I've been studying this forum, and am just amazed at the wealth of information and generosity of information sharing.
Now that you've been properly buttered up, I've got a few/lot of questions to ask.
First question - anyone living in the Upper Valley area of NH/VT? I've seen post after post about people saying the most important decision may be based on the quality of local servicer... would love some feedback on Home Comfort Warehouse.
After reading a lot of posts, we went to the showroom, set to love the M55 stove (the one with the Vermont Castings exterior). However, the display unit took at least 10 minutes to light. By that time there were pellets falling out of the burn bin. The agitator would come on, quite literally, every 10 seconds. And the motor for it was surprisingly loud. After 20 minutes of fiddling, a new sound appeared - a rather loud hum, seemingly from the auger motor. The guys could not figure out either. The unit was only installed 2 weeks ago, so no one there had much experience with the unit, and didn't know whether the noises were normal or not.
Then they suggested I check out the Mt Vernon. Similar size, similar price, and they said that they have had good results after some growing pains about 5 years ago. They also said that it used a DC motor instead of AC, which resulted in quieter operations. Indeed, the unit was incredibly quiet, and seemed to be putting out a lot of heat with a fan that was decidedly quieter than the M55 (ignoring the motor noise issues). Shortly after they started this one up, they started up an Enviro Empress. The Empress seemed louder too...
To make this message even longer (sorry), let me give you more info about the application.
- 3000 sq ft house. The airflow is... questionable... and our expectations are that we would be happy if it did a pretty good job saving oil rather than replacing all of the heating needs.
- It is most likely being installed in the movie room. This is at the end of the house, rather than the middle. We could put it in the dining room (center of the house) and probably spread heat better, but we would really like to see fire. We like fire.
- Because it is in the movie room, keeping sound low is critical.
- Our priorities, in order are: 1. Quiet 2. Effectiveness 3. Looks 4. Price (as long as all are within the same range). I'm in the timber business, so will probably always be burning wood pellets, so don't care too much about fuel flexibility.
You stuck with me so long, thank you. Now here are the questions:
- Anyone familiar with the M55... is this a common Gen 1 problem, or was I looking at a bad unit/bad installation? Is there a way to keep the agitator from cycling every 10 seconds? Is the motor pretty loud?
- Mt Vernon - I am nervous about the thermostat... I liked the idea of just setting the burn to, say, a 3 and leaving it alone. Having a thermostat as the only control seems risky. Does it work pretty much flawlessly? When it reaches target temperature, does it turn off and need to re-ignite, or does it just cycle low to high fire? What about if it is at one end of a house and you are trying to move air to the other end... is there a way to have it just burn steadily at a given rate? Can you just set it on "medium speed" and forget about it? Is there a manual backup, or just the wall unit? How far away can you put the wall thermostat? I understand that it shuts itself off every 4 hours to clean out the burn pan. Does this result in a lot of wasted pellets? Does it actually turn the fire off & restart itself (more igniter wear?)?
Comparing the two
- Both promise to be able to use higher ash pellets with auto cleaning... is that true?
- Any significant difference in daily maintenance between the two? Periodic Maintenance?
- My wife and I both think the M55 looks better when cold. My wife likes the "circle of fire" in the Mt Vernon better, but I like the wider fire in the M55 better. Who is right?
- Any significant difference in efficiency?
- Seems like the hopper on the Mt Vernon is much better. True?
- Is my impression that the Mt Vernon is quieter, even if the M55 were in tip top shape, true?
- The Mt Vernon is rated for more BTUs, and seems like more heat than we will need. Is that a problem?
- It seems that for a very small difference (after 30% tax incentive) we would step up to the M55/Mt Vernon class from the Empress. I figured better to be overpowered than risk being underpowered for a NH winter. Am I missing something?
- Either have a much better warranty, or more important, warranty response?
- Niether would ever get hot enough to make steam from a pot on top, right?
- Looks like the M55 is easier to clean, everything just drops into the ashpan pretty much? Mt Vernon looks like you would need to vacuum out the middle?
- Now that I've been doing more research, it seems the two most common problems are frequent igniter failures and problems with the cleaning cycle getting stuck. Are those still issues?
- How fast do they suck down the pellets?
- Is there anything I should be asking that I'm not thinking about?
Sorry to be that guy new to a forum and asking a buncha probably dumb questions, but I guess I'm that guy and all I can do is thank you so much for your help!
Now that you've been properly buttered up, I've got a few/lot of questions to ask.
First question - anyone living in the Upper Valley area of NH/VT? I've seen post after post about people saying the most important decision may be based on the quality of local servicer... would love some feedback on Home Comfort Warehouse.
After reading a lot of posts, we went to the showroom, set to love the M55 stove (the one with the Vermont Castings exterior). However, the display unit took at least 10 minutes to light. By that time there were pellets falling out of the burn bin. The agitator would come on, quite literally, every 10 seconds. And the motor for it was surprisingly loud. After 20 minutes of fiddling, a new sound appeared - a rather loud hum, seemingly from the auger motor. The guys could not figure out either. The unit was only installed 2 weeks ago, so no one there had much experience with the unit, and didn't know whether the noises were normal or not.
Then they suggested I check out the Mt Vernon. Similar size, similar price, and they said that they have had good results after some growing pains about 5 years ago. They also said that it used a DC motor instead of AC, which resulted in quieter operations. Indeed, the unit was incredibly quiet, and seemed to be putting out a lot of heat with a fan that was decidedly quieter than the M55 (ignoring the motor noise issues). Shortly after they started this one up, they started up an Enviro Empress. The Empress seemed louder too...
To make this message even longer (sorry), let me give you more info about the application.
- 3000 sq ft house. The airflow is... questionable... and our expectations are that we would be happy if it did a pretty good job saving oil rather than replacing all of the heating needs.
- It is most likely being installed in the movie room. This is at the end of the house, rather than the middle. We could put it in the dining room (center of the house) and probably spread heat better, but we would really like to see fire. We like fire.
- Because it is in the movie room, keeping sound low is critical.
- Our priorities, in order are: 1. Quiet 2. Effectiveness 3. Looks 4. Price (as long as all are within the same range). I'm in the timber business, so will probably always be burning wood pellets, so don't care too much about fuel flexibility.
You stuck with me so long, thank you. Now here are the questions:
- Anyone familiar with the M55... is this a common Gen 1 problem, or was I looking at a bad unit/bad installation? Is there a way to keep the agitator from cycling every 10 seconds? Is the motor pretty loud?
- Mt Vernon - I am nervous about the thermostat... I liked the idea of just setting the burn to, say, a 3 and leaving it alone. Having a thermostat as the only control seems risky. Does it work pretty much flawlessly? When it reaches target temperature, does it turn off and need to re-ignite, or does it just cycle low to high fire? What about if it is at one end of a house and you are trying to move air to the other end... is there a way to have it just burn steadily at a given rate? Can you just set it on "medium speed" and forget about it? Is there a manual backup, or just the wall unit? How far away can you put the wall thermostat? I understand that it shuts itself off every 4 hours to clean out the burn pan. Does this result in a lot of wasted pellets? Does it actually turn the fire off & restart itself (more igniter wear?)?
Comparing the two
- Both promise to be able to use higher ash pellets with auto cleaning... is that true?
- Any significant difference in daily maintenance between the two? Periodic Maintenance?
- My wife and I both think the M55 looks better when cold. My wife likes the "circle of fire" in the Mt Vernon better, but I like the wider fire in the M55 better. Who is right?
- Any significant difference in efficiency?
- Seems like the hopper on the Mt Vernon is much better. True?
- Is my impression that the Mt Vernon is quieter, even if the M55 were in tip top shape, true?
- The Mt Vernon is rated for more BTUs, and seems like more heat than we will need. Is that a problem?
- It seems that for a very small difference (after 30% tax incentive) we would step up to the M55/Mt Vernon class from the Empress. I figured better to be overpowered than risk being underpowered for a NH winter. Am I missing something?
- Either have a much better warranty, or more important, warranty response?
- Niether would ever get hot enough to make steam from a pot on top, right?
- Looks like the M55 is easier to clean, everything just drops into the ashpan pretty much? Mt Vernon looks like you would need to vacuum out the middle?
- Now that I've been doing more research, it seems the two most common problems are frequent igniter failures and problems with the cleaning cycle getting stuck. Are those still issues?
- How fast do they suck down the pellets?
- Is there anything I should be asking that I'm not thinking about?
Sorry to be that guy new to a forum and asking a buncha probably dumb questions, but I guess I'm that guy and all I can do is thank you so much for your help!
!
