Bear with me, as this has taken me a year to resolve, but it was eventually resolved on the courthouse steps.
Interested? Read on:
This is part 1 of two posts. The reply to this one contains part 2.
If your Mt. Vernon AE is on "hold temp" mode put it back in "resume" so it will resume its programmed temperature settings. For those who don't program their temperature setpoints or don't even know what that means, you probably don't need to read this thread any longer.
For those cursed with morbid curiosity, or boredom, I'll explain briefly. The AE's wall unit approximates the operation of an ordinary programmable or "setback" thermostat, and allows the stove to control its heat output to maintain a desired room temperature. Like most of them, it has four periods named "wake", "day", "evening", and "night". You can specify the time of day that starts each period, and the room temperature you'd like the stove to maintain during that period. For example, you might want "wake" to begin at 6:00 AM, and have the stove maintain a room temperature of 74°. The stove will light itself and adjust its output to maintain that temperature until the end of the "wake" cycle. After that, it maintains the temperature you've programmed for the "day" cycle. If you have the good fortune to be gainfully employed, you have to eventually go to work so you've programmed the "day" temperature to be about 60°. You usually come home at 5:30, so you've programmed the "evening" cycle to start at 5:00 PM, with a temperature of 74°, so it's nice and toasty when you walk in the door that evening.
With me so far? Good, because it took several weeks for Quadra-Fire's technicians to understand even that much.
Now suppose you have a morning meeting and need to leave the house earlier than usual. Before you leave you want the stove to shut off, so you walk over to the thermostat and press the temperature up/down buttons to adjust the temperature to 60° again. That way the stove will essentially shut off for the duration of the "wake" cycle and will probably remain off during the "day" cycle since it's also set to 60° F. Since the stove is still in programmed temperature mode, you will still come home to a warm house at 5:30 because the "evening" cycle calls for a temperature of 74° starting at 5 PM.
OK so far? I'm impressed! All that works great on the Mt. Vernon.
So what's the problem? What nearly caused Quadra-Fire to face my ugly self and a surly judge in court?
Temporarily changing the setpoint works as described for the "wake", "day", and "evening" program cycles. It does not work for the "night" cycle because the latest version of its thermostat (wall control) has an inherent defect that exists only during that cycle. It's a defect Quadra-Fire may not want you to know about.
You can demonstrate this behavior for yourself: wait until the "night" cycle and change the temperature using the wall control up/down buttons. The temperature you set will be displayed, and if it's sufficiently above or below the room's actual temperature the stove will turn on or off, respectively. In other words, let's say you've programmed the "night" cycle to be 74° F. You decide to leave the house after that time and you want the stove to remain off overnight, until the "wake" time. So you manually lower the temperature to 60°F. The stove begins its shutdown cycle, and will remain off until the "wake" cycle the next morning, right?
Wrong!
The wall control will initially show your new setpoint of 60°, but in less than a few minutes it will revert to your earlier programmed setting of 74°. The same thing will happen if you change the temperature to above the programmed setpoint – the stove will start up and light a fire, but in a few minutes it will revert to the program setting and shut down, all by itself. In other words, there is no way to temporarily override the programmed setting during the "night" cycle.
Workarounds exist, from the extreme of unplugging the stove to a less drastic one such as putting the thermostat in "hold" mode, but neither of them permits the programmable features of the stove to operate as designed.
When I initially brought this behavior to Quadra-Fire's attention, they directed the vendor to replace the control board in the stove. It has many many connections and it took some time, but replacing the control board didn't change a thing. Next, Quadra-Fire directed the vendor to replace the wall control unit, which I thought was the problem all along. Same thing – the problem didn't go away with a new control board and a new wall unit. To rule out any other component that could be contributing to this behavior, the dealer and I demonstrated the exact same problem in his floor model. The conclusion he and I drew was that the defect is inherent in the product and can't be fixed by exchanging components with currently available ones.
Then, things got interesting. Quadra-Fire insisted I simply didn't know what I was doing and must not be following instructions.
That was a mistake.
I sent them excerpts from their own instruction manual that clearly explains how to accomplish what I wanted to do, and demonstrated this isn't what the wall control does in the "night" cycle. They still didn't understand. So I went as far as to videotape its behavior which I sent on VHS tape along with a cover letter asking them to please fix it according to their warranty. After several weeks, they wrote back saying they would be designing a new wall control to fix the problem, and that it would be available by October, several months away, but still in time for the heating season. Great!
October comes and goes, so I inquire as to the fix's progress. Now things got interesting: they write back admitting I'm right after all, and while they acknowledge the defect, they're not going to fix it. Then, as bizarre as it sounds, their letter goes on to deny my request for warranty repair or replacement, and like the Wizard of Oz, essentially suggests I go away and forget about it… too bad so sad we've got your money and you've been had.
The reply to this post contains the resolution to my problem - read on:
Interested? Read on:
This is part 1 of two posts. The reply to this one contains part 2.
If your Mt. Vernon AE is on "hold temp" mode put it back in "resume" so it will resume its programmed temperature settings. For those who don't program their temperature setpoints or don't even know what that means, you probably don't need to read this thread any longer.
For those cursed with morbid curiosity, or boredom, I'll explain briefly. The AE's wall unit approximates the operation of an ordinary programmable or "setback" thermostat, and allows the stove to control its heat output to maintain a desired room temperature. Like most of them, it has four periods named "wake", "day", "evening", and "night". You can specify the time of day that starts each period, and the room temperature you'd like the stove to maintain during that period. For example, you might want "wake" to begin at 6:00 AM, and have the stove maintain a room temperature of 74°. The stove will light itself and adjust its output to maintain that temperature until the end of the "wake" cycle. After that, it maintains the temperature you've programmed for the "day" cycle. If you have the good fortune to be gainfully employed, you have to eventually go to work so you've programmed the "day" temperature to be about 60°. You usually come home at 5:30, so you've programmed the "evening" cycle to start at 5:00 PM, with a temperature of 74°, so it's nice and toasty when you walk in the door that evening.
With me so far? Good, because it took several weeks for Quadra-Fire's technicians to understand even that much.
Now suppose you have a morning meeting and need to leave the house earlier than usual. Before you leave you want the stove to shut off, so you walk over to the thermostat and press the temperature up/down buttons to adjust the temperature to 60° again. That way the stove will essentially shut off for the duration of the "wake" cycle and will probably remain off during the "day" cycle since it's also set to 60° F. Since the stove is still in programmed temperature mode, you will still come home to a warm house at 5:30 because the "evening" cycle calls for a temperature of 74° starting at 5 PM.
OK so far? I'm impressed! All that works great on the Mt. Vernon.
So what's the problem? What nearly caused Quadra-Fire to face my ugly self and a surly judge in court?
Temporarily changing the setpoint works as described for the "wake", "day", and "evening" program cycles. It does not work for the "night" cycle because the latest version of its thermostat (wall control) has an inherent defect that exists only during that cycle. It's a defect Quadra-Fire may not want you to know about.
You can demonstrate this behavior for yourself: wait until the "night" cycle and change the temperature using the wall control up/down buttons. The temperature you set will be displayed, and if it's sufficiently above or below the room's actual temperature the stove will turn on or off, respectively. In other words, let's say you've programmed the "night" cycle to be 74° F. You decide to leave the house after that time and you want the stove to remain off overnight, until the "wake" time. So you manually lower the temperature to 60°F. The stove begins its shutdown cycle, and will remain off until the "wake" cycle the next morning, right?
Wrong!
The wall control will initially show your new setpoint of 60°, but in less than a few minutes it will revert to your earlier programmed setting of 74°. The same thing will happen if you change the temperature to above the programmed setpoint – the stove will start up and light a fire, but in a few minutes it will revert to the program setting and shut down, all by itself. In other words, there is no way to temporarily override the programmed setting during the "night" cycle.
Workarounds exist, from the extreme of unplugging the stove to a less drastic one such as putting the thermostat in "hold" mode, but neither of them permits the programmable features of the stove to operate as designed.
When I initially brought this behavior to Quadra-Fire's attention, they directed the vendor to replace the control board in the stove. It has many many connections and it took some time, but replacing the control board didn't change a thing. Next, Quadra-Fire directed the vendor to replace the wall control unit, which I thought was the problem all along. Same thing – the problem didn't go away with a new control board and a new wall unit. To rule out any other component that could be contributing to this behavior, the dealer and I demonstrated the exact same problem in his floor model. The conclusion he and I drew was that the defect is inherent in the product and can't be fixed by exchanging components with currently available ones.
Then, things got interesting. Quadra-Fire insisted I simply didn't know what I was doing and must not be following instructions.
That was a mistake.
I sent them excerpts from their own instruction manual that clearly explains how to accomplish what I wanted to do, and demonstrated this isn't what the wall control does in the "night" cycle. They still didn't understand. So I went as far as to videotape its behavior which I sent on VHS tape along with a cover letter asking them to please fix it according to their warranty. After several weeks, they wrote back saying they would be designing a new wall control to fix the problem, and that it would be available by October, several months away, but still in time for the heating season. Great!
October comes and goes, so I inquire as to the fix's progress. Now things got interesting: they write back admitting I'm right after all, and while they acknowledge the defect, they're not going to fix it. Then, as bizarre as it sounds, their letter goes on to deny my request for warranty repair or replacement, and like the Wizard of Oz, essentially suggests I go away and forget about it… too bad so sad we've got your money and you've been had.
The reply to this post contains the resolution to my problem - read on:
