i recently bought my first home. its an old farm house, 1450 sq ft home. its not very well insulated as of yet and still has the old fashoned windows. it has a dinosaur POS natural gas furance in the basement. its an old oil burning hallmark forced air furance converted over to natural gas. its a real peace of junk, not effiecient in the slightest degree. so bought a pellet stove a few weeks ago, since i'm not a big fan of natural gas/national fuel to begin with. i dont much care for national fuel and their high rates, surcharges, and crazy stupid fees. i bought a US stove company "KING" model 5510 available at tractor supply for $999. im fairly happy with the unit. it has been heating the whole house with the old natural gas furance remaining idle so far since i bought the stove. im even considering shutting off the pilot on the furance so im not using that gas either. the stove heats fairly well, the only thing i can find wrong with the US stove models is that they are slightly louder than the more expensive units. however at $999 it is an excellent value. it has a 140 hopper and a 45,000 BTU heat rating, so it cranks out some serous heat. what do you guys think of this stove model?
the only problem i have had so far is that the burn pot likes to fill up with ash after about 10 hours of run time. when that happens, the unit must be shut down and the burn pot must be scrapped out. if i dont do this, the pellets will not receive enough air from the bottom of the burn pot, and the result is a lesser performing fire. the stove has the ability to adjust feed rates of the pellet and make custom adjustments on the draft fan. i tried turning down the feed rates and turning up the draft fan. i got better results, but the problem still exists. how often should a pellet stove have to be shut down and have the ash removed from the burn pot? i really cant complain about this stove since a $1,000 stove has completely replaced my furance, which i dont want to use anyways.
pellets are juniata premium pellets by energex.
ps
my orginal plan was to install a new wood burning stove, since the house has a wood burning chimney. i was going to have the chimney inspected and swept so i could use it. the inspector said no way, its not safe. so i gave up on it and went with a pellet stove and i used a duravent pellet vent system. i like the pellets and now that im using them, i think they are much more conventent.
the only problem i have had so far is that the burn pot likes to fill up with ash after about 10 hours of run time. when that happens, the unit must be shut down and the burn pot must be scrapped out. if i dont do this, the pellets will not receive enough air from the bottom of the burn pot, and the result is a lesser performing fire. the stove has the ability to adjust feed rates of the pellet and make custom adjustments on the draft fan. i tried turning down the feed rates and turning up the draft fan. i got better results, but the problem still exists. how often should a pellet stove have to be shut down and have the ash removed from the burn pot? i really cant complain about this stove since a $1,000 stove has completely replaced my furance, which i dont want to use anyways.
pellets are juniata premium pellets by energex.
ps
my orginal plan was to install a new wood burning stove, since the house has a wood burning chimney. i was going to have the chimney inspected and swept so i could use it. the inspector said no way, its not safe. so i gave up on it and went with a pellet stove and i used a duravent pellet vent system. i like the pellets and now that im using them, i think they are much more conventent.