Hi
Well the saga continues. The tech came out on Sunday as was there all day! He took everything apart. The nite he left it worked ok… then the next night and every night since it has either run all night and gotten to 62 or so..or, like last night it ran till 4 or so and shut off. I then had to manually reset the thermostat and it was 59 in the house when I got up. I have decided to get something else! The place I got it said they’ll get me a 2007 Mahogony Mt Vernon AE for $2950. Or I can get the floor model black one for $2550. I called a couple other places and the price seems good...even though they aren’t going to give me much for my trouble. I am concerned about the AE though because I have heard (and read) they there have been a lot of troubles with the 07 models? One store has some 06 Mt Vernons (not AE)...for 2500. I am wondering if I should try the Mt Vernon and not the AE? Also it seems that the Mt Vernon and Castile don’t have as high of a flame on high setting as, say the Harman? Is that normal?
Thanks!
also
I spoke to the dealer....after all of this they would not even comp me any free pellets....is that normal? They say that I need to go to the manufacturer for any Comps of any kind....although they are willing to offer me 15% off of a new AE. (Prices above). Also they will not come and get the castile...I am responsible for taking it back and picking up the new AE. Does this sound pretty standard, or is this dealer unreasonable after all of the trouble I have had?
Thanks!
The AEs they are selling do have the new wall control and boards......
If you are an unhappy customer, and they have good customer service, they should come get the stove and bring the new one in my opinion (and more importantly maintain a customer!). BTW, I love my Castile, it heats my entire house just fine, third year now and I’ve put over 15 tons of corn and pellet (and a few other things) thru it with very little problems. Sorry to hear of your issues, get what works for you because if you don’t have confidence in your stove, you will not be happy.
If you are an unhappy customer,
and they have good customer service, they should come get the stove and bring
the new one in my opinion (and more importantly maintain a customer!).
I agree 100% with that! I’d calmly make my expectations
clear to them if they wanted to keep me as a customer.
Hi
Well I finally have heat! I got the Mt Vernon AE. I am happy with the new thermostat , the bigger hopper and the huge flame....not to mention the heat! it is so much warmer than with the Castile. I do wish I could have gotten mahogany though....I so loved that color but it was just too expensive. I got the revisions for the board and am waiting for the new revision for the wall unit. I have heard that as long as you get the new revisions it is a great unit. Thanks for all of your input on the Castile!
Glad to see people are putting their faith back into the Mt Vernon AE. It really is a great stove when its running good. We have had very good luck in our area with no major problems. All satisfied AE customers as far as I know. That is really odd about the Castile not working, it is a very simple stove. Its possible it was just undersized for the space and you were expecting too much out of it? I don’t see how there could be so much wrong with such a simple unit.
I think there was something wrong with the unit the way it was described. I get plenty of heat out of mine and have absolutely no regrets with it. And yep....very simple stove I find. I would buy another if I needed it.
you know I think it was a little of both. I think it was too small for the space (even though the dining living area is only 900 sf and it didn’t even heat that...) but I think there was something wrong with the stove. I NEVER saw flame above 3 or 4 inches (the AE is all the way to the top!) and I could stand in front of it on high and never even get hot. And now that I can compare it to the AE and how a pellet stove should work...it is like night and day, even though I realize that the AE is a bigger and more powerful unit. Anyway I am just happy it works!!!!!
Just for an FYI, the AE should have a much larger flame than any of the other Quad units, it is designed that way. But on the other hand with the Castile ripping there should be a great deal of heat coming out of the front from the blower. Sounds like something was wrong with it, its unfortunate they were not able to fix it. Hopefully they don’t try to sell it to someone else without fixing the problem.
Yes I agree it is unfortunate because I loved the Castile. But the tech took the entire thing apart and said it was working the way it was supposed to, and it was no warmer than 57 in here in the mornings....and no real heat from the blower. Anyway I hope they get it working too! Maybe with it there on the showroom floor thay will be able to experience what I did and will see how little heat it puts out and then they can figure out how to fix it. As many of you have said, it is a simple unit, so there must be a way to make it work properly.
The Castile we have sometimes blasts us out if we turn it above low. My downstairs is about 800 sq. ft. and is not an open floor plan except for the cut out that is between the kitchen and living room...and I always keep the thermo at 80-82 and it keeps a nice 75-80 in kitchen and living room....and maybe 70 in the bedroom and den downstairs. If I opened up my upstairs for it I know it would heat up there pretty good as well. My flame as per the manufacturers instructions says to not let it get over 4” above burnpot....I can do that very easily in fact sometimes I have pushed it a little and gone above that lol. Never have had a problem getting a good size flame lol. But glad you got things solved. Good luck!
Hi
I guess the service guy called quadra fire and they gave him a few more things to look at. He is coming over on Sunday (yeah..on a Sunday!) he said that there was some gasket missing so maybe that is it.
Ok, I don’t know a thing about pellet stoves. But I do know a LITTLE bit about human psychology (being a sociopath gives me a leg up) If the service tech Dude is coming over to your house for the whole day - on a Sunday at that - than either you are giving him free beer, or you are an eyeful.
In either case, if you ever decide on a wood-fired hydronic, give me a call if you have any problems
