Hi, my name is Chris. I’m a new pellet stove user. I am hoping that other forum members who also use a Hudson River Stove Works brand Chatham model pellet stove (with legs) can give me their opinions about my experience and answer some “new stove user” questions. (I did some research on the forums before posting.) I’ll try to give you good background, and I'm sorry that my post is so long!
In the middle of August this year (2014) a local company installed the stove. It seems like a simple stove, with an air shutter push/pull, and 3 electronic buttons to set the heat/temp, combustion blower, and feed rate to a setting between “1” (lowest) and “5” (highest).
We started using it in middle of October. I set the temp to 1, feed rate to 2, and combustion blower to 2. We don’t have a thermostat or anything else hooked up to the stove, and I run it on “manual mode”. After one week of night-only use, the stove shut off overnight with plenty of pellets in it (no jam), and the “mode” light continued to flash until I restarted the stove maybe 12 hours later in the morning. I contacted Hudson River Stove Works via their “contact us” webpage (the only means available) and they responded that I probably accidentally changed the auto/manual/remote mode switch and there was no problem. That switch had not been moved at all, but since I restarted the stove with no problem, I put the matter out of my mind.
The stove seemed to run fine for the next four weeks: two weeks of night-only use and then two weeks running 24/7, eating about one bag of pellets every 24 hours. My cleaning schedule follows the manual: I clean the glass and empty the ash pan every couple days as needed, and every 7 days I shut the stove down, let it cool, and clean/vacuum all the recommended parts (heat exchange tubes, fire box, ash pan, etc. – everything except the flu pipe and hard-to-reach internal parts that the manual says to clean once or twice a year).
But that was only 5 weeks of use in total….
The third week in November (one month after its first shutdown, and 2 days after a routine weekly cleaning), it started to make a very heavy black ash buildup on the glass, and the pellets started to pile up into a large mountain in the burn tray. The pellet mountain had a small lazy fire at the top, and eventually the pile filled up the entire burn tray and then reached up and into the feed chute. I turned off the stove myself and let it cool off overnight. In the morning found that the “mode” light had continued to flash for 12. I cleaned it all out and restarted the stove, and one hour later it shut itself off. I checked the auger and feed chute to make sure there was no jam and plenty of pellets. I restarted it again successfully, but during the next week it shut itself off multiple more times (every couple days).
I contacted Hudson River Stove Works via their webpage again but they never responded (and still haven’t…). I called “BAC Sales”, which is the ‘distributor’ side of the same business at the same location, but the person who answered the phone sounded defensive from the start, said they only deal with sellers and not customers, and refused to give me information about their company. I guess that “Hudson River Stove Works” exists only the stove’s designer and brand name because the manufacturer is Sherwood Industries Ltd in Saanichton, BC, Canada.
At the beginning of December, I contacted the installer to ask for help with the frequent shut-offs and increasing frequency of problems. The installer does not know how to fix stoves and said it was unlikely that Hudson River Stove Works would send anyone to help, so he subcontracted a repairman, who is purportedly highly-experienced (15+ years) with this brand, to troubleshoot and repair the stove. The repairman said my settings were the problem, and he changed the temp to 3, feed rate to 5, and combustion blower to 3. He also opened the air shutter more. It made a great fire and he said it was working perfectly. I didn’t like those high temp and feed rate settings for two reasons: 1) it wasn’t very cold out so the stove was making the house way too hot, and 2) it ate too many pellets in my opinion (well over two bags a day). So, I reduced the temp to 2 and feed rate to 3, and then raised the combustion blower to 4 and opened the air shutter quite a bit more to get the fire and burning-pellet-mound to have the goal qualities the repairman showed me indicated ideal burning conditions.
The stove ran that way, seemingly fine, for five days, and then it shut off overnight again. When I checked it in the morning, this time the “#3 temp” light and the “mode” light were flashing; another difference was that this time there was no mound of pellets or ash cake, everything that had dropped into the burn tray had been consumed cleanly after the stove shut off. And that was the end of the stove’s usefulness. I cleaned it all out again, and tried to restart it about 12 times, but each time was the same: the fire would ignite, the pellets would feed and burn, and 2 to 15 minutes later the fire would go out (always under the control of the stove's computer, so I cannot change any settings!), leaving no pellets in the tray and the “#3 temp” light and “mode” light flashing.
The repairman now believes that a heat exhaust temperature relay part isn’t working. He and the installer tell me they called Hudson River Stove Works for 4 days to try to order the part, and the installer said it took that long before the company answered the phone or called them back because the company was “swamped”. Today is the third day that I’m waiting for the supposedly-mailed part to reach the installer, so the repairman can come to fix the problem…assuming that is the problem. Meanwhile, the stove hasn’t worked at all for one full cold, icy week, so I’m back to pouring money into heating oil (last year’s oil usage to keep the thermostat at 60 cost about $800/month), but this time while looking at a $6,000 useless investment in the house.
That’s my story, which leads me to my questions:
1) Can anyone tell me how my experience compares to theirs with the Hudson River Stove Works company or their Chatham pellet stove? I'm trying hard not to feel like I got ripped off for several thousand dollars by the installer and treated badly by a combative, unhelpful stove company.
2) Am I doing anything wrong in my operation of the stove or the temp, feed rate, combustion blower, or air shutter settings I’m choosing? The repairman gave me detailed tips: use only the three middle temp settings, then fine-tune the flame and burning-pellet-mound qualities using the air shutter. Adjust the feed rate and combustion blower only if changing brands of pellets or if a particular bag of pellets is burning differently from the others.
3) The repairman told me that this particular pellet stove should be run only at feed rate 5 and not less, and pellet stoves in general are not meant run on the lowest (“1” in my case) or highest (“5”) temp settings for more than an hour. Is this right? It seems odd to me that a stove would be manufactured with 5 feed rate settings if only the highest one can keep the stove running, or that stoves would have temp settings that shouldn’t be used.
4) The repairman also said that pellet stoves aren’t meant to be a primary heat source but only to augment my boiler temporarily, because they are much more prone to being out of service. Also, he said it’s normal for my stove’s 45-pound capacity hopper to empty out and the stove to shut off during the 8 hours I’m sleeping at night, even on low settings for temp and feed rate. What do you think of these statements? My goal in installing the pellet stove was to use it as the main heat source (significantly cheaper than oil), especially so that the house could be heated overnight with no upkeep while we sleep, which I can’t do with the traditional wood stove. I know a few people who heat their whole home (slightly smaller and better insulated than mine) with a pellet stove, so I think there must be some way to make it get through the night without a refill.
5) From reading other posts I realize this is a controversial question, but would any forum members using my same brand/model of stove recommend certain brands of pellets? This would give me a good starting-off point. I’m currently using New England pellets, which the repairman didn’t like. He recommended 100% softwood pellets instead of 100% hardwood or a hardwood/softwood mix, but he also specified the brands LG, Energex, and Lignetics (which are hardwood/softwood mixes, aren’t they?).
6) Does anyone know roughly how many bags of pellets per day I should expect to use on low, medium, and high temp+feed rate settings? We live about halfway between Albany and New York City, NY. The house is 2,400 square feet, built in the later 1800s, with storm windows (plus heavy drapes we close at dark) but typical poor insulation. It’s a center hall colonial with two chimneys, one at each end of the house; a new traditional wood burning stove insert is on one chimney and the pellet stove is on the other. Each stove claims to be able to heat up to 2,200 square feet. I installed corner/door fans to move hot air around the house.
Many thanks,
Chris
In the middle of August this year (2014) a local company installed the stove. It seems like a simple stove, with an air shutter push/pull, and 3 electronic buttons to set the heat/temp, combustion blower, and feed rate to a setting between “1” (lowest) and “5” (highest).
We started using it in middle of October. I set the temp to 1, feed rate to 2, and combustion blower to 2. We don’t have a thermostat or anything else hooked up to the stove, and I run it on “manual mode”. After one week of night-only use, the stove shut off overnight with plenty of pellets in it (no jam), and the “mode” light continued to flash until I restarted the stove maybe 12 hours later in the morning. I contacted Hudson River Stove Works via their “contact us” webpage (the only means available) and they responded that I probably accidentally changed the auto/manual/remote mode switch and there was no problem. That switch had not been moved at all, but since I restarted the stove with no problem, I put the matter out of my mind.
The stove seemed to run fine for the next four weeks: two weeks of night-only use and then two weeks running 24/7, eating about one bag of pellets every 24 hours. My cleaning schedule follows the manual: I clean the glass and empty the ash pan every couple days as needed, and every 7 days I shut the stove down, let it cool, and clean/vacuum all the recommended parts (heat exchange tubes, fire box, ash pan, etc. – everything except the flu pipe and hard-to-reach internal parts that the manual says to clean once or twice a year).
But that was only 5 weeks of use in total….
The third week in November (one month after its first shutdown, and 2 days after a routine weekly cleaning), it started to make a very heavy black ash buildup on the glass, and the pellets started to pile up into a large mountain in the burn tray. The pellet mountain had a small lazy fire at the top, and eventually the pile filled up the entire burn tray and then reached up and into the feed chute. I turned off the stove myself and let it cool off overnight. In the morning found that the “mode” light had continued to flash for 12. I cleaned it all out and restarted the stove, and one hour later it shut itself off. I checked the auger and feed chute to make sure there was no jam and plenty of pellets. I restarted it again successfully, but during the next week it shut itself off multiple more times (every couple days).
I contacted Hudson River Stove Works via their webpage again but they never responded (and still haven’t…). I called “BAC Sales”, which is the ‘distributor’ side of the same business at the same location, but the person who answered the phone sounded defensive from the start, said they only deal with sellers and not customers, and refused to give me information about their company. I guess that “Hudson River Stove Works” exists only the stove’s designer and brand name because the manufacturer is Sherwood Industries Ltd in Saanichton, BC, Canada.
At the beginning of December, I contacted the installer to ask for help with the frequent shut-offs and increasing frequency of problems. The installer does not know how to fix stoves and said it was unlikely that Hudson River Stove Works would send anyone to help, so he subcontracted a repairman, who is purportedly highly-experienced (15+ years) with this brand, to troubleshoot and repair the stove. The repairman said my settings were the problem, and he changed the temp to 3, feed rate to 5, and combustion blower to 3. He also opened the air shutter more. It made a great fire and he said it was working perfectly. I didn’t like those high temp and feed rate settings for two reasons: 1) it wasn’t very cold out so the stove was making the house way too hot, and 2) it ate too many pellets in my opinion (well over two bags a day). So, I reduced the temp to 2 and feed rate to 3, and then raised the combustion blower to 4 and opened the air shutter quite a bit more to get the fire and burning-pellet-mound to have the goal qualities the repairman showed me indicated ideal burning conditions.
The stove ran that way, seemingly fine, for five days, and then it shut off overnight again. When I checked it in the morning, this time the “#3 temp” light and the “mode” light were flashing; another difference was that this time there was no mound of pellets or ash cake, everything that had dropped into the burn tray had been consumed cleanly after the stove shut off. And that was the end of the stove’s usefulness. I cleaned it all out again, and tried to restart it about 12 times, but each time was the same: the fire would ignite, the pellets would feed and burn, and 2 to 15 minutes later the fire would go out (always under the control of the stove's computer, so I cannot change any settings!), leaving no pellets in the tray and the “#3 temp” light and “mode” light flashing.
The repairman now believes that a heat exhaust temperature relay part isn’t working. He and the installer tell me they called Hudson River Stove Works for 4 days to try to order the part, and the installer said it took that long before the company answered the phone or called them back because the company was “swamped”. Today is the third day that I’m waiting for the supposedly-mailed part to reach the installer, so the repairman can come to fix the problem…assuming that is the problem. Meanwhile, the stove hasn’t worked at all for one full cold, icy week, so I’m back to pouring money into heating oil (last year’s oil usage to keep the thermostat at 60 cost about $800/month), but this time while looking at a $6,000 useless investment in the house.
That’s my story, which leads me to my questions:
1) Can anyone tell me how my experience compares to theirs with the Hudson River Stove Works company or their Chatham pellet stove? I'm trying hard not to feel like I got ripped off for several thousand dollars by the installer and treated badly by a combative, unhelpful stove company.
2) Am I doing anything wrong in my operation of the stove or the temp, feed rate, combustion blower, or air shutter settings I’m choosing? The repairman gave me detailed tips: use only the three middle temp settings, then fine-tune the flame and burning-pellet-mound qualities using the air shutter. Adjust the feed rate and combustion blower only if changing brands of pellets or if a particular bag of pellets is burning differently from the others.
3) The repairman told me that this particular pellet stove should be run only at feed rate 5 and not less, and pellet stoves in general are not meant run on the lowest (“1” in my case) or highest (“5”) temp settings for more than an hour. Is this right? It seems odd to me that a stove would be manufactured with 5 feed rate settings if only the highest one can keep the stove running, or that stoves would have temp settings that shouldn’t be used.
4) The repairman also said that pellet stoves aren’t meant to be a primary heat source but only to augment my boiler temporarily, because they are much more prone to being out of service. Also, he said it’s normal for my stove’s 45-pound capacity hopper to empty out and the stove to shut off during the 8 hours I’m sleeping at night, even on low settings for temp and feed rate. What do you think of these statements? My goal in installing the pellet stove was to use it as the main heat source (significantly cheaper than oil), especially so that the house could be heated overnight with no upkeep while we sleep, which I can’t do with the traditional wood stove. I know a few people who heat their whole home (slightly smaller and better insulated than mine) with a pellet stove, so I think there must be some way to make it get through the night without a refill.
5) From reading other posts I realize this is a controversial question, but would any forum members using my same brand/model of stove recommend certain brands of pellets? This would give me a good starting-off point. I’m currently using New England pellets, which the repairman didn’t like. He recommended 100% softwood pellets instead of 100% hardwood or a hardwood/softwood mix, but he also specified the brands LG, Energex, and Lignetics (which are hardwood/softwood mixes, aren’t they?).
6) Does anyone know roughly how many bags of pellets per day I should expect to use on low, medium, and high temp+feed rate settings? We live about halfway between Albany and New York City, NY. The house is 2,400 square feet, built in the later 1800s, with storm windows (plus heavy drapes we close at dark) but typical poor insulation. It’s a center hall colonial with two chimneys, one at each end of the house; a new traditional wood burning stove insert is on one chimney and the pellet stove is on the other. Each stove claims to be able to heat up to 2,200 square feet. I installed corner/door fans to move hot air around the house.
Many thanks,
Chris
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close on rise ceramic air stream thermo disc (aka snap disc, POF) those puppies are usually solid units (part number 39 on the exploded parts diagram).
