SHOTIME

Yes, I'd be interested in learning more about the venting and stuff. So you fill the top with pellets and just turn it on? how do you light it?

slickwill

The one that I had lit itself. It had a little heating unit in the bottom that would get hot enough to light the pellets, after that it was self sustaining.

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SomeStrangeGuy

Venting:
Venting can be straight out the back into the outdoors, it's done with 3" (in most cases) double walled pelletvent (Simpson Dura-vent) I haven't actually seen another company selling comparable stuff. So as I said you CAN go straight back and out (they are either top or back vent) but the best thing is shoot out and then up at least 3' with a cleanout tee on the bottom and another 90 at the top so it stubs out at least 6-9" away from the house (and terminates with a dryer vent looking louver). If it wasn't 3am I'd actually go take a picture. As I may not have stated earlier, these are a direct-vent device so it has a pressurized exhaust from the combustion air. This means that if power goes out while there is a fire - and you're one of the 1%'ers that put a straight tube running outside with no pipeline for heat/draft to escape from - your house will now fill with smoke.


Getting it started:
It lights itself, it's designed to be integrated into a t-stat or run manually, whatever you want. Basically pellets auger out of the feeder bin on top (this stove holds 150# in the bin) and fall into a stainless steel basket which is sitting inside a slightly larger steel box. Combustion (fresh) air blows into the box and its only way out is through the venturis in the SS basket that the pellets are falling into. There is a soldering iron looking thing that gets red hot after about 5 minutes and then they smolder for a second before the flame kicks in and turns the bucket to ash. Once there is proof of flame (heat sensor) the auger spins at whatever speed (or pulse width) you want it to. This stove goes from 1-5 (really 1-4) and at 1, well you know its on. 2, would be good for hanging out in the room being comfy. 3, when you miss your woodstove and want hair on your face to get brittle. 4, when it's in your basement and you're trying to heat your whole house with it . 5, its constantly feeding pellets and puts out about 55k btu in this mode. I ran it like that for break in of about 30 minutes and my basement went from 57 to 75 in that time.

Results: Day 1
So today was it's first real trial run. Left the stove off last night. Shut the heat to 58 at 9am this morning just in case, thenvacuumed out the chamber, fileld it with pellets, set it to #4, hit the button. 20 minutes later warm air was coming out. With a 30 degree outside air temp and no insulation on my basement walls, it held the house at about 63 degrees. 240$ of TUFF-R (r6.5 aluminum lined foam sheathing) later, the house is around 66 or so. That $$ on insulation was a killer, as it barely did 3/4 of the biggest wall of my foundation . The other caveat is that with the stove running on the #4 setting it eats pellets like a champ, almost 2 bags and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet . This sucks because if im running it for the next 20 days, 2 bags a day = 1600$, which at this point...my oil might cost the same as oil but the oil just shows up. The pellets I had to slice and dice 4 pallets of 40 pound bags and carry them into my basement.

The truth:
Anyways, this was sort of an experiment for me...wanted to see if I could heat the house on a pellet stove alone from the basement and its good to know I can keep it above freezing at least with just the stove if I had to. I'm pretty sure with doing the rest of the basement with insulation (concrete ROBS heat) will get me into the 70's but what I really want is to run the stove on #3 since it's only about 1.5 bags a day then. So I figure more insulation and opening up some air passages will help things a bunch. Right now I have the cellar door open and opened 1 grille as a transfer grille for the heat to rise through. Neither of these are near the stove - but the stove's heat rise is located almost dead center of my house which is at least one benefit I have.

The bottom line:
Just a quick tally sheet:
Breckwell Big-E Stove (www.pelletking.com) 1699$
Vent kit @ Lowes + extra pipe 225$
Permit 20$
Insulation (total needed) 500$
Pellets 1600$
---------------------------------------------------
4044$ total for the next 1.5 seasons of heating
or
2644$ for stove/installation bits only.


Forward-looking statements:
So assuming I can get pellets again this year, I'll likely be putting an Enviro Empress in my living room to augment the Breckwell in the basement, and will rock solely pellets next winter:
Pellet Freestanding Stoves

Disclaimer:
Enviro makes some pretty decent stuff but their lead times were insane and no one had anything that I wanted when I went looking (I wanted their insane MAXX unit that was sold out in July when I asked). Breckwell is a decent product that doesen't seem to skimp on features or quality, but side by side to a Harman or Enviro you'd be able to tell. I was only interested in the hottest thing with the biggest capacity around, for the least amount of coin (for the first go around)...which was the Big-E. Oh and people actually had them in stock. Lots of places won't sell online or via phone due to dealer agreements and stuff. Fortunately Al @ Pelletking was awesome to work with and in the end. hooked me up.


Holy longass ADHD post...but its 327am and I should be working, so....I'll go do that now.

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SomeStrangeGuy

I lied.

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SHOTIME

Thank you very much!

MrX

I picked up my stove on Sat, the place I bought it from sucks, worst everything ever! They offered me the exhaust kit for $300 (home depot sells it for $225) I kept quiet and decided not to tell them I'd gladly pay $1,000 anywhere else than give them another $1 of mine.

Gotta finish the kitchen before installing the stove but mine will be installed in the living room to heat a ranch house so I'm hoping I dont need to keep the thing cranked.

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SomeStrangeGuy

What place was it again? were they named in this thread?
While I had my issues with pelletking (ie: placed order in July, was told of backorder because a friend was in the store talking to the owner at the time of my order being placed, and I was never informed when it was in stock). The caveat of my story is when I called and said 'hey where is my stove' he gave me one off his shipment arriving the next day.

is it a 35kbtu rated stove? If so, you'll be fine. Mine is a 'ranch' sorta, and one in the living room cranked on hi would melt every candle in the house in a matter of hours. You'll be very pleased.

MrX do you have a hole saw, rotozip, stuff like that?
I highly recommend using a 4" dia. hole saw or the initial hole, then making sure the pipe goes straight out through it, and finally expanding to the 7" of the thimble via rotozip from there once you know it's centered...so you have some room to play.

Also if you haven't yet, go to Home Depot and get the hi-temp RTV sealant. It's recommended if not required for the joints on the system. I used the Red hi-temp auto stuff (650 deg.) in the red toothpaste tube for the inside joints, the clear HD RTV (500 deg. stuff in the caulking container) for the outside of the outdoor joint pieces, and the black HD RTV (800 deg.) in the tube for the stove connection and initial coupler/sleeve. Also make sure you put some silicone around the screws when you put them in for the pipe brace outside.

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SomeStrangeGuy

Oh, and I have also heard of people complaining of condensation occuring inside the thimble, so I siliconed it with the 500 degree stuff to create an airtight chamber. I think thats the right thing to do...

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MrX

Hearth Works in Hooksett NH, bunch of clowns, they told me alot of things and everything was wrong. I learned to get everything on paper though (too late).

I'd have to check the specs but I believe its a 45kbtu rating.

I don't have any tools for this type of work and I'm a moron and have no skills so I'm leaving it to my friend to install it, thats why I'm waiting 3 weeks. He has installed several and is a carpenter by trade so I trust he will know how to do it.

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SomeStrangeGuy

NOTE:

When installing pellet stove, even if not required by code - attach the intake air pipe to a metal extension and run it outside. Run it in a similar config to the routing of the exhaust (just not too close, duh).

If you lose power, even with a good draft in your exhaust vent - your freshair intake will still push some exhaust into your house.

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SHOTIME

An update on my own situation.

1/2 cord of wood down for the season. I just ordered another for this weekend. Its wetter than I would like, so I'm going to be storing this round in the basement.

After the holidays I'll buy another half and stack it outside. I just dont have the storage for a whole cord right now, and before the holidays I'll never get to it.

We burn every night from 4:30 ish to 10pm, and all day on weekends. Oil heat keeps the house at 63 degree's and we do the rest with the wood.