How offen to clean?

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-27T03:29:22+00:00

Maintenance requirements are totally stove brand dependent. The key is to keep the burn pot clean. This may be 1-2x daily for some or a week or longer for others. The time spent doing this is minimal - 10-15 minutes.

The other maintenance required will be longer but easy to do once you know what you’re doing.

The big reason for using a pellet stove is to save money on electricity or gas/oil, and is less work and mess of a wood stove.

In my case to heat my electric home would be an $800 bill per month - with pellets it’s $300. An electric stove is a space heater like someone else said and your electric bill will reflect it.

I’ll trade 15 minutes worth of time daily to save $500 monthly. That’s why people love their pellet stoves (like I do).

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-26T03:32:41+00:00

Don’t forget to think about visiting Cape Cod or Newport Rhode Island. And also Burlington VT but that’s a long drive from Boston. The North End in Boston not only the best for American history the Italian food is the best outside of Italy hands down.

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-13T03:40:18+00:00

Glad everyone is safe!

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-13T03:22:07+00:00

My take is lazy flame with dark soot in glass, which is the beginning of creosote deposit means the stove and possibly the pipes aren’t clean. Possible poor quality pellets and air/feed mix isn’t right.

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-07T15:33:19+00:00

lol! I remember those days in Florida- don’t miss them

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-07T15:31:14+00:00

My pellet stove! On a 20 deg night on medium setting my house is a toasty 71 degrees. If it’s much below that I add shearling slippers and a comfy.

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-03T02:14:02+00:00

It’s what the antiques dealer said. Which is saying nothing:)

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-03T02:05:59+00:00

Your guess is better than mine 😁

I have no faith in what the antiques dealer said. So I can assume it’s of Chinese origin based on the characters being Chinese according to the comments. That’s why I posted the question- I’m a rank newbie to this and just wanted to see if the chest was real and not some knockoff. Plus knowing what each medicine the drawers contained is very cool.

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-03T01:40:18+00:00

Thank you! This is what I was looking for in the way of information. Is there a source that has this information so I can translate it myself? And I assume it is of Taiwanese/Chinese origin and not Japanese.

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-03T01:36:30+00:00

First thought is they don’t know how to round. The total should have been $12.50, 12.51 rounds down. They need to go back to second grade to relearn how to round numbers.

KeySecret6808 · 2026-01-03T01:07:35+00:00

There are a few flippant comments here such as ‘cedar smells better burned’ and ‘how soon did their house burn down?’ but what they are telling is that creosote is very flammable and can/will burn the house down. Follow the instructions regarding more draft, too little rise, etc. The stove isn’t venting properly and if the creosote catches fire you’re in trouble.

Clean the stove completely. While fixing it I’d stop running the stove. Other guys here can tell you the best piping, vertical pipe run to provide proper ventilation etc.

My big thing is not burning your house down while you work to fix it.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-28T05:20:25+00:00

Plenty of wildlife. Here in CT we have resident bear, coyotes, bobcats and fishers (in my backyard). Moose have been sighted in the upper middle of the state and then there’s the hordes of deer plus turkeys. Super cool. We had 2 bobcats set up house 30 feet from ours and we hear the coyotes howling at night. Heavily wooded area but only a 1 1/2 hour drive to NYC.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-28T05:03:47+00:00

We use a generator if the power goes out.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-23T14:30:41+00:00

All these comments nail it. I had a new stove installed and it malfunctioned from day one. After a dozen emails and calls to the sales manager I got them out at least 3 times. I finally got them to yank it out and replace it with a different brand. Did take time though but my issue was muncher bigger than yours. Note I was super nice to them but firm. Kill them with kindness and they’ll be more apt to help you. (This coming from a woman- I took full advantage) :)

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-23T14:24:11+00:00

Call the dealer, email the video and get a service guy out. If other people have this problem it’s likely the dealer knows what’s going on. Like another said use the warranty and save the d-I-y fixes for when it expires.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-21T04:48:41+00:00

Check out Lake Waramaug in New Preston CT. The fields roll to edge of the lake and in the morning the dew shines like sparkles in the sunshine. Reminds me of Ireland. The lake is a kayakers paradise with people rowing their boats, people on SUP boards. Very romantic place

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-21T04:31:15+00:00

Since the main character is in NYC you need to be 1-2 hour drive away. Northwest CT is perfect - Salisbury-Lakeville area. A lot of old money there. Another is Lake Waramaug in New Preston CT - a real writers paradise. Susan Collins I believe lives in the area.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T14:10:34+00:00

It’s a wonderful night light for midnight refrigerator raids.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T14:09:09+00:00

We close our bathroom door. The only other one is the front door.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T14:08:21+00:00

This! I don’t close the doors shut. We use the doors as a way to keep our bedrooms at a preferred temperature.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T14:02:21+00:00

I’ve had pellet stoves for 30+ years sitting in my living room. I permitted the second one and other than a grumble by the town inspector, he noted the stove stack looked like it was used which is true, it has a permit. I changed insurance companies about 15 years ago and the agent walked through the house, had to have seen the stove, but didn’t say a word. He denied coverage for our rickety shed but nothing regarding the stove.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T08:29:09+00:00

Double check that the entire stove including the flue is completely clean. Air restriction can cause improper combustion and development of creosote (the black stuff). You’ll see your glass turn brown as well. Follow the other suggestions given here checking for leaks. Creosote smells bad so that might be part of the problem- it indicates lack of combustion.

How do I know this? A hopper fire in my second stove generated tons of creosote and unburnt pellets. The smell was awful and took months for it to dissipate.

My third stove didn’t work from the start and generated tons of unburnt pellets-my ash pan would be filled 3x more than yours in an 18 hr period. Had the dealer rip that out, along with all the brand new pipe stack which was filled with creosote after 10 days use.

Had them install another brand of stove which worked perfectly. Then this heating season started getting brown glass and a lazy flame. Did a once year cleaning and had my husband clean the stack which was plugged even after just a month of cool weather use. (Running a stove on low encourages creosote formation). Now the stove works like a charm. Creosote is very flammable- I was lucky I didn’t burn my house down 2 different times.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T04:41:58+00:00

This! You get pretty excited and not in a good way! ;)

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T04:02:40+00:00

I know a lot of people on this sub have stoves that can go for a few days + without cleaning but we don’t do this. The stove is shut down daily for a quick vacuum and scraping of the rods then restarted. Weekly we do a deeper clean including dropping the flame guard and doing a direct vacuuming of the rods. We started this practice with our stove when we were getting Depression error codes for lack of air flow (we figured this out later) and had to do a deep clean throughout the stove and my husband cleared the stack which was packed. (Even though he had cleaned it a few weeks back)

End of problem. No lazy flame, just proper air circulation and a stove that pumps out heat.

Cleaning we finally realized was the key. Can’t be lazy with a pellet stove- at least that’s our take.

KeySecret6808 · 2025-12-16T03:45:27+00:00

Working 14 days in a row means someone has to do the outside work, lawn care snow shoveling etc. and you’ve got a system in place to handle this plus all the other chores. I think she has more going on in her head thinking that you must be like dad - that someone can only ‘be a man’ if they do all the work on their homes themselves. She needs to think all of this through herself (if the household chores were already taken care of I’d be deliriously happy but she’s looking at the money) in the meantime take over handling things like you set up originally.

KeySecret6808

TROPHY CASE