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. Texas 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. The vent is built to the manufacturer's allowable equivalent length, horizontal runs kept short with the required upward pitch, and the termination held clear of the listed distances from windows, soffits, and grade. A pellet insert going into an existing masonry fireplace gets a sealed liner run up the flue so the positive-pressure exhaust can't leak through mortar joints into the home. Unlike pellet-stove-repair, which never touches a vent route or termination and works inside a stove the install already set, this build phase is unique to the new-unit job.

Clearances and the hearth are the permanent, code-driven half of the install. The listed clearances to combustibles printed on the appliance label are confirmed, a listed rear or floor heat shield with ceramic standoffs added where the room is tight, and the hearth pad sized 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. The hopper is loaded, the feed-rate and air trims set to the pellet grade, the igniter run through a full light-off, and the combustion and convection blowers and the vacuum/pressure switches confirmed to hand off correctly across the startup, run, and shutdown cycle. The vent is verified to draw clean under positive pressure, an ambient CO check run, and the homeowner walked through hopper loading, burn-pot cleaning, and the ash schedule — because a pellet stove never commissioned to its fuel and never taught its maintenance is the one that locks out on the first cold night.