Hi guys, I've been lurking for a couple of weeks while I research stoves. I went out to Lowes today to look at the basic Summers Heat stove, the equivalent of the 25-PDVC. My whole house is just over 1300 square feet and I don't have a ton of money to spare, so this stove seems like a good fit. My main concern really is the ash storage areas on the side, they seem like they would be really difficult to clean out without a metal ash vac. Would I be better off waiting for the EP in a few weeks? Or possibly looking at another small stove? Thanks everyone.
Englander
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I'm very happy with my 25PDV. I do own and ash vac tho...The stove is very easy to clean and I got my vac for a little over 200.00 on E-Bay. :coolsmile:
If you do a search here and/or on the stove ratings area, you will find a lot of discussion on this.
this thread talks about most aspects:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/23511/
My advice is also given there - which is to buy a stove you can afford BUT, think about future costs, operating costs, style (you will be looking at it for a long time), etc.
this thread talks about most aspects:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/23511/
My advice is also given there - which is to buy a stove you can afford BUT, think about future costs, operating costs, style (you will be looking at it for a long time), etc.
Arithian said:
I bought a little Stinger shop vac from Home Depot and use that to clean the inside of my 25..... when it's cool of course. That's the easiest way I've found to clean my stove. Just my $.02 worth.
Arithian said:
This will be my 4th season heating with a 25-PDVC. Once a day I use a pair of channel lock pliers to dump the wear plate into the side ash storage areas, then use a teaspoon to clean under the wear plate. Takes about 10 minutes including the time for the flame to go out. I clean out the side ash storage areas about once a week with a metal serving spoon. I dump them into a metal coffee can and place it onside on nonflammable surface to cool and dump it later into an empty pellet bag. Every couple of weeks or when I get a warmer day I let the stove cool down completely and give it a good vacuum and remove the baffle plate and vacuum behind it. I use a piece of plastic tubing about a half inch in diameter with tape around one end to fit into the shop vac to get into the areas behind baffle plate.About 400 lbs of pellet ash fits into a coffee can. I've been very happy with my PDVC-25. For the money, I think it's a good deal. The tech support is great (and free),.
I was going to do the small (1-2.5 gal) shop vac, but can't find any of them that has a fine filter bag to fit them. All I have been able to find fine/drywall dust bags for, have been 5 gal and up. I thought I could get the smaller ones and store in metal garbage can when finished, just in case of fire.
kyburnr said:
I currently use a 10 gal vac, was going to get a smaller one also. On my 10 gal, the filter is just a flat piece of material that fits over the sponge filter and held in place with a plastic ring keeper. Could you/I just cut the filter material down to fit? Or is it another type of animal in the smaller vac?
Panhandler said:
This sure doesn`t sound like much work , inconvenience , or even time consuming but the mentality of some folks seems to be that it is highly undesireable to shut down a pellet stove for cleaning once every 7-14 days. Folks, there`s nothing wrong doing this , it`s not a sin to turn the stove off for occasional cleaning. The house isn`t gonna freeze.
The pellet stove is a space heater and should be considered supplemental .
SLVRBLKK
Do have any special filter on the stinger vac or are you using the paper one that came with it?
Do have any special filter on the stinger vac or are you using the paper one that came with it?
Panhandler said:
Holy crap I found my twin!
Channel locks to dump plate daily- check
teaspoon to scoop under - check
large serving spoon for ash area - check
coffee can - nope - I have a galvanized 1 foot garbage can (also used for wood stove)
left over tubing from the keg/fridge project duct taped to shop vac hose - check
Your wife pissed about stealing the silverware too?
To the OP = the ash area can hold more ash then you'll be able to let build up - if you are as fastidious as most guys about their gear.
Compared to a wood stove, you can't complain about the maintenance. 10 minutes a day.
Arithian,
Another stove you may want to check out is the US Stove 6039. Inexpensive and comes with an ash pan. I have the insert model and while its new I have burned it a few times and think -- (hope) it will do well in my 1200 sq. ft. home. I hear what the others say and they have merit, but I couldn't find a higher end stove. I fix most things myself, and if I have problems with this unit I feel very comfortable repairing it. When the big rush for stoves calms down and I decide I like heating with pellets I may move up to a "better" unit in a few years. In the meantime I've spent about half of some prices I was quoted when I was looking for stoves and I bought 2 tons of lignetics to boot ! Tractor supply and Northern Tool on line have the stoves and I bought mine online at Smiths Farm Store and they were great to deal with. Hey everyone has a budget and like someone stated earlier and couldn't be more right , its about saving money.
Schoondog
Another stove you may want to check out is the US Stove 6039. Inexpensive and comes with an ash pan. I have the insert model and while its new I have burned it a few times and think -- (hope) it will do well in my 1200 sq. ft. home. I hear what the others say and they have merit, but I couldn't find a higher end stove. I fix most things myself, and if I have problems with this unit I feel very comfortable repairing it. When the big rush for stoves calms down and I decide I like heating with pellets I may move up to a "better" unit in a few years. In the meantime I've spent about half of some prices I was quoted when I was looking for stoves and I bought 2 tons of lignetics to boot ! Tractor supply and Northern Tool on line have the stoves and I bought mine online at Smiths Farm Store and they were great to deal with. Hey everyone has a budget and like someone stated earlier and couldn't be more right , its about saving money.
Schoondog
staplebox said:
Great minds think alike? Or Yankee ingenuity? Both? Get your silverware from the Dollar store.
cms said:
I just use the one that came with it. I also bought a pack of the filters but haven't had to use those yet.
If you check the shop vac website the smallest size vac they make drywall dust bags for is the 5 gallon size. If you try to vaccum ash indoors without a fine partical filter you'll be blowing dust all over your house. Don't ask me how I know this... :roll:
pegdot said:
I found this out to Peggy, and ended up with the 6 gal. Shop Vac. I tired the Stinger first and it worked well the first time. Once the filter was saturated the dust came flying out into the house the next time I used it.
schoondog said:
Thanks Schoondog, I had looked at a couple of stoves from US Stove online, but couldn't find out much about them so I left it. I used to live up in Dutchess too, nice area, I miss it.
I'm going to try and drag my husband out this weekend to look at a couple stoves, he's been dead set on having nothing to do with this, but he'll complain if he doesn't like the stove. Hopefully Lowes will still have the Summers Heat to look at since Home Depot was sold out, and then we'll look at the US Stove online I guess. Hopefully we'll make a decision this weekend.
rap69ri said:
Did you have a hole in the paper filter when that happened? On mine, the suction decreases and then I blow the filter out with my air compressor. It, so far, has not blown out any dust.
Check to see if there's a Tractor Supply Company (you can Google them and find their local stores). IIRC they carry them in the stores and at least up here have them sitting on the floor.Arithian said:
slvrblkk said:
I didn't have a hole in the paper filter, it just reached its saturation point I guess. Are you blowing the filter out after every use? If you are that's probably why you aren't having a problem using the Stinger.
No holes necessary to make a big mess! LOL I was happily cleaning away when I noticed that the vac wasn't picking up as well as it normally does. Turned around to look at the canister only to see this column of gray ash rising up from the exhaust! YIKES! The filter was simply clogged up. Once that happens you're just moving ash from your stove into your room. :grrr: The bad part is that unless you've got really good light you might not even see the ash coming out the exhaust because it's so fine.
Back on topic.....I've actually been surprised at just how long I can burn my stove, heating the whole house, without having to shut it down to clean out the side ash areas. I usually shut it down once a week and vac but that's just me being anal retentive since there's still gobs of room in there for more ash. I did burn it for two straight weeks last winter, 24/7, without removing any ash other than from the burn plate. It could have gone longer than that I'm sure.
Back on topic.....I've actually been surprised at just how long I can burn my stove, heating the whole house, without having to shut it down to clean out the side ash areas. I usually shut it down once a week and vac but that's just me being anal retentive since there's still gobs of room in there for more ash. I did burn it for two straight weeks last winter, 24/7, without removing any ash other than from the burn plate. It could have gone longer than that I'm sure.
I put a bag inside my shop vac . This keeps the filter clean and when the bags full you just throw it out.I bought a ridgid from home depot and they sell the bags to fit too.
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