Pellet Stove Installation

A pellet appliance is the only hearth product that won't run without electricity, and that single fact reshapes the entire install. The auger that meters fuel, the combustion blower that forces the exhaust, the convection fan that pushes heat into the room, and the igniter that lights the burn pot all draw power, so installation starts with a dedicated, properly grounded 120V circuit — not an extension cord, not a shared bedroom outlet. Prime Chimney Experts installs new pellet stoves and inserts to a national premium standard, treating the power, vent, clearance, and hearth as one engineered system rather than four separate afterthoughts.

Because pellet exhaust is cooler and under positive pressure — the combustion blower pushes it out rather than relying on natural draft — it must travel through listed PL-vent pellet pipe with gasketed, sealed joints, never bare single-wall stovepipe or a raw masonry flue. We build the vent to the manufacturer's allowable equivalent length, keep horizontal runs short with the required upward pitch, and terminate clear of the listed distances from windows, soffits, and grade. Where a pellet insert goes into an existing masonry fireplace, we run a sealed liner up the flue so the positive-pressure exhaust can't leak through mortar joints into the home. How this differs from pellet-stove-repair: repair never touches a vent route or termination — it works inside a stove the install already set, so this build phase is unique to the new-unit job.

Clearances and the hearth are the permanent, code-driven half of the install. We confirm the listed clearances to combustibles printed on the appliance label, add a listed rear or floor heat shield with ceramic standoffs where the room is tight, and size the hearth pad to the stove's required floor protection — pellet stoves run cooler than wood, but the pad and ember protection are still code, not optional. An outside-air kit is added where the home is tight or the jurisdiction requires it, so the burn pot draws combustion air from outdoors instead of starving a sealed house.

Commissioning is what separates a finished install from a parked appliance. We load the hopper, set the feed-rate and air trims to the pellet grade, run the igniter through a full light-off, and confirm the combustion and convection blowers and the vacuum/pressure switches all hand off correctly across the startup, run, and shutdown cycle. We verify the vent draws clean under positive pressure, run an ambient CO check, and walk the homeowner through hopper loading, burn-pot cleaning, and the ash schedule — because a pellet stove that's never been commissioned to its fuel and never had its maintenance taught is the one that locks out on the first cold night.