and might work.

 

[Burntcrispy]

Thanks bobieb & TimFromMA. Good to hear it. I guess install will still cost $800 but better to have it done right.

 

[stovelark]

Hi Burnt Both stoves will do well for you- the GF40 is from the Enviro Mini or P3 design, does it have the comfort control system or regular digital 5 level motherboard?? The price sounds good for the P3 design and high for the mini design. Between the two I can tell you, think the Element will be a bit more heating power. Enviro makes great pellet stoves, but the Mini series is a smaller quieter heater. The P3 and P4 are still very new, so don't have a lot of feedback on them. Good luck with your choice.