Englander pellet stoves from Lowes GOOD OR BAD

[fespo]

Hello to all, I did a quick search of Englander pellet stoves on the forum here to see who has one? I have Lopi liberty wood stove in our family room that works great until temps get about 15 or colder. Then the stove can not keep up. Now that Lowe's has all the stoves on clearance, i seen there 1500sq ft Pellet stove for $839.00 The price has been droping about 100 per week now.
What I would like to know dose anyone have one and how good are they. I would be only use this as a back up in our basement or when the kids want to play downstairs. It's cold down, only about 60 with no central heat running. The lopi is in the sub leavel of the family room with and open plan. How well dose a pellet stove work and draft in the basement? I figured if that stove goes down to 50% off that would be a great deal for what I need it to do. Thanks to all and MERRY CHIRSTMAS. Frank

















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[MountainStoveGuy]

If i were going to buy a pellet stove, i would buy one from a dealer. pellet stoves in general are too problematic and you need support. The very best ones break. Unless your willing to be the mechanic, i wouldnt consider it.
Pellets stoves are great in basements, the have positive pressure draft.

 

[njtomatoguy]

I bought my stove at lowes, and am very happy with it- wood, not pellet.

Be aware that when you buy this stove, you are totally on your own if you should have any problems-not tech support or anything like if you had purchased from a dealer.
So far my stove has met or exceeded my expectations..

This is a great place to learn about stoves, and I would recommend going to a dealer first, then lowes, if nothing fits your budget..

 

[BrotherBart]

If the stove has a problem, Lowes will take it back no questions asked. If you actually want to make the stove work, Mike at England Stove Works will make it happen.

Call him at 1-800-245-6489. Ask all your questions before you buy it. Then try to call the other stove makers and ask them questions.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

there is a big differance BB between fixing it yourself and having mike fly out to fix it for you. Yes they will take it back if it breaks, but will they take it back three years from now when it breaks? no, i dont think so. This has nothing to do with the brand of the stove, just where your going to buy it from. Lowes does not stock parts for pellet stoves, they dont fix pellet stoves, they sell you a pellet stove with a 1 800 number. Other manufactures wont answer 1-800 calls beacause they have a dealer network that supports the product they sell. This has nothing to do with englander, if your going to buy a wood stove go for it, if your going to by a pellet stove your asking for trouble. The absolute very best stoves on the market are problematic. Good luck.
Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[MrWinkey]

I kind of agree with Mountian guy but it depends on you.

If your not "handy" around the house you may not want to do this. One of the guys at my work bought the Englander from lowes and it works great but everytime he needs a part he calls the 1-800 # and they send it right out. It works for him and the stove works great. We are both the type of guys tho who build cars and know our way around a shop.

If you've put an engine together or can work on mechanical devices I wouldnt worry about it.

Now if that"s not your cup of tea then make sure you pick a good dealer.

I just had the blower fan go wiggy on my Harman P-68. Fixed right away no questions asked. Now I bought the Harman because I liked the design and I'm trying to heat a large rancher style house. If another brand would have had a pellet stove as big I would have gave it alot of thought also.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

there are good arguements on both sides of this one, while it is true that we are selling through DIY chains for the most part and do not have dealer based service. we do have our call center an web support, and have built stoves that are easier to take care of at the customer level. the control board on the unit has diagnostic features that allow for troubleshooting without doing anything more invasive than pushing buttons. http://www.englanderstoves.com/help/PelletStove/diagnostic_mode04.html its actually pretty cool. when a problem arises a customer is urged to contact us directly, my customer service techs can basically ask questions about the issue, and in virtually every case solve the problem over the phone. if a part is required, the part is shipped as quickly as we can get it out the door, directly to the customer. we will then if the customer wants, work with the customer over the phone on installation of the part when they recieve it to ensure that the unit is back in operating condition. question was raised about what to do if there was a problem after 3 years, and you cant take it back to the store, simple, call in and we'll help. what about 7 or8 years down the road, once its well outside its warranty? simple, call in and we'll help. no need to have to pay sombody to come in and work on it in most cases. we have customers who have units that we built in 1990 who still are operating the units they have had for 15 years, the occasional part may go out in that length of time, we still can support it though and send replacement parts and give the same tech support for that 15 year old unit that we supply for new ones. even our newest control system will work with the 1900 unit. on the other hand, this may not be for everybody. there are some folks out there who may not be mechanically adept, or simply does not want to work on it themselves and in my opinion they would probably be better suited to buy through a dealer who would service the unit as part of the purchase. i do not argue that this does not have its place, but with our units a customer can get a quality unit for a lower price the biggest tradeoff is the in home service contract, not the initial quality of the unit.

 

[njtomatoguy]

Stoveguy-

well said, and I did happen to call the 800 # for my stove, and the Cust.svs rep was helpful.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Mike, nice post.
Good to know. I get calls every year for parts. Now i know where to send them. I have looked at the englander pellet stoves, and they dont look bad at all for the price. There not as nice as a harmon or lopi, but there also half the cost. The point still remains that if you buy a pellet stove from lowes, make it a timberline, englander, or what ever, you will have the phone on one ear and a screwdriver in the other hand trying to fix your own stove. . I dont have a problem with this, i more have a problem with Lowes. I have been in there and talked to them, they dont tell you anything about the service agreement. Heck they hardley know what a pellet stove is. Lowes lack of knowledge wastes my time flagging calls lowes should be taking, or the manufacture of the stove they bought from lowes. I know its consumers responsibilty to research what there buying, but lets face it, not every one does, and its the retailers job to make sure that the consumer is getting the product they need, and to offer a reasonable warrenty that doesnt require hauling a stove back down to a store or getting the tool box and fix it them self. I dont know of a single tech in my area that will touch a pellet stove from lowes.
Mike, what percentage of calls are from pellet, gas and wood to your tech department?
I would say its 90% pellet, 8% gas and 2% wood in my shop.
I say again, i wish lowes and HD stayed with electric fp's and woodstoves.

 

[fespo]

Thanks for all the info. A screwdriver in one hand and the phone on the other if fine with me ( Maint. tech by trade ). I had alot of problems with my Lopi's glass door seals and the dealer would not do anything for me until I contacted my lawyer. I even called the main corp. office and nothing, they could care less for me.They finally gave me a new door and it leaked again around the glass and seal. So this time i just put a very SMALL bead of gasket cement and everything works great know.

Im glad to hear ther is an 800 number that I can call if and when I have problems. Im going to watch the price of this stove, If I can get a steal of a deal I will try it out. Lowes is perry good if you have a problem with something in the first year. I know why buy it set it up , then have to remove it if you have problems. Thats just me.

Thanks for all the advice Frank

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

sounds perfect for ya.

 

[begreen]

FWIW, due to our remote location, phone in hand and screwdriver in another is the relationship I've had with almost every stove I've owned. For that reason I try to own stoves that don't need a lot of tinkering.

One thing to be said for getting a higher end stove is that they hold their resale value well. Our 5 yr old Quad pellet stove sold on the second day it was put on Craigslist, for 50% purchase price. The F3CB sold for $100 less than purchase price and had a half-dozen other folks ready to buy.

 

[drizler]

Pick yer poison. It depends on your level of comfort doing builder related things your self and how much you want to pay for handholding. When I put mine in you couldn't find anyone to install a pellet stove since people came to hate them during our big ice storm. Today dealeres are abounding but they sure haven't got much experience since they just started up. I met one dealer at the county fair who was pumping me for info on where to buy corn. He wasn't too bright and didn't know as much about the stove brand he was selling as I did, that much was clear. Now I know the flame throwers will be focused on me from some of you dealertypes but the message is clear. Check the credentials before tossing all your faith in someone. I guess that goes double for a rapidly expanding industry like pellet and corn stoves. There sure are a lot of new dealers out there ,you can't argue that. The other thing with these stoves is that it isn't nearly as hard to install them as it is a wood stove. There really isn't a lot to putting one in if its on an outside wall. On the other hand if you live in an area where you need to do building inspections and the codes are problematic it may just pay to let someone else deal with the bureaucrats. Same goes for insurance. There is a certain amount of peace of mind being able to blame someone else should a fire start. As for reliability from what I have seen and heard England's stove's hold up about as good as any. Like I said pick your poison.

 

[kevinmoelk]

So I've read the thread and I have to think that there are customers in my position who have bought a used wood stove. What am I to do if I need service or parts? Since I never bought the stove originally, is it my problem? I would think both my local dealer and the stove manufacturer should have a hand in helping me should problems arise. I've bought some parts from my local dealer, but I also sense he's frustrated because I didn't buy a brand new stove from him, regardless of the fact that he carries the brand of stove I purchased used. Also, what if someone buys a home with a stove already installed and needs help? Would the dealerturn a cold shoulder?

The local hearth dealer should service the stove regardless of whether the customer is the orginal buyer or not. Doing so only bolsters his reputation and helps to create a relationship that may prove to be beneficial and profitable in the end. The exception would be stoves the dealer simply does not carry.

The manufacturer should always help a customer regardless of situation because it's their name on the stove, period. Reputation is a key factor to the success of any business.

My 2 cents.

-Kevin

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Mike, nice post.
Good to know. I get calls every year for parts. Now i know where to send them. I have looked at the englander pellet stoves, and they dont look bad at all for the price. There not as nice as a harmon or lopi, but there also half the cost. The point still remains that if you buy a pellet stove from lowes, make it a timberline, englander, or what ever, you will have the phone on one ear and a screwdriver in the other hand trying to fix your own stove. . I dont have a problem with this, i more have a problem with Lowes. I have been in there and talked to them, they dont tell you anything about the service agreement. Heck they hardley know what a pellet stove is. Lowes lack of knowledge wastes my time flagging calls lowes should be taking, or the manufacture of the stove they bought from lowes. I know its consumers responsibilty to research what there buying, but lets face it, not every one does, and its the retailers job to make sure that the consumer is getting the product they need, and to offer a reasonable warrenty that doesnt require hauling a stove back down to a store or getting the tool box and fix it them self. I dont know of a single tech in my area that will touch a pellet stove from lowes.
Mike, what percentage of calls are from pellet, gas and wood to your tech department?
I would say its 90% pellet, 8% gas and 2% wood in my shop.
I say again, i wish lowes and HD stayed with electric fp's and woodstoves.

i'll agree that numbers are about where you put them although wood and gas numbers would probably be reversed, we do run more pellet stoves in a given season of production nowadays probably 65% or more of total production is pellet, rest is almost all wood, have not done as much gas in last 2 years. out of the stoves we produce each year we have (last i checked) less than 1% return rate. i'd be willing to bet that better than 85-90% dont have a problem in first 3-5 years, i get calls at times when a fella with a 15 year old stove calls to get a new auger motor or blower and find out that this was the first issue they ever had with the unit. but you are right a pellet stove has moving parts and electrical motors, so obviously they can have a problem over time. as for the stores, we actually do pk trainings in stores, although the folks that recieved that training might not even work there the following season. i know how it is there i have a local lowes that i bought a hot water heater a few years ago from. i literally had to help the guy in the store find the stuff i needed to hook it up.i knew what i needed , but he didnt. as for the calls you recieve about our stoves , by all means direct them to us. i have absolutely no problem with that.i do however appreciate any help you may have given my customers in the past and you are welcome to help them should you wish to. i can support you somewhat with that if needed.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Ohh delaer service all types of stoves. Just not ones we cant get parts for, or get parts for easy. Example, we will go out on any quadrafire or whitfield stove repair , because we have parts and working knowledge of there systems. We will not go out on Lopi, Harmon, Englander etc because we dont have a clue how they work and we dont have parts.. I dont know where this thread gave the idea that dealers wont service stoves they dont sale... we will, its just not free. I think you would have to sell pellet stoves to understand the level of service they require. Pellet stoves are a nightmare when it comes to customers who are not handy, who dont clean them, and overall dont have any mechanical knowledge.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

hey , didnt hear that from me, as i said, i appreciate any help you may have given my customers in the past. i didnt know if you had done any service or just gave suggestions. i do understand that you do not work on our stoves due to not carrying parts or having familiarity with them. i do not fault you for that, not at all! if anything i said may have seemed to imply that in your case, trust me it was not meant that way. although i have heard from customers that people they had contacted here and there were told that a company they contacted asking about service would not help because it was not a unit they sold to them.( they didnt give me a reason why but i may have been for the same reasons you posted) i do not think that is directed towards my company but towards anyones unit that they didnt sell. i even heard of people saying that even when the unit was the same brand a dealer carried. you know, buisness is buisness i can accept that, i get calls from folks that have googled us trying to find out how to fix many brands that we obviously didnt build, i cant really help them as well as i would like to but i do try to direct them to where they can find help with their brand, i keep a list of contacts at my desk of people i have met through the years or have talked to on the phone. if the brand of unit the customer has matches the service guy , i direct them there. hey, you do what you can if the situation calls for it. im not typing this in to blow my own horn, and i really do appreciate being able to spend time in here. and im certainly not going to tell you how to do buisness, it aint my right to do so.

 

[begreen]

Mike, your presence here and contributions have really raised my appreciation for Englanders. If I was going to put in a pellet stove again, I certainly would consider one form Englands. More manufacturers need to step out on the front lines and speak up here on the forum. It goes a long way towards boosting user confidence. And they might just learn something for their next stove generation.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Mike, your presence here and contributions have really raised my appreciation for Englanders. If I was going to put in a pellet stove again, I certainly would consider one form Englands. More manufacturers need to step out on the front lines and speak up here on the forum. It goes a long way towards boosting user confidence. And they might just learn something for their next stove generation.

i appreciate the sentiment, im actually doing this purely for fun, i am not in here to peddle product. and im actually learning quite a bit. and,im appreciative of the members being so forthcoming to me. as for other manufacturers , heck i'd love to kibbitz with them in here would be great, but im not going to step on them because they are not in here. only reason i identified myself is so people who post about my products know where the answers came from

 

[begreen]

I think you are doing the company a great service. If more manufacturers had their engineers, testers and tech support people in touch with their users, we would see much better products on the marketplace.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

personally i would enjoy it so i could learn more about their units, i have fair sized library of manuals from other stoves that i have read just to see how they do it, but getting to chat with them would be really cool! i usually dont get to go to the trade shows (im dying to get to do that) so i do not get to interface with them that much, would really be cool to do so, by the way , off da record, dont think the boss doesnt know im doing this, they take good care of me. its a great company to work for.

 

[begreen]

Likewise. Our company fully supports our getting in touch with the customer. It's a great policy.

 

[Homefire]

personally i would enjoy it so i could learn more about their units, i have fair sized library of manuals from other stoves that i have read just to see how they do it, but getting to chat with them would be really cool! i usually dont get to go to the trade shows (im dying to get to do that) so i do not get to interface with them that much, would really be cool to do so, by the way , off da record, dont think the boss doesnt know im doing this, they take good care of me. its a great company to work for.

Will englanders burn corn?
The Lowes near me is way overstock and I expect to
see some big price cuts soon.

 

[Xena]

..... by the way , off da record, dont think the boss doesnt know im doing this, they take good care of me. its a great company to work for.

Lol. Not sure if it was here or
on the yahoo pellet groups,
but someone out there stated
that you are the owner of
the company.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Mike, your presence here and contributions have really raised my appreciation for Englanders. If I was going to put in a pellet stove again, I certainly would consider one form Englands. More manufacturers need to step out on the front lines and speak up here on the forum. It goes a long way towards boosting user confidence. And they might just learn something for their next stove generation.

I second that.