This is a great stove!,
February 12, 2008
"This has been a great stove for us. We are into our 3rd winter and the only part that has worn out is the tumbler. Were just received the new tumbler and the old will probably make it throught this winter. We clean the stove every day (about 10 minutes) and clean out the exhaust every 2 weeks (about 15 minutes). The corn has been at 15% and pretty clean and has burned just fine. I think the cleaning helps keeps it running."
What is your level of technical expertise? Professional
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
don't ask me,
December 12, 2007
"I am a corn farmer and have done every thing but stand on my head to make it work............................................
I WOULD NOT NOT RECOMMEND THIS JUNK."
What is your level of technical expertise? Professional
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Coments about Corn Stove,
October 22, 2007
By Dan8960 from Pueblo, Colorado
"I have used this stove for 2 winters, going into third winter. I am very happy with the economy of burning corn. I am not quite as happy with this stove.
1. It plugs up in the exaust blower and is very hard to clean out. The best way I have found is to run the blower with the fire off and the damper wide open for a while before lighting. This won't clean the damper slide, and I haven't found a good way to do that yet. Removing the blower and cleaning the housing is not easy.
2. Where I installed my stove is not adjacent to an outside wall, so I had to go up with the inlet and outlet piping. This makes it hard to clean the exaust pipe as often as needed.
3. There are holes behind the insulator panel that go into the exhaust chamber. The insulator panel warped and exhaust was being sucked the wrong way, (not through the heat exchanger) North Star sent me another insulator (free of charge) an I made some steel plugs to keep this from happening again.
4. The origional fire chamber was made with corn deflector welded off to one side (corn was all going to one side. Northstar replaced chamber free of charge.
5. I ran out of corn and tried to use pellets temporarilly, ( this doesn't work, it causes auger to work it's way out of drive and disengage),
6. The auger is a very close fit into the feed tube. This causes any impurities in the corn to plug up the auger and shut the stove down. I haven't been able to find clean enough corn to keep this from happening. This makes the stove not dependable enough to trust it. When this happens, it is very hard to get the auger out to clear it.
7. The instructions say to start the fire with the feed setting on 1 after many hours of experimenting I found that you have to leave the feed setting off until the fire is going well because the tumbler will put out the fire.
I still like the stove, but couldn't reccomend it to anybody else because of the amount of maintenance."
What is your level of technical expertise? Professional
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Pros and Cons,
September 19, 2007
By DrTom from Upstate New York
"I've been using this as primary heat for 3 or 4 years now. It does kick out plenty of heat. Your corn MUST be dry enough or the tumbler will wear out quickly. Our supplier claimed his corn was 11% and it turned out to be over 15% moisture content. I'm sure that some of my problems with the unit were due to the elevated moisture levels. However, my main problem with the unit is in the design of the tumbler mechanism. The tumbler shaft is a half inch steel rod that is inserted through a steel pipe which is spot-welded to the frame: metal on metal is a recipe for disaster. Eventually, the pipe wears to the point that the shaft will no longer turn the tumbler and the stove simply won't function. A friend redesigned the mechanism using a bracket and two bearings (mounted outside the fire chamber) and the stove has worked well since. I imagine that every one of these stoves in use will eventually have this problem. Another gripe is that after a couple of winters the exhaust wouldn't draw properly. Eventually I figured out that the blower and manifold needed to be removed and cleaned: they were both impossibly clogged with fine black fly ash(?). This process takes me a couple of hours and has become part of my regular maintenance at this point. On the upside, the customer service people have consistantly been helpful, courteous, and generally very nice folks with whom to deal. I'm shopping for a second corn stove at the moment and am looking at other brands paying close attention to basic design characteristics and potential problems. Hopefully the second stove will be much lower maintenance than this unit."
What is your level of technical expertise? Professional
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
,
January 22, 2007
By gardnerman from North Central Kansas
"I have had my NorthStar corn stove for about 2 years and have the exact same problems as the reviewer from Minnesota, in particular the tumbler (or corn stirrer) has totally deteriorated to where I can't use the stove until I can get a replacement part and I am having trouble getting a replacement part.
If I have to replace the tumbler every 2 years, it appears to me that the tumbler is made out of inferior quality material."
What is your level of technical expertise? Home Handyman
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
corn stove,
January 18, 2007
By mickbo from Hardwood, Michigan
"I have been using this stove burning corn four years now . It heats my house 2600 sq. feet very well, I live in Michigans U.P. winter is cold !
I use about 5 to 6 tons of corn per year. Paying a low of $90.00 per ton to a high of $150.00 per ton this year. About 2 1/2 ton so far this year. I clean stove and pipes once a week. Shop vac works fine just shut down, let cool, Wait 1/2 hour then vac. The things I dont like are # 1 the fly ash that comes out of the stove pipe. It stickes to the siding of the house and can't be washed off until spring. It will rust medal doors if not painted. #2 The stur stick will burn out after about a two year run.30 buck or so. door and window gaskits will leak after a couple of years and need to be replaced. #3 Corn must be clean screening is the best way . not all corn is the same . I buy one ton at a time. Each time its differnt form the feed mill. Moisture, starch, parts of cobb. all make a difference. Other than that it is a good stove. January 18th 2007"
What is your level of technical expertise? Professional
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.