Quadrafire Mt Vernon AE

[ylomnstr]

My friend is looking to buy a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE today. He basically want's the best he can get. Is this a good stove? I had an old small quadrafire in my first home and it worked good. I see this has a self cleaning pot similar to the St. Croix Hastings that I currently have, but I just haven't heard anything about it. Any comments or suggestions?

 

[jtakeman]

Good stoves and are nice looking too.

There is an issue to consider though(it turned me away from purchasing it). It has an ennoying clean cycle. Every so often it has to basically sut itself down to clean out the pot. It will then relight itself. Not something I wanted during cold spells so I opted for a self cleaning burnpot on hte fly no shut downs when you really need the heat. This is also tough on the igniter.

Second was price. They fetch a good coin for them.

While out looking at them, Stop by an Enviro or Regency dealer. Take a good look at the M55 cast or the Hampton GC60. Worth looking into IMHO. Less money ta boot!

 

[ylomnstr]

Good stoves and are nice looking too.

There is an issue to consider though(it turned me away from purchasing it). It has an ennoying clean cycle. Every so often it has to basically sut itself down to clean out the pot. It will then relight itself. Not something I wanted during cold spells so I opted for a self cleaning burnpot on hte fly no shut downs when you really need the heat. This is also tough on the igniter.

Second was price. They fetch a good coin for them.

While out looking at them, Stop by an Enviro or Regency dealer. Take a good look at the M55 cast or the Hampton GC60. Worth looking into IMHO. Less money ta boot!

Thanks. How often does it shut down to clean itself? Once a day? Once a week? Do you know if that setting can be changed?

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Awesome unit, I have one back at the ranch. The cleaning cycle depends on what and how much you burn. A few times a day but nothing to woory about or keep you from buying it.

Eric

 

[dsnedegar3]

I'm starting my 4th Season on a Mount Vernon AE insert. I'm still on my original lighter. A buddy of mine has a Harman Accentra and has gone through many igniters. I just had mine serviced and asked the tech if I should proactively replace it. He said don't bother -- the newer units don't fail that often. With every purchase, there are many criteria such as price, size of space your heating, features, and of course the look of the unit (which is what the wife cares about). I will say that on a really cold day I wish the unit wouldn't go into autoclean, but I consider it a minor inconvenience (I could just turn the furnace on for a few minutes if I needed). Bottom line is we stay really warm with our unit, and I'm saving a ton of money by not using oil. My brother in law just paid $4/gallon and my oil supplier is up $.25 in the past two weeks and it's not even winter. The Mount Vernon AE is excellent choice ... but I'm sure there are more than one unit that would be good based on your specific needs.

 

[jtakeman]

Good stoves and are nice looking too.

There is an issue to consider though(it turned me away from purchasing it). It has an ennoying clean cycle. Every so often it has to basically sut itself down to clean out the pot. It will then relight itself. Not something I wanted during cold spells so I opted for a self cleaning burnpot on hte fly no shut downs when you really need the heat. This is also tough on the igniter.

Second was price. They fetch a good coin for them.

While out looking at them, Stop by an Enviro or Regency dealer. Take a good look at the M55 cast or the Hampton GC60. Worth looking into IMHO. Less money ta boot!

Thanks. How often does it shut down to clean itself? Once a day? Once a week? Do you know if that setting can be changed?

I don't know the exact cleaning schedule, The schedule varies between the different fuel type settings. What I do know is it is not something you can change. You might be able to prolong it(with fuel type setting) but it will do a cleaning cycle at some point. There several Mt. Vernon owners here that have 1st hand knowledge of the unit. They should be along in a minute or some!

Don't get me wrong, They are nice stoves. Just wanted you to have some of the cons as well as the pro's.

 

[ylomnstr]

Good stoves and are nice looking too.

There is an issue to consider though(it turned me away from purchasing it). It has an ennoying clean cycle. Every so often it has to basically sut itself down to clean out the pot. It will then relight itself. Not something I wanted during cold spells so I opted for a self cleaning burnpot on hte fly no shut downs when you really need the heat. This is also tough on the igniter.

Second was price. They fetch a good coin for them.

While out looking at them, Stop by an Enviro or Regency dealer. Take a good look at the M55 cast or the Hampton GC60. Worth looking into IMHO. Less money ta boot!

Thanks. How often does it shut down to clean itself? Once a day? Once a week? Do you know if that setting can be changed?

I don't know the exact cleaning schedule, The schedule varies between the different fuel type settings. What I do know is it is not something you can change. You might be able to prolong it(with fuel type setting) but it will do a cleaning cycle at some point. There several Mt. Vernon owners here that have 1st hand knowledge of the unit. They should be along in a minute or some!

Don't get me wrong, They are nice stoves. Just wanted you to have some of the cons as well as the pro's.

I appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[smoke show]

The published auto clean times are when running on hi.

I believe softwood setting is 3.2 hours.

Mine goes for much longer running on auto, instead of hi.

Autoclean times are posted here somewhere, I'd find them if I wasn't on my cell.

HTH

 

[rona]

I owned a AE for one season and was very disappointed with the so-called 60,000 btus advertised. It can get to -20 pretty often here and every time that stove shut down the thermometer started dropping and the house started getting cool. What happens is the stoves does a automated cool down prior to dumping the burn pot. The stove dumps the ashes Then after a while it will start back up at a leisurely pace and gradually work itself up to a decent fire again. In the meantime the house kept getting colder.
One other thing is when you have it set to produce max heat of course it dumps more often. If it fails to light it will dump the pot with good pellets in the ash pan. it will try three times to make a fire before it shuts down so you end up with three pot fulls of good pellets in the ash pan in the morning when you get up to a cold house.
The one year I owned it we replaced the electronic board and thermostat three times, The removable baffle plate twice and of course the igniter.
They had a lot of problems with it when it was introduced to the public but got most of the problems solved. The warranty has been shortened from when it was introduced and the igniter problem is better but not solved. Ask your dealer what the warranty is on the replacement items. Say you need a new igniter ask what the warranty is on the replacement igniter.
It is a good looking stove but there is a lot of stoves with that nice exterior look to them.
There seems to be a trade-off with good and bad points for most of these stoves and you are doing the right thing by looking first and asking other people their opinions.
I would be asking myself a lot of questions first to see what I want. Then look around you and find out what the local dealers sell. Then try to visit with some of their customers to find out how they like their stove, how the dealer treats them before and after the sale. Then I would ask a serious question, Are you a fix-it type of person or are you dependent on calling a dealer or repairman if something breaks. Owning a pellet stove can be a learning experience.
I would describe that first experience similar to buying a car from a used car dealership. Ask around because the knowledge you gain now is free. Buying the wrong stove can be pretty expensive.

 

[smoke show]

They had a lot of problems with it when it was introduced to the public but got most of the problems solved.

Ignitor life is a concern with many brands.

 

[tsmith]

Make sure , that if you get one it has the new burn pot in it, this greatly helps with quick lighting and ignitor life. I found that running it on auto mode with the thermostat set 2 degrees higher than the actual temp I want works well. In auto mode, when it does shut down to auto clean, it will start right back up because it did not reach the set temp. If in manual mode, and it shuts down, if it was within the thermostat set back range, it will not relight until it reaches the lower set back temp, causing the temps in the house to drop. I used to run it manual, but have since found that auto is better for me for these reasons. Like I said you just need to set the thermo 2 degrees higher than you actually want because when it gets to 2 degrees lower than set temp it will drop to the low setting.

 

[Grassman]

Foot of snow power out and the AE is running on the battery back up keeping the house nice and warm. Have burned almost anything that is combustible and can be pelletized . I know the stove is expensive but you are paying for the electronics. The AE has a good feedback control system that optimizes performance in low to medium heat settings. The stove loves to run 70 75 . I run the stove maxed out most of the time So to keep the stove running efficiently you have to clean once a week. When the ash starts building up on the heat exchanger the exhaust gas temps get crazy high. I also dump ash pan once a day because the bulldozer blade on the bottom of the ash dump door gets hung up in the ash piles. It takes burning a ton or two to be able to manipulate the control board settings in way that is meaning full to you. So if the boss is cold you dial up the sunflower seed setting adjust flame height reset heat and everybody is happy.

 

[Ironhorse74]

My friend is looking to buy a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE today. He basically want's the best he can get. Is this a good stove? I had an old small quadrafire in my first home and it worked good. I see this has a self cleaning pot similar to the St. Croix Hastings that I currently have, but I just haven't heard anything about it. Any comments or suggestions?

The main reason to buy a Mt. Vernon AE is multi-fuel capability. St Croix builds a nice multi-fuel. It has a self cleaning burn pot that does not shut down to clean. The stove is the Lincoln SCR. Will burn at least 10 different fuels. Starts on wood pellets and then switches to the main hopper. Every 2 hours it switches back to pellets when the burn pot rotates and dumps ash. 50,000 btu's and 500 dollars less than the AE.

Brad