A wood fireplace fails loudly, smoke in the room, smells, drama. A pellet stove fails quietly, because a fan is compensating for a dirtying vent right up until it can’t. That’s the core reason pellet systems need scheduled eyes on them: their failure mode hides behind their own engineering.
What actually degrades in a pellet system
What the annual inspection covers
Our pellet stove inspection is built for the appliance, not adapted from a fireplace checklist: vent interior condition and clearances, gasket integrity, burn pot and ash path, blower function, and a live burn test for draft and shutdown behavior. Findings photographed, as with everything we do.
Timing
Late summer or early fall, same logic as chimney inspections before winter: parts and repairs happen in comfortable weather, and you’re not competing with the first-freeze rush. If the stove is your backup for grid-stress cold events, that’s one more reason it has to start on the first try. Book the pellet inspection and cross it off.