M55 cast insert. quad mt vernon.. or harman

[Fish On]

Ok love my quad castile but i really should have got a bigger stove at the time.

Its been a great work horse minor repairs nothing crazy and easy to do myself.

Its an insert so I have 25 feet run of 4inch to top. no oak.

So I can now afford a better stove with more BTU and I can't make up my mind.

I have faith in my Quad and really like the Mt vernon, but don't like the auto clean, can I not have it do it by it self?

M55 looks great and nothing but good reviews here.

Harman is a wonderful stove but I kind of like to set it and forget it, not a big fan of knobs and control draft and so on.


Castile is 5 yrs old please help me make a wise choice

 

[jtakeman]

No way to bypass auto clean. Some have found ways to delay it. All 3 stoves are worthy and are front runners.

My vote would be M55 as it will be the least touch unit and should easily go all week(no pot scraping) with just adding fuel. Efficiency numbers are actual EPA tested and not fudged. So 83.5% should net a good 45.9K net.

Did you check prices yet? Also include the Regency GCI60 in your travels which has been seen at a slightly cheaper rate than the M55. Both are made by Sherwood Industries and are identical excepts some exterior details.

Keep us posted!

 

[flynfrfun]

My advice is to show your wife all 3 and let her decide on looks alone If ease of maintenance is important, stick with either the M55 or Harman since they roll out on a rail system. It will take a strong back, family or friends to slide the Mt Vernon out for maintenance ( you probably already know this with your Castile). But I can't help but think the Mt Vernon's heat exchanger might be more efficient than the M55 or Harman. None of them have the best of all worlds which is why I say let the wife decide.

With that said, I really like my M55. Even though I clean it weekly, it is easy to see how it could go a LONG time without touching it. Actually, the ashpan is the limiting factor on how long this stove can go. It is much smaller than what you get with the freestanding version, but even so with the pellets I burn I usually have only a couple of cups worth of ash during my Sunday morning cleanings. I could probably go a month or so if I wanted before the ashpan would be getting full.

Flynfrfun

 

[jtakeman]

The Mt V used to be rated at 60,000 BTU's. I see they have dropped it to 52,460 BTUs, But they don't list the efficiency rating. Harman 52i is 52K BTU @85%(44.2K net) and m55 is 55K @83.5%(45.9K net)

Castile is 34,400 BTUs so any of the 3 will be much more horsepower. flynfrfun "show the spouse" might be the end all.
................................What we suggest may not hold any water after "I like that one" has been said! ..................................

 

[Speed3]

M55 or Mt. Vernon. Flip a coin.

 

[john193]

The Mt V used to be rated at 60,000 BTU's. I see they have dropped it to 52,460 BTUs, But they don't list the efficiency rating. Harman 52i is 52K BTU @85%(44.2K net) and m55 is 55K @83.5%(45.9K net)

Castile is 34,400 BTUs so any of the 3 will be much more horsepower. flynfrfun "show the spouse" might be the end all.
................................What we suggest may not hold any water after "I like that one" has been said! ..................................

The Mt V is rated at 86.5 "average" efficiency, according to their website. About the BTU downgrade, my dealer told me Heart and Home did this to make the 52i look more competitive, and that they actually did not change anything in the Mt Vernon. If you ask me, I dont know how I feel about that.

 

[sante fe]

I like the Harman. Made in the good old USA. M55 is nice also. Have herd of parts issues on the 55.After seeing both I like the Harman better.

 

[jtakeman]

The Mt V is rated at 86.5 "average" efficiency, according to their website. About the BTU downgrade, my dealer told me Heart and Home did this to make the 52i look more competitive, and that they actually did not change anything in the Mt Vernon. If you ask me, I dont know how I feel about that.

Thats interesting, I don't get it. May make it fair for Harman, Sure kind of throws Quad under the bus! Harman should of made a 60i if they wanted to be competitive!

 

[jtakeman]

I like the Harman. Made in the good old USA. M55 is nice also. Have herd of parts issues on the 55.After seeing both I like the Harman better.

Not a parts issue, M55 was released a bit too soon. Over heating bugs, They were making too much heat(Over 70K with certain pellets).

 

[stayfitz]

Thats interesting, I don't get it. May make it fair for Harman, Sure kind of throws Quad under the bus! Harman should of made a 60i if they wanted to be competitive!

Plus, the Harman P52i manual references a 5 lbs per hour max burn... Therefore, their BTU figures are way off, unless 5 lbs is a typo

Get the Enviro M55 or Regency GCI60

 

[MountainSean]

I like the M55. The AE has too many little parts that can go wrong and the price of parts for it rival Enviro who has probably the most expensive replacement parts line up in the industry. I tend to be cautious of any brand new stove so I would probably avoid the 52i until it has been out for a year or two and seen real world use.

The problems the M55 had were overheating due to a pellet size quirk causing it to crank out heat like nobodies business, which has been solved with a hopper adjuster. The second problem was with the convection blowers burning themselves out, which has been fixed with a new upgraded convection blower.

The AE had it's quirks and problems too at release but since I am not pushing that stove I won't go into details.