Harman Advance / Countrystoves PS40 Which one to buy?

[Al Wisconsin]

First off I am looking to purchase my first pellet stove. I have taken advice from others on this site and found two reputable dealers in my area to purchase from.
In reading all the great info on this site I have two questions.

1) Has Harman remedied the problems with the Advance or were these just isolated problems. I really like this stove but this is the only thing that lingers for me on it.

2) I am interested in knowing more about Countrystoves and your opinions on them. I have found very little info on these stoves.

I realize that all stoves will have issues at one time or another.

Thanks in advance I have found alot of great info here!

Al- Wisconsin

 

[HarryBack]

Im not versed in Coutnrystoves, so I'll let others here commenton them. As for the Advance....what problems are you alluding to? Im not aware of any recent design issues with the Advance at all. Let me know what youve heard, please.

 

[Al Wisconsin]

What I was refering to was the status 6 blinks, smoke in the hopper and some auger noise. I read about this mostly on this forum and gardenweb.

As far as I know this could have been an isolated problem or issue with previous models.

I guess I am asking for you expertise on this as I am trying to make an educated decision on which stove to buy.

Thanks, Al

 

[HarryBack]

havent seen the 6 blink error, smoky hopper, or inordinate auger noise on the Advance at all. Not to say it isnt happening somewhere, but not to us...yet. The Advance isnt one of our top-selling stoves anyway. I have heard tho, rumblings of pellet quality issues possibly causing adverse conditions...also something about the type of veggie oil used to lube the works when making pellets...anyone else heard that?

 

[Al Wisconsin]

Harry,

How long has the Advance been around?

Al

 

[HarryBack]

years.....Id have to say around 5 years now...it was their first autoigniting stove.....the one bad thing I can think of is due to its large glass area, the glass seems to get dirty faster than the other models....especially the side panels.

 

[FireJumper]

The Advance was introduced in 1999 as one of the only pellet stoves with automatice ignition. The only change I can think of was the air wash system which was supposed to allow more air to go across the glass to keep it cleaner. They had issues with keeping the glass clean due to it being such a large service but this was supposed to correct it. It think it did a little but it didn't "fix" the issue.