New Mt Vernon AE puts out very little heat.

im on my phone so please forgive my wriring. i have the vacuum sensor jumped to no better performance. on sunflower with all other settings the same it can bairly maintain a flame within the diamond. with the suggestion of pushing the pellets in i was just able to get one bag in the hopper. i have no oak. i can not tell you how many bags a day it uses as i can not afford to live here untill i get this working.

Check the couplings on the auger motor to auger and then be prepared to discuss auger motor timings and possible reversing direction.

pellet stoves aren't intended to be main heat sources. just sayn.

Any possibility it could be the optical sensor on the auger?

i do not intend it to be a main heat source. i keep the oil heat at 57. id like this room at 70. that aside the connection to the control board is solid

Auger motor to auger coupling if that is slipping you get a mess up of the pellet feed.

If the auger changes direction it can mess up the pellet feed (yes that auger motor can change direction.

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm letting it run out of pellets as I would guess to check the auger coupling I need to remove the unit from the system. I'm sure once I have it out it will be easy to tell if its good or not. Is there a way to check the reversal of the auger direction you spoke of?

Thanks

We went through this experience with out insert back in 2008. After several moths of repair dudes saying "That ain't right", we finally got the mother board (?) replaced. That did the trick. They didn't want to do that at first, though, because they didn't seem to think it could be the problem. NOTE: If one of the pros from Dover doesn't jump on to correct what the part is really called, I'll look it up when I get back home tonight.

Something is wrong with your stove and it isn't the settings or your brand of pellets. You need to ca in for service. At medium heat output even my wife can't stand infront of our insert for long.

As for loading pellets, just push the pellets down as you fill it up. You can easily fit a bag.

Tip for pushing the pellets: Get a long oven mitt. Saves sandpapering the fingertips! Easier than a pair of gloves for slipping on & off. You can really shove a lot of pellets back there with one.

Thank you everyone for all the tips. I will try the oven mitt. Sounds like good idea as well. I emailed quadrafire but I suspect they will only keep referring me to my dealer. My dealer has lied to me enough. I have no desire to go to them for problems. Can or will any dealer send out a repairman under warranty? Or is it only the dealer you purchase from?

Thanks

If the unit is under warranty scream at your dealer and be certain to get in touch with the Quad and HHT folks at the same time.

It can take a long while playing look at this with us here and you going between here and there. We can eliminate a lot of things it could be. But you'll be driven nuts in the process, especially with an insert.

You let Quad deal with the dealer by laying everything thing out to both Quad and HHT, your warranty service is through the dealer you bought the stove from.

That is why it is critical that one checks out the dealers more than the stove.

While reading this forum I picked out the brand and model I wanted. Well I was between that and a endurance furnace. I just must have missed the info on dealers. No one to blame but my self there. I guess its time to go make life miserable for my dealer.

You likely didn't see the posts by a number of folks about checking out the dealers as much or more so than the stove and if that is the case you likely haven't seen the posts about not depending upon a dealer to service your stove on your schedule just because it is the only heat in the place or to have the required part in stock without having to wait a couple weeks.

I did not and that is why I cant blame anyone but my self. Winter is almost over anyway so I guess I'm in no rush at this point.

Since end of winter is nearing, the dealer should have more time on his hands Get the dealer back there since you've already made his job easier by some troubleshooting, call Quad to let them know the problems you are having with both the dealer and the stove. You paid for the ticket, you should be able to ride the ride...

Do these inserts have capability for an OAK (outside air kit)? If the dealer is coming back,and yours doesn't have one, might want to get one now - you'll be happier in the long run

At some point, especially if the dealer continues to give you grief, let us know here so others can avoid them! Good luck.

I want to give them a chance before I start an internet crusade. Lets face it. It could have just been my luck to get the one idiot sales person whos the son of the owner or something. That person by the way told me I dont need an OAK. He also is the one I blame for taking almost 3 months for installation. They gave me the number of a place over 2 hours away to do the liner install. That place I chased for months just to get an estimate. I still never got one from them and they never once called me back. I ended up just getting the closet chimney place off google. Came out in a week, very nice, very helpful and a great price.

That's why I said at some point...

I was also told that I didn't need an OAK, two weeks in, I installed one due to the comments I had seen on the forum. Why pull in warmed inside air to throw out the exhaust?

Agree with the OAK. Take a look at a thread I recently posted (Another OAK Advantage) for an issue I had. Don't want others with an insert to have the same problem;

The service guy came out today. He was nice enough but in the end did not really do anything to the unit. He told me I have the newest type of unit with V 4 tables that he dose not even have to upload. He said he only has 3. He also told me that the 12v auger dose not pulse. It runs constantly but at variable speeds. He seems to feel the stove is functioning but is not sure why the fire is so low. He felt the C&C pellets were no good so we changed to one of the bags of Hamer's I got to try. If you recall on high, +5, normal fan C&C for the most part could barely get the flames out of the pot. The Hamer's on the same setting have the flames fluctuating from just below the diamond to almost the top of the diamond. He said that the flame will go up and down like that and its not to bad the way it is but it should be doing it on -2 to -4. He suggested I try o'malley's . He said thats what he uses in the Mt Vernon AE with the -4 flame height. I want to know if its the new tables. Is anyone else running v 4? Perhaps quadrafire thinks everyone is running the flame height to high so they crippled it in V4. The serviceman said he can put V3 on but he dose not have V4 to install if 3 dose not fix the problems. Any ideas?

Thanks

"Reduced igniter on-time after unit goes into soft start from 3 minutes to 60 seconds. Reduced ignition retry's to 1." that is the difference between revision 30 and rev. 40 for pellets, corn they did change the air to fuel ratio but if they did change the air fuel ratio on on rev. 40 for pellets they aren't telling the techs that they did.

Thank you for letting me know. It sounds like if the other brand of pellets suggested do not work that I have just bought a very expensive paper weight. I get the impression that since it sort of works they dont really care to do much about it.

I have an update. Last night I went over to the house and while I was there fired up the insert. I thought even almost no heat has to help the oil bill. To my surprise it seemed to work like most people on here say it should. High flames, enough heat where it is uncomfortable to keep my hand directly in front of the unit for more then 20 or 30 seconds. It is still on high and +5. When I left the house last friday after the repair man left it was not doing that well. The only thing that changed was I used a 3/4 full bag that sat open in the house since friday. it was the C&C too. Is it possible that both the C&C and Hamers somehow got damp in the sealed plastic bags and that letting them air out for 5 days helped? The pellets are stored in my garage that does not get below 40 degrees. I cant imagine cold pellets would cause a problem. If that is not the issue is there a break in period or something I dont know about? I just hope this isnt a fluke and the majority of the bags left work like this. At this rate the +80$ a ton is not worth it for the hamers.

Thanks

Did the service guy check the vacuum switch?

It ain't the pellets.