Castle Serenity Saga

I have had the stove for 3 yrs. and it has been awesome until recently it started making metal expanding and contracting sound at all times as you can hear in this video so last weekend I start digging into the stove to find that the steel plate that is plug welded to the back wall of the stove had the 2 lower plug welds popped loose and the plate had a gap.so I drilled holes through the plate and put bolts in which pulled the plate against the back wall of the stove again.I thought that was definately the cause of the sound so I ran the stove that night and it seemed much better.The following night I fire the stove again it seems good I get up in the morning and the sound is back like you hear in the video.The following night I start the stove and go about my thing and 10 mins. later the wife is yelling there is something wrong with the pellet stove it just made a loud bang at it's full of smoke I come to check it out to find the firebox full of smoke from an ignition explosion I get that mess cleaned up and the wife did not wan't me to fire the stove up again but I did anyway and it relit and burned all night just fine. I put a call in to Ardisam and they asked for pics and the video which I sent to them but have not heard anything yet. watching craigslist like I always do I see a dealer offering the Ravelli Francesca for 1750 I thought thats a damm good price and at just the right time so I buy a white Francesca (see other post Ravelli Francesca ) at this point I don't even know what to do with the Serenity because I will not sell it to anyone the way it is, maybe sell it as a parts only stove. This all really sucks because I really liked the serenity but the wife no longer trusted the stove so it was time to go.

 

That sucks. Once you lose trust in that it's hard to gain that back and fully trust that thing. Although, I don't think I'd would ever 100% fully trust any stove. I hope you are able to find the issue with your stove, it might help someone else down the like if they would happen to have a similar problem. This would be a great time for that company to step up to the plate and maybe do something for you even though it might be out of warranty.

 

No idea what's going on there. It's too bad you are having issues. Generally I think people have had good luck with that stove.

 

As an early owner of a Serenity I just hope its not a sign of self destruction as they age.I only put $600.00 out of my pocket when I bought mine so it had paid for itself in oil savings so not a big deal for me to replace it but hopefully mine was just a fluke and other owners don't start seeing the same issues.I wish I had a building I could install it in and try to find the root of the issue but my garage is mostly underground so no way to vent it with out busting a hole through the block wall which I'm not doing.

 

Our stoves have a vermiculite board set which line the steel of the firebox.
Does the Serenity not have that?
I have always argued with the Chinese that the vermiculite is essential as the temperature on the back wall can get too high and warp the fairly thin steel. Hence I wont sell the non-vermiculite models. Even the vermiculite can expand and crack, as you would see in my stove videos. This does not bother me as the heat is still being well dispersed.
If you had room for a verm board or even a bit of flat steel plate on the back wall you would take the stress off the back wall and probably stop the problem. If the plate has popped off the mounts completely just mig em back on.
No bigge I think, but then I get banned for being a cowboy

 

I'm about 3hrs east of Altoona Dexter, you can gladly have the stove if you wanna make the trip for it.

 

I agree chickenman that vermiculite panels would go a long way, They showed a brick look lining in the original photos of the Serenity but they do not come with the stove, I don't know what the deal is there.

 

Penny pinching

 

I sent another email to Ardisam yesterday asking what their thoughts are on the photos and video and have not got a reply yet, nor will I probably ever.

 

Just got an email from Ardisam they want to swap the stove out so they can find out what's up with mine, 2 yrs.out of warranty that's great customer service.

 

Good deal!!! Please keep this thread posted with any new changes. I'm interested in this myself.

 

They are shipping the new stove right too my place of employment to do the swap so I don't even have to miss work for the delivery.

 

That's Awesome , now you're going to have 2 new stoves

 

Nothing like having a new stove on hand as back up.

 

You could almost say that Ardisam is a competitor of ours. Having said that I am really impressed from what I hear of their service. Not sure I would have replaced your stove, I would fix it though.

Stuff goes wrong, most people struggle to get service when the stoves are new. This is exceptional service. I hope you send them a nice email after you have your new stove. Outstanding.

 

I was going to say the same thing and make a special post here about how well you were treated .

 

Oh absolutely I have always praised Ardisam customer service

 

I had No doubt that you would

 

We will all sign the return letter with you to show how much we appreciate a good company in our field of toys
Congrats on the new toy soon coming your way and the old white toy