I was awaken this morning, at 2 am, by the sound of silence. Yes silence. We have a pellet stove with a noisy blower. Pellet stoves are a wonderful invention that I did not know existed until we moved here and our house was equipped with one. That one died some time around Christmas 2007. That in itself is a story for another day. You pour a bag full of wood pellets into this fireplace looking stove and you get fire. No matches, no wood, no newspaper or kinling. Like magic you get a nice toasty fire. We bought this one the first part of December and have been very pleased with it's performance.
But did I tell you I woke up to silence, at 2 am? I am thinking no big deal, maybe the hopper is empty, just needs more pellets. No such luck. Now I am thinking that maybe it has too much dust from the sub par pellets that WalMart is now selling. I had that problem a few nights ago. So I empty the 60 pound hopper, and vacuum the dust out. That should do the trick right? I press the on button and wait for magic. No magic. I continue to wait, maybe it's just taking longer that usual. It is now 2:45 am. I realize the top auger is not feeding the pellets to the bottom auger, so no fire can be made. I push on the auger hoping to will it into action. No. It is time to give up.
Next option, our furnace. I think it is as old as our house, but it does do the job it was made for. Except for tonight. We haven't used to for, well since we got the magic pellet stove. The pilot is out. It is getting cold now. And its not getting any earlier. I know how to light the pilot, I am that cool. But after sitting there for another 30 minutes, pleading with the pilot to stay lit, it's feeling are hurt by our lack of use these past months, I think it maybe a good time to give up on this idea and go to plan 3.
Space heaters. We have 3. One I found out overheats within seconds of being turned on. The other two work. Yeah! And my kitchen stove. I know, fire hazard, but at 3:30 am I don't care! I am cold and I have insurance. I finally get back to bed and I think asleep by 4 am. Then the dreams of broken pellets stoves keep playing in my head. I have to thoughts of trowing the darn thing away. That would be a sight. I am sure I couldn't move it 2 inches.
You maybe wondering where my other half is during all this fun. He is not asleep in our bed. He is in Phoenix. He did not leave me to suffer alone in the cold of the night. Although I did think of calling him.
I called the manufacturers this morning. A very nice gentleman tryed to help me fix my problem, but I don't have the proper tools to take the back off the stove, so alas I must wait for Arnold to return and find me the needed tools. Then they will walk us through the trouble shooting steps to fix our auger and return the magic back to us. ( If not it is under warranty)
