# enviro empress or harman Accentra



## medikmike (Nov 20, 2007)

ok here goes I am new to the pellet stove craze but I am looking forward to saving over the years on oil. My situation is that I dont know much about the 2 brands. I have looked at both the harman accentra and the enviro empress what is a better brand?  I have noticed the harman is a bit more money. The accentra is a 42000 btu insert that will heat 1400 sq ft in a new england home and the enviro will do 1500 sq ft with 34000 btu. The prices are enviro $3500 and harman 3200. So would I be better of with the harman due to price and btu or is one better that the other. I am heating 1320 sq ft one floor ranch






mike 
central mass


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## stilley (Nov 20, 2007)

I have personally owned both stoves and each have redeeming qualities.  The enviro empress is a much quieter stove which is important feature for our family as the stove is in a family living space.  I did not have any problems with the Accentra when I owned it, just felt it was too noisy (auger).  I think the Accentra throws out a little more heat..................


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## Kenny1 (Nov 21, 2007)

Each will have pros and cons.

Can you get to a show room and see each in action?  If so, pay attention to the level of noise from each.  Some people may find the noise no big deal, others may have issues with it.

The Harmans have and underfeed system that will work with standard or premium grade pellets.  Don't know if that is an issue for you, but is something to consider.  

My final comment is to check fuel prices in your area.  You mentined wanting to save money vs oil.  Check out the on line calculator at:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

In the end, you may want to find a dealer that you can work with, and select a product from what they offer.

Cheers


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## Philip (Nov 25, 2007)

I have a question about the Empress that hopefully someone who has actually seen one can answer. Does this stove have an "ugly" rectangular box hanging down underneath the stove or not? Ugly is just my opinion because I've not seen the stove, but this box is shown in the owners manual line drawing and it looks like it's huge and nearly rests on the floor. For some reason this box appears to be missing in all of the pictures in the Enviro brochure. I notice that Quad doesn't try to hide this appendage on the Castile like Enviro seems to. Will this box be highly visable when sitting across the room looking at the stove? How about if the stove is white? I really like every other thing I've seen or read about this stove. Thanks for your help.


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## smirnov3 (Nov 26, 2007)

stilley said:
			
		

> I have personally owned both stoves and each have redeeming qualities.  The enviro empress is a much quieter stove which is important feature for our family as the stove is in a family living space.  I did not have any problems with the Accentra when I owned it, just felt it was too noisy (auger).  I think the Accentra throws out a little more heat..................



how about the blower noise?

I have an accentra insert, and the convection (aka distribution) blower is pretty loud. you can't watch TV in the same room when it is running on medium or high.

the other issue is maintenance - the Accentra is easy to get into & fix stuff. how is the Enviro?


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## stilley (Nov 27, 2007)

I also found the distribution blower noisy on the Accentra.  The Empress is much quieter but does not push nearly as much heat around.  For the living room where it is located it works out quite well because the dealers I have talked to all have said pellet stoves are designed to run constantly, not turn on and off all the time.  So with the slower/much quieter distribution blower it stays lit almost all of the time creating a nice, warm constant temperature.  My Accentra would go on and the into the idle mode when it got up to the desired temp and then all I would hear was the low,rumbling of the auger motor pushing pellets every 8-10 seconds

I find the Empress very easy to work on.....................


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## jackiec (Nov 13, 2008)

I have been looking to purchase a pellet insert. Was told the Accentra is by far the best insert available. The 
noise issue is huge to me and I have crossed it off the list. I am looking for the next best available which is known to be very quiet. Castile and Empress are now the frontrunners. Are the European mfrs. ahead of us in technology and quality? If so, I could wait until they become readily available here. Can anyone suggest a model that I have omitted? I am looking to make approx. 800 sq ft comfortable, while reducing oil dependency.


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## smirnov3 (Nov 13, 2008)

jackiec said:
			
		

> I have been looking to purchase a pellet insert. Was told the Accentra is by far the best insert available. The
> noise issue is huge to me and I have crossed it off the list. I am looking for the next best available which is known to be very quiet. Castile and Empress are now the frontrunners. Are the European mfrs. ahead of us in technology and quality? If so, I could wait until they become readily available here. Can anyone suggest a model that I have omitted? I am looking to make approx. 800 sq ft comfortable, while reducing oil dependency.



The Accentra is great for ease of maintanance, and the bottom feed system makes for less cleaning, but it's not so good when it comes to noise (it's not the noisiest stove - the dealer I spoke to said that the Bixby Corn stove sounds like a garbage disposal when running full out)

The Mt Vernon AE insert and the Austrroflam use very quiet blowers. They are top feed systems, so you *will* hear the 'clink clink' of pellets falling into the burn pot, and *all* stoves have auger noise, but on my accentra, 90% of the noise is the blower (I run the blower at about 75% of full scale on the dial)

The noise issue is not a matter of 'quality', it's a case of how much are you willing to spend on the blowers. I don't know what the price of the Mt VernonAE is, but the Autroflamm I saw was priced $500 more than the accentra, which is not a cheap stove


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## wb2bhc (Nov 13, 2008)

I love my Empress, much quieter than others that I have listened to and easy to maintain.
As for heat, I have ours in the living room of a 1500 foot bi-level and 
use ceiling fans to move the heat around and it does a very adaquate job even in
the bedroom farthest away from the stove.
The ash pan is under the firebox and is a drawer which is recessed away from the
front of the stove by about 4 inches and does not take away from the 
beauty of the unit and makes it easy to empty when needed.. 
 All in all i am quite happy with the empress and the installation.

Jay


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## insuranceman1 (Nov 13, 2008)

PelletPusher said:
			
		

> I love my Empress, much quieter than others that I have listened to and easy to maintain.
> As for heat, I have ours in the living room of a 1500 foot bi-level and
> use ceiling fans to move the heat around and it does a very adaquate job even in
> the bedroom farthest away from the stove.
> ...



I also have the empress, and love it.  It heats well and here is a pic of my stove.  I think it looks great.  I was swayed to go with this because of the wife.  She liked the look of this one the most.


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## loulou (Dec 27, 2008)

I stumbled across this forum while searching for answers. I am new to pellet burning, purchased an enviro empress mostly for the overall appearance, and just installed it last week. It's beautiful, gives out enough heat for our living space, but now I'm having a huge problem and am getting little to no help.

My first complaint is w/ their owner operating and technical manual. There isn't much explanation or help on troubleshooting, other than 'call your local dealer' if the problem occurs. 

Second, there is no tech help phone support whatsoever and goodluck trying to find a phone #. The dealer where I purchased it don't know much about tech support either, but will be sending out a technician in a few days to see what the problem is. 

Third, the warranty seems to have a lot of exclusions. I.E. just about everything will void the warranty. 

The problem:

After running beautifully for 6 days/5 nights, I left to run some errands. When I returned, the flame was very tall, lazy and orange. Then, it started to smoke a lot. Black smoke was coming out of the top and back. Then, it shuts itself off immediately.

My entire house was filled w/ black smoke and smelled like an electric burn smell. I tried to get a hold of the dealer, but they were closed. I searched for the Sherwood phone #, no luck. I waited a few hours, cleaned the ashes, and restarted it, but it wouldn't start back on. The fuse was blown. I replaced the fuse today, re-started it, and it immediately sparkled in the back, made a loud popping sound, and blew the fuse again. 

Needless to say, I'm a little upset about this. I paid $3,000.00, hoping to save over the cost of fuel oil, but now I don't think I'll ever feel safe running the pellet stove unattended, which will defeat its purpose.

Does anyone have any idea of what could have caused this? Or better yet, the phone # to the company?

Louise


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## insuranceman1 (Dec 27, 2008)

louise

I would try starting a new topic and I am sure you will get more help. I assume you have cleaned the stove?  Who did your install?   If you are having a short that would explain the smell and the blown fuses. I wish I could be more help.


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## loulou (Dec 27, 2008)

Thanks for the hint. I did start a new topic,

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/31949/

I'm afraid I won't find much help on this board as it is most likely an electronic component; A little difficult to diagnose on a message board. However, I'm really glad I found this site for future references. 

Louise


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## insuranceman1 (Dec 27, 2008)

loulou said:
			
		

> Thanks for the hint. I did start a new topic,
> 
> https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/31949/
> 
> ...



Just saw it sorry. Best of luck.


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