Classic Bay owners - please help! Getting rid of the Mt Vernon!

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C

caseyclan

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 23, 2007
66
Missouri
Greetings!
We are on our 2nd Mt vernon since 12/22/07 and its a lemon as well. The dealer has decided to replace it as well (and subsequently, has elected to no longer sell the Mt Vernon. In fact, he has had to pull and replace 3 different stoves over the last 6 months). Instead of getting our money back and walking away, we are still impressed with the heat (and cost savings) a pellet stove can provide - if its working correctly. Our dealer offered us any option, but also asked us to consider the Classic Bay. He gave us a thorough walk through with this unit, demonstrating its "primitive" workings in comparison to that of the Mt. Vernon. The majority of the maintenance/operation seems more manual than the Mt Vernon, but he swears by the stove, ensuring its a great performer and that most, if not all, issues that occur with the stove are easily remedied. For those of you who own this stove, would you buy it again? Is it what you wanted it to be? Any advice/suggestions/comments would be welcomed!
 
Thats unfortunate you were not able to get it working well. We have installed three AE's this year and one had a bad vacuum switch the other two have been working flawlessly as far as I know. The one with the vac switch problem has been working great besides that issue, customer said he loves it.

I have only worked on one Classic Bay so far, the customer has had it for 4 years. This was his first service call. At some point the thermocouple cover got cracked which then destroyed his thermocouple. He replaced the parts himself but had the wires reversed on the thermocouple. I was not even aware this would be a problem so I did not realize it until I started troubleshooting it at his house. He said that is the only problem he has ever had with it.

You might want to check out the reviews section, I was poking in there the other day and saw A LOT of CB1200 entries.
 
I have put over a 100 1200cb's out this year and would agree with your dealer from a service stand point it is alot easier stove to deal with we have not really been selling the mt vernon ae for this season after the problems we had the first year as i said in another post when it works right it is the best thing on the market but when the stove is bad it is really bad and is such a complicated machine that it is very hard to get right again.
 
Just couldn't get the MV to work correctly - either of them. At this point, we have lost confidence in the stove and are looking to change over to either a castille or Classic bay. We will be getting 2 stoves installed, so just have to decide which is better for us. We love the looks of the castille, but the CB has a hopper that is easier to load, greater BTUs, and a proven history of performance. Decisions, decisions.
 
You know there are other stoves out there Casey. I've had absolutely no problems with mine. I know there is a huge following for the Harman. But very few comments about Lopi stoves. Which have very similarly designed stoves as Harman. Maybe it's available dealers. Must be a well kept secret.
 
Casey, I don't know what part of MO. your from but I have a lake house in south central MO. and a house in NW Missouri. I know dealers in both parts of the state. But not east. Let me know if you want any advise.
 
You need to have your store have the factory rep come to your house there has to be answer to your problem such as your stoves are 06 mod. and not the updated 07 that are not having bad problems.
 
Flueonc,
Would you believe that the stove in my fireplace now was manufactured 1/8/08? I would assume it would have the most current updates, yet the tech still swapped out the control board and other items. No luck.
 
My classic bay has performed very good. It took a little while to get the settings just right. Make sure you use pellets that put out low ash. I was thinking about the mt vernon but now I may wait a little longer. The classic bay is easy to work on.
 
CC,
Is the 2nd stove stove still in place? If so I would try running a new wire to the stat. Worth a try I would think.
 
Have the store get a hht rep to look at the stove not just a store tec the reps can get more info then the store tec.and get you running fast.
 
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