Well I finally made up my mind!

[smalltown]

I finally took delivery of a Quadrafire Castile pellet stove and had it installed by my local dealer. I decided to build my own hearth pad as I wanted one raised up a little off of the floor.
The photo of the hearth is just before I began to apply the grout. The other two are from the trial run while the installers were on site to verify everything was working ok.
Evertything ran fine. We tested it with a bag of New England premuim pellets. It was a little odd running a pellet stove on a warm sunny day (seen few of those for some time) and let it cook for about an hour before shutting it down.
I intend to run another AC outlet to neaten things up a bit All that remains is to get the walls painted and my remaining molding installed then wait for some cold air to arrive. Lastly to schedule a visit for the Insurance company to give there final ok.

My last chore is to decide what pellets to buy.
Kind of hard to try a few bags of this or that given it summer time so I am relying on previuos posts and will hope for the best.
A local business where I bought my single bag is selling The New England premium pellets" for $299 a ton and the Maine Athens pellets for $249. Delivery on either is extra.
I did read where the Athens had quite a bit of negative response last fall, but also that they seemed to have changed there operation for the better and were now producing a much better pellet.
Apparently the only way I will be able to tell if they are the old problamatic pellets or the newer pellets is the color?
Not being familiar with pellet color I guess I should buy one bag of the Athens and try to judge the color compared to the bag of New England pellets I bought for the initial stove test.

I also wanted to say thanks for all the information I have gleaned from these pages of fellow pellet burners you all have been quite a help.

 

[jtakeman]

Very nice set up. That should keep you warm next winter.

As for the pellet choices. Your dealer should stand behind what he sells. If you have any issue with the pellets you purchase there should be now problems exchanging them for another brand. All upstanding pellet retailers stand behind there products.

Or you could split the order and get 1 ton of each to start with. I always try to get 1 ton of the hottest pellets I can afford for the really cold days and burn the other pellets when its a bit warmer.

Keep your eye out for other pellet retailers. Better to have more than one source. Always nice to have a backup just in case there is a shortage or problem.

Take care and have a nice summer
jay

 

[Shortstuff]

Nice setup!

You won't be disappointed with your Castile. Just keep that burn pot clean and you won't have any problems.

Steve

 

[imacman]

First of all, that is a really beautiful hearth you made.....looks great with the stove sitting on top and burning away.

Secondly, yes, make sure the insurance co. has all the info so if there was ever a claim, they can't deny it saying they never knew you had a pellet stove, etc. Also get a good surge suppressor on that stove.....something like this is what I use....and it's on sale for $5.00 right now....it has good specs: www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2454736

Third, color of pellets has NOTHING to do with their quality. In general, stick with name brand pellets that have a good write-up on this forum, but the final decision should be made on what burns best in your stove. NEWP are really good pellets, but $299 is high.

The next part is just my opinion. Unfortunately, like you said, it's summer so you can't burn much without turning your house into an oven, but ....I would NOT buy a ton (or more) of Athens pellets unless you have burned 3-5 bags through your stove, and you get to see the results...even though SUPPOSEDLY they have improved their quality......1 or 2 bags probably won't tell you much.

I would try to get something else that is a "proven" pellet. I'd keep my eye on the fuel price reports on this forum, and also on CraigsList and your local newspaper.

Hope this helps....

 

[tinkabranc]

Nice setup...congrats!
Keep us posted how you like it this winter

 

[tonyd]

Odd ? Starting it on a sunny day? I've been on vacation this week getting things done around the house. For lunch today, I fired mine (Accentra) up. Set on stove temp ,most of the heat goes up the stack. I enjoyed my lunch in front of a small fire. I woke up two hrs later. Therapy for the week. I may be a fire bug, but not positive. My wife just thinks Im nuts. ENJOY it at any price per ton.

 

[geek]

nice pad.....I built mine and will post pics soon also.

how much you paid for the stove and how much for labor?, did they use 3 or 4 inch piping?

..

 

[summit]

maine woods are middle of the pack kind pellets, new england a little better (but not worth 299!). they will work in your stove, but you should try some others as well to get a good gauge. get a grab bag this year.. low medium and high range kinda pellets, and try 'em out individually at first. if you find some that particularly suck hard, mix them with the better pellets to use them up. most pellets you will encounter you can find a review on here, but you don't know till you tried them how they will work in your stove.

 

[smalltown]

Geek and everbody that responded thanks for the kind comments.

I actually put a deposit on the Castile when they were on sale.
Sale price $2299.
Labor $350 plus the cost of pipe.
The additional benefit of the tax credit next April was simply iciing on the cake.

The pipe size is a little confusing my receipt quoted 3" pipe and 2 weeks before installation we opted to change from the direct out behind the stove to an up and then out configuration with a cleanout T behind the stove.
At that time they asked 3" or 4" and I said whatever you guys think best and left it at that.
According to the Dura Vent catalog wether 3" or 4" pipe add 5/8" to get the outside diameter.
Eyeballing the pipe while holding the tape measure it's definitely over 4" so the long answer is it's got to be the 4" pipe. I fully expected to pay some additional money for the new configuration, but the dealer said we were all set.

I do have to say I was really satisfied with the dealer before the sale and after the installation. Satisfied enough to return in a few weeks to purchase a stove vacum to clean my stove. I have read some disparaging comments about dealers on here, but our experience was excellent.

I understand that there are different opinions on "up and then out" verses going straight out. We chose the up and out to give us the ability if need be of changing stoves in the furure without cutting a new hole in the side of the house. We would simply change the pipe length. Lastly because we have about 4 1/2' of verticle pipe we should have the added benefit of a natural draft going in cases of power outages.

Hope that's not more info than you needed.

 

[lessoil]

Nice looking stove/pad!!
Not sure what part of Western Maine you are in but we bought 3 tons of New England Wood Pellets
from Western Maine Supply in Bethel. We paid $269/ton plus a flat $30 delivery charge. (About 2 months ago)
We burned the old style Athens pellets last year. Heat was good but ash content was bad.
We dropped our oil usage the first year(last year) by 500 gal using a little over 3.5 tons and were warmer.

Enjoy!!

Below is our setup. I too made the pad. Could not see paying over $100 for a plain Jane pad!!

 

[smalltown]

Lessoil I think you lucked out I just gave them a call and they told me $299 a ton + 30 delivery on top of that

 

[lessoil]

Yeah they said the price is going up. Crazy huh??
pelletsales.com can deliver to the Rumford/Mexico area for $244/ton
but it looks like there may be a minimum order. You might want to check
them out. I think that some of the forum members have ordered from them.

Good Luck!

 

[summit]

Nice looking stove/pad!!
Not sure what part of Western Maine you are in but we bought 3 tons of New England Wood Pellets
from Western Maine Supply in Bethel. We paid $269/ton plus a flat $30 delivery charge. (About 2 months ago)
We burned the old style Athens pellets last year. Heat was good but ash content was bad.
We dropped our oil usage the first year(last year) by 500 gal using a little over 3.5 tons and were warmer.

Enjoy!!

Below is our setup. I too made the pad. Could not see paying over $100 for a plain Jane pad!!

thats an awesome stove, very trouble/maintainence free.. my buddy took the oil furnace right out of his double wide home when he put one in 2 yrs ago.. says the house was never warmer with the oil vs. p61a!! he's got the extension on the hopper, goes 2 days in jan/feb, 3 1/2 days the rest of the heating season on a full load of pellets.

 

[smalltown]

Lessoil your pad came out nice also. Your right I didn't think the pads I saw were a good value either. They were all about 2 inches tall and the insides were particle board with an oak trim molding. A 2" high pad my size would have run $495.
Judging from the prices of pellets I am seeing they all seem to be going up. I had hoped pellets would be low at this time of the year. There does not seem to be too many options for pellets here: either you pay a high local ton rate (for a quality pellet)or go further away for a lower price, but pay increased delivery costs. I may just bite the bullet and buy the New England Wood pellets for $299.

 

[lessoil]

Lessoil your pad came out nice also. Your right I didn't think the pads I saw were a good value either. They were all about 2 inches tall and the insides were particle board with an oak trim molding. A 2" high pad my size would have run $495.
Judging from the prices of pellets I am seeing they all seem to be going up. I had hoped pellets would be low at this time of the year. There does not seem to be too many options for pellets here: either you pay a high local ton rate (for a quality pellet)or go further away for a lower price, but pay increased delivery costs. I may just bite the bullet and buy the New England Wood pellets for $299.

smalltown,
Check out this link for bulk delivery from Bethel and a bulk storage container.
(broken link removed to http://www.maineenergysystems.com/Pellestore_3TX.htm)
This is the company Les Otten started last year.
One of my neighbors has gone this route.
He is tired of dealing with 40 lb bags.
I might look into this for next year. I'm not getting any younger!!

Their website is showing $275/ton delivered.

PM Sent also

 

[lessoil]

summit

Posted: 10 July 2009 08:01 PM
thats an awesome stove, very trouble/maintainence free.. my buddy took the oil furnace right out of his double wide home when he put one in 2 yrs ago.. says the house was never warmer with the oil vs. p61a!! he's got the extension on the hopper, goes 2 days in jan/feb, 3 1/2 days the rest of the heating season on a full load of pellets.

The only problem we had with the stove was the circulation fan had to be replaced.
It still ran but was very noisy.

I agree, I was a lot warmer with the pellets for a little less cost than oil (Oil prices dropped after we bought the stove/pellets).
The hopper extension sounds like a good idea.
I am also looking into the bulk delivery system set up for next year.
Here it is July and we are talking about pellet stoves.
We must live in the Northeast!!