Considering a 4 year old Quad Mt Vernon AE Demo unit

How much is it?

Make sure it has had all the updates as far as control switch and the board There should be numbers on them to determine if they are the latest versions.
Then I would open the door and remove the cast iron heat exchanger looking it over for cracks as a lot of then cracked and had to be replaced. Next remove the ash pan and look way in the back to see if a tin plate was installed to reduce air movement or minimize noise. I would try to get a new style igniter as they last longer then the older type.

As long as the control board is a SRV7000-456C or higher and the wall control is a 451 or higher, and make sure it has the new style firepot too. you can do the mods to the firepot yourself too if need be. kap

I also think there are some other things to consider. I have had this stove for 6 yrs now and the biggest issue I have with it is the auto clean. Its good and bad. It's nice in that you do not have to worry about cleaning out the fire pot manually. But it also means the stove shuts down while it dumps the ashes and builds a new fire. The problem I have had is the lose of heat that occurs in the house while the fire is out. On cold nights the stove has a hard time making it back up. For example if the house is at say 70 when it auto cleans and drops to 68 during the process it is hard for the stove on cold nights to make that 2 degrees back up before it auto cleans again. Some of this has to do with how well insulated my house is but it also has to do with the fact the stove shuts down to auto clean. I can fix this some by turning up the flame height which controls the feed rate but still on cold nights it is a problem. I for one would not buy a stove with auto clean again unless I have a very efficient home. With all that the stove when its not auto cleaning does through out a lot of heat and is very quite.
With the new ignitor in them there are very few problems now. Hope this helps. As far as price to me if its as advertised seems like a good deal.

LMPS said:

I also think there are some other things to consider. I have had this stove for 6 yrs now and the biggest issue I have with it is the auto clean. Its good and bad. It's nice in that you do not have to worry about cleaning out the fire pot manually. But it also means the stove shuts down while it dumps the ashes and builds a new fire. The problem I have had is the lose of heat that occurs in the house while the fire is out. On cold nights the stove has a hard time making it back up. For example if the house is at say 70 when it auto cleans and drops to 68 during the process it is hard for the stove on cold nights to make that 2 degrees back up before it auto cleans again. Some of this has to do with how well insulated my house is but it also has to do with the fact the stove shuts down to auto clean. I can fix this some by turning up the flame height which controls the feed rate but still on cold nights it is a problem. I for one would not buy a stove with auto clean again unless I have a very efficient home. With all that the stove when its not auto cleaning does through out a lot of heat and is very quite.
With the new ignitor in them there are very few problems now. Hope this helps. As far as price to me if its as advertised seems like a good deal.

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Maybe someone should change the auto clean cycle to that of the Bixby. It ramps up the fire for several minutes before a dump cycle.

I have said it a hundred times. I would like to take a half a dozen different stoves, mix em up, and spit out one hell of a good stove!

I own exactly that stove (going into season 5 with it), and would pay $1800 for it in a heartbeat. Rona's guidance is spot on re: what to look for. My only gripe is the proprietary thermostat, but otherwise it's an excellent stove. Very quiet.

bags said:

Asking price = $1,800 with pipe etc; I will verify the exact year this evening when the guy gets off of work he is supposed to shoot more pics and info. Says it works fine and zero issues. Not sure I would go the whole $1,800 though. I know they are expensive stoves but I don't want to get burned buying the wrong deal either. If it is 100% and no issues it is worth what? What is a fair price? I have combed Craigslist and everywhere looking for a good used stove and finding nothing but over priced boat anchors. I am also looking at some affordable new models.

rona,
tjnamtiw told me to contact you and ask about this stove and said you know it well. I will PM you later when I gather everything I can get on it and post stuff here too so others can learn. What year did they get the issues worked out? I see the earlier models had some problems. Not sure if this is one of those earlier ones yet. It might be a model that has the bugs worked out. Thanks!

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Kappel is a tech for these stoves and he is the expert on that model. I used to have one and they aren't bad but a lot depends on your location, size of house etc. If you have a larger home and see -20 F with northwest winds shutting down to dump was a downfall. Having said that I did like the cast iron heat exchanger idea. My main problem was when it got that cold the stove lost ground when it dumped the pot and just couldn't regain the heat. A smaller area to heat or a milder winter might have made a difference.
As Kap mentioned if we could combine features found in different stoves we could make a perfect stove for each one of us. I wanted a stove that had a large hopper and large ash drawer so I could leave it run for a weekend and not have to have somebody babysit it morning and night. When burning corn I had to empty the ash bucket every 24 hours. This wouldn't bother many people but it is important to me.
We all like a attractive stove and to me the AE is very attractive and if I was content with burning wood pellets I might still own it but I needed something that will burn corn.
The end of my story with the AE is the company replaced and updated everything from the wall control to the board and the heat exchanger and a igniter while I had it under warranty. I then sold it to a fellow who just burned pellets. He had a large home and was very happy with it. His only problem in 3 years was replacing a igniter so he had good success with it.
In response to Bio Burners comment about it ramping up before dumping it does do that but also slows down cooling the pot before the dump. The theory about the cast iron heat exchanger is that it holds heat which is released while it is dumping and restarting. This was supposed to compensate during the no burn period.
As far as the price goes if all the electrical parts are updated, the cast heat exchanger is not cracked, Check about pot being updated I would say 1500 but I would insist on seeing it run before I paid for it. Downside is you are buying something with no warranty and you will be at the mercy of the dealer if you need any components. The electrical board and wall control are very expensive and are not something you can fix. A dealer can upgrade the board to include different fuel settings but only a limited amount. One of the favorite features that I liked was it had a cable that you could hook to a 12 volt battery and use it for power. The stove would switch automatically if the power went out.

Mine is an 06 model and runs great with all the updates. But that is the key to a good running stove. If you need to update the control board and wall control, you can add about a grand to price. kap

Yes, you can get parts from any dealer in the country.

bags said:

Hey, I really hope this works out either upgraded or not. Not afraid of fixer uppers but don't like expensive nightmares either. Great looking model. I am not too concerned about the auto clean shut down because I do have the P68 and this AE will be a supplemental stove doing another area assisting the main area I am already doing.

I just need to know what to look for and be able to make a informed decisions. You all are invaluable with the help. The stove looks like new in the pics but that doesn't mean it has the upgrades. If I do not hear back in a couple of hours I'll call again. I don't want to have new stove prices tied up into an older used stove with no warranty etc;

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I expect a new AE would list for 4300.00 so If you ended up with 2000 in it and have all new major components you would have virtually a new stove at half price. The up dating board and control may or may not be needed. I think Kap gave you the numbers you need to look for. I haven't seen many complaints about either the combustion fan or the convection fan going bad so I wouldn't worry about them. The igniter is a minor issue maybe 45.00. The update with the burn pot can be done yourself as it is a minor job. Truthfully if it was a working demo at a dealer I would think that dealer would have done the updates as he would have wanted it to work as good as possible and the new parts didn't cost him anything.
I have a friend who got a AE the same time as I did and he did get the updates when they were available. After the updates the only thing he needed to replace was a igniter. Like he told me it took me 4 years to figure out that if I put it on auto and set the temp then leave it alone it works great.

Wasn't 2006 the first year of the AE, aka its most problematic year? A majority of AE issues on this board were from the earlier years.

Yes it was, but they also had updates into 2008