2,000 Sq. Ft. Multi-Fuel Stove Insert

I've had a Whitfield (Lennox) pellet stove for quite a while, but moved to a house with a fireplace, and wanted to get an insert. This one looked to be the cheapest around, so I ordered it. Installation was pretty standard (though it's a pretty heavy unit - 300+ pounds, but it seems heavier - so you'll want some help). On start up, the pellets wouldn't feed. Turned out, one of the wires from the hopper lid safety switch was loose and fell off. Easy enough to take care of. Next, it fired up and ran for a while. There's an agitator in the burn pot that turns periodically to help prevent (or a least reduce) clinkers. This is driven by a chain attached to a motor. After a short time, the upper sprocket on this drive chain stopped turning and fell off. Turned out, not only was the set screw not tight, but, from the marks in the shaft, it had been assembled with the sprocket barely on the end and not even on the flat of the shaft. No surprise that it fell off. A bit of a pain to get back on and in the right place, but not too bad.Once that was on, everything seemed to run OK. The blower on this thing is very loud, and while you can put it in manual mode, you're limited in how low you can set the room fan. The agitator just sits in the burn pot, and, since it's metal-on-metal, it will squeal a bit when it turns. Not a problem for me, but it freaked the dog out. I put some copper-based Never Seez on the shaft. That quiets it down, but requires repeated re-application.The hopper lid is a pretty narrow slot, and it's not easy to load the pellets in without dumping a few on the floor. If you want to actually get the 60 pound capacity, you'll need to pack the pellets in by hand.There are 5 heat settings, with 1 being the lowest. This varies the pellet feed rate. I never could get this stove to run for more than a couple hours on the lowest setting (it goes off on Err-2, which is the low temperature safety). It didn't seem to want to run consistently on '2' either, and, although occasionally it would run overnight, for the most part, it would kick off on low temp as well. You certainly couldn't count on it still running when you got up in the morning (though it was a good opportunity to clean it, I guess). I tried playing with the damper setting, running it in manual and auto, cleaning it constantly, and never had much luck. I'd have liked to adjust the pellet feed rate on the two lowest settings, but couldn't find a way to do that. So, I lived with '3' as the lowest setting.Last weekend - after having this installed and running for about six weeks or so - I noticed the pellets had stopped feeding. I could hear the pellet feed motor running, and wound up pulling the thing apart. Found the motor lying on the bottom of the stove. The auger shaft is hollow at the end, and the motor shaft fits up in there with a cotter pin holding them together. It looked like the cotter pin got caught up in the auger, which jammed the auger, tore up the hollow end of the auger shaft and the lower brass bushing. Pretty poor design, IMHO, and this stove just seems to be very poorly assembled with a real lack of QC.I called US Stoves in order to get replacement parts under warranty, but they don't work weekends (this was on a Saturday). So, in the meantime, I went and got the Whitfield from the other house and installed it. It's a smaller unit (about half the BTUs), but it's much quieter and seems to put out more heat. It also requires a lot less cleaning.To their credit, US Stoves customer support was very nice (once you get them on the phone, which takes a while, and their automated system does all it can to discourage you from holding), and said they were sending the parts out right away (pretty much no questions asked, so that was good).I'll use this insert in a second fireplace (where I don't have to hear it, and where I can turn it on occasionally but not have to rely on it) when I get it running again, and will be building something around the Whitfield to use it where it is now.I guess buying the cheapest thing I could find wasn't such a good idea. If you buy this one, I recommended tearing it down before installing it, and checking every component for alignment and tightness. Maybe I just got a lemon, but this appeared to have been slapped together in a hurry, and I'm now anticipating nothing but hassles with this thing from here on out.If I'm ever in the market for another pellet stove, it won't be one of these.

Had to replace the auger twice in a month. Motor is pinned to auger with a way too large harpin type hitch pin R clip that will find a place to bind and get stuck while turning. The metal end of the auger where the pin goes through is weaker than the pin so it cuts the base of the auger at the pin and the motor falls off. If you get this stove I recommend you replace the clip with a smaller one so it can't get stuck. That's what I did and it seems have worked

Amazon should not sell these anymore. They do not have good service techs to work on this product. All we have contacted do not want to work on said stove. USStove sent a new hopper, but that did not work either.$2500.00 mistake. Amazon should not sell this product.

I love mine. Great heat! Had it several years with no problems. Keep it cleaned out and burn it correctly and it’ll go the distance.

So unhappy with this stove. I hade pellet stoves before. This one the fan is very loud, am having trouble with fire going out and there was no pellet poker shovel like description said and the pellets do not always fall to the auger and you cannot reach your hand in to pull them off the sides of stove

I'm on my second stove in one year. The first one was riddled with problems. It only worked for 1 week then just stopped. Their customer service is friendly but doesn't seem to care. They had me completely rebuild my first stove by sending me all of the replaceable parts inside of it one by one until they decided that the stove was just a lemon. They finally agreed to replace the stove and that took 3 months to finally get the replacement. The replacement stove worked perfectly for 2 months and then the auger broke. I just today received the parts to fix it. I just cant believe how bad the quality is on these American made stoves.

Constantly throws error 2, very loud and has had to have several expensive repairs. The company US Stove has substandard customer service as well. This is the worst purchase I have ever made.