Okanagan, Mt Vernon AE and flame height

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Gweeper64

Gweeper64

New Member
Feb 25, 2009
244
Central MA
Hey, all you AE owners burning Okies..... what do you have your flame height adjustment set at?
I have mine way down on -5 and even then when it gets cranking up to M,MH,H, the flame height is still pretty tall.
Just wondering what others have it set at. I can't go any lower.
 
Gweeper64 said:
Hey, all you AE owners burning Okies..... what do you have your flame height adjustment set at?
I have mine way down on -5 and even then when it gets cranking up to M,MH,H, the flame height is still pretty tall.
Just wondering what others have it set at. I can't go any lower.
Click to expand...

Do you have it set on softwood?
 
I actually had to switch the settings to sunflower seeds when I burned them. It was the only way I found that I could get a decent flame. The heat was great, best pellet I ever burned. Go ahead and give it a try you can't hurt anything! Let me know how it worked out for you.
 
JoeS said:
I actually had to switch the settings to sunflower seeds when I burned them. It was the only way I found that I could get a decent flame. The heat was great, best pellet I ever burned. Go ahead and give it a try you can't hurt anything! Let me know how it worked out for you.
Click to expand...

Really? Sunflower seed setting? Ok, i'll give it a shot. Next time I have to shut it down I'll change the setting. Thanks Joe.

The AE presets are nice but sometimes I wish you could "fine tune" the fuel/air mixture a little more. User definable presets would be nice too.
 
I'm having the same issue with this brand of pellets in my year old MT Vernon AE.
I burned Penningtons last year with the flame height at 0 which I think is what is was at when it came from the factory. The Okanagan pellets are sooting up my stove very quickly.
So tonight I cleaned it up and turned down the flame to -4. I have set this on Softwood. I had it on utility but it appeared to be burning fast with alot of ash. I would be curious to know how you made out with the Sunflower setting.

Wayne
 
WaynefromMaine said:
I'm having the same issue with this brand of pellets in my year old MT Vernon AE.
I burned Penningtons last year with the flame height at 0 which I think is what is was at when it came from the factory. The Okanagan pellets are sooting up my stove very quickly.
So tonight I cleaned it up and turned down the flame to -4. I have set this on Softwood. I had it on utility but it appeared to be burning fast with alot of ash. I would be curious to know how you made out with the Sunflower setting.

Wayne
Click to expand...

Wayne,
I think the Softwood setting will help you a lot. I'm not having a problem with ash really. I'm getting less firebox ash than I did with NEWP. I'll post back here after I give the Sunflower setting a try.
 
I am set at -2 per my dealer's recommendation. I played around with it and didn't notice much of a difference even at -5, so I went back to what he suggested. I've been meaning to try the sunflower seed setting, but haven't yet. Post your results if you try it.
 
I burn softwood pellets that originate from western canada @ -4 sometimes -5.
I don't worry too much about the tall flame. Tried sunflower setting seemed to burn
hotter and the combustion fan was def. running faster, but being that my stove is
in close proximity to my tv I didn't care for the extra noise.
 
I went ahead and adjusted my Mt Vernon AE to -5 on the Sunflower setting while burning the Okie pellets. What a difference. My glass isn't getting caked with soot in an hour like it did before. I'm going days with pretty clean glass and the heat getting pumped out of the top vents is outstanding. I wish I would have done this about 15 bags ago. The ash is also low. Very pleased now and I'm glad that this forum was here for discussing this.
Wayne
 
how come every post about pellets seems to be Okanagan pellets? Is that the only pellets you guys have.
here on the west we have about 8 brand Names. Yes some are the same mill and all are about the same.
 
hearthtools said:
how come every post about pellets seems to be Okanagan pellets? Is that the only pellets you guys have.
here on the west we have about 8 brand Names. Yes some are the same mill and all are about the same.
Click to expand...

They are new to us here in the northeast this year or at least more widely available.

Ok, Wayne. Saw you went ahead and did it. I think I'll go do a shutdown now and switch it over. May as well vacumm the firebox; it's been a few days.

I just had a thought.... in the AE, does the Sunflower setting run the AutoClean cycle more frequently than the Softwood? (thereby having to restart with the ignitor more?)
I'm not sure I want that to happen. I'll give it a try anyway for now.
 
When you guys say tall flame, is the flame tall and lazy? sooty burn too? I am burning some spruce pointe softwoods very similar to okanagans in my AE and I am getting lots of heat but a very tall and lazy flame with black soot on the heat exchanger. I changed flame height to -5 , a little better but not a great flame. I tried the hardwood setting and it was much better but I think its getting too much air (low active flame) and I fear I am losing some heat out the exhaust. I would like to know how the factory presets work as far as time between cleaning cycles, air setting etc on each setting. I will try the sunflower setting too just to see. I'm sure that one cyles thru cleaning more often than hardwood which I have timed at 4 hours.
 
I have never gotten 4 hours out of any of the settings before the AE switched into auto clean mode .

Here is what I understand the time in between cleans to be at different settings:

Corn is 2.4 hrs., utility pellet is 1.2 hrs., softwood is 3.2 hrs, wheat is 1.8 hrs, hardwood is 2.1 hrs and sunflower is 2.4 hrs.

These figures are all with the stove running on high setting.
 
pellet burner said:
When you guys say tall flame, is the flame tall and lazy? sooty burn too? I am burning some spruce pointe softwoods very similar to okanagans in my AE and I am getting lots of heat but a very tall and lazy flame with black soot on the heat exchanger. I changed flame height to -5 , a little better but not a great flame. I tried the hardwood setting and it was much better but I think its getting too much air (low active flame) and I fear I am losing some heat out the exhaust. I would like to know how the factory presets work as far as time between cleaning cycles, air setting etc on each setting. I will try the sunflower setting too just to see. I'm sure that one cyles thru cleaning more often than hardwood which I have timed at 4 hours.
Click to expand...

pellet burner: yes, those are the symptoms as I was seeing them too.

I just finished making the switch to the sunflower setting.

O. M. G.!

What a difference! The flame is now VERY active and strong, burning in the whole pot. Before, it was basically just in the front, and as pellet burner said, the flame was on the lazyside . I was also getting some black soot on the heat exchanger and the glass was a bit dirty within a day. Subjectively, the heat feels hotter now too on the sunflower setting. Pellet burner, give it a shot and let us know how it works out for you. Oh, I set my flame height at -2 now where before it was at -5 and still too tall according to the manual. Will give an update in a day or two on how this affects fuel consumption, ash levels, etc ... and cleaning cycles if I am around to catch them.

I also would like to know more about the details of the factory presets, how they affect feed rate, air flow, blower speeds and cleaning cycles.... the stuff many other stoves make you set manually. You think Quad would be willing to give out that info? I think I'll shoot them an email. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Ok, JoeS - how the heck did you figure out this sunflower setting trick? Trial and error? Inside info from Quadrafire? Inquiring minds want to know. :)
 
Ok, JoeS - how the heck did you figure out this sunflower setting trick? Trial and error? Inside info from Quadrafire? Inquiring minds want to know. :)[/quote]

Trial and Error, I wish I could say I had inside info but that isn't the case. I agree that it should be an easier way to adjust settings on the AE but there isn't any. I just play around with what is pre-programmed until I get the desired results.

I have found that all pellets burn differently and I am always looking for the best burn. Unfortunately we are stuck with what Quad has programmed for us but that doesn't mean we still can't experiment!
 
I am finding that when using the sunflower setting, even when the stove is running on "low" it is still throwing incredible heat into the room and is actually reaching set temperature within a few hours (and shutting down of coarse). Before, it would have to kick up to at least Medium-Low periodically just to maintain a temp 2 degrees below my setting once it got down to about 30F outside, and would virtually be burning all the time except when the autoclean cycle kicked in or a program cycle kicked in for a lower temp setting.

I sent a message last night to Quad for more information on the presets. If I don't hear from them in a few days, I'll try asking my dealer.
 
I spoke to my dealer today. He suggested to try the utility pellet setting and did not recommend the sunflower setting. There is no damper settings on an AE. All these settings do is increase or decrease the amount of air getting to the firepot by changing the speed of the combustion blower. They also change the frequency of the self clean cycle of course. The igniter may stay on longer simply because different fuels with higher moisture content will take longer to light. When the fuel lights, then the igniter will shut down. On a different but related note: My dealer asked what settings I normally use. I told him manual mode, flame height -2, hardwood setting if using hardwood, softwood if using softwood, and usually heat setting of 2 or 3 because I like to have the stove burn for longer periods of time rather than reach temp quickly the cycle off. Does anyone else do this? He discouraged that, saying that you get a much cleaner burn using heat output settings of 4 or 5 and that the stove was designed to burn on higher settings rather than burn for long periods on lower settings. I expressed concern about the frequency of the igniter coming on but he said it is a fact of life on these auto light stoves that igniters do go bad and they are around $42. Much less than a combustion blower that goes bad from running 20 hours a day.Thoughts anyone?
 
Utility pellet setting is the last thing you want to use, you will be shutting down every 1.2 hours or so. I am going to investigate how long the igniter stays on using the sunflower setting.
 
Boogers Dad said:
What else changes when you set to sun flower does it effect the ignitor?
Click to expand...

The main difference seems to be the air flow rate in the burn pot, giving a much stronger flame and more heat output to the room. I can't say for sure it affects the ignitor directly, but the pellets still light in a normal amount of time. I think it might indirectly affect the ignitor because the stove cycles on and off more now because it is reaching the thermostat set temperature even on "low", where as before it might burn for hours without ever reaching temperature. If you normally ran on higher manual settings anyway, then this wouldn't really be any different. It's still too early for me to make any real proclamations about fuel consumption or ash levels.
 
I haven't changed from Sunflower -5 setting, since I changed it from Software over a week ago. It doesn't take any longer to start up than it did before, so I don't think its affecting the igniter. The auto clean cycles are not frequent either. I'm vacuuming out the ash every 2 to 3 days and wiping down the glass. I honestly can't see any downside to doing this. The noise level and the time that it runs seems to be about the same as it was last year when I ran Penningtons set on Hardwood.

wayne
 
I got an answer from Quad about the fuel tables and running on sunflower setting with the AE. Here's the summary.

- We have not (significantly) changed the software (fuel tables, firmware, et. al.) since March of 2008.
- Use whatever settings work best for you - any setting you can change, you may change. Some changes will enhance the burn characteristics, and some would make things worse.
- Detailed characteristics of the fuel tables and other software are proprietary, so we would not be able to send those to you.
Click to expand...

So, running on sunflower setting is ok by them if it works better for you. However, they aren't going to tell us anything about the preset burn parameters I guess.

I'm going into my 4th day running on sunflower setting with softwood pellets. My fuel consumption is not any greater than before and there is significantly less ash in the firebox and pan. Heat output is excellent.
I'm sticking with it.
 
read these posts and was quite interested. Ihave an AE and decided to give sunflower setting a try with hardwood pellets. Mt. vernon AE, sunflower setting but burning hardwood pellets, heat output on MH, flame -5. I have a magnetic stove thermometer on front of stove where hot air is blown into room max temp ever rec'd was 240-250, with sunflower setting reached max temp of 285. It was crazy, so hot my wife had a candle on coffee table located about 7 feet in front of stove. Candle has been there for quite sometime. Area got so warm it caused the candle to bend /warp. WOW never had heat like this. Drawback though going through pellets like crazy i'm going to knock her back down to hardwood setting i think.
 
Hardwood setting on manual 5 is my best when burning softwood the hardwood setting has more air and reduces feed rate a bit. Also in manual setting flame height does not work the book doesn't say that.
 
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