finally fired up the St. Croix. ...

Lovely flame, nice ambience, plenty of heat, but my goodness, what a pellet pig!

 

Running on #2 my old Pepin will eat one bag every 20 hours of so. Keeps the living room/kitchen at 74F unless it's in the low teens or colder. Mine is not hooked to a t-stat... using one will lower your pellet consumption.

 

What kind of consumption are you talking about? How long to burn through a bag?

 

Looks like a hastings? Mine's not too much of a pig. Of course runnin on 4 or 5 she'll eat as fast as you can feed her.

 

Definitely looks like a Hastings. Miss mine, for looks anyway. Oh, it did fine, just not a big enough hopper. Could eat thru a hopper set on SmartStat #3 (or whichever it was for constant burn then ramping up when there was a call for heat) and 72* (thermostat setting) in 14-15 hours on really cold, windy days. If the big stove downstairs wasn't sending heat up too, it would have been faster. Never actually ran out of pellets, but got home several time when the last few were literally going down the chute.

Will keep you plenty warm and you get the nice framed view of the fire too.

 

Yes, it's a Hastings. Looks like maybe 20 hours or so on a hopper. And yes to bogieb. Not big enough hopper. It was a display model at a store in Wabash, Indiana, so I got a good deal. It is pretty, and does heat the whole downstairs. I have a propane fireplace on the opposite wall, but the goal is to NOT use a whole tank of propane every year. It's definitely a learning process.

 

Just be sure to pull that ash dump rod a couple times per day and shut the stove down once per week to do a quick clean up including removing the flaps on the back wall (behind the Cerra-Brick) and doing a good vacuum job in there.

It's also beneficial to run the stove on #4 or #5 for 20 minutes or so once per day to allow the extra heat to clean up the soot inside the stove.... really makes a difference over a long heating season.

And, of course, use the LBT after every ton of pellets burned.

 

Always great to get a good deal on a stove! Being in the basement, a hopper should last longer for you than it did for me. Mine was on the main floor of a not well-insulated 2x4 framed house, so when the wind blows the house cools down quickly. Plus the bedrooms are over the garage so they get cold pressing in from below, two sides and the ceiling (acoustic tiles instead of sheetrock - will remedy at some point).

I think the Hastings will do well for you - enjoy!