Is there any new news on the Mt. Vernon E2 problems?

[smalltown]

As my profile indicates I love my Quad Castile. I have noticed that on these very cold nights there is quite a lag time heating things back up in the morning so I thought maybe a larger stove might be the answer.
I had seen the Mt. Vernon E2 on display at my local dealer, and I must say I was quite impressed at the fire, and how quiet if was. I was really surprised to read that at least two members here are having very serious issues with these stoves. I sincerely hope Quad gets these issues solved quickly for those members. That's a lot of money to fork over and have those kinds of issues. I think we all at first had a little apprehension going to sleep at night with the new pellet stove running: at least I did. Each new noise had me getting out of bed to double check that everything was ok. Just the thought of exploding glass is mind boggling. Just from a safety point you would think Quad would be all over this!


I hope Quad realizes that people all over are reading these posts, and are having second thoughts about Quad's lack of customer service to those customers, and their safety or maybe I'm just naïve.

 

[DMKNLD]

I love my Castile as well, smalltown, though it is a bit undersized for the area I'm heating in my drafty 1870's Maine farmhouse. With some help from the added snow insulation that is packed in around our granite field stone foundation, I haven't had to run the oil burner to keep the basement pipes from freezing. And with some electric / radiant oil space heater support on one far end of the house, and the Vermont Castings wood stove at the other far end, we've been able to keep the house between 69 and 73 degrees even on the coldest and windiest days this winter, so I can't complain about that.

I particularly appreciate the lack of futzing I have to do to it, short of keeping it clean and adjusting the fuel feed rate as needed. When I read about stove brands that have multiple air / fuel adjustment settings and varying pellet burn parameters, that often seem to correspond with more electronic control issues and circuit board problems, it makes me glad I have a low tech but very reliable stove design.

Regarding the E2 issues, I can only guess that there is allot going on behind the scenes at the Quad service / product development end, that we haven't heard about or been privy to. Hopefully Quad will choose a full transparency and full disclosure response, as opposed to burying it under the guise of 'corporate culture' tort concerns and loss / 'damage control'. How they respond as a company, IMO, will determine which 'voice' of their company has the greater say - the customer service / product satisfaction dept, or their legal / loss control dept.

As always, the reason people come to this and other self-help forums is to troubleshoot problems, rarely if ever getting a post on here that says "just checking in - everything's working fine on my stove", so it's tough to gauge how widespread the E2 problems are. But it will be important for Quad to identify if these incidents are the result of inherent design issues, stove setting issues, maintenance issues, or some combination of these.

 

[alternativeheat]

As my profile indicates I love my Quad Castile. I have noticed that on these very cold nights there is quite a lag time heating things back up in the morning so I thought maybe a larger stove might be the answer.
I had seen the Mt. Vernon E2 on display at my local dealer, and I must say I was quite impressed at the fire, and how quiet if was. I was really surprised to read that at least two members here are having very serious issues with these stoves. I sincerely hope Quad gets these issues solved quickly for those members. That's a lot of money to fork over and have those kinds of issues. I think we all at first had a little apprehension going to sleep at night with the new pellet stove running: at least I did. Each new noise had me getting out of bed to double check that everything was ok. Just the thought of exploding glass is mind boggling. Just from a safety point you would think Quad would be all over this!


I hope Quad realizes that people all over are reading these posts, and are having second thoughts about Quad's lack of customer service to those customers, and their safety or maybe I'm just naïve.

Right now I've opted to let my oil burner kick on here and there. With my P61 set on Stove temp level 4 feed rate 4 it is not bad on pellets. Thus far in a 24 hour period the oil burner has kicked on 3 times and the stove holds that heat throughout. The thermostat is set at 72 so we are maintaining that level at least by running the stove in a low moderate burn. When I don't use the central heat ( aka oil), I run the stove much harder, using a lot more pellets and I run it like that 24-7. A pellet stove has very very slow recovery if you want to run the on again off again routine with low temps at night and warm in the day. Basically with a pellet stove you want to maintain a level of heat, never letting it drop out, at least not in the very cold weather we have been experiencing lately. So I suggest, keep the stove jacked up 24-7 or supplement here and there, give it a hand on recovery.. It works very well that way, the oil coming on 3 times ion 24 hours really isn't much of a bang on the oil supply compared to no stove where it would be on once every hour in this kind of cold.

As to the E2, last we heard is bulletins were going out for interum settings on the stove so the glass won't blow till the fix came along. I'd say they are on it.

 

[smalltown]

Thanks both. I really can't complain as from November 12th to January 28 we only used 81 gallons of oil. Our domestic hot water is a zone off of the cold start boiler.
When this unrelenting cold spell really took hold we began supplementing with the oil boiler. Can't remember the last time we were above freezing. We have the Castile going 24x7, but on a programmable thermostat. Our home is a Cape Cod style, and the rooms on the second floor become way to uncomfortable for sleeping so we allow the temperature to drop during the overnight. That's why we play catch up in the morning. I guess I was just on a rant last night thinking that there is nothing better for a company's reputation than good customer service, and nothing worse than the lack of it!

 

[Bkins]

I would never buy a first year/new model stove because they mostly all have issues. JMO

 

[worried grandma]

My daughter just had the glass blow on her's yesterday with 3 of her young children in front of the stove.. SO THANKFUL injuries were minor. What a scare what a mess!
I joined the group today to learn more about the problems with this particular pellet stove... SO SCARY! She posted pictures to Quads FB page. I hope they have a recall and notify owners ASAP Should have been done! Get the issues fixed!

 

[Harmanizer]

My daughter just had the glass blow on her's yesterday with 3 of her young children in front of the stove.. SO THANKFUL injuries were minor. What a scare what a mess!
I joined the group today to learn more about the problems with this particular pellet stove... SO SCARY! She posted pictures to Quads FB page. I hope they have a recall and notify owners ASAP Should have been done! Get the issues fixed!

Holy Crap.

 

[RMongeau]

My daughter just had the glass blow on her's yesterday with 3 of her young children in front of the stove.. SO THANKFUL injuries were minor. What a scare what a mess!
I joined the group today to learn more about the problems with this particular pellet stove... SO SCARY! She posted pictures to Quads FB page. I hope they have a recall and notify owners ASAP Should have been done! Get the issues fixed!

Maybe you could get her to post the pictures here?

 

[BrotherBart]

I see her post on FB but no pictures.

 

[gfreek]

I see her post on FB but no pictures.

I'm sure corporate didn't like that
I see the pic of glass on floor on FB,, need a pic of the door..lucky only minor injuries & the kids are OK.....
Something is terribly wrong here....

 

[bogieb]

My daughter just had the glass blow on her's yesterday with 3 of her young children in front of the stove.. SO THANKFUL injuries were minor. What a scare what a mess!
I joined the group today to learn more about the problems with this particular pellet stove... SO SCARY! She posted pictures to Quads FB page. I hope they have a recall and notify owners ASAP Should have been done! Get the issues fixed!

I hope she is contacting here dealer and corporate; a FB post probably doesn't count as a 'contact", or "notification", Also would be nice if she or you posted the pics here, where they won't disappear.

 

[worried grandma]

This isn't really my issue to post about. I was so shocked and then to find out it's "problem". I have found myself wanting to know more and posted when I saw the thread. So thankful there is little harm to the kids. My daughter has some minor injuries on her feet. I will ask my daughter about posting pictures but time is something she has little. The pictures are still on FB but you need to click on the post to page link to see the entire post and comments.

 

[gfreek]

Also, this is something that should be reported to the CPSC. http://www.cpsc.gov/en/

 

[CrufflerJJ]

Time for a recall.

 

[gfreek]

These are ones we have heard about on this forum. How many others are there that we have not heard of ?? Not a good situation...

 

[Bioburner]

Using big O can get one in a lot of trouble!

 

[riverat]

Quadrafire contacted me and my dealer and other dealers in my area. They told me to keep the fire pot holes cleaned out once a day, running mind everyday monitoring it once a day with the IR gun ,staying consistent with temperatures , just have to wait and see , the tech for Quadrafire couldn't be anymore patient with me making sure I understood everything that was said in the conversation they did stop production and sales of this model

Jeff

 

[worried grandma]

here are a few pictures with my daughter's permission. Two pictures of the debris and one picture taken a short while prior to the blow out.

 

[worried grandma]

Quadrafire contacted me and my dealer and other dealers in my area. They told me to keep the fire pot holes cleaned out once a day, running mind everyday monitoring it once a day with the IR gun ,staying consistent with temperatures , just have to wait and see , the tech for Quadrafire couldn't be anymore patient with me making sure I understood everything that was said in the conversation they did stop production and sales of this model

Jeff

That's fine that they have stopped production " hurray" but how about the ones in homes... A recall should be in order!

 

[RMongeau]

here are a few pictures with my daughter's permission. Two pictures of the debris and one picture taken a short while prior to the blow out.

That is scary.
They are very lucky to have not been hurt.

 

[riverat]

No disrespect but the picture with the young ones lying in front of it sure looks like there is a very hot fire going on in there ? God bless the young ones didn't get hurt bad from the mishap

Jeff

 

[Bioburner]

No disrespect but the picture with the young ones lying in front of it sure looks like there is a very hot fire going on in there ? God bless the young ones didn't get hurt bad from the mishap

Jeff

Over exposure is pretty common photographic issue of fire and if camera has facial recognition even more so. Sure loved when things went digital.

 

[worried grandma]

Over exposure is pretty common photographic issue of fire and if camera has facial recognition even more so. Sure loved when things went digital.

It was a cell phone picture and certainly did not capture a proper exposure of the flame.

 

[alternativeheat]

That's fine that they have stopped production " hurray" but how about the ones in homes... A recall should be in order!

It was a cell phone picture and certainly did not capture a proper exposure of the flame.

It doesn't matter, just the reference of the kids in front of the stove and then the mess will get plenty of attention all on it's own. And as far as it looks like things blew, those kids are lucky they didn't get glass imbedded in them and especially in the eyes.

As far as what should be done, my wife and I both believe people should have options out of these things. Another stove or refund to go buy one that doesn't do this seems logical at this point.

 

[worried grandma]

It doesn't matter, just the reference of the kids in front of the stove and then the mess will get plenty of attention all on it's own. And as far as it looks like things blew, those kids are lucky they didn't get glass imbedded in them and especially in the eyes.

We are SO THANKFUL! The youngest was also where the books and papers are on the floor. The 3 youngest were wrapping gifts for their oldest sister's 8th birthday. The youngest only a year old and only wearing a diaper. God's protection is the only explanation these little ones were spared injury! Now mom being a mom, in mommy mode grabbed the kids and got her feet burned and glass imbedded. She's happy her girls were spared, she barely makes mention of her injuries.