Review: Breckwell Big E Utility Furnace and Home Heater
Overall Performance:
Efficiency:
Ease of Use:
Breckwell Big E Utility Furnace and Home Heater
I've had this Big E pellet eating monster in my place for two winters now. The following are some observations:
1. The stove “works”, but considering the $2,000 price, I don't think that it does a very good job at heating or is a very good product.
2. The design is very bare-bones-basic.
3. Some mechanical aptitude is absolutely required. If you can’t or don’t want to tinker with this thing, then don’t buy it.
4. Getting at the innards is easy if the unit is ~2’ from the wall. Thankfully, I haven’t had the major component failures that others have had.
5. The construction quality (welds) is adequate, but probably could have been better. Definitely not American workmanship at it’s finest.
6. When the pellet hopper is filled to the top, it seems to have a chronic problem with the auger jamming. The solution to this has been only put in a night’s worth of pellets at a time.
7. The thermo cutoff switch died, but since I shut it off in the morning, it’s hasn’t been a big deal to me.
8. I never bother with customer service anymore.
9. External combustion air is absolutely required, even for large areas.
10. The automatic On/Off settings are useless (see other posts).
11. The heat controls are too coarse to account for variable pellet quality.
12. The heat exchanger doesn’t seem to be very efficient, and heat output is much less than expected. If you open the door with the fire raging on #5, it is HOT in there. However, the air coming off the heat exchanger is just warm.
13. Heat level settings #1 and #2 are useless. Granted, pellet consumption is low, but the unit barely blows warm air and may as well not even be on.
14. On setting #5 it does generate a good bit of heat, but pellet consumption is high (~ 5 pounds per hour = 3x 40#bags per day).
15. In my opinion, it is just as messy as a wood stove. Spilled pellets, pellet dust, and ash require constant sweeping and vacuuming.
16. With three electrical motors, it is a noisy little beast.
17. It is best suited for a house basement, camp, garage or shop. Not a living room.