Breckwell Traverse: A new non-electric pellet stove/wiseway alternative?

[MountainDweller]

Hi folks,

Wow, it seems there's a new alternative to the wiseway! Does anyone have experience with one of these? One of the other interesting advertised features is a 6" flue, to hook up to a existing wood-burning chimney. If this had existed 2 years ago I certainly would have looked into it!

(broken link removed to https://www.acadiahearth.com/product/traverse/)

Best,

Nathan

 

[SteveAbbott]

I'm a bit biased but I've had it in my place since spring of this year. It is a draft driven stove so it took a little time to fine tune the chimney height to burn a bit slower. It is recommended to put a draft regulator or damper in the exhaust stack. I also had to make sure the gaskets were all installed well or it wouldn't burn as designed.

It lights really easy either with a small fire starter or about 20 seconds of using a small propane torch.

One caution is to make sure that when you refuel the stove it is either cold or has not begun to burn out (ie some pellets still in the hopper). What can happen is if you fill the hopper and a few pellets fall through the burn grate onto coals they will start to smoke and it makes it difficult to light. However if this did happen all you have to do is light the pellets that fell on the coals that are smoking and wait for them to burn out. Then use the torch to light as normal. Again this is not recommended as the stove will smoke a lot until light.

I started burning it at the end of September when we had a freak snow storm and have never cleaned the burn grate. I use the cheapest brand soft wood pellets as they seem to burn better than the expensive ones. I think it is because the pellets are a bit longer and don't fall through the great as fast. I have heard that hardwood pellets burn very well also. I have burned just over 1 ton of pellets in 2 months but I am only heating a small area of about 1200 square feet. If I burned it on high it would cook us out. The product literature says it will heat 2,000 square feet but I suspect it would heat much more as I have to burn it on low and usually only fill it with about 15 pounds to keep the temperature around 78 degrees upstairs. It's like a wood stove in that even after the flames go out it continues to radiate heat.

Initially I had a few nuisance trips of the safety flap in the hopper. About 15 pounds into a burn the flap would close to keep the fuel in the hopper from getting hot. It was a result of a small air leak in a gasket below the hopper. I fixed it with some high temp silicone and has worked perfect since. The service tech also fixed a gasket in the upper door.

It is a beautiful flame and I have got my wife over the fear of using the propane torch to light it and she loves it. She said it sure beats the difficulty of lighting a wood stove and is definitely cleaner and NO noisy blower. She said it puts out more heat than the wood stove (I'm not sure about that). Back in the 90's we had a wood stove for years then switched to an electric pellet stove then switched back to a wood stove after we lost power for a week during ice storm... Now we own the Traverse and get the best of both worlds.

 

[johneh]

SteveAbbott
What kind of a burn time do you get with 40 lbs. of pellets on Low?

 

[SteveAbbott]

I only have burned a full hopper once and it was nearly a day... I had to open the windows as it got too hot in the living room. The listed burn rate on the unit is something like 2.5 pounds per hour on low.

Here in December I've been putting 5 coffee can scoops (I just went and measured at just over 3.5 pounds per scoop) or say 18 pounds in once at night and again in the morning and burn it on low. It is more than enough heat.

 

[Smokinbubba]

Looks like an awesome option for an off grid setup!

 

[JRemington]

I offered to let them put one in our showroom but they apparently didn’t take us up on it. I had forgotten about this. They also said the price was going to be over $3000.00. If I have to have a class A chimney, for that money I can put in a Pacific Energy wood stove. I also did some research and found this was tried back in 15 and didn’t work out. I just didn’t think the consumer was going to pay that money for a pellet stove with no motors, fans or electronics. At 18 or 19 hundred it would probably sell.

 

[SteveAbbott]

I offered to let them put one in our showroom but they apparently didn’t take us up on it. I had forgotten about this. They also said the price was going to be over $3000.00. If I have to have a class A chimney, for that money I can put in a Pacific Energy wood stove. I also did some research and found this was tried back in 15 and didn’t work out. I just didn’t think the consumer was going to pay that money for a pellet stove with no motors, fans or electronics. At 18 or 19 hundred it would probably sell.

I recently got one on sale for $2,100 for my dad for Christmas but that was a black friday sale.

 

[JRemington]

I recently got one on sale for $2,100 for my dad for Christmas but that was a black friday sale.

You got that for under what we were quoted wholesale if I recall.

 

[Tom Thompson]

I tried to register my Breckwell Traverse but the URL in the manual is defunct. When I called the number listed for Arcadia Hearth, LLC, in Cheyenne WY, the number is disconnected not in service. After some googling, I found that the United States Stove Company bought out (?) Breckwell. I called them at 423-837-2100 and their address is Unites States Stove Company, 227 Industrial Park Road, South Pittsburg, TN 37380. The woman I spoke to confirmed that they now handle the Breckwell line, although their web site does not indicate this.

 

[JRemington]

I believe USStove bought Breckwell a few years back.