New and need help with a Mt. Vernon pellet.

[dreedster]

Well, where to begin. A couple guys from work have been running pellet stoves for years and I got sucked into it. After shopping around, I decided on a Quad Castile. This had issues warming my house when it was just 24 out, so out it came and in went a Mt. Vernon AE. Almost all auto-magic so how could I go wrong??? Well, here's how.

1. It is always running on high-blower whether it is at high or low on the temp range. High on the blower is loud... since it is the AE, there's no switch setting.

2. Flame height is dancing too high (12") even when I throttled it down to -5. This the same whether it is set to "utility" or "premium" pellets.

Ideas or answers would be greatly appreciated. Oh yes... I called Quadrafire and they said it could be a software issue or perhaps a controller. The stove does not have an outside air kit, is burning HD premium pellets and is brand new (not a demo). The TC was .75" into the firepot and I just adjusted it in by another .125" incase it didn't sense the true fire temp.

Don

 

[jtp10181]

Have the dealer come do a software upgrade on the thermostat. Its possible you have one of the units with the old fuel tables. Quad released an update CD and USB cord to hook up the stat and upgrade the fuel tables to fix flame hieght and burning quality problems. I have not had the chance to use one of these myself so I am not sure how the blower is normally supposed to operate so I can't help you there.

 

[dreedster]

Thanks man... it is much appreciated. I'll get the dealer here for the latest software upgrade... that they should have done on install. Thanks again.

Don

 

[jtp10181]

They might be able to tell by the serial number if it has it already. The update was a month ago or so, but units can sometimes sit in the RDC or someones warehouse for months. Also, they might have not even gotten the USB update kit yet. I have not ordered mine yet.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

heck i havent even orderd the AE stoves yet. I suppose when i do, i will order the cable with them.

 

[dreedster]

They might be able to tell by the serial number if it has it already. The update was a month ago or so, but units can sometimes sit in the RDC or someones warehouse for months. Also, they might have not even gotten the USB update kit yet. I have not ordered mine yet.

Well, my dealer is the biggest in Maine with supposedly 2 service guys to cover the state. I do not know how true it is, but that was what I was told. Out of the 2, only one knows how to do the software upgrade. He has replaced 6 boards so far and did the upgrade to about 10. My stove had been sitting in their warehouse for a couple months and I have no reason to believe that they are proactive from what I have seen. On low, I get 8-10in flames constaintly... about perfect if it was screaming on high. Thanks for the info guys... it is much appreciated.

Don

 

[R & L Huro]

Buyer beware: We had a MT Vernon Pellet stove installed March of 2005. On April 4th 2007 we had a Fire in the hopper of our unit. the censors that are to shot down the system failed which resulted in the fire in the hopper. We has serious smoke damage in our home. We are unable to live in it. Thank God we had insurance but even at that we are still out a look! This company has not offered up anything to cover the loss of our home or personnal property damage to to smoke. They did offer a new stove but only if they could take the old stove. This matter will most certainly end up in the legal system.
NEVER EVER LET STOVE BURN WHEN YOUR NOT HOME

 

[jtp10181]

This thread is about a Mt Vernon AE, which is not what you have since it was not out in 2005. Also hopper fires are usually caused by lack of maintenance, in which the entire burn pot fills with ash/clinkers/unburnt fuel. It keeps filling all the way up the drop tube. It would have to burn up the drop tube then down the auger and then it could start the hopper pellets on fire. There would not be much O2 under all the pellets to even sustain a fire. Not saying it didn't happen, just seems like it would be a rare case.

 

[Jabberwocky]

This thread is about a Mt Vernon AE, which is not what you have since it was not out in 2005. Also hopper fires are usually caused by lack of maintenance, in which the entire burn pot fills with ash/clinkers/unburnt fuel. It keeps filling all the way up the drop tube. It would have to burn up the drop tube then down the auger and then it could start the hopper pellets on fire. There would not be much O2 under all the pellets to even sustain a fire. Not saying it didn't happen, just seems like it would be a rare case.

Yes, the Mt Vernon is brand new and flame height would not necessarily cause a hopper fire as any pellet stove owner would know. The pellets are usually fed in the mid to lower regions of the flame. So there is nothing intrinsic
to the Mt Vernon that would make it prone to do this.

I had a hopper fire before in my Thelin and I think it was due to sawdust coming down the shoot (I think I had a bad batch of pellets.) Also, due to the lack of O2 in the hopper it just smouldered out real quick, left the house stinky for a day but that was it.

 

[Jabberwocky]

This matter will most certainly end up in the legal system.
NEVER EVER LET STOVE BURN WHEN YOUR NOT HOME

If you don't even know what model of stove you own, sounds like you are going to lose.

 

[mgambuzza]

Sorry to hear about the stove - I was considering a Mt Vernon earlier this year to replace my Thelin, but saw too many posts regarding software upgrades and autoclean issues that changed my decision. I called some of my other local dealers and only a handful had the older version of the Mt Vernon that seems to have a better track record. Hopefully the software upgrade will resolve your issues as I did like many of the features and improvements that it seemed to offer.

On the pellet fires - I also find that amazing. I own a Quad Castile, Thelin Parlor and Harman P61 and the least likely of the bunch to have a hopper fire would be the Quad. The Thelin and Harman seem to have close to almost direct access to pellets in the hopper if burn pot backs up (I've come close to that with the Thelin when my air ratio was not set correctly). For the Quad - that fire would have one heck of a route to travel before it gets to the hopper and if full I would think it would extinguish before it got to the hopper. There have been times where I've had trouble enough getting a fire to start in the Castile - let alone that fire traveling that far into the system - I guess there's a first time for everything.