At long last my QF Mt Vernon AE is installed and running! First of all I can’t say enough about the dealer – Hearthstone in Stockertown, PA. Their installers were professional and meticulous as they wrestled the 450 lb monster into the precise geometric center of my hearth. Unfortunately for me they also noticed my flue had a cracked lining so they recommended lining it full length which I was happy to do. I had misgivings about having to clean less than a full length flue liner anyway. I actually got a bonus – Hearthstone only had a 4” liner in stock which they sold me for the price of 3”. The owner drove over to deliver it and check up on the installation. These guys were great.
Concern #1: Thermostat wiring and location. Wood Heat said I couldn’t use my existing 18 ga 5 conductor stat wiring which is hidden in the walls “because it’s a millivolt control and needs its own cable” whatever that means. They also said the stat has to be installed adjacent to the stove, which happens to be an outside wall, with the wiring run over the bricks. As expected my existing wiring was perfectly OK and the stat is mounted across the room exactly as I wanted it. It regulates temperature just fine from there, plus all the wiring is hidden in the walls as I wanted.
Concern #2: Power cord. Wood Heat was going to run the power cord in front of the hearth: “we don’t pull wires”. I installed a receptacle right behind the stove. Completely up to code and the wires are all hidden.
Concern #3: Battery backup. QF provides +/- 5 foot cord with alligator clamps on the end; I wanted a more professional installation with the battery and wiring in a remote location. Wood Heat said it wouldn’t work but really couldn’t explain further. The battery backup wiring was as jtp described – looks like what an auto battery charger might have with 14 AWG conductors, although the plug and spring clamps are high quality construction – they look to be from some European supplier. I was surprised the conductors were so small but then again they don’t expect the battery to be 16 feet away! I cut off the clamps, lugged the #14 to my #6 AWG cable going to the battery, and insulated the splice with heat shrink so it can be forgotten for the next hundred years. I don’t have a battery quite yet so I temporarily connected a 5.2 A linear power supply and to my surprise it worked, considering QF said its current requirement on battery backup was 12A. I measured only 1.5 A running with the fan on “normal” and the auger seemed to draw only another 100 mA or so. I have yet to investigate its long term operation on battery so I don’t know when it will ever draw 12A, but if it ever does my oversize conductors will still supply more than the minimum voltage to the stove.
Its operation is surprisingly quiet, even more so than I had expected. I can’t hear it running unless I’m in the room. Its operation is well thought-out. The thermostat has features to calibrate the displayed temperature if it doesn’t match some other thermometer you like to use. The setback times can be set to a resolution of one minute. The temperature deadband is adjustable in 0.5 deg F increments. The slow fade of the backlight is a really nice touch. A lot of thought went into designing the controls.
The stove itself appears to be very robust. The sheet metal in back looks to be about 14 ga so it’s pretty thick. The finish is very attractive and the internal components seem to be well-engineered. After seeing just how computerized the thing is, the first thing I did was plug it into a surge suppressor. The controls are likely as sensitive as anything digital these days. Hopefully with the surge suppressor it will cope with all the power anomalies I have here.
Oh and the heat it throws! I will not have a problem heating my whole house with it.
Some $4500 spent but at least I have something good to show for it. And if pellets continue to be cheaper than oil in $ per BTU, it’ll pay for itself… eventually…
If you’re considering a pellet or wood stove around Eastern PA I can recommend Hearthstone.
) If that price included a full chimney liner and an outside air kit then I’d say it was a deal. How were they planning to block off around the vent pipe? Maybe this price included fabricating a block off plate and insulating around it?
