To start this off, I'm still kind of used to the Englander stove I had from 93-2020. Once a week shut it down, vacuum it out, done. Once a year, pull the exhaust apart and run a chimney brush through it.

Well we moved in 2020 and only had space for either an insert to the tune of several thousand dollars, or the Ashley 5501S, aka, smallest freestanding stove available. We bought the Ashley after Xmas last year, and I treated it like the Englander, and it did fairly well.

This year has been nothing but maintenance headaches starting with the initial startup that threw an E2 code because the exhaust was packed with flyash.

No matter the settings and dampener space, the glass soots up immediately, and after about 12 hours the burn pot is full of half burned pellets. Scoop them out and it throws an E2 code, so have to shut the stove down and fully clean it out.

I start reading through the manual to see if I missed anything, and cleaning suggestions involve disconnecting the exhaust, which is a royal PITA, turning the stove around, taking the sides off, disconnecting the heat plates and cleaning it out. Every month. Well those haven't been cleaned period so guess what I'm doing today.

I guess this is mostly a rant, but does anyone else have this model or any tips to make this tear down and rebuild maintenance go a bit easier?

Maybe someone in western PA has an insert model they'll sell me stupid cheap, like under a grand?

I'm stuck using the pellet stove because the house is otherwise setup with a combination wood and oil boiler, but the wood only lasts 2 hours (seriously if I don't feed the fire every 2 hours there's nothing) and oil is $6 something a gallon and only lasts about a month on a full tank.