I pulled my St. Croix Greenfield out of it's resting place in my shop this week. Some of you know it's a corn stove that also is pellet capable... but it's a better corn burner than a pellet stove IMHO. My buddy Jim has been storing his England pellet stove in my shop for a year since he moved out of his former digs... he had been using it in his shop. We had talked about installing his stove in the part of my shop that's usually unheated but we never pulled the trigger on that project. So tonite I had two of my young helpers (with weak minds but strong backs) help me lift the St. Croix onto my mobile cleaning dolly so i can clean it in preparation for selling and/or trading it. We also installed the England it the St. Croix's former spot and poured in a few pellets and fired it up... seems to work fine. It will be a small step backward running a stove without an ash pan and also having to scrape the burn pot every day but that's OK. As long as I have heat I'm OK with that. I know the England stoves are solid citizens of the pellet world and now I can get a little experience with another stove... never a bad thing . Here's the Greenfield on my dolly and the England working to keep my stuff warm...
St. Croix makes a beautiful stove, but I have heard numerous times that they are hard to clean, and a better corn stove (clinker pot installed). That lil ol Englander should get the job done. As for scraping the pot?? Not really a need for some? I think most do it out of "want" more than need. I have a newer bottom feeder this year and I have refrained from scraping my pot! As I was told by an insider at SBI that this stove can burn a looooong time without a single scrape. So far so good. Pot looks bad on the right edge. But the flame or burn has not changed at all. Unlike a Harman, my pot is flat. From auger to the edge, it's level. Like an Englander. Harmans have a slight upward curl to the pot, which is why I think that most need a swipe? That ash can't progress forward as easily. It wants to stay back in the pot?? Maybe I am wrong.. Will snap a pic of my pot tomorrow. This was after about a half bag total. I am now on about 4 bags. But been using On/Off.
What is this "pot scraping" you speak of? Don't most pellet stoves have a rod you pull to drop the bottom of burn pot? Please pull your rod once a day. Eric
The St Croix stove is easy to clean if you use the leaf blower trick... and very easy to maintain on a daily basis as the versa-grate constantly self cleans the burn pot. They DO have a tough to clean area behind the burn chamber but it's a non-issue unless you let your stove plug up with ash... the LBT after each ton fixes that. Newer models have a third ash trap clean out, too. My stove is a 2000 model. My St. Croix Greenfield does not have the versa-grate... it uses a blade to slice off the bottom of the clinker each day in the corn pot rather than a pot stirrer like many other brands. The stove was very clean when I bought it from the original owner... I got the venting with the stove and used it for my install. The only thing I did differently was burn pellets instead of corn... just never burned very clean... What I don't understand is all the hype about the "H" brand stoves... I walked in to buy a Harmon they day I bought my stove. I asked one of the dealer's service tech what kind of stove he had in his home. He recommended a St. Croix and that dealer sold Harmon, Quad, St. Croix, Thelin, Lennox and a few more (at that time). I got a good deal on a used stove... The England I have in the shop looks like a good, simple stove. It's been stingy with pellets for two days running now and I think I will have good luck with it.
Not to bash but at a St Croix training seminar i was turned off by them telling us that if you run it on low for an extended time pellets will cause creosote. No other brand has this warning that I know off. Eric.
That correct but no other stove has this issue and why not correct the problem with computer adjusting, air flow, or simply turn up the flow?
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on pellet stoves.. I do know that more people/companies/organizations HAVE problems than ADMIT to having problems. I'd rather deal with a company that admits fault than one that is potentially hiding it.. JMHO.
I get what you're saying, but as Eric said, if a stove company KNOWS there's a problem, why aren't they working on a fix??
I pulled the combustion fan on the Greenfield tonite to clean the fan etc... Holy smoke!….1/2" or more of crud everywhere. The PO told me he just did a complete cleaning on that stove before I bought it… looks like it's never been apart since it was put into service in '07. I never had the combustion fan apart since I hadn't burned a ton of pellets since I bought it in 2011. The room fans are actually pretty clean…I blew 'em clean and will inspect, oil and reassemble. Now I actually may keep this stove after doing this service… I can see why it always seemed like it needed more air...
The problem is, everyone on this fine forum know what a COMPLETE cleaning is.....everyone else doesn't! Well, for the most part.
Well the Englander has been working every evening as I head into the shop to do some much needed cleaning and organizing. Seems to be capable of bringing the shop to 50F in about an hour… I'm happy with that.
