Which is better? Old non AE MT Vernon or the AE?

[Turbo-Quad]

I am new to pellet stoves and have a second hand non AE Mount Vernon. I have a shot at a 2 year old Mount Vernon AE for a good price. Which one of these stoves are better? Does one use less fuel or produce more heat or are the features the only improvement on the AE?

 

[Bkins]

I think both stoves put out the same amount of heat. The AE auto cleans the burnpot at given times so pellets are wasted and you lose the heat output while this takes place. There are/were a lot of problems with the AE for the first couple of years it was made. Quad used the paying public for their tests on the stove. I'm not sure if they have the burn feed tables worked out even now. Not everyone had problems, but a lot did. Do a search here and also on iburncorn.net. Lots and lots of info. I would keep the non-AE as its pretty much a proven stove.

Bkins

 

[Turbo-Quad]

I am leaning towards keeping it. The fact that it is more simple could be an advantage.

 

[rona]

I had one of the first AEs and can say you will be much happier with what you have. It is simpler-less to go wrong. Will give you heat all day rather then for a few hours then it cools down and dumps- restarts and slowly ramps up the temp again and repeats itself. Also has a nasty habit of not igniting the first time resulting in lost fuel in ash pan.
They both look nice but all the modern gadgetry just isn't as reliable as it could be. You also will be replacing igniters fairly often. The new owners were Guinna pigs as far as I was concerned.
There is some good features but I think if they came out with a new improved version it would be a good unit.