New Vistaflame VF-170

[jvanase]

Hey all,
We had our Vistaflame VF-170 installed this week. I found a lot of great info on the boards here, really appreciate all the knowledge. I felt a lot more comfortable making an informed decision after spending some time here reading.

5 tons of fuel are stacked on the other side of the basement. Being our first year burning, I bought 5 different kinds to try them out. Mix of blends and softwoods.

We went with a basement install since we wanted to keep our fireplace open for wood fires, and I use the basement as a workshop area and I froze my butt off last year down there (we just moved into the house Dec 2011)! Will it heat the entire house? Hard to say, but I'm sure it'll at least take the edge off. It's a big unit (enough btu/hr by spec), but there are always the issues of moving the heat around. Here are the specs:
-2200 sq ft colonial, ~15 years old
-Basement is about 1200 sq ft
-10 ft ceilings
-cathedral ceilings in master bed/bath
-two story foyer, basement door exists near edge of 1st floor ceiling transition to foyer
-walk about basement, 50% concrete 50% framed
-unfinished basement, ceiling NOT insulated
-2x4 framing
-forced air furnace. two registers in basement, no return in basement

It's NOT a great heating profile, although it's not as bad as an old farm house either. As you can see, we put the stove in the corner of the basement near the water heater. It's the back corner of the house, North side, on the framed side, but opposite the actual walk out door.

It wasn't particularly cold out the other night (about 50), but I ran the stove just for the heck of it to try out my new toy! Put it on the lowest setting, had the basement up around 80, main floor at 76, and I don't have a thermometer on the 2nd floor but it was WARM. Obviously when it's actually cold, that'll be the real test.

My HVAC guy is coming next week to spec out adding a return register above the stove. I may hold off on this work until I see how well (or not well) the heat moves by just running the furnace fan as is, but I need the oil burners cleaned in the meantime anyway.



I'll post back once we've really had a chance to run it in some cold weather to see what I've got for reviews on the pellet types, as well as how well it's heating the area. I'm also interested to see how many pellets it burns through on the various settings.

Cheers,
Jon from CT

PS. For what it's worth, we paid $1999 for the unit.

 

[jtakeman]

Sounds like you got a good deal on the unit. They do eat alot of fuel on the higher settings. But with the basement install, You'll need it for sure! As the cold sets in you'll find you will not be as warm in the upper levels.

These units have a plenum kit available. I recommend ducting the heat up if you are allowed to by area code requirements(firestop issues may apply). Its the fastest way to get heat to the living area. The stove will radiate enough heat to warm the basement. Use the basement door as the return. Your setup is similar to mine, Except I don't have a 3rd floor to heat. I keep my living area at 74ºF and my basement around 66ºF even in the cold. If I can find my thread, I'll post a link to it.

Another thing if you find one of your pellets gives you fits there is a high ash burnpot liner that does help with them. But for the most part you should be fine.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Congrats on the new stove.

You will be well served insulating the basement.
The walls and floor act as heat sink. Takes a lot of BTU's to warm the concrete.
Be money well spent.

You will be warmer in the basement but it is a lot of load to overcome to heat the rest of house.
It will help out but your mileage may vary.
Ducting changes the equation.

---Nailer---

 

[smoke show]

Looking good!

The surge protector police will be along shortly....

 

[Eatonpcat]

Nice looking stove!

 

[jvanase]

Looking good!

The surge protector police will be along shortly....

A surge protector and a battery backup!

jtakeman, any idea on who makes the plenum kits? I did some googling and didn't come up with much.

As for insulating the basement, that's the plan eventually. As money and time allow of course. Can't say I'll ever do anything about the floor though.

 

[jtakeman]

Its actually called the heat distribution kit on the Maxx and Maxx M. I didn't see one for the VistaFlame. But it may be possible to adapt it to the VF-170? I'll keep looking to see if a kit for the VF-170 is available. Here is the link to the Maxx kit

http://www.enviro.com/product_notes/1323930425-Maxx Heat Distribution Kit.pdf

 

[UncleAnthony]

Congratulations !
I have same unit. You will love it ! Definitely get surge suppressor asap though !
It should heat your entire house easily (i am heating 2800sqft), only issue is the uninsulated part
to overcome (as said previously)
It eats alot of pellets.
I have found running 24x7 (xcept for weekly clean) the heat settings :
settting 1-2 one ton/mth
setting 3-4 1.5 and more ton/mth
setting 5 - only tried a couple of times, way too much heat !
normally during winter, I use setting 1,2,3 .
Enjoy!

 

[jvanase]

The Maxx and the VF-170 look like exactly the same thing. I'll check with the place I purchased from to see if they have any thoughts on getting the kit installed on my stove.

Went and put a surge suppressor on it right away, although it was just one I had lying around. I should probably invest in a good one.

 

[jvanase]

Well, it was 27 degrees out this weekend so that was the first real test of the stove. I had it loaded with Timberheats. I picked up a few bags of that to burn on the shoulder, and I noticed a big difference between them and the New Englands I was burning before. Way less heat from the Timberheats.

Anyway, turning on my forced air fan it kept the basement at ~80, main floor ~72 , probably high 60's upstairs although I don't have a thermometer up there. The master bathroom has bad circulation so it was cold in there. I had to run the stove on 3 while trying to warm the house up (until the basement gets nice and toasty really), found that leaving it on 2 was enough to keep the temp pretty consistent in the low 70's on the main floor.

This is so much better than heating with fuel oil......

 

[nailed_nailer]

Glad it worked out for you.
You will probably tweek it over time to get it working even better.
It becomes an obsession to squeeze as much out of the stove for as little energy input as possible.

Then you find out the kids left the back door open

---Nailer---

 

[Happy Hour]

How well did VF-170 heat the house last week when it was pretty cold? I'm looking at doing the Maxx-M in my basement.

 

[jvanase]

How well did VF-170 heat the house last week when it was pretty cold? I'm looking at doing the Maxx-M in my basement.

It's kept up in with temperatures in the teens. Burning about 3 bags per day. When it dropped below 0 for a few days last week, I had to turn the oil furnace on. The VF-170 might have kept up, but I would have had to run it on the highest setting. Unfortunately, I had it on 3 where I've been running it and by the time I got home from work the house was hovering around 63F and it probably would have taken too long for the pellets to bring it back up to 70F. So, had I prepared better I could have cranked it up, burning who knows how many bags per day maybe 4 or 5, and not had to use any oil. I'll try to do that next time if we get some really cold temps again this winter.

Overall, I've been very happy with it. I run it on settings 2 through 4 depending on the temperature outside. Have never tried 5. What I find is that between 3 and 4 it barely burns any additional pellets, so I'm not convinced that settings 4 and 5 really throw that much more heat than 3.

I have been finding that my electric bill is up by about $50/month. That's running the pellet stove, and leaving my forced air fan on 24/7. To me, that's a fine trade off for not using any oil (as long as the temps stay above 10F or so).

I did end up cutting a return, probably 18x20", into the basement. It's not strategically located near the stove or anything, just on the main return trunk in a spot that was convenient to cut into. With that return the house stays pretty well balanced. Only super cold room is the master bath.

I just dipped into my 4.5-th ton this weekend. Trying the Energex this time. Burned 1 ton O'Malleys, 1 ton New England, 1/2 ton Green Teams, and about another ton of whatever crap Lowe's had. Honestly the Green Supreme's (20 bags or so) and Green Teams (30 bags) burned pretty well for me. Timber Heats were ok. Inferno's were garbage.

I'm thinking next year I'll be ordering 7 tons. I only got 5 this year, and I've had to pick up extras from the local stores about a half ton at a time with my 1/2 ton pickup. I think if I just got 7, although it will take up a lot of space it will get me through a full winter.

Hope that helps!

 

[jtakeman]

Sounds like its doing pretty well for you. On the heat setting, From to 3 to 4 on mine is quite a bit hotter. If you need more try it. But expect to eat lots more fuel. Setting 5 is close to 8 pounds an hour. About 5 bags a day and 4 is close to 4 bags. These things like to eat!

If your looking for box store stuff, Might want to get some soon. They are close to pulling them for lawn furniture and such. And towards the end of the season the war settles and the prices could go up. I have seen whats left in April close to $300/ton in my neck of the woods. Just some FYI.

 

[jvanase]

Hmm, good suggestion! I'll see about picking up some more this weekend, just in case. I've got 3 tons left right now, which should take me through Feb and March but I'm not sure about April.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Not telling you what is acceptable to you......But......

I carry a full pallet (1 ton) in my F-150 (1/2 ton Pickup) about 4 times a year.

Several of these trips (OMV's Place) and (J&S Trucking) were in excess of 50 miles.

Just sayin'
---Nailer---

 

[jvanase]

I'll think about it. My father has a 3/4 ton, so if nothing else I could borrow his for a day to shuffle some around and I'd feel a little more comfortable about that.

Thankfully there is a distribution facility just a few miles down the street from me in the next town over.

 

[Happy Hour]

Thanks for the update jvanase, sound like its working 'pretty well' for you.

 

[jvanase]

Update from October 2013: The stove heated our house all winter, and kept us nice and warm.

HOWEVER, I had the auger motor seize up on me sometime in the spring. I can't remember exactly what the date was but I remember that it wasn't that cold out at the time, so I'm guessing it was in March. I had run ~6 tons through the stove at that point. It was replaced under warranty. I should clarify, it's not the DC motor but the gearbox/transmission/torque_converter/whatever_you_want_to_call_it that connects to the auger shaft that froze I think. Since it was under warranty they just replaced the entire part.

Well now it's October and the auger motor seized up again. I've only been running the stove for 3 weeks so far this season, and I think I ran it for about a month after the replacement last year. Probably well less than 2 tons on it. This is pretty disappointing. While it's still under the 2 year warranty..... I'm getting a bit concerned that I'll be replacing this $270 part every year. What gives?

After the first failure I started running the hopper empty once a week so that I could vacuum out any fines that had accumulated at the bottom. The dealer suggested that it could be fines working their way into the gearbox that was causing it to seize. Apparently, it made it even worse!! (that's a joke, I don't really think this made it worse)

Just wanted to share my experience. Has anyone else with a VF-170 had this issue?

 

[oldseabee1979]

We bought our VF170 back in 2008 and burn about 5 1/2 ton a winter.We have a 1500 sqft ranch and stove is in the basement so we are heating about 3000 sqft.up until this winter we have always kept setting on 2 and had great results the basement stays at 80 and upstairs is between 72-74. We have burned many different types of pellets over the years and this year have 2 different brands, but stove just doesn't seem to be putting out the heat this year.In past years we have bought 300 lbs of corn and added about a gallon of corn to every 2 bags of pellets.but even that isn't helping.Can anyone give me some input on what the problem might be.I know it could be the pellets or the unusual cold.Just asking.We regularly clean the stove and vent pipe. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mt Bob]

We bought our VF170 back in 2008 and burn about 5 1/2 ton a winter.We have a 1500 sqft ranch and stove is in the basement so we are heating about 3000 sqft.up until this winter we have always kept setting on 2 and had great results the basement stays at 80 and upstairs is between 72-74. We have burned many different types of pellets over the years and this year have 2 different brands, but stove just doesn't seem to be putting out the heat this year.In past years we have bought 300 lbs of corn and added about a gallon of corn to every 2 bags of pellets.but even that isn't helping.Can anyone give me some input on what the problem might be.I know it could be the pellets or the unusual cold.Just asking.We regularly clean the stove and vent pipe. Thanks in advance.

You will have a better chance of replys if you start a new thread,not tying into an old one.Try "Vistaflame Poor Heat"

 

[Toddvt]

Heat dist. kit works well.

 

[kjones22]

How well does the distribution kit heat the house?

How much does the kit cost?

 

[jvanase]

Todd is that the heat kit from the Maxx-M? My dealer told me that it wouldn't fit on the VF-170 because it was slightly different.

 

[batchman]

The kit is listed only for the Maxx, I intend to try it on an M.

I'm pretty sure for the VF-170 the issue would only be not lining up with the outer skin - I'll bet they look a lot alike on the exploded view. On the other hand I'm prepared for a little modification if needed for my "M" and someone trying it on a VF-170 should be too.

Cheers,
- Jeff