The stove is well under warranty but I figured I might have to spend a lot of time on the phone dickering with the company for a part so I procrastinated. When I finally had the time to spare it was a Saturday and I discovered the company is closed. So I filled out an online form requesting an auger motor. To my delight, first thing Monday morning I received a reply: "The motor is on its way and should arrive within a week." In fact it arrived only two days later. I wish I had known how easy it would have been! In those two weeks we heated with oil. Since we were accustomed to being warm we kept the thermostat around 60-65 and stayed warm. Going into this two week period we had 3/4 of a tank of oil (remember its a small 125 Gallon tank), two weeks later we had a little less than 1/2 a tank. So with the pellet stove, during the coldest month (January) we used 1/4 a tank, then a bit more than that during a two week period. A quarter tank is about 40 gallons, which runs about $120 right now. That's over a half ton of pellets which is more than we'd use otherwise even on the coldest days.
We're finding that currently, with the temperatures in the twenties or thirties that we can run the stove on the lowest setting and keep the house toasty warm. We're having another two tons of pellets delivered tomorrow (Saturday) and that will be probably more than we need. My estimate for next year will be three tons for the winter with the oil furnace set to its lowest setting.
I need to get out the receipts and figure out what the oil usage was last winter so you'll have a comparison, but my gut is that we're doing better.
Summary: customer service may take a while, but the email warranty claim form was quick, easy and responsive. Also the installation was straight forward.
