Still burning pellets after 10 years

[mainegeek]

Hey all--

It's been another 2 or so years since I posted. This year we have officially had our Mount Vernon AE pellet stove for 10 years!

I've been through 4 baffles (my first one barely lasted a year), 4 igniters, 1 burn pot, 1 rope gasket, 1 set of clips for the ash pan, and a combustion blower. To be fair, most of these failures were in the first 5-7 years.

In the last few years, (I assume) the part quality have been better. Or I'm just getting lucky? I know the igniter redesign years back definitely helped.

So, this year, the wife and I decided to put hardwood floors in so in early Nov we put the stove on magic movers and slid it out of the room. We laid down the new floor and slid it back into the room right before Thanksgiving and we lit it for the first time with no problems.

On New Years Eve this last year we realized our boiler zone on the same level as the pellet stove was frozen. I didn't have time to deal with it so we shut and drained that zone off and heated that floor completely with the pellet stove for ~week. I did finally find the frozen pipe (no splits luckily) and thawed it with my heat gun. I have NEVER had a frozen pipe before this year; this year is something else!

I'll be honest, I maintain my stove but I hardly ever open it. I empty the ash pan and fill it until it needs a cleaning. I can usually tell it needs a cleaning by the wispy-like flames. I usually pass my chimney brush through every ton and I do one good cleaning with the leaf blower at the end of the season than seal up the OAK and exhaust with foil tape and put a couple DampRid in the burn area.

I always try to put up posts that get people talking. How has your winter with the pellet stove been? What does your maintenance schedule look like? How do you close up your stove? What parts are you finding are failing on you?

 

[kappel15]

Hi and welcome back. When season is over and everything is cleaned and painted, I seal the exhaust with a rag in the pipe. Then put a pc. of tape over wall control saying exhaust is plugged, to remind me next fall. Just had an igniter go out. Replaced the wire harness with inline fuses while I was at it. had for a few years. lol Had to replace exhaust fan as it was starting to vibrate. Don't care for the" new "supplier fan as it is made cheaper and had to mcgiver it to work right on my older stove. Made sure I had all the updates thru the early years, so no issues. Been dam cold here. This morning it is -16 with a wind chill. But staying warm, burning a mix of corn and pellets. I keep things clean, as a clean stove is a happy stove. kap

 

[alternativeheat]

This is the fifth heating season with the Harman, I've well documented my cleaning schedules, part of which changes with pellet grade ( we do converse around here when you aren't around LOL ). Parts records and repairs are in my signature at the bottom of the message.

Welcome back !

 

[dozerdean]

I have a Harmon accentra. Had it 3 years now. Got it from my Harmon dealer used he thought it was 6-7 years old, so 9-10 years and nothing has been done to it..Just cleaning..Did put a bigger intake,oak on it from 2-1/2 to 3" what a difference Stay Warm...

 

[Tails1]

Sounds like my next stove should be a Harmon.

 

[bogieb]

Harman P61a, bought new and installed Jan 2014. I've replace the door gasket and the ash door gasket. That is it. I clean it every 2-4 weeks depending on how ashy the pellets are (I tend to burn low grade pellets most of the time). If it is a 2 week clean, it's a quick clean of brushing the worst of the ash off the sides of the burn chamber, scrape the pot, clean under the pot, wipe doff the glass, and empty ash can. 4 week cleaning includes the exhaust and fines box. This stove burns at least 3/5 of the pellets I use, if not 4/5. And just in case anyone is curios - I've never pulled the ESP for cleaning, or the fans either.

P43 was bought used (a couple of years old). Only thing I've done to it is buy a hopper extension and install it. It gets cleaned pretty much the sa,e schedule as the bigger stove does. It burns less pellets than the P61a, but has a smaller ash pan.

 

[Paulinator]

Sounds like my next stove should be a Harmon.

Harman is your friend. We really like ours. After 10 years with our breakwell p22i, it was time for an upgrade.

 

[mainegeek]

we do converse around here when you aren't around LOL

Absolutely. I never intended to suggest otherwise, if I did. I was going through old bookmarks and found my way back is all. I've been burning and maintaining my stove for 10 years now so I just wanted to share my experience since I haven't provided any input in a long time.

At one point, I had a built a spreadsheet (wish I could find it now) of the stoves efficiency using different settings, ash content, and burn rate. I was able to dial in my settings to the point that I'm happy with them and just don't mess with them anymore (Autopilot). I almost never get clinkers now which is important to me because as I said before I probably only clean my stove after 25 or 30+ bags have been through it. Ash pan gets emptied regularly of course.

 

[mainegeek]

Then put a pc. of tape over wall control saying exhaust is plugged, to remind me next fall.

I do the same thing.

 

[mainegeek]

Sounds like my next stove should be a Harmon.

I agree. I had a rough start with our Mt Vernon AE. We went through baffles like crazy the first couple of years. My very first baffle split and rusted to sh*t in a matter of months. I posted a picture here at the time and someone commented and said it had to be a defect because it looked like I strapped it underneath my vehicle and drove around with it. It was THAT bad! They did warranty the first couple baffles but I missed the lifetime warranty by a matter of months so I've had to buy the last 2 baffles... luckily I've been 3 years on my current baffle!

 

[jackhammer]

Harman is your friend. We really like ours. After 10 years with our breakwell p22i, it was time for an upgrade.

I bought a Breckwell when we had our house built in 1997. Never had a lick of trouble with it. I sold it to a friend for $100 just to get rid of it. Not one repair or part replacement (honest!). I bought a new stove a few years ago because I wanted something easier to clean. I do, however, love my Harman.