Raising the White Flag

[buggpop]

Greetings all.
I feel like an addict who's finally hit rock bottom and is ready for a change. I bought a Hearthstone Heritage pellet stove in 2015 to heat my 1700 SF ranch with a finished basement. The stove is in the basement, with no door at the top of the steps and an open floor plan. I installed fan registers through the floors in the bedrooms and bathrooms. The comfort and economy for heating my house couldn't be beat.
When the stove worked.
I'm not sure when I read the first thread on this forum about the HH pellet stove but I remembered that my heart sank and I recognized that I had a problem. I'm a pretty handy guy and was a little frustrated when this very expensive stove wouldn't start at the beginning of the second heating season. I cleaned the stove every day it was used. The people who sold me the stove had a great reputation but ended up going out of business. I found someone to service the stove and after two visits, they diagnosed a bad oxygen sensor. Long story short, I had them replace the oxygen sensor and did it myself again the next year. I also replaced the motherboard and the electronic switch assembly. The stove is beautiful. When it works, it can't be beat. But I'm finished and have to move on. If I continue to heat my house with a pellet stove what should I buy? I google the "best pellet stove 2022" and these $2500 models I can buy from Home Depot are at the top.
I sure do understand that you get what you pay for. And because I've finally decided to move on from the very expensive stove that I did not get what I paid for, what should I do?

 

[1kzwoman]

Greetings all.
I feel like an addict who's finally hit rock bottom and is ready for a change. I bought a Hearthstone Heritage pellet stove in 2015 to heat my 1700 SF ranch with a finished basement. The stove is in the basement, with no door at the top of the steps and an open floor plan. I installed fan registers through the floors in the bedrooms and bathrooms. The comfort and economy for heating my house couldn't be beat.
When the stove worked.
I'm not sure when I read the first thread on this forum about the HH pellet stove but I remembered that my heart sank and I recognized that I had a problem. I'm a pretty handy guy and was a little frustrated when this very expensive stove wouldn't start at the beginning of the second heating season. I cleaned the stove every day it was used. The people who sold me the stove had a great reputation but ended up going out of business. I found someone to service the stove and after two visits, they diagnosed a bad oxygen sensor. Long story short, I had them replace the oxygen sensor and did it myself again the next year. I also replaced the motherboard and the electronic switch assembly. The stove is beautiful. When it works, it can't be beat. But I'm finished and have to move on. If I continue to heat my house with a pellet stove what should I buy? I google the "best pellet stove 2022" and these $2500 models I can buy from Home Depot are at the top.
I sure do understand that you get what you pay for. And because I've finally decided to move on from the very expensive stove that I did not get what I paid for, what should I do?

Hi,
You sound like you have come to the right place with your problem. The forums here are wonderful. I don’t burn pellets, but the folks here will help! I empathize with your dealer issues, I have a local dealer (35 miles) and their second store 200 miles away.
Some one more helpful will reply to you soon, but wanted to welcome. You

 

[rich2500]

Sell the HH and get out of it what you can and buy a Harman or Enviro

 

[johneh]

Sell the HH and get out of it what you can and buy a Harman or Enviro

What he said the two best stoves on the market
easy to clean easy to maintain.

 

[mtnbiker727]

I've used my Harman for 3 seasons and haven't had a single problem with it. There are people on here that have used theirs for 25+ years.

 

[Jeremy6500]

Sorry to hear you have had issues with your stove.

I don’t have much experience with a lot of different brands. I have used the USSC 6500 and PP130 that were in my house when I bought it as my primary heat source for the past 3 winters.

Being new to pellet stoves it took me a little bit to figure out how best to keep them clean and how to tweak them for optimal performance. Since then they have worked great and have been easy to troubleshoot/fix when anything went wrong.

 

[bogieb]

I have two P-series Harmans; a P61a that I had installed January of 2014 and a 2012 P43 (bought used) that I installed in 2015. Both have been work horses and I can see them easily going many, many years. They are easy to run with any pellet, easy to maintain and parts can be found readily. I don't have experience with the fancier Harman stoves, with all the electronics so can't comment on them.

I am suspicious of all "Best of" articles. You can usually tell they are paid pieces or the "reviewer" read some other review and just went with that. I really got a kick out of the one that said they did research on this forum - then went to advise buying European stoves - oh, and by the way, they didn't actually use any pellet stoves to do the review. I'm not saying European stoves are bad, just that I know people who have them and parts can be hard to get and getting them dialed in can be a lesson in patience and then you want to use the same pellets or youu have to start all over with the dialing in.

 

[Dataman]

5th Season on my Harmon XXV. Some minor bugs at 1st (Screws Impacting Distro Fan) but it's been great. Sure is easier than wood stove it replaced.

 

[scajjr2]

For ease of use and cleaning along with reliability you can't go wrong with a Harman.

sam

 

[rickwai]

I am partial to Harman. Designed for ease of use, ease of cleaning and ease of service. No hidden passages. Very good parts commonality across the models and a company that found something that works and sticks with it. Just tweaks here and there to improve. Best bang for the buck is P series. I run Harman service out of a Honda CR-V and very rarely do I not have the part on hand to have the stove back up running when I leave. Parts commonality and availability are an important part in a decision in my opinion being a service guy. Same reason I like Stihl for outdoor power equipment, there are dealers everywhere. And you have to be a service center and stock parts to be dealer.

 

[Mt Bob]

The internals of a HH are RIKA/AUSTROFLAMM, wrapped in soapstone. 90% of problems with them is poor cleaning. It is extremely rare to have so many electronic failures with them, being Austrian. I suspect possible wiring/voltage issues in your house, and the stove should be on a quality surge protector. On a good day, average pellet stove repair people did terrible repairing these stoves. And,being a never version, you need the dealer "scan tool" for some issues. So, if there is nobody local, might be best to replace. I think they are beautiful, but, as they found out, the soapstone really did not help the stove putting out heat, actually hurt it. If I acquired one, I would probably change out the control system, to use,lol.
Anyway, ask around, you may have an "old guy" stove repair person, now that you know it is a RIKA.
Otherwise, hard to beat a Harman "P" series, for everything. I would pay too much for a used Harman P that needs fixed/repaired, before I would buy a lot of the new newer stoves.

 

[gfreek]

Sorry about your experience. I also have a Harman P series for 10 years. Locally bought new and the store is still doing sales and service..which is something that should be considered... Diligent cleaning, replaced auger motor(noisy), replaced combustion motor (noisy). . Upgraded control board so that it would run via room temp probe. That's it..

 

[buggpop]

Hi,
You sound like you have come to the right place with your problem. The forums here are wonderful. I don’t burn pellets, but the folks here will help! I empathize with your dealer issues, I have a local dealer (35 miles) and their second store 200 miles away.
Some one more helpful will reply to you soon, but wanted to welcome. You

Thanks. Appreciate the welcome.

 

[buggpop]

Sorry about your experience. I also have a Harman P series for 10 years. Locally bought new and the store is still doing sales and service..which is something that should be considered... Diligent cleaning, replaced auger motor(noisy), replaced combustion motor (noisy). . Upgraded control board so that it would run via room temp probe. That's it..

Thank you. Actively looking at Harman stoves, leaning toward P61.

 

[DAKSY]

I burned a P43 for 10 years & a P61 for 8.
Two ESPs (One Each), One Igniter (P43), & One Fines Box Cover Gasket (P43) were the only repairs.
Put at LEAST 25 & maybe 30 tons of pellets thru them.
AFIK, BOTH are still running, & running well.
"Built like a tank & runs like a Cadillac"
(At least they useta was.)

 

[stvigi1960]

I also looked at all the online videos showing quote best stoves, and was amazed they all were just from the big box stores.. Talking to neighbors and friends led me down to the path I took into buying a Harman, the quality and materials used was so much more with the Harman.

 

[buggpop]

I also looked at all the online videos showing quote best stoves, and was amazed they all were just from the big box stores.. Talking to neighbors and friends led me down to the path I took into buying a Harman, the quality and materials used was so much more with the Harman.

Yeah, this sounds like common sense. Also, my local pellet stove "wizard" who's been fixing them for 35 years. He claims the new ones are boxes of Chinese junk filled with more Chinese junk.

 

[buggpop]

I also looked at all the online videos showing quote best stoves, and was amazed they all were just from the big box stores.. Talking to neighbors and friends led me down to the path I took into buying a Harman, the quality and materials used was so much more with the Harman.

I'm certainly leaning that way. Thank you.

 

[buggpop]

I burned a P43 for 10 years & a P61 for 8.
Two ESPs (One Each), One Igniter (P43), & One Slide Plate Gasket (P43) were the only repairs.
Put at LEAST 25 & maybe 30 tons of pellets thru them.
AFIK, BOTH are still running, & running well.
"Built like a tank & runs like a Cadillac"
(At least they useta was.)

Thank you. If I get time I will detail what I've replaced/ fixed in the past six years on my HH. It will make your head spin. A very expensive introduction/education to pellet stoves.

 

[buggpop]

Sorry about your experience. I also have a Harman P series for 10 years. Locally bought new and the store is still doing sales and service..which is something that should be considered... Diligent cleaning, replaced auger motor(noisy), replaced combustion motor (noisy). . Upgraded control board so that it would run via room temp probe. That's it..

Appreciate your input. You guys are making the choice a little bit of a no brainer.