Reviews of King Pellet 48,000 BTU Stove with Igniter and Exhaust Blower #5500

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this stove 11/04/2010. I was attracted to the stove by its looks, styling, btu rating and hopper capacity. When I started the stove after the "dry run" to season and burn it in, the stove performed very well. Everything worked flawlessly and it heated very well. I am using this stove as a supplemental source of heating. The next day, my wife and I noticed the room blower fan was getting noisy. It got progressively louder until the fan motor seized and blew the fuse. I replaced the fuse and removed the blower assembly. I got the fan freed up, reinstalled it, and started the stove. The blower was even louder than before and failed again. I have requested another blower assembly from US Stove Company. They were courteous and are sending me a new blower assembly at no cost, including shipping.

Overall, the stove is good. It heats well. This stove is classified by the manufacturer as a "shop heater", not a residential heating stove; yet the stove qualifies for the 2010 heating tax deduction of up to $1,500. The stove is installed in our walk-out basement, which is 1,600 square feet. The basement, the upstairs foyer and bedrooms were warm and my boiler didn't run often when the stove was operating. The stove is semi-easy to clean (no ash pan) and the parts/mechanicals are easy to access for service. Since there is no removable ash pan for cleaning, It takes 5 minutes to clean the stove using a ShopVac.

Ash accumulation is contained in the combustion/firebox, does not leak out of the door seals, and has the consistency of flour. The stove burns the pellets completely. There is no smoke emission from the chimney. My wife enjoys the stove's automatic self-ignition upon start up. I enjoy the stove's 120 lb hopper capacity. 1 bag of pellets will last approximately 10 hours with the stove's heating range set to 2-3. The stove has 5 heat range settings, 1 being lowest and 5 being highest. I fully expect this stove to greatly reduce my heating bills this coming winter. The basement was very cozy with the stove on.

This will be a very good investment if the room blower unit is repaired and stays operational.

Update: 11/30/2010

The new room fan is installed. I received the new room fan 4 days after contacting the company. It appears the new room fan blower assembly has been re-engineered. The new blower works very good, but running noise is still noticeable. The stove is fully functional and heats well. We have been running the stove on heat range setting 1 and our basement temperature has been staying in the range of 69-70.5 degrees F. On heat range setting 2 the basement temperature is between 71-73 degrees F. Average outside temperatures have been about 28-34 degrees F at night. The stove has been trouble free since I installed the new room fan. The feature I like the most is the large 120 lb hopper capacity. The stove will operate nearly three days before requiring pellet refill. The glass window interior in the door quickly covers with fine ash when the stove is operating but is easily vacuumed & wiped off while cleaning the stove.

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Where do I start with this stove? We bought two, US Stove models 5500 and the 5500XL from Northern Tool Co.

1. Both units are not flush across the front, when placing a straight edge across the front leaves a gap in the middle in the middle of the unit up to a 1/16 of an inch. The cast door is straight, but when closed across the front of the stove unit produces a gap in the middle of the unit that allows a clear view into the firebox onmodel 5500. I called Customer Service at US Stoves they wanted pictures of the installation and a narrative which I provided before they would do anything. I then called Northern Tool and they notified US Stoves who then sent me a new rope gasket. The 5500XL is missing 3 inces of rope gasket along the bottom of the firebox door.

2. Each stove burns a bag a day, but produces little heat no matter what the setting is at. I have experienced other pellet type stoves owned by friends and have noted that they burn at a rate that warms the room to excess. I feel much of the heat is disappearing up the stove pipe. My son placed a wet towel on a chair in front of the stove blower to dry and it eventually did after an extended period. The towel was not hot to the touch. The stove pipe is a double wall vent kit by Simpson Dura-Vent installed in accordance to NFPA 211 and inspected by the County Building and Codes Department.

3. Igniting both stoves are a continual problem. Stove pellets do not ignite readily, causing the operator to empty the pellet tray, and start the ignition process over and over. This can take 10 to 20 minutes, often times we give up in exasperation. Pellets spill over the pellet tray and fall into the combustion chamber. The pellets can only be retrieved by vacuuming them out which results in wasted pellets. A customer service rep at US Stoves, named Christy, says this is nromal!

4. Ash build up is expected and is vacuumed as needed at least several times per week. The area under the pellet box builds up with ash and is inaccessible to routine cleaning.

5. Stove is warranted and an extended warranty was purchased in addition to the factory warranty. But Northern Tools and US Stoves will not back their product without the customer going to great lengths to prove their case. We just want a stove that works and now that winter is here, we are stuck with a stove that DOES NOT!

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I bought a US Stove 5500M Ashley to save money with heating. It burns one bag a day ($7.00) but it is not even close as potent as advertised. It is advertised to heat up from 1,200/1,500 sq ft, but it heats up to 500 sq ft, if that much.

It is very noise, too. One can't watch TV or talk on the phone, or even have a conversation in the room where the stove is.

Worst of all the warranty for electrical parts is for one year only, and those parts seem to be produced to last just a little longer than the warranty. I bought this stove last fall, one month after the warranty expired the igniter has melted. I have to spend U$50,00 to buy a new one. Luckily, I am skillful enough to fix the stove myself. Otherwise, I would have to pay U$200,00 plus parts for a technician to fix it.

If you are still thinking about buying it. Buy it in a place that allow returns (in case you can put up with the noise), and buy extended warranty (because, most likely, it is going to break right after one year).

Honest reviews on King Pellet 48,000 BTU Stove with Igniter and Exhaust Blower #5500

First I started out buying my stove at Tractor Supply at a steal @ 990.00.King brand. It freed my weekends at holding three bags.That's where I will start.Then I priced around for the pellets.Meijer M-perks 20% + On sale for 20.So I buy 2 skids.The pellets you buy makes the stove not the stove makes the pellets.I had to clean daily with tractor supply,but weekly with meijer.All in all it is the pellets quality.American Wood pellets brand.

Love buying American pellets they last longer.220.00 for five months.Thanks King for my weekends!

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I purchased this unit about 3 years ago to help take the chill off in my big old house. I did not buy a stove to use as my soul source of heat, which is probably why I like mine. I use a forced air oil furnace as my primary heat set at 65ish and use this stove to supplement. It is very loud, I do have to say that. The blower is loud and the auger feed is noisy. Im sure that those noises are not any worse than average for a pellet stove. What is very noisy and annoying is the thing vibrates now and then. It seems to come and go and correlates with blower fan speed. If it did not have that vibration noise, I would like my stove much better. The other complaint I have is the igniters go up like candy. I have replaced 1 a year so far. This year I replaced it and about 3 months later it was burnt up again. My wife called the company and they said they had a bad batch of igniters and sent us a free one. I have to give them props for that, but that does nothing as far as all the other ones I have had to buy. The flame quality that this thing puts out seems much better than a couple of other pellet stoves I have seen in use. I would say the stove puts out the heat I was expecting and maintenance seems pretty easy for me. My next purchase will be a furnace style pellet stove to replace my oil one and it will be through US Stove Company. If this stove didnt vibrate and eat igniters I would give it a 5 star.