AES Magnum Baby Countryside

[smwilliamson]

Another example of why these things are "dangerous at any speed". We just cleaned this thing out in Sept. I almost didn't want to work on it then. The thing is such a piece of crap! Auger stop bolts have broken off twice. The thing chokes up and burns weird. All of the gaskets have been replaced, burn pot was replaced. Combustion motor was replaced. Auger motor and bushing were replaced and the wiring harness was replaced after the last stop bolt broke and the auger motor twisted and borked through the wiring harness...ah, and we replaced the control board too cause that fried in the wiring auger motor snafu. Oh, and we reinstalled all the venting up over the roof with 4".

All told, with the cost of the unit and all the repairs in the past 5 years, homeowner is in to this thing for well over 6k.

Kids came home to a house filled with thick white smoke yesterday. A complete hopper fire that was so hot it melted the aluminum feed tube.

As I have said before and will say again, AES makes some of the worst built stoves I have ever seen. This is the 5th baby magnum I have seen do this. Want to burn yer house down? This is the stove for you. This is my opinion. You be the judge.

 

[smwilliamson]

Oh, and one last piece of info...last year when the auger motor wrapped around the wiring harness and took out the control board, stop bolts and harness, it also warped out the hopper...breaking the silicone seal of the hopper to the feed tube. Seriously, the stove is held together (hopper) is fastened together with silicone. Nice fit and finish, right? It was my opinion all along that the stove was leaking air in from somewhere though after we repaired it I was certain that the new silicone we applied was as good or better than the seal the hopper came with. I think the auger was torquing it again and opened up a seam in the hopper...but at this point I'm not going to work on it anymore. It's done. I don't trust it. I don't trust any of the AES products. I mean this is crazy! Can you imagine a Harman or Enviro being held together with silicone and calling it good enough? They still want upwards of 2300 bucks for these things.

 

[Bioburner]

They were not a good stove when they tried making them in country, but when they went to China it was a total %$@$ up. I was told by a local dealer who quit them that they(Magnum) had piles of scrapped units and using them for parts. Just like the Forester by US(not) stoves they are stamped out, slopped together s&%#. Leaves bad taste for everyone as Magnum is bad dealer support and have moved almost all sales online. I see piles of used ones on CL for $500 or less.