Justa Rollin’ Right Along


Installing a St. Croix Prescott EXL Pellet Stove

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008



Well, the guys came over yesterday to install the new St. Croix EXL . As you might recall, our previous was a . I was a little nervous about switching brands because I had gotten used to . Also, has very good reviews. The reason I couldn’t get a this time is because they are all backed up and we may not have even gotten one this season.

It took the installers about 3 hours to finish the . When everything was in, they fired it up to make sure everything was working properly. One of the installers noticed one issue…the wasn’t turning, so no were falling into the burn pot. the motor was working fine, just not the itself. We made an appointment for the service guy to come out today. By the way, I could have fixed this. It was easy. I actually was almost done fixing it when the doorbell rang. That’s me beating my chest.

Today, the repair guy came out and fixed the issue. The small on the shaft wasn’t tightened properly, so it wasn’t catching on the motor.

I must say, this unit is very nice. It has auto-light, which was very important. I am going to hook up a , so the can shut down and start up on its own. Also, the and fan is much quieter than the . The whole system just seems to be more elegant. For a few hundred bucks more, I am happy that I went with this model.

Here are some photos…

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove

St. Croix EXL

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove inside venting

St. Croix EXL inside venting

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove outside venting

St. Croix EXL outside venting

What’s nice is that the outside venting is under the porch. The necessary clearances are 24″ away from the porch and 12″ off the ground. Also, since we used the fresh air kit, the clearances from and is only 9″. I would say that’s one of the huge benefits of .

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The Search For The Pellet Stove Begins

Saturday, July 26th, 2008



I know it’s only July, but believe it or not, that’s about two months too late when someone is trying to get a installed.

I stopped by the local store the other day to pick out my new P68 . This is top of the line and has everything I want in a stove. There is a and and everything else I can think of. You can understand my excitement about this after I received a “price lock-in” at $4.85 a gallon from our heating company. As it turns out, a lot of other people are excited about as well.

I walked into the store and told the sales guy that I wanted a…He said, “If you are going to say , you aren’t going to see it for a while.” He explained that all the stove models are way back ordered and I wouldn’t see it until way into the season. While this annoyed me, it also gave me a chance to look at some other .

I looked around and picked out a St. Croix EXL. This has the option as well as auto-light. When it gets too hot, the goes out. When it gets too cold, the stove automatically up again and cooks until the whole thing happens again. I am telling you, these things have come a long way.

I put a deposit down on that stove and they are going to come do a site visit, just to make sure the whole thing is going to work out, permit-wise. I think it will.

I also looked at some for the upstairs. They look really good. I told the guy that I really wasn’t all too attracted to bringing wood inside again, since my childhood was filled with that. Then, he showed me the bio-. A bio- is a two pound made out of compressed saw dust. Basically, it is a big . You can order them by the ton, just like . I though this was wicked cool and now plan on getting a regular for the next season.

I will let you know what happens with the site visit.

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