Mt Vernon AE

log set,enamel finish,warming shelves thats alot of accessories. does $4800 include install? I'm guessing not because you didnt mention it.
Seems a little high. I paid $4300-4400 installed with no accessories and 26' of 4" selkirk direct temp vertically installed. Included 44x44" hearth
pad and 1/2 ton pellets.

oh yeah it's an awesome stove. set it and forget it. programmable thermo can't be beat. just fill as needed and clean routinely. and it's biomass, depending on your locale corn is an afforable alternative for me.

absolutely, sometimes if the ratio is higher you have to use the corn setting

Not sure how much those accessories are worth, but paid a lot less (like $2k less) than that last summer when I bought mine.
It is a great stove.

and I bought black so that's a few hundred I think.

I paid $3300 last year just before the august price increase. That included pipe (simpson pellet vent pro) and install. I think it broke down to $2800 stove plus $500 install material and labor.

I paid $3415 for stove only.

I think I paid like 4200 last year with pad and pipe, but fyi ditch the log set

Here's what we sell it for: Mt Vernon-$3899, log set-$102, warming shelves-301=$4302+ the great state of NY tax. Keep in mind that each dealer sets there own prices, but we sell at MSRP. I agree on the logs, don't bother with them. They are very fragile and tend to fall apart unless your very careful with them. We get $350+pipe for install, just so you have an idea.

I had a AE back when they first came out and they did have problems but they have solved most of them. I think there is still a issue with igniters failing early. It seems they can't get that fixed. The igniter usually won't make two seasons.
The main drawback I seen with this stove is it has to shut off, cool down, then dump the pot before it can restart and get going again. That down time cools the house off. Maybe that doesn't bother a lot of situations but if you are figuring on getting 70,000 BTU out of it 24-7 you will be very disappointed.
Another bad thing is if you are burning corn you have to be there to dump the ash pan twice a day. In other words you can't be gone for a weekend and expect it to run itself. The ash pan is to small
You are also paying way to much for that stove.
I think you will be a lot more satisfied with the Harman. They are simpler and parts are cheaper when you need them.
The AE is a great concept but you are dependent on the wall controll and the computer board and if something goes wrong with either one you end up calling the dealer and replacing them. Big bucks after warranty is over. It does have a quiet convection fan.
I replaced the AE with a new Bixby I bought on E-Bay for 1500.00 It sold for 4000.00 with a full warranty but you can buy a lot of parts for the difference in price. It delivers a honest 50,000 BTU 24-7. I can dump the ash bucket while the stove is running, and using a thermostat I have ran this stove 28 days straight without shutting down for real cleaning.
The thing is you have to be a little mechanical minder to go into a deal like this. Most people buying a biomass stove learn pretty fast that they are better off learning everything they can in order to keep service calls at a minimum.

mine don't need to cool down to dump the ash. It actually dumps hot embers in the pan.

Bought mine 3 yrs ago and it was about $3600 or something with piping to go straight up a 2 story chimney (that's a lot of pipe!)

No problems with the cycling and auto cleaning function. Would would one prefer to manually clear out clinkers.

In a house with half decent insulation I don't understand how a 15 min cycle every now and again would hurt anything.

Love the stove, burning 4 tons a year for 3 years now ... no problems.

Skip the log set ... or if you want one buy mine for half off.

SnowZilla said:

eric_s said:

I paid $3300 last year just before the august price increase. That included pipe (simpson pellet vent pro) and install. I think it broke down to $2800 stove plus $500 install material and labor.

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Thats fanastic price!! for $3300 for all I can get Englander but I prefer Quadrafire or Harman due to their longer warranty program overall that and some of Englander models only holds 50 pounds while MtVernon holds 81.

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I just paid $3300 last week. Sold my Castile for $1800, $1000 tax credit..... $500 to upgrade.

Snowzilla, The MT. vernon AE can not burn Black oil sunflower seed just the regular untreated sun flower seeds. I too would stay away from the log

Black sunflower seeds are raised for the oil content and trying to burn them or soybeans alone will give you a mess. If you could blend the hulls with something else such as ddgs or maybe soybean stubble or soybean hulls to make into a bio mass pellet that will work.
I have been burning a bio-mass pellet with 2% ash and 8000 btu with good results. www.sunriseagrafuels.com
These are made of renewable agra biomass
Food grade sunflower seeds will burn ok but I think the cost will be out of line.

My installer said to avoid corn in my plain black Mt Vernon - anything other than wood pellets is messier, and corn is asking for maintenance troubles. I have never had another pellet stove besides this MV, but I think I get good value from it. I passed on the log set, especially since I am a sculptor anyway and the area where the log set would sit is perfect for primitive firing small raku pieces. I also passed on the drying racks as a possible trip hazard, but they are probably a great idea in practice.

fluemasterjr said:

Snowzilla, The MT. vernon AE can not burn Black oil sunflower seed just the regular untreated sun flower seeds. I too would stay away from the log

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I tripped across this old thread and thought I'd make a minor correction. According to the manual, "Tested and approved for wood pellets, shelled field corn, wheat and black oil sunflower seeds. Burning of any other type of fuel voids your warranty." So in fact black oil sunflower seeds are the ones you want, if that's your thing.

Wow. Out of curiosity I did a little math on the cost of black oil sunflower seeds as a heating fuel. Figure 8800 BTU / lb... Google seems to find only retail pricing for bird feeding. Just for a swag let's say 50 lb bags @ $31.99. Even assuming one could secure significant bulk discounts, I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper to construct my own pellet bed nuclear reactor.

black sunflower seeds would be cost prohibitive. But with that hollow auger design you could use corn in your litter box for the cats and burn all the contents. You would be saving the cost of a mousetrap, helping the environment and also have cheap entertainment.
I built a box for corn storage 4X8X6' tall in my basement. I notice the cats would jump on top but I thought they were just looking out the window. Nope but I noticed everything got burned up in the ae never plugged once.
Another thing about sunflowers they are light weight and very bulky if you are going to burn them in your insert you will be busy filling the hopper and unloading the ash pan.