Moved. Went from the Harman to a Breckwell Big E. What do I need to know?

[movemaine]

Bought a new house with a Big E. Coming from my old house with a Harman insert, which is a Cadillac and more automated - what do I need to know about the Big E? Any gotchas or tips?

I think the first thing is a thermostat, but what else?

 

[zrock]

been running a big e for the past 2 seasons.. Been a good old girl iv had to replace the igniter and blower but other than that its great.. I clean the stove once a week in the burn area and once a month ill pull the cover plates in the burn area and clean the areas behind where the ash builds up. I built a extension for the burn pot to keep the pellets in the pot and not bouncing out but you can buy them as well

 

[movemaine]

been running a big e for the past 2 seasons.. Been a good old girl iv had to replace the igniter and blower but other than that its great.. I clean the stove once a week in the burn area and once a month ill pull the cover plates in the burn area and clean the areas behind where the ash builds up. I built a extension for the burn pot to keep the pellets in the pot and not bouncing out but you can buy them as well

Did you weld on metal, or just make a separate guard? Any pics?

 

[Overfireinthehole]

It’s a separate piece you can buy from US stoves or build for much cheaper. It’s not a good idea to put a Breckwell on a thermostat because the igniters aren’t built to kick on and off constantly and because the burn pot needs to be dumped before each fire. Make sure and burn short pellets and like he said, take those two clean outs off on a monthly basis and run a flexible brush and or hose on vacuum up into the passageways behind the firebox. When my wife and I first got married, we heated exclusively with a big E for 4 years. Breckwell is the original pellet stove but they have gone down hill a lot since us stove bought them. I usually ran mine on 3 with the damper Halfway out. Start there and adjust air and heat setting according to your needs, but careful not to run on 5 for more than a few minutes.

 

[movemaine]

Any way to reduce noise of the Big E? The exhaust fan is super noisy. I'll try oiling, but holy hell it's constant.

 

[zrock]

i just built the extension to sit on the burn pot out of some 1 1/5 flat bar... sorta with i would have done 2 inch.. i run mostly on 3 as well but only need my damper out about a inch or so. May be time for a new fan or a good cleaning for the fan. I replaced the fan last year and the new one was super quiet. Except for about a month after we shut it down for the season i fired it up and it sounded like a jet... But i had not cleaned anything out and seen the fire box was fuller than normal.. Iv never had to dump my burn pot before each fire maby once between cleanings ill use a scraper and give it a quick scrape.. Every setup is slightly different

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Any way to reduce noise of the Big E? The exhaust fan is super noisy. I'll try oiling, but holy hell it's constant.

Oil it up and replace it if it doesn’t quite down.