I Get it Now !

While i have been enjoying my $1000 pellet burner and today I tore it apart to do the 25 bag maintenance and now I get it. Get what ? well I could not figure out for the life of me and being a newb to pellet burning why people would spend $4500 - $5000 on a pellet stove when i was getting 50k BTU from a 1K pellet stove . Well now i get it while this stove is performing fine after tearing it apart the design for combustion,exhaust are not thought out for maintenance. Don't get me wrong it performs quite well but I cannot imagine anyone without the incentive,motivation,overall understanding of how things work mechanically using this for a long period of time without eventually encountering problems. (Pelpro PP130)
With that said it has to be taken into consideration that I am basically running this thing full bore most of the time to warm my leaky house and this would not be typical of the average home owner. I haven't enough experience under my belt to know how much this comes into play. Maybe you guys can help me with this situation.
What i do understand is the mechanics of how things work and after tearing this apart I do not think the design fares well for someone who needs to crank out some serious heat.
Soooo with that said would love to hear from you guys with some feedback on how your high end stoves perform but mostly in or as a workhorse cranking out some serious Max heat constantly. In direct relation to maintenance and I think the fact that I am trying to rid my stash of the GS (tsc rebagged) that I got before I was wist to the fact that was what they were. I would rather spend the 4-5k on my roof which is in sad shape and has to be done in the spring. But If I am all in I would sell my Log Splitter, and maybe a few of my chainsaws and possibly ARGH not sure of this but maybe my beast of a wood stove and get one of the nice Pellet stoves !
Welcome any feedback and as always thanks Fellas !

 

Harman and good pellets...... think softwood!

 

So what wasn't thought out for maintenance?

Also, if you are not familiar, there is a Leaf Blower Trick (LBT) that really does a great job getting those hard to reach places.

That's really all I do to mine. A quick run of a brush through pipe, LBT,and call it a cleaning. Every ton for me is good.

 

Like IHP said read up on the leaf blower trick, do it as needed and spend the 3k you saved somewhere else.

 

Luney when you run that PP130 full bore, at what rate does it burn through bags of pellets? Bags per day or week, do you know?

 

I love my Harman's! As a single female, who is not mechanically inclined (and the cats are no help) and has two jobs, the ease of use and maintenance is huge for me.

But, If the stove you have is working well for you and your situation, and you need the money for a roof, I would vote roof first. If the stuff under the roof isn't protected, the best stove in the world just ain't gonna help out much. And, having a wood stove isn't a bad thing to have during power outages!

Not trying to talk you out of a P61a or P68, just saying that you have time to be all-in for a high end pellet stove while your roof won't wait. Also, you may be able to find a killer deal on a lightly used stove on CL come spring. I got my P43, lightly used for $1,000 plus the cost of a U-Haul to move it from there to my house. I already had a Hastings that worked for my main floor - it was just not as easy to maintain, had to be cleaned weekly, and could only hold 35# of pellets -and some days would run out before I got home from work. I knew I wanted a stove that better fit my needs - but I did not have to have something else to get by. When the P43 showed on CL the spring of 2015, they wanted $1,500 (or $1600 - I forget). I offered them $1k. They refused and kept advertising. A couple weeks later they came down to $1,300 on CL. I re-offered the $1k, and they still refused. Then a week later they asked me if I could take it on a certain weekend. Well, I could. Turns out they were moving to FL that weekend so needed to sell the stove and had no better offers.

So, the moral to the story is; You have something that is working well, so you aren't desperate - don't act like it (I say in a Motherly voice - we need an old lady icon!).

 

I'll have to send you some good hardwoods from down this way, you might reconsider you're thinking Just ask ttdberg

 

You seem to be more inclined than you think!

 

A lot of good advice above, Luney. For comparison purposes, I did a full cleaning of my stove last weekend so today I just did the upper half of the stove and under the burn pot ahead of the coming cold. It took me 15 minutes from door open to door closed.

 

Looks like I already did

 

Seems the exhaust port /channel is inaccessible well I should be clear with the Vac I have now and am using . I have not checked out the LBT but plan on using one of the three blowers I have to clean the combustion and convection fans . In retrospect I was thinking even so it is a heck of a lot less work than burning wood and I am enjoying it immensely and will keep on keeping on ! Thanks IHP

 

Will do Man thanks !

 

Thanks for the Info JT thinking I might very well ride this one out as I mentioned to IHP this is a hella less work than burning wood and I think I am hooked on pellets (not that I have an additive bone in me) In reality the stove is providing heat for the house and a little more maintenance is not gonna kill me . Ill do some more research and figure it out with the help from here .
thanks again JT

 

TT I have not really had time or actually the desire to take an accurate count, ok here comes the excuse really busy with trying to finish a building . But if I were to guess I would say a little less than 2 bags a day. When it chills down some at work i will keep a more accurate account of just what I am using, currently all I want to do is keep the house warm and chill for an hour or two before I crash and wake up and do it all over again .
Thanks TT