Enviro Empress ~ 2006 vs Regency hampton gc60

[Driftersown]

Soon to be newbie pellet stove owner here: I am looking at putting in a pellet stove into my living room to help heat in the winter. I have found two contenders that are similar in price and size. The Enviro Empress is refurbished from a company in Wisconsin with a 45 day warranty and the Regency Hampton is from a local family in Colorado. They have had the stove for 3 years with no issues and just had it serviced. They have also routinely cleaned it twice weekly. I have read the forum posts about how many issues there are with the Regency Hampton GC60 stove, but wonder if this was with an older model. Also wondering if the the age of the Empress may cause issues. Any insight as to which is quieter?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[johneh]

They will be about the same noise level !
I have had an Enviro ef 3 for 20 years it has cost me one combustion fan
Right now I am refurbing a 6-year old Empress there are 0 problems
other than the person who owned it didn't clean it.
You will find more people with bigger problems that own other stoves
then people with problems that own an Enviro including Harman
(OK Harman people jump on me now)
I would buy the Enviro over the Hampton every time
Just my nickels worth
One last thing Welcome to the forum

 

[Driftersown]

They will be about the same noise level !
I have had an Enviro ef 3 for 20 years it has cost me one combustion fan
Right now I am refurbing a 6-year old Empress there are 0 problems
other than the person who owned it didn't clean it.
You will find more people with bigger problems that own other stoves
then people with problems that own an Enviro including Harman
(OK Harman people jump on me now)
I would buy the Enviro over the Hampton every time
Just my nickels worth
One last thing Welcome to the forum

Johneh, thanks for your input. I was leaning towards the Enviro Empress based on all the reviews, I was just a little nervous because of the age of the stove. I want to install a stove that is going to work with minimal problems and it sounds like the Hampton tends to have issues.

 

[SidecarFlip]

In all actuality a stove will last almost forever, you just replace parts like motors and fans and maybe a control board if you don't use a quality surge suppressor like Tripp-Lite.

Occasionally there will be a failure in the heat exchanger but that is rare and if you can weld like I can that isn't an issue either.

Only reason I'm on my second stove is my first one was positive draft and a positive draft stove can be an issue if the embers get into the pellet hopper but they are no longer made so that issue don't exist anymore. Don't believe they have been made that way for at least 15 years now.

They are all negative draft now (combustion blower PULLS the air through the unit) instead of PUSHING the air through the unit.