It seems like a nice and well built pellet stove, but we haven't had it long enough to make a full review, but with winter just around the corner I am sure we will put it through its paces, and if anything changes about our opinion about it, I will write an updated review.

The stove arrived in good shape and on the promised day. We did notice, that the two screws at the lower corners, which should have secured it to the wood pallet, were just laying there. Since the stove was without damage we didn't give that a second thought, but later found out why they were not attached.
Attempting to install the 3" insulated vent pipe it became apparent why those two screws weren't installed. The back panel didn't fit around the vent pipe and the inlet pipe because the holes stamped in it didn't line up. Not sure if this is a problem with the two pipes being too far apart (quality control?), or the stamping of the back plate being off. The back plate was kind of forced or wedged into position, and the 3 screws used had to be forced in order to make them fit, and there was no way the 3" insulated vent pipe would fit unless I did some mods to the back plate.
I used a grinding wheel on my drill and got enough material removed from the inlet side to make everything fit and all the screw holes lined up after that.
Someone at the factory should have noticed that (and they did since the screws were just laying there in the box) and fixed it right then and there.

First time we started this stove up, we noticed that even on the low blower settings, that the partially unburned pellets got blown up and down into the ash bin. This is also called the popcorn effect...
We called Castle customer service and was told to close the inlet flue a bit more (it was in half way closed position from the factory).
The rep told us, that if we had any other problems related to this, that this was all he could think of, but gave us the ext. to there technical support team, and that we should enter that ext. when prompted, and they could help us if needed.

Closing the flue as much as possible helped, and the stove burned nice after that.
With my little knowledge about stoves and vent pipes (chimneys), I don't understand why we had to decrease the inlet flue opening. We are using about 5' of 3" pipe and a 3" to 6" adapter to about 15' of 6" stove pipe. Using the larger diameter pipe should in theory decrease the venting, and thus requiring more air going through the stove in order to get a good draft.

Besides what we have described above, this is what we have learned about the stove in that little time we have owned and used it:
1. Beautiful design and a size that fits well into smaller areas.
2. Some strange design choices such as:
A: Vent pipe located off center, near the edge.
B: Ash pan that has to be lifted out after two "ash guides" has been lifted up and secured to the sides on a screw. I can only guess that this was done because they wanted a really tight air box, and an ash drawer would created an air leak.
3. After closing the inlet flue we occasionally get a whistling sound from the stove, especially during start up.
4. This is a very good stove for the money!

As an added bonus the extra heavy duty cardboard box and pallet was converted into a bed (house) with lid for our outside cat. That should keep kitty toasty all through winter :)

The 4 star rating was given, not because this isn't an excellent pellet stove, but because of a few smaller things that in my opinion adds up to one less star.

We purchases this stove in October of 2016 and have been running it in our home in the northeast since.  We did a lot of research on these and wanted a pellet stove for our downstairs rec room/office area. It can get quite cold and we previously have a propane-fired Empire column heater. This pellet stove is outstanding. We did the install ourselves and it was pretty simple, as long as you follow the directions and your local code needs. Our house is about 1600 sq. ft. and this sits on one floor. It has no issue heating the entire floor, and even creeping upstairs as well.

PROS:
- Feel it's extremely efficient compared to other types of heat. We picked up a ton of Stove Chow pellets from a local orange-colored home improvement warehouse.  We've gone through half (about 1000 lbs) as of Jan 6 using it most days. It has to be the cheapest heat available besides cordwood.
- The heat is extremely warming - it is much different/better than the propane heat. It spreads out and warms everything floor to ceiling, so even the upstairs floor no longer feels cold to your feet. It's an even, comforting heat.
- Really simple operation - Feed it, clean it, run it. It's been very reliable and easy to maintain. We clean the burn pot and glass every day, and do a full cleanout once a week.

CONS:
- Not much.  The only thing I can say negative about it is that there's no auto-off. When it reaches the temp you set, it just drops down the rate of feed and the fan goes to the lowest setting. Sometimes it can get too warm, and we just shut if off for a few hours. However, we did our research and we know about this going in, so it's no surprise. It's really very easy to deal with.

One of the things we did was plug it into a small UPS to protect it from outages/spikes. We have a whole house generator, so we only needed it to survive about 15 seconds of powered outage until the genny cut over.

Overall, I can't say enough about this stove. We looked at quite a few - this is far less expensive than many out there and we really didn't want to invest $2500-$3000 in a stove (even that's not expensive). For anyone looking for an inexpensive small stove, this is amazing. I'm considering getting another for the upstairs. It's the best heat possible.

Purchased this stove from home depot for 999.
It is nicely designed and looks great in my house. I paid for the installation, but could've easily done it myself ( I had to extend outside pipes later on anyway to recommended 3Ft).
I love everything about the stove - easy to understand instructions, simple/user friendly menu, automatic igniter, remote control, it heated up 900sf house to a point where we had to open 3 windows, it was so hot.

Two drawbacks:
A) if you preset temperature to say 80F, it will run on highest fan setting (5) until thermostat matches preset temperature. Then the fan will switch to the lowest speed (1), but it will still keep blowing heat into the house, thermostat does not shut down the stove. When we got into the house, thermostat reached 97F, even though preset temperature was 80F.
B) Stove was powered up twice during the month of September in Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania. There were no pipe leaks, all pipe joints were treated with high temperature silicone, but there was a distinct smell of burnt plastic/paint. I called Castle stove support, and I was told that it's paint that burns inside, and the smell should be gone in 1 day of full use.

Well, I'll keep you all updated.

Update (10/03/15):
Allright, burned remaining of the 40lb bag of pellets bought from Lowes, with minimal odor. Went and bought Barefoot premium pellets from a small business specializing in stoves, and odor disappeared!!!

I've also played around with an air gate, but couldn't obtain a proper position to have a nice steady fire, it always looks lazy-orange to me. and Even on the lowest blower motor flame is huge, makes glass hazy in half a day.

Which setting you guys run your stove on (both, exhaust motor and blower motor)?

Will appreciate any comments.

This is an updated review. I purchased this stove via Amazon, and I have owned it for about 1.5 years. Overall, it's a good stove, but there are definitely some drawbacks you should be fully aware of before purchasing.

PROS:

"¢ Reliable. The stove has given me very little trouble, so far, and it appears to be very well built. Occasionally, the pellets do not auto-ignite quickly enough, causing the stove to fill with smoke and then "burst" a bit when the pellets do ignite, letting some smoke out into the room.

"¢ Easy to clean. I appreciate that there is no faux stone backing to remove or tight places to vacuum. Maintenance is quick, easy, and straightforward.

"¢ Attractive. I like the way it looks, especially when the glass is clean and a nice fire is glowing inside.

"¢ Built in thermostat, so you don't need a separate thermostat on the wall with a wire running to the unit.

CONS:

"¢ Small hopper. I realize it's a 40-lb hopper, but it's so tight, that you have to wait until it is very close to empty before filling it with another whole bag (assuming you don't want left-overs in the bag).

"¢ Pellets stop feeding into auger too soon. Because of the way the hopper is shaped, pellets stop feeding into the hopper when there is still several pounds of pellets in the hopper. And since the hopper just barely fits 40 lbs of pellets, you have to refill it before you can empty in an entire bag.

"¢ Loud fans. The unit is loud during startup and especially shutdown. When turning it off, the fan blows at maximum speed, presumably to help the unit cool down. This can take 15-20 minutes. At it's lowest fan setting it runs fairly quietly, higher fan settings run loud.

"¢ Backlight always on when running. When the stove is on and running, the very bright blue backlight is always on. It should shut off after a minute or so and turn back on if the user presses a button.

"¢ NO TEMPERATURE BASED ON/OFF CONTROL. This is my real issue with this heater...

CONCLUSION

The description of this unit says there is a thermostat operation control method...and technically this is true, but it doesn't work the way you probably think it would. If you run the unit in thermostat mode, the unit automatically turns on, whether the room is warmer than the temperature you've set or not. As the heater warms the space and approaches the temperature you've set, the fan settings dial down, but the unit never turns itself off.

Example A) Your room is at 70 degrees and you set your thermostat to 65 degrees. The stove will immediately go into ignite mode and start heating the room on the lowest fan setting and it doesn't turn off until you manually turn it off. In our house, even on the low setting, this heater will cause the temperature to go up into the 90s.

Example B) Your room is at 60 degrees and you set your thermostat to 65 degrees. The same thing happens as above, except initially the fans will be set at a higher speed, in order to reach your desired temperature faster. But then, it's the same deal, it kicks over to low and keeps on running until you manually turn it off.

Even $20 electric room heaters have a temperature controlled on/off feature. Discovering this was a HUGE LET DOWN. Although it is a good stove, I would never have purchased it had I realized that a stove with advanced LED controls, a built-in thermostat, and programmable scheduling would lack the simple feature of turning itself on and off based on a user-defined temperature. Because it doesn't have this feature, we are constantly having to fiddle with it...too hot, too cold, turn it on, turn it off. As the main source of heat for our home a temperature-based on/off feature is sorely missed. In a garage or workshop, it probably wouldn't be a big deal.

Additionally, you can manually turn the unit on and off. You can manually turn it on and set a timer for when you want it to turn off in 1-hr increments (15- or even 30-minute increments would be a lot nicer). There is also a weekly schedule feature that allows you to program up to four predetermined on/off times per day. This works OK, but the weather fluctuates a lot around here, so we never seem to be able to get it right. Mostly, we just use the manual on/off and sometimes the timer shut-off in the evening before bed.

BOTTOM LINE

If you want a heater that turns on and off by itself based on a temperature that you can set...do not buy this heater. If that feature is not important to you, this is a great stove at a great price. It's not the quietest, nor the most convenient, but it keeps our house very warm, it's reliable, and the overall value is very good.

I love this pellet stove! I have a 1720 sq ft brick ranch with no insulation in the walls. I was running an old oil furnace whose radiators only heated the walls. I had all the oil heat furnace and radiators in a bold move to improve the heating system. Sight unseen I bought this stove, had my chimney professionally lined and the stove installed. Until yesterday, I have been running the stove on the low fan setting because the heat was enough to drive you out of the house! Temperatures sank below zero and I set the blower up a notch and remain toast warm. It is so easy to run and maintain! Pleasing appearance and runs just as efficiently on the lower price pellets! I am extremely pleased. It has many programming features and a remote which I haven't even begun to use. I am very pleased with my purchase.