Ducted stoves

[olmec]

Hey hey,

Looking to get a bigger stove for next season. The PDV does ok for its price range but im needing something bigger. Ive been looking and have found a few ducted stoves that would fit the bill. Was wondering if anyone could give me some insite on them, recommendations, or maybe ones ive missed?

-Enviro Maxx
-drolet 65
-breckwell/us stoves furnace

Im leaning more towards the enviro but its pricey. Id probably go for the M as i like the agitator. Thoughts?

 

[hyfire]

Look at the overall efficiency..I like the EnviroMAXX as 1st choice, but you could go with a St.croix scf-50 pellet furnace as the air is filtered and it has a 900 cfm blower, really nice setup.



(broken link removed to http://stcroixstoves.com/multi-fuel-furnaces/multi-fuel-furnace-scf050)

 

[olmec]

Look at the overall efficiency..I like the EnviroMAXX as 1st choice, but you could go with a St.croix scf-50 pellet furnace as the air is filtered and it has a 900 cfm blower, really nice setup.



(broken link removed to http://stcroixstoves.com/multi-fuel-furnaces/multi-fuel-furnace-scf050)

I hadnt seen that one. I wasnt really looking for a straight up furnace, as it will be on display, so to speak, in a finished basement. How much is that thing? I had looked at the Harman furnace when i was looking to install a forced hot air system (i have electric baseboard) but the cost of the stove and ductwork was too much.

 

[hyfire]

The scf-50 has no ignitor something to think about., I think its close to $5k

 

[olmec]

Ouch, 5g's is a bit much. The harman was around that. Think it was the PF-120? How do you like your Drolet?

 

[hyfire]

The drolet is pretty good so far no real complaints. The mods have made it a more efficient stove. Only a few issues like a very long start-up cycle and shut down cycle and constant cleaning are its pitfalls, and the slew of ignitor problems others have been having, expect me so far. One person on the board had a hopper fire due to a power outage and poor install. The new version has had some upgrades to the ignitor , like a sealed hopper, new upper baffle design, backdraft shuttter, and more friendly controls.

The maxx has 86% efficiency and the new drolet 79.9% the old drolet 78.8% efficiency.

 

[LuvMyPellets]

I really wanted ducted as I wanted heat in the basement and then ducted upstairs. I then did every piece of reading I could find. The result is a new P61A upstairs and my old St croix downstairs. The frequent problems and massive pellet use with the others made my decision. One thing about the Drolet seriously ticked me off-more the parent co than Drolet. They sell the same stove as a Eurozone Euromax at almost twice the price of the Drolet. Someone tried to tell me the Euromax is fancier etc. I downloaded both parts manuals and other than side panels the rest of the part numbers are identical. One of my local dealers stocked the Euromax for 4699. I have heard many times SBI has excellent service. I just don't want trouble with a new stove. And no offense meant to anyone that owns one. As ECO said when they are right they put out some serious BTU's

 

[olmec]

The drolet is pretty good so far no real complaints. The mods have made it a more efficient stove. Only a few issues like a very long start-up cycle and shut down cycle and constant cleaning are its pitfalls, and the slew of ignitor problems others have been having, expect me so far. One person on the board had a hopper fire due to a power outage and poor install. The new version has had some upgrades to the ignitor , like a sealed hopper, new upper baffle design, backdraft shuttter, and more friendly controls.

The maxx has 86% efficiency and the new drolet 79.9% the old drolet 78.8% efficiency.

Thanks hyfire for the input!

 

[olmec]

I really wanted ducted as I wanted heat in the basement and then ducted upstairs. I then did every piece of reading I could find. The result is a new P61A upstairs and my old St croix downstairs. The frequent problems and massive pellet use with the others made my decision. One thing about the Drolet seriously ticked me off-more the parent co than Drolet. They sell the same stove as a Eurozone Euromax at almost twice the price of the Drolet. Someone tried to tell me the Euromax is fancier etc. I downloaded both parts manuals and other than side panels the rest of the part numbers are identical. One of my local dealers stocked the Euromax for 4699. I have heard many times SBI has excellent service. I just don't want trouble with a new stove. And no offense meant to anyone that owns one. As ECO said when they are right they put out some serious BTU's

I ran in to a similar situation before i bought the PDV last year. I was looking to get the USSC 8500, as it was a good price at sbout 2500 bucks. Needed a chimney iinspection, so i called a company out, who also deals in breckwells. They had what looked like the same stove as the ussc 8500. So i decided to inquire about buying from them and having it indtslled. They quoted me about $3800 for the breckwell! Im like, this is the same exact stove as the ussc. Same part number and sane manual, but over 1000 more. The guy proceeded to deny that and said all ussc stoves are basically junk and i should stay awsy from them. Told him thanks and id stay away from his rebranded ussc.

 

[batchman]

I'm in my 2nd season with a Maxx-M. I haven't done the duct work yet, will try again this summer. Very happy with it so far. Running a softwood low-ash pellet I do a quick clean of the stove and the venting once per ton, burning ~2 bags per day 24/7. The stove is a bit noisy but makes good heat and takes reasonable care of itself so to speak. I have a build thread around here somewhere, occurs to me it's needing an update so hope I can get to it soon.

Depending on where you are in NH, I had a pretty good experience with Stove Keepers in Brookline NH. They helped me work out my own install as I am just too detail oriented a guy to just get things done the normal way LOL.

Good luck,
- Jeff