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(More customer reviews)I've had a Whitfield (Lennox) pellet stove for quite a while, but moved to a house with a fireplace, and wanted to get an insert. This one looked to be the cheapest around, so I ordered it. Installation was pretty standard (though it's a pretty heavy unit - 300+ pounds, but it seems heavier - so you'll want some help). On start up, the pellets wouldn't feed. Turned out, one of the wires from the hopper lid safety switch was loose and fell off. Easy enough to take care of. Next, it fired up and ran for a while. There's an agitator in the burn pot that turns periodically to help prevent (or a least reduce) clinkers. This is driven by a chain attached to a motor. After a short time, the upper sprocket on this drive chain stopped turning and fell off. Turned out, not only was the set screw not tight, but, from the marks in the shaft, it had been assembled with the sprocket barely on the end and not even on the flat of the shaft. No surprise that it fell off. A bit of a pain to get back on and in the right place, but not too bad.
Once that was on, everything seemed to run OK. The blower on this thing is very loud, and while you can put it in manual mode, you're limited in how low you can set the room fan. The agitator just sits in the burn pot, and, since it's metal-on-metal, it will squeal a bit when it turns. Not a problem for me, but it freaked the dog out. I put some copper-based Never Seez on the shaft. That quiets it down, but requires repeated re-application.
The hopper lid is a pretty narrow slot, and it's not easy to load the pellets in without dumping a few on the floor. If you want to actually get the 60 pound capacity, you'll need to pack the pellets in by hand.
There are 5 heat settings, with 1 being the lowest. This varies the pellet feed rate. I never could get this stove to run for more than a couple hours on the lowest setting (it goes off on Err-2, which is the low temperature safety). It didn't seem to want to run consistently on '2' either, and, although occasionally it would run overnight, for the most part, it would kick off on low temp as well. You certainly couldn't count on it still running when you got up in the morning (though it was a good opportunity to clean it, I guess). I tried playing with the damper setting, running it in manual and auto, cleaning it constantly, and never had much luck. I'd have liked to adjust the pellet feed rate on the two lowest settings, but couldn't find a way to do that. So, I lived with '3' as the lowest setting.
Last weekend - after having this installed and running for about six weeks or so - I noticed the pellets had stopped feeding. I could hear the pellet feed motor running, and wound up pulling the thing apart. Found the motor lying on the bottom of the stove. The auger shaft is hollow at the end, and the motor shaft fits up in there with a cotter pin holding them together. It looked like the cotter pin got caught up in the auger, which jammed the auger, tore up the hollow end of the auger shaft and the lower brass bushing. Pretty poor design, IMHO, and this stove just seems to be very poorly assembled with a real lack of QC.
I called US Stoves in order to get replacement parts under warranty, but they don't work weekends (this was on a Saturday). So, in the meantime, I went and got the Whitfield from the other house and installed it. It's a smaller unit (about half the BTUs), but it's much quieter and seems to put out more heat. It also requires a lot less cleaning.
To their credit, US Stoves customer support was very nice (once you get them on the phone, which takes a while, and their automated system does all it can to discourage you from holding), and said they were sending the parts out right away (pretty much no questions asked, so that was good).
I'll use this insert in a second fireplace (where I don't have to hear it, and where I can turn it on occasionally but not have to rely on it) when I get it running again, and will be building something around the Whitfield to use it where it is now.
I guess buying the cheapest thing I could find wasn't such a good idea. If you buy this one, I recommended tearing it down before installing it, and checking every component for alignment and tightness. Maybe I just got a lemon, but this appeared to have been slapped together in a hurry, and I'm now anticipating nothing but hassles with this thing from here on out.
If I'm ever in the market for another pellet stove, it won't be one of these.
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US Stove 6041I Pellet or Corn Insert with Igniter FurnaceNew agitator design to help burn non premium fuel and high clinker fuels. Now features easy light igniter system. New Sure Feed Auger System improves performance and safety. This is a multi-fuel insert that will burn corn and pellets and can be easily adapted to burn other fuels, such as soy beans, olive pits, cherry pits, bio mass fuel grains, and processed silage. Digital Control Board with built-in diagnostics and LED readouts make testing, startup, and operation a breeze with just a touch of a button. This unit has a 78% efficiency rating!
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