looking for thoughts here. I have the bigger of the PDV25 and it seems to work pretty well after the burn pot mods but are the other brands that much better or is it personal preference?
Englander PDV 25 stoves , yes or no
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Lake Girl
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Part may be personal preference, part may be aesthetics, part may be budget. The England stoves are pretty basic but do the job. Higher price tags are commanded by different finishes or higher programmable options. The majolica sides on the ravelli/ecotecks are worth over $1,000. The enamel finishes on other stoves add higher cost.
All depends on whether you are more caught up in looks or function
All depends on whether you are more caught up in looks or function
Definitely function for myself since it sits in a basement. Granted right out of the box they run like chit. It took me about two years and a lot of research on this forums to finally get it burning hot and as clean as I think this stove will do. The biggest complaint that I have is the burn pot. It burns much better blocking the side holes off under the plate and increasing the size of the holes in the plate. But since the pot is almost touching the front of the stove there is nowhere for the ash to go , so it builds up and chokes the flame. Shame there is not an aftermarket pot
Lake Girl
Moderator
As to function, some ash accumulation under the pot on mine but most is pulled out by the exhaust fan. My bigger gripe is the really small and sloppy ash pan. Since I have a secondary blower on mine to run ducts to other rooms, no room for a bigger ash pan. I think most stoves have their least desirable features. I'm sure you'll get different comments from different owners.
Lake girl are you using a 25 pdv? My blower doesn't remove any noticeable ash . It just accumulates in the pot . Some ash does get blown to the sides of the pot but not much.
You are right though , everyone has a different opinion, that why I started the thread . The more info the better
Are there better stoves out there, absolutely, and with that comes a price tag.I started burning with an Englander pdvc and I agree the burn pot design let's little to be desired, I also didn't like that I could not fine tune the stove enough for my likings.The stove did do the job for the 9 yrs I had it but I'm much happier with the 2 stoves I have now.I could never see myself paying more then 2k for any stove though.
Lake Girl
Moderator
rich what gripes did you have with the serenity? Their price point is reasonable...
Pellet rick, no England stove here. Ecoteck Elena Air before the company was bought Ravelli.
Pellet rick, no England stove here. Ecoteck Elena Air before the company was bought Ravelli.
Lake Girl
Moderator
None at all, don't know if you remember but I had welds pop loose in the firebox and they replaced the stove 2 yrs out of warranty, In that mean time I came across the Ravelli for a great deal so jumped on it, had I known Ardisam was gonna replace the Serenity I never would have bought the Ravelli.
First a Castle Serenity then A Ravelli but have a brand new Serenity sitting on standby.
Just like to add that a properly tuned stove is more important than brand. So a stove with a lot of tunability is very important.I read all these posts about how terrible one pellet is over another and I just have not seen that with my last 2 stoves and I burned lots of different pellets, I attribute that to my stoves being properly dialed in.once dialed in I never touched either stove no matter what pellet I burn.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Never hurts to have a back up ... I found an Elena for 1/2 price as we originally thought to heat with both using the secondary system on the Air to heat upstairs. Insurance was going to add a surcharge so haven't installed the spare.
scotthershall
Member
Seems to me it's mostly personal preference when comparing Englander stoves (both pellet and wood, although I have no first hand experience with their wood stoves) to others. Aesthetics is one part for some, certainly, but it's also maintenance. And budget. It seems the Harman stoves, for instance, are much less maintenance intensive. I wouldn't mind that, but I also couldn't really afford a stove 3-4x the price of my 25-PDV from AMFM.
Englanders are also made with do-it-yourself'ers in mind. Parts for most other brands also need to come through a dealer, so there may be mark ups. Englander parts come from the factory or other re-sellers and decent instructions on how to replace things can be found online.
All in all, I'm satisfied with my Englander. Once I modded the burn pot, likely in a similar manner to your stove, I saw a nice improvement in the performance of the stove (I actually blocked the lower holes with quarters held in place with stove cement!). I have no problems doing 3x daily burn pot scrapings. Now, if I had the money, would I buy a Harman for less maintenance, ya, probably, but I'm by no means going out of my way to buy one.
Englanders are also made with do-it-yourself'ers in mind. Parts for most other brands also need to come through a dealer, so there may be mark ups. Englander parts come from the factory or other re-sellers and decent instructions on how to replace things can be found online.
All in all, I'm satisfied with my Englander. Once I modded the burn pot, likely in a similar manner to your stove, I saw a nice improvement in the performance of the stove (I actually blocked the lower holes with quarters held in place with stove cement!). I have no problems doing 3x daily burn pot scrapings. Now, if I had the money, would I buy a Harman for less maintenance, ya, probably, but I'm by no means going out of my way to buy one.
I agree with you. It's simple to use but you need to stay on top of the ash in the pot
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