Or to rephrase the question, what amount of time or factors would strongly suggest that a pellet stove has outlived its useful life that would warrant its no longer being used, removed, and/or replaced?
Let me preface this story by the fact that my 20 year old Travis Industries Pellet Stove insert, right now, is working as good as it ever did.
Last month that wasn't the case. I pulled my hair out trying to determine what was causing its combustion to be compromised, and pretty much replaced every gasket, and its combustion fan and finally got the thing not only running, but dare I say better than when it was much younger. Now, when I need to clean out the ash the door glass only requires minimal cleaning (a good thing)--not so in years past. I'm not certain I can point to any one thing being the cause of its poor function last month, and believe the combination of all the efforts I took to seal the combustion chamber added up to get me to where I am in a good state now.
I have heard that my stove can pretty much run until/if the convection tubes are compromised. Now mind you, in its life I have probably replaced parts, including combustion and convection fans more times than I can count. Fortunately finding and swapping out parts isn't that hard for me. But I was wondering if mere age alone can do in a pellet stove, or if there are "those things" that once realized, make it no longer fixable or worth fixing.
TIA
Let me preface this story by the fact that my 20 year old Travis Industries Pellet Stove insert, right now, is working as good as it ever did.
Last month that wasn't the case. I pulled my hair out trying to determine what was causing its combustion to be compromised, and pretty much replaced every gasket, and its combustion fan and finally got the thing not only running, but dare I say better than when it was much younger. Now, when I need to clean out the ash the door glass only requires minimal cleaning (a good thing)--not so in years past. I'm not certain I can point to any one thing being the cause of its poor function last month, and believe the combination of all the efforts I took to seal the combustion chamber added up to get me to where I am in a good state now.
I have heard that my stove can pretty much run until/if the convection tubes are compromised. Now mind you, in its life I have probably replaced parts, including combustion and convection fans more times than I can count. Fortunately finding and swapping out parts isn't that hard for me. But I was wondering if mere age alone can do in a pellet stove, or if there are "those things" that once realized, make it no longer fixable or worth fixing.
TIA
