Please help newbie question for stove?

[bella]

Hi everyone this site is great. I need help on buying a pellet stove?
But there are 3 stoves I been looking at all have have the same style.
All the dealers are 10 minutes from each other.
What stove would you recommend????
The stoves are:

-QUADRA-FIRE / MT VERNON AE / CASTILLE

-HARMAN XXV

-AVALON ARBOR

THANK YOU !

 

[jtp10181]

Do you have any questions....?

With a pellet stove you are going to want to also pick your dealer. You might need good dealer support if something goes wrong with the stove.

 

[FredW]

I have the Avalon Arbor and love it. I looked, and almost bought the Quad Castille and then the Harmon XXV, but when I saw the Arbor I held back and did some research. Very little posted about Avalon problems/issues meant either few are in use or they aren't having significant problems. My dealer carries all of them, and had just gotten the Arbor, so I was one of the first customers.

The Arbor is very well built, with a strong door setup. I liked the looks of the Castille but didn't like the door inside of a door setup, the outer door appears to be just cosmetic. I liked the XXV also, but the looks of the Arbor won me over, plus I kind of liked the idea of taking on the risk of being the first customer here to use one.

Can't be happier. Only issue is, and it's my fault, the stove can run you out of the house, on low, in "manual" mode. I am using manual mode, as I haven't gotten around to drilling through a brick wall to run wires and mount the included wall thermostat. I suspect when I do that, it will be able to maintain a lower temperature. We have about 1500 sq ft, single story, very well insulated home here in No. California mountains.

Avalon is a product of Travis Industries as is Lopi. Having a Lopi wood insert at my cabin, I've had experience dealing with Travis, and they have great customer service. I suspect that is also a reason why I went with the Avalon.

Being this is my first pellet stove I can not really compare accurately, only by listening to experiences with others with different stoves. I will note that the maintenance issues with this stove seem minimal to me. I have burned about 1/2 ton so far, and have not dumped the ash tray, it's now about 3/4 full. I have never had a clinker and the three or four times I have removed the burn pot there has been nothing to clean in it. I just suck out the burn area with a shop vac about twice a week, that's it. I haven't even disassembled to clean the interior yet, it seems fine via inspection so far. I do have to clean the glass a couple of times a week when I run it a lot on low heat. When on high heat, the glass stays pretty clear.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[muss]

Hi guy ! At the beginning of this forum , you'll find a thread on which stove is right for you . Also, you should check what pellet stove seems to give it's owners the most problems & whether or not they are minor, constant or something you can live with . Best of luck in your purchase