New to Everything, any assurances?

[mepellet]

Sounds like you already have someone in mind!

Sibs is in jay Maine. He delivers all over the state. A bunch of us purchase from him. Very nice guy and very reasonable prices. Check his website out. Last I knew he was delivering mwp blend for 219 and mwp softwood for 239. My wife was home when he delivered ours in april and she like him a lot.

 

[tsmith]

Looks very nice. Enjoy the warmth.

 

[whlago]

I have no intention of purchasing from Walmart, Lowes etc. So I will need a reliable source with a mid-range priced good pellet. One with not much sawdust,etc.

Welcome aboard Melissa...as you can probably tell by now this is a great forum with some amazingly wide reaching advice (with a little good natured sarcasm and fun thrown in!) I haven't been burning for more than a year yet but am extremely happy with my choice to say good bye to frequent visits by the propane truck!

I would just not write off Lowes for pellets outright, however, as IMHO I have some pretty good luck with the Green Teams (at a reasonable price) that you can get at Lowes. You may want to even try some of the pellets at Home Depot or Tractor Supply (if you have them near you) to see what works well with your stove (from a heating value, ash buildup, and economy perspective). I don't know about your stove, but some stoves really do well with certain kinds of pellets and some do well with MOST pellets you feed it.

You will get varied opinions on the different kinds of pellets to use but the best thing is to try a variety of pellets (maybe run one kind for a week and then switch to another). You can then make an informed decision as to what to buy more of for the Cold season as well as the "shoulder" season.

Good Luck!

 

[smoke show]

My new stove is now up and running. View attachment 71950

Oh that is sexy!

 

[Lousyweather]

Harman pellet stoves have a flapper that prevents smoke from exiting via the air intake if power is lost.

yea, theres a flapper which prevents the air from exiting the intake with no outside air hooked up, buuuuuuut, air CAN exit from leaks in the pipe, gaskets, etc.......Melissa, start that bad boy up, let her run for a bit, sndf simply unplug the thing to simulate an outage.....see if you smell smoke after a bit......a good way to tell

 

[Lousyweather]

Where is the flapper located? Must be in the stove as there is no cover of an sort on the vent pipe outside my home... sorry if I sound like an idiot....and I'm not blonde I just want to know all I can.

well, what hair I have left is blonde! Anyhow, you wont see the intake unless you remove the rear cover from the back of the stove...its a round hole, on the right facing the back of the stove, above the combustion fan......about 2-3/8" in diameter or so......

 

[Melissa220]

Sibs is in jay Maine. He delivers all over the state. A bunch of us purchase from him. Very nice guy and very reasonable prices. Check his website out. Last I knew he was delivering mwp blend for 219 and mwp softwood for 239. My wife was home when he delivered ours in april and she like him a lot.

Thanks again mepellet. I will look online.

 

[Melissa220]

yea, theres a flapper which prevents the air from exiting the intake with no outside air hooked up, buuuuuuut, air CAN exit from leaks in the pipe, gaskets, etc.......Melissa, start that bad boy up, let her run for a bit, sndf simply unplug the thing to simulate an outage.....see if you smell smoke after a bit......a good way to tell

Good thought. Thanks. VERY glad I found this forum. Everyone is so welcoming and patient...especially patient........ with a newbie.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Good thought. Thanks. VERY glad I found this forum. Everyone is so welcoming and patient...especially patient........ with a newbie.

We were all newbies once. Welcome aboard the forum.

Advice I can offer is to use the search feature of the forum to see postings about several key pellet stove discussions.
Cleaning/vacuuming
Pellet Quality/pricing/availability
Stove Operation
Thermostat use
OAK
Safety

And as always ask if you have a question. We love to help
Good Luck,
---Nailer---

 

[Harman Lover 007]

Good thought. Thanks. VERY glad I found this forum. Everyone is so welcoming and patient...especially patient........ with a newbie.

You won't go wrong with this group of pellet burners....we don't always agree but we all are here to help. A WEALTH of knowledge here. Any Harman questions...just ask.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Good thought. Thanks. VERY glad I found this forum. Everyone is so welcoming and patient...especially patient........ with a newbie.

Along about February and the 1000th post about why is my stove burning like cr** we get a little bit short. After all there are only so many ways to tell someone to clean their stove and by then half of the forum's first page is about dirty stoves. Until then we are all patient.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You won't go wrong with this group of pellet burners....we don't always agree but we all are here to help. A WEALTH of knowledge here. Any Harman questions...just ask.

You currently on the island and polluting a good Maine lake?

 

[Don2222]

I'm smarter than average(IQ 160) and I didn't buy a Harman. How smart you gotta be?

Having money to buy a Harman and being smart are two different but good things! LOL

 

[Melissa220]

Along about February and the 1000th post about why is my stove burning like cr** we get a little bit short. After all there are only so many ways to tell someone to clean their stove and by then half of the forum's first page is about dirty stoves. Until then we are all patient.

Believe me, I got the message loud and clear in the first few posts I read the importance of a clean stove. Hopefully you won't see any such post from me (famous last words). Mine only ran for 90 minutes today but I plan to clean it so that I understand the intricacies. That way too I can ask questions of the installer or the forum before it becomes a vital issue.

 

[Don2222]

Hi Melissa

Welcome and enjoy the new stove. It is a beauty and should last a long long time!
Please put the stove and model in your signature and State or Region in your avatar. This way if you ask any of us old timer's another question we will know what and where so we can still help.
Thanks and EnJOY!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

+1 to what Don is asking, a lot of us are a bit long o the fang and forgetful.

 

[Melissa220]

+1 to what Don is asking, a lot of us are a bit long o the fang and forgetful.

Well I've just tried to set it as as requested. Let's see how I did....

 

[Defiant]

Well I've just tried to set it as as requested. Let's see how I did....

You got it

 

[St_Earl]

She is within sibs striking distance!

steve comes up here to millinocket. i think that's 135 miles one way. same price as anywhere else.
i read most of the thread. saw someone mention a usb. but have we covered the plain old surge suppressor issue yet?

i actually have a narrow single level house with a linear layout.
the floor fan blowing towards the stove is not an option for me. g/f says no way. too noisy for her at night where it would have to be.

i actually get an excellent result hanging my vornado 510 in the top of the doorway from the stove room (livingroom) and aiming it right at the narrow gap into the back bedroom.
the dining room and kitchen are between the stove room and the back bedroom.
the archways between these rooms form barriers to the flow of heat. and by shooting it under them with the pusher fan, the rooms heat up from the top down and allow the heat to find it's way all the way back and saturate even the far end of the house.
the vornado manages to be focused enough to actually get a (very) gentle flow directly into the back bedroom from about 27 feet away.

i find that having the pushing fan kept aimed in the higher level allows a return along the floor anyway.
the vornado allows this more selective aiming.

but like the folks say, use your stove and get used to how it behaves. you will learn if you need to do anything and eventually find your best system.

it just hit me (again) how much help the people on this forum have been to me.
you can learn a lot here. but somethings are just specific to each house. and those details you will no doubt discover.

 

[Melissa220]

[quote="St_Earl, post: 1157515, member: 1848

i actually get an excellent result hanging my vornado 510 in the top of the doorway from the stove room (livingroom) and aiming it right at the narrow gap into the back bedroon.[/quote]

Have you noticed any increase in your electric bill using the vornado through the winter? My electric bill - oil burner alone - almost triples in winter cuz burner comes on so often. I'm hoping the pellet stove will cut back on both electric and oil; as long as I can get the heat distributed.

When my stove was running today, I don't have a corner door fan so I used a 3 foot high standing fan in the doorway between the living room (where stove is) and kitchen area. Didn't do too much good as fan was too low. But when I placed the fan back to within about 10 feet of stove and pointed toward the kitchen on high speed, temp in living room actually went down a degree and kitchen temp rose faster.

Of course winter air circulation will all be different.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

You currently on the island and polluting a good Maine lake?

Ouch....if I was a sensitive guy, I'd say you hurt my feelings.........oh and the answer is yes.

 

[The Ds]

it just hit me (again) how much help the people on this forum have been to me.
you can learn a lot here. but somethings are just specific to each house. and those details you will no doubt discover.

x2 invaluable info here

 

[Lousyweather]

[quote="St_Earl, post: 1157515, member: 1848

i actually get an excellent result hanging my vornado 510 in the top of the doorway from the stove room (livingroom) and aiming it right at the narrow gap into the back bedroon.

Have you noticed any increase in your electric bill using the vornado through the winter? My electric bill - oil burner alone - almost triples in winter cuz burner comes on so often. I'm hoping the pellet stove will cut back on both electric and oil; as long as I can get the heat distributed.

When my stove was running today, I don't have a corner door fan so I used a 3 foot high standing fan in the doorway between the living room (where stove is) and kitchen area. Didn't do too much good as fan was too low. But when I placed the fan back to within about 10 feet of stove and pointed toward the kitchen on high speed, temp in living room actually went down a degree and kitchen temp rose faster.

Of course winter air circulation will all be different. [/quote]

I would suggest not using the fans unless you really feel you need to....you wont know till winter tho.....I dont use any at all, other than the fan that is on the stove (combustion fan)......to much air movement can actually hurt you, giving you the feeling of cooling rather than simply moving air.....gonna depend on your home layout....

 

[Melissa220]

Have you noticed any increase in your electric bill using the vornado through the winter? My electric bill - oil burner alone - almost triples in winter cuz burner comes on so often. I'm hoping the pellet stove will cut back on both electric and oil; as long as I can get the heat distributed.

When my stove was running today, I don't have a corner door fan so I used a 3 foot high standing fan in the doorway between the living room (where stove is) and kitchen area. Didn't do too much good as fan was too low. But when I placed the fan back to within about 10 feet of stove and pointed toward the kitchen on high speed, temp in living room actually went down a degree and kitchen temp rose faster.

Of course winter air circulation will all be different.

I would suggest not using the fans unless you really feel you need to....you wont know till winter tho.....I dont use any at all, other than the fan that is on the stove (combustion fan)......to much air movement can actually hurt you, giving you the feeling of cooling rather than simply moving air.....gonna depend on your home layout....[/quote]

Have you noticed any increase in your electric bill using the vornado through the winter? My electric bill - oil burner alone - almost triples in winter cuz burner comes on so often. I'm hoping the pellet stove will cut back on both electric and oil; as long as I can get the heat distributed.

When my stove was running today, I don't have a corner door fan so I used a 3 foot high standing fan in the doorway between the living room (where stove is) and kitchen area. Didn't do too much good as fan was too low. But when I placed the fan back to within about 10 feet of stove and pointed toward the kitchen on high speed, temp in living room actually went down a degree and kitchen temp rose faster.

Of course winter air circulation will all be different.

I would suggest not using the fans unless you really feel you need to....you wont know till winter tho.....I dont use any at all, other than the fan that is on the stove (combustion fan)......to much air movement can actually hurt you, giving you the feeling of cooling rather than simply moving air.....gonna depend on your home layout....[/quote]

My home is not the best suited to a pellet stove if the best location is a central one. The home is two stories on one end and a living room on the other. (See photo) the stairs in the two story section run the long way essentially creating a large 9-10 foot wide 'hallway' on the front side of the house. The kitchen and dining area are here. The backside is a den and bathroom. The single story is a living room. The thermostat for the heat (oil burner) for the ENTIRE first floor is on the wall n the den.

The stove was set up in the back end corner of the living room on the front side that you see. The stove is corner installed with the blower facing the center of the room. the archway leading from the living room to the rest of the house is to the left corner. Heat would have to travel about 20 feet to get from the living room to the rest of the house. Once in the two story area it would have to immediately round a corner through a doorway to affect the burner thermostat room and travel another 20 or so feet to reach the end of the dining/kitchen room before needing to turn another corner to reach stairs then requiring another turn to go UP the stairs. Whew!

I don't expect the stove heat tone able to travel upstairs and will have to rely on the oil burner zone for that. Ugh. But given this layout, not sure how well heat will travel. And I don't want to be running back and forth between the rooms to create air current!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Melissa220,

Fans can help or hurt, the goal should be to get the hot air moving up high by moving the cold air (relatively cold) towards the stove down low, this gets the cold air to the stoves convection air intake so it can be heated, and the warm air distributed away from the stove room. It is a balancing act and how far away from the stove you can get heated will depend upon this convection loop and how well your house holds heat (note insulation and lack of air infiltration helps tremendously).

I do the heating from my den in the basement without any fans other than the convection fan on the stove.

Harmon Lover 007,

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm a bad Bear at times. Now about that feelings issue you seem to have, a nice large steak on the grill along with your favorite beverage will take care of it .