looking to purchase/install pellet insert

chillyjillinmaine said:

I have been lurking and getting lots of useful information on insert and have also gotten several quotes for installation.

I have narrowed in down to two stoves (no surprise) the Quadrafire Mt Vernon and the Enviro M55.

I think I have finally decided and I am about to pull the trigger on the Mt Vernon and just want to make sure I am not making a bad choice.

I know I just opened a can of worms but I just want to make sure I have considered everything.

My house is about 1900 sq - 2 stories and I am looking to reduce my oil consumption. Since I will be the only one responsible I want a stove that will be easy to manage, clean, maintain etc on a day to day basis.

Is the Mt Vernon the way to go?

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The Mt Vernon is a great stove but why not consider the Harman Accentra Insert?

As an insert owner, I often wish I had a free-standing unit.

items to consider-
-loss of fireplace use in power outage
-harder to clean
-harder to get behind
-longer pipe runs
-generally smaller hoppers
-generally smaller ash pan
-generally more expensive after factoring in the surround (but may equal out vs a hearth pad)

Consider how they self clean. The Mt vernon shuts it self off every few hours( check with dealer how often it does this). The enviro has an agitator rod that pushes ash out. Enviro doesnt shut off to do this. Im partial because I have the M55 Cast, but They are both good stoves. Harmon is also good. Price was a factor for me. M55 was $1800 less than the quad and harmonXXV. I have no complaints with my M55.

HI, I've been reading this board for a while and decided I should finally contribute something.

I have a Mt Vernon and considered the M55. I liked the M55 but it did not fit in my fireplace. You should measure yours and compare to the install manual from the two stoves to see if it's an issue for you.

I've been happy with the Mt Vernon so far. Works well and no issues to date.

The Mt Vernon does shut down every few hours to run its autoclean. This isn't really an issue for me. If you don't have good insulation, then I guess it could get cold while it cleans.

Try to see the stoves while they are operating if you can. The mt vernon is one of the quieter ones which is why I picked it.

Good luck!

The Mt Vernon has the ability to work on a car or marine batter in the event of a power outage. One of the reasons I like this one over the other.

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You can always buy a marine battery and a pure sine invertor and run any stove.... you'll also need a charge controller either way and a way to do the charging (be it a wall outlet or a solar panel). It's not like you just plug it in and its good to go, it requires 'battery maintenance' to keep the battery trickle charged. I wouldn't consider that a very high selling point by it self. I bought a ups for 180 bucks and its good for an hour.... enough time to shut the stove down without smoke, or get the generator running and move the plug without the stove missing a beat.

briansol said:

You can always buy a marine battery and a pure sine invertor and run any stove.... you'll also need a charge controller either way and a way to do the charging (be it a wall outlet or a solar panel). It's not like you just plug it in and its good to go, it requires 'battery maintenance' to keep the battery trickle charged. I wouldn't consider that a very high selling point by it self. I bought a ups for 180 bucks and its good for an hour.... enough time to shut the stove down without smoke, or get the generator running and move the plug without the stove missing a beat.

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Brian, the Mt Vernon components run on 12V DC... no inverter is needed. I think only the ignitor is 120V AC

I had an M55 insert installed a few weeks ago. This is my first experience with a pellet stove and so far I'm very pleased with the choice. It hasn't been too cold yet in Connecticut but the stove has been operating just fine burning a mix of big box brands of pellets. I pick up a few bags of whatever I can find and I've found that with the factory settings or with slight adjustments of the combustion air trim I can get a good flame out of whatever I feed it. Last weekend I had 2.4 tons of La Crete delivered and my results with this pellet echo what I have read here, lot's of heat and clean burning. They will be my middle of winter pellet for sure.

I definitely recommend connecting a programmable thermostat to the unit. After only a few days I have the program dialed in and the stove keeps the house evenly heated, dropping to the low setting when the thermostat is not calling for heat and off entirely after a period of time. I have the stove set to come up shortly before we all get up in the morning and the same before returning home from work / school. I'm sure this will result in an efficient consumption of pellets throughout the season. Lastly, The blower noise from the unit isn't too much of an issue. As others have said, we just need to turn the TV up a notch or two. I do wish the blower would stop sooner than it does when the stove is cycling off. Man, it seems like it goes for ever after the flame is out and the air is lukewarm.

This is my first stove and I'm still learning as I go. Good luck with whatever choice you make.

Can't help re M55 but I have had an AE free standing unit for 4 years now, and they operate essentially the same as the insert. Overall, very happy. The early AE's were plagued with many problems but units from about 2009 on seem fine overall. Heat output is great and they burn pellets very efficiently if installed correctly.

Autoclean occurs every 2-3 hours and depends on fuel you are burning (settings on thermostat). Cannot be changed and IMO is more often than necessary but generally not a big deal. Does keep the firepot very clean.

The ability to run off of battery is handy in power outages but requires an optional cable and of course the battery. This is possible though b/c the motors and other electric components in stove are DC which also makes it easier to have efficient variable speed motors. When ignitor is off (which is most of the time) my AE consumes only about 27 watts - a fraction of what many other stoves consume. It will run for well over 24 hours and up to 48 on the battery alone (depending on the battery), which is a big advantage in a power outage.

Generally easy enough to clean. I vacuum out ash pan and inside door (fire box) each week or perhaps slightly more in dead of winter in eastern PA. Plan on a little more if in colder area (ME as I recall, so perhaps 2x that). Takes 2 minutes. I clean heat exchanger and combustion exhaust holes once/month and that's 20 minutes. Annual cleaning of pipe and other stove internals by dealer but may do myself next year. Personally find that super premium hardwood pellets are worth it but we all burn what we can get. Premium quality were acceptable - just made more ash. Softwood also good but even more ash that was lighter (bad) and stickier. No more softies for me because of that.

The AE wall control (thermostat) contains much of the brains of this unit and without it you have just a floor weight (won't function). I went through 3 in three years but old dealer was swapping out with old versions so same problem over and over. Finally bought a new version and installed myself (VERY easy) and no problems since. A reputable dealer installing a new stove and stat should mean no problem. Just keep in mind that you MUST use the Quad stat for the AE and cannot swap out with a regular stat because it's the computer that contains some of the stove's brains. I'm not thrilled with that but it's because I want to control the AE with a different stat (have an automated house, so a hobby). Assuming you don't care, not an issue for you.

Only other issue is the ignitor. Known to need replacing every 2-3 years and is a pain to do even on freestanding unit. Replacement frequency will be an issue with any stove that cycles on and off like the AE. This is caused by the autoclean cycle and if the M55 avoids that I would think about that. Replacement difficulty may be worse with insert, but doable. I do my own, with colorful mutterings the whole time. Just read that Quad did make changes to ignitor wiring last year to add fuses so possibly easier now.

Would I buy another? Possibly, but I would shop knowing what I know now. Beautiful stove and functions very, very well. My issues wouldn't matter to most homeowners as they wouldn't care about things like proprietary thermostat logic or ease of changing out an ignitor because they would call dealer to do it. If you want a "set it and forget it" stove for which you just do the cleaning and filling, it's a great choice. But it is more complex than most other stoves and that's something to consider if you plan to do most service yourself.

Good luck on your purchase. We are very happy with burning pellets, and the AE is a good choice even with issues noted here, which may be irrelevant for you.

This is my first experience with pellet stoves so i can only speak for what i have. The enviro m55ci really does feel like you got what you paid for.It looks great and everything seems to be high quality.I have only had it running a couple days so im still trying to figure things out. I will tell you im using a pretty cheap pellet (stove chow home depot) and this thing pumped out some great heat. I dont think anyone could go wrong with the m55ci good luck

Simple... Buy the M55i

Order at least 2 more tons!

Yes to both. Good price for the soft's (at least around here). Those are 270+ in this neck of the woods w/o delivery. And yes, you'll burn at least 3 tons over the course of the winter if you are using it as a primary heat source.

chillyjillinmaine said:

i'm not sure I have space for 3 tons but I think I can squeeze in a 2 nd one.

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There is always room for another ton of pellets. Kids don't need a room, wife can sleep on the couch, car does not have to be in the garage. Always more room.

Order more. Trust us.

mralias said:

There is always room for another ton of pellets. Kids don't need a room, wife can sleep on the couch, car does not have to be in the garage. Always more room.

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Err.... hubby can sleep on the couch or in the dog house.

chillyjillinmaine said:

So I finally decided on the Mt Vernon and it was really the dealer that sold me. It has been ordered and should be installed in 3-4 weeks. I also ordered a ton of MWP 100% Softwood for $254.50 that includes delivery. Now I wait......

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Good choice ! We love our Mt Vernon and it heats the whole house. 75 degrees in the living room right now and 28 degrees outside.