I may be making a mistake...

Both are great units. I have both in the store and a Mt Vernon in my house. Awesome unit.

Eric

I have an old Whitfield Advantage, that hums, groans and moans. I find it relaxing to listen to.

I suppose that what is" too noisy" is pretty subjective.

Dave

One benefit of having mine in the basement is I don't hear it upstairs. A bit harder to heat with, But no crankin the telly to drowned it out.

The Mt V is quiter than the XXV and you should be happy with it. It will still make some tinkling noises as it warms. But the fan noise is much less, Definetly one of the quiter units on the market.

oldmountvernon said:

that about sums it up i find myself second guessing myself daily reading posts here. Wanting more heat output but when you here people saying its toasty at 66 and 68 i facepalm

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I get mad if it less than 72 in the house during winter. I will not be cold in my house.

Eric

About 12 degrees here last night/early this morning. If it wasn't for the lakes, it would of been zero if not slightly below here lower mid Michigan. However, the ole St. Croix Auburn was purring along like a mesmerized kitty keeping the temp a very comfortable 76° inside my humble abode. I just HATE being cold.

MY 2005 25 PDVC does the moaning and groaning when....
It's cold
when the upper auger runs

but like Jtakeman I have mine in the basement so I hardly hear it. Down side is it doesn't really get the upstairs warm warm. Warm enough for me but not for the GF. If she want's to come to my house she can deal.

[Warm enough for me but not for the GF. If she want's to come to my house she can deal.

you are just trying to get her to snuggle up!

My XXV does not make all that much racket. Super quiet, nahhh, but every time I hear the pellets tinkle or the auger motor birth a monster pellet I often think of what I will spend all the extra money on.

bbfarm said:

[Warm enough for me but not for the GF. If she want's to come to my house she can deal.

you are just trying to get her to snuggle up!

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Actaully no though that is a perk. I did the whole cater to woman thing, not for me.

Ive owned several pellets stoves. They all make noise. Imagine if you moved your furnace into your living room. There are all kinds of moving parts and the heat cool cycle of the steel/iron....youre never going to find a quiet one. Some are more quiet then others. I have ringing in the ears, so I welcome the constant noise.

They call them Outside Air Kits or OAKs. I didn't know that either, until I found this forum.

It would depend on how air tight your house is. Newer constriction is built tight because of the newer building codes. IF your house is older, there are most likely enough air leaks that an outside air kit would be unnecessary.

Dave

Its worth the effort in most northern cold climates as are homes are built abit tighter and the stove sucking up to 100 cu/ft+- per minute can cause some negative vacuum issues. Southern climates maybe not. Install of an OAK gets alot of conversation on this forum.

DneprDave said:

They call them Outside Air Kits or OAKs. I didn't know that either, until I found this forum.

It would depend on how air tight your house is. Newer constriction is built tight because of the newer building codes. IF your house is older, there are most likely enough air leaks that an outside air kit would be unnecessary.

Dave

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Actually, if you have "air leaks", that may be when you want/need an OAK the most. Without an OAK, the stove will create more drafts by sucking air into your home.

Lots of positives, no negatives to an OAK, AFAIK.

Going on my fifth year with my MT Vernon AE and since having the new ignitor installed I have no had any major issues. The only draw back I have is when its really cold out it (low teens/single digits) and it auto cleans the temperature drops in the house by a couple of degrees. Then the stove has a hard time getting the 2 degrees back during the next cycle, so after several times of this happening instead of it being 70 in the house its 64. This may have more to do with my house and how well it holds the heat but not sure.

oldmountvernon said:

you never owned a mt vernon AE

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You Sir, are correct!

Burt said:

We've lived with a Harmon XXV for the last three years. Let me say it's a great looking stove and has never failed to work. However, when it's in operation we have an elephant in the room...it creaks, grinds, tinkles, hums and I suspect flatulence is probably next on the menu. (yes, it's been properly cleaned many times) Anyway...my dealer is swapping it out (for additional cost) with a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon later this month. I may just be trading one set of issue for another but we can't coexist in the same room with this XXV any longer.

Time will tell...

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I can't believe how much you sound like me! lol I just purchased a XXV over the Mt. Vernon. I went to the store to purchase a Mt. Vernon but when I saw the XXV on the floor in action I thought the design of pushing the ashes into the ashpan was a great idea, instead of the auto empty the Mt. Vernon has. I worked in experimental engineering & have seen that simpler engineering was usually better. I payed more for the XXV & have liked it so far but second guess myself if I should have bought the Mt. Vernon. I also saw that igniter replacement for the Mt. Vernon was a regular chore according to many people on the web & the dealer because of the auto clean feature. More duty cycles of heating up the igniter so it wears out quicker. I think that the pellets are the cause of most noises as the differences in dimensions sometimes add the creaks & groans a stove makes. I have a Cumberland 3700 that I moved to the basement & Intalled the XXV upstairs in the living area & the Cumberland is a bit louder in noises than the XXV. Hope that helps!

We've the XXV on the back porch about 6 feet from where we sit and read etc. Noise is no problem at all as far as we are concerned. We used to worry when the auger cracked a pellet but now we don't even notice it anymore. All in all it's a great stove and we love it.

I had an XXV in my livingroom for six years. Never noticed the noise and always enjoyed the stove. Last year, the XXV was relocated to my finished basement and we installed a woodstove upstairs. As soon as we put in the wood stove we were like, "Holy Ship....this thing is quiet!"....never noticed the noise until it was gone. It is actually so quiet in my house now that my wife will often throw pots and pans at me just to fill the noise void

Before my XXV we had a Bixby in the livingroom! You want to talk about Noise! The XXV after that is like Heaven and the way it runs and keeps our Log Home warm what ever it does is music to my ears !