FInally pics of my M55 FS

[vinny11950]

Well after much burning I finally got around to taking and posting pictures of my new stove. I want to introduce myself and say thank you to all the great people who take their time and post answers to other peoples questions. It really is a community and I hope to contribute some with my story.

I actually got the stove for my parents who live in Eastern Long Island and who were using electric heat to keep warm. After a couple of months last year of $700 a month bills (20 cents KwH), I said we needed a new plan. So I found my way to pellet stoves and to all the great knowledge and advice in this forum.

Not knowing much about pellet stoves, I read all the posts I could find about the brands I was looking at. Finally I reached out to j-takeman for his opinion on the Enviros and he was really helpful and knowledgeable, and helped me decide (thanks J for taking the time). So I took the plunge and bought one and had it installed on Oct 2010.

It was supposed to be a simple living room corner install, with DuraVent Pellet pro pipe, horizontal through the wall.

Unfortunately my dealer really sucked. I am sorry to say that, I know the man is trying to make a living, but they did a horrible job on the install. I had smoke in the house from the minute they left. After many complaints they came back 3 weeks later and slathered the 45 degree elbow that connected to the stove with some type of clear silicone. It didn't look right but I didn't know any better. After 24 hours of curing, we fired the stove up again and smoke still leaked from the exhaust pipe. I did more research and realized they hadn't used a stove adapter as suggested by Simpson Dura Vent. After long arguments with the dealer, who now didn't return my calls, I gave up on this guy and found another installer to come take a look. They were a little better and they installed the adapter. It was a pain in the ass. And these guys didn't know much either as they proceeded to secure the Pellet Pro vent pipes with long screws that I am sure penetrated both inner and outer pipes. So I still had smoke.

More research and I good amount of Red RTV all around everything and foil tape, and I finally got rid of the smoke. I know it is not the best install but it will have to do until the summer when I redo it with some Excel Pipe. They have to be easier to work with than the DuraVent twist lock systems.

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on the Enviro M55 FS.

1) Burns every pellet brand I have thrown at it (Cleanfire, Pelletlogs, Okanagans with lots of ash, Penningtons, and what ever else was on sale at Lowes). It was really important to me to get a stove that could burn without much hassle, as my parents are elderly and I don't want them having to guess and trouble shoot too much.
2) Good construction, well made.
3) It comes with a metal hearth pad so you don't have to install a hearth pad, however, I wish I had because when I had to move it to install the adapter, it just scratched the hell out of my wood floor. Which make me wonder how I will do it when I have to service it.
4) The technical manual and the company support could be better especially for technical questions, however, I have to give Enviro a ton of credit because I called a contact I found on this forum for them and Enviro actually had a technician call me back in ten minutes to answer my questions.
All in all a great stove. It easily heats my parents home which is a 1200 square foot ranch with 3 bedrooms, drafty windows and moderate insulation. Last winter when I came over it was a chilly 65 degrees on good days. Now they bask in the glory of 72-79 degrees most of the time. My mom likes it warm and I am happy I decided on a pellet stove that allows them to be comfortable at an affordable budget. And my dad loves hunting for the cheapest pellets now as it gives him an excuse to get out of the house and away from my mom. They have been married a really long time.

Lastly, for future buyers, I paid for my stove with my Chase credit card which allowed me to dispute the $525 installation fee the dealer charged me. I compiled my case with letters, technical manuals and pictures, and I was able to win the case against him. I felt bad at first, thinking maybe I was being a prick, but then when I was crawling around my stove on my back with a finger full of RTV, bumping my head on the corners, the constant thought that crossed my mind was the question, Why did I pay this guy to install the stove?

Vinny

 

[Como]

Nice stove, nasty install.

When you think that must be about as easy as it gets, you wonder what they do to more complicated situations.

I would be inclined to take it all apart and see what parts can be salvaged. Nothing wrong with the product.

 

[flynfrfun]

Vinny,
You are a good son to take care of your parents like that. I'm sure they will enjoy the stove. I have the M55 cast insert and my wife just loves the heat (me too). Today it was 82F in the living room with the stove. I saw the pic of your cleaning setup. I do something very similar with the canvas to keep the ash off from the carpet. I have tried 3 different pellet brands and aside from how much ash each produces, the stove just burns them up and keeps asking for more. I hear these other guys having to scrape their burn pot's daily and am glad my M55's agitator does that for me. Other than pull the heat exchange tube rod daily, that is all I do until my weekly cleanout.
Flynfrfun

 

[dac122]

Vinny,

Good job with both the install and more importantly resolving the piping issues.

IMHO the pipe problems stems from the decision to go with PelletVent Pro. I took a bath on the PelletVent product after leaks galore and riped it out and replaced with Excel. I was not impressed with the design and construction of the Pro product when compared to Excel. I know many have had good luck with the Pro product, and I do not wish to disparage their product, but the installer was working with an mediocre product. I will not use nor recommend anything but Excel (small asterisk here - I do not know Selkirk).

So if any leaks continue and you get totally frustrated, check out Excel or Selkirk.

 

[jtakeman]

Nice to see the install vinny. I was wondering how you made out. She looks nice tucked in the corner. Told ya she would eat anything. And no fussin either. Your parents must be proud of there son! Kudo's for sticking with it and fixing the leaks in the pipe. PVP has been a pain for me at times too! Inside the house joints need to be sealed internally to stop the leaks, Well minimize them anyways. I still seal the external joints and use tape on the tee caps. One of these days I have to try an ICC install or maybe on of the selkirks.

One note is the vacuum you have. Careful with standard house vac's. Make sure you have a fine dust, drywall or hepa filter in it. Otherwise you might see some soot buildup around the house.

Enjoy!

 

[vinny11950]

Guys, thanks for the comments, really appreciate it. It's cool that people from all over the country share in these different discussions.

I followed David's (Como) link to the hotel and it looks amazing, especially the wood stove. Looks like a lot of work was done there too, from what the blog described. Good luck. I have never been to Colorado but I hear it's beautiful.

Flynfrfun, you are right and I forgot to stress this on my original post, is how sturdy the burn pot, the burn pot liner and agitator are. They are built to take a beaten and a lot of scraping. I can go 2 weeks without giving them a thorough cleaning. Some years back I drove cross country to Seattle and I really like it. I really like the West coast over all. But Seattle had a laid back vibe, carefree vibe that I liked. I would love to live there one day, but the housing really looks expensive.

Dac122, I think I don't have the expertise to hand PelletVent Pro. It seems hard to hand and I imagine people who know it know the do's and don'ts with it. I have gone to stores to check out the Excel, and it does look simpler to handle. Just joint the pipes and screw the screws included with the pipe into the predrilled holes! That sounds better, but I don't know yet until I use it. I will definitely write about it when I do.

And J-takeman, funny thing is I just received my hepa filters in the mail when I took those pictures. I had seen another of your posts recommending them and decided to buy them. Though it was hard finding them for my old vacuum, which is over 14 years old (it just keeps going). I also saw all your setup on the Omega on your other posts. It looks wicked.

And another thing I forgot to mention, is that the back up battery is a Cyberpower UPS with 900W. It is just enough to turn off the stove when the power goes out. It doesn't have enough power to run all of the motors when running (4 motors), but just enough to run the remaining motors on shut down mode (2 motors).

 

[Don2222]

Hello Vinny

Wow very nice. Looks like you may need a hearth pad or something to protect the floor.

I built my own hearth much cheaper than anyone else could. See pic.

 

[imacman]

Vinny, nice install, and the stove looks great. Nice to see the Cyber power Unit hooked-up....is it a surge protector too?

 

[vinny11950]

Imacman, the power unit is also a surge protector rated for a high spike. However, I was disappointed it couldn't run the stove. It only has enough power to shut it down. I was debating putting it behind the stove but thought it would be safer to keep the battery away from the stove!

Don, every time I see that picture of your glowing stove I am in awe that you built that yourself. It makes me think of an alter to fire. How did you build your hearth pad? I was thinking of some tiles on a piece of wood.

 

[WoodPorn]

Vinny , when you say the cyber power won't run the stove, do you mean for any length of time, or that it leaves you just enough time to shut it down?
I ask because my APC 750 will run my Englander for quite a while.