Our Quadrafire Mt Vernon AE insert

[RollinRidge]

has now been installed (6 weeks ahead of original estimate). Hooray! Love it! (Especially getting up at 5:30 am and walking into the living room and seeing/feeling a nice toasty fire.) We decided to go with having the supplier do the install and they were extremely efficient, professional and made every effort as far as cleanliness on our carpet. They put down 3 different layers of coverings. I wasn't home but my DH was - and to have him say how good a job they did is a major thing. The insert is easier than we thought as far as programming and daily maintenance-very user friendly. The blower seems louder than it did at the showroom but I don't think there is anything that can be done about it. We were told that we would occasionally have to "push" the pellets down in the hopper cause they have a tendency to get somewhat "clogged". Have seen that happen (the little icon comes on). And so far we're burning just pellets-have corn to mix just haven't figured out the logistics of that part yet. Otherwise everything seems to be running smoothly.
On the "mixing" part-somewhat off topic though. We have all of our bags stored in our detached garage off the floor. I'd like to find something "decorative" so to speak to put a couple of bags (loose) into that we could put in the living room (also to be able to mix). We could use a scoop to fill the hopper. Our house is more on the casual side. Was thinking about a wine barrel or some sort of wooden storage box?...does anyone have any suggestions?
thanks
Ridgley

 

[hardwood715]

They sell them half wine barrels at some landscaping places, I use one for keeping a hose in outside in the courtyard of one of our residences, at home I use a barrel that nails come in at the hardware store, its a slat barrel, I just stained and polyed it, I actually use it to put umbrellas in - in the entrance portico, breezeway, or whatever you call that little room in the doorway!

 

[begreen]

Hey congratualtions Ridgley, this is the new Mt. Vernon, yes? Please keep us posted on how it works for you. Yours is the first report from the field. Fans always seem a lot noisier when away from the noisy showrooms that mask the sound. What speed are you running it on? Yes, when the pellet stove becomes an insert the hopper has to be lowered and flattened which creates a somewhat shallower bin for the pellets. Normally they make the pellet bin with steeper sides so that gravity keeps pushing them down towards the auger. The pellets in the shallower sloped, insert bin may need a nudge. We habitually did this a couple times a day with the 1200i, but they may have improved the design on the Mt. Vernon. A trick that helps is to car wax the sides of the bin. Or they can be sprayed with silicone to keep them slipperier.

Here's a thread to look at re: pellet storage near the stove suggesting a coal hod. The nice thing about that is you can pour right out of it. But there are other ideas including a Rubbermaid pet food bin or you could store pellets in an old copper boiler. This is what we have for kindling. It has a lid and looks nice in the living room. Do a search on eBay for "Copper Boiler" to find them.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/4441/

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

NICE. excited to hear one of the first reports on the new AE pellet stove.

 

[RollinRidge]

Yes this is the new fangled (lol) Mt Vernon. It really is nifty-but I also love the look of it. Originally we were told they were back ordered until after Jan 1 but the store was still waiting for 1 of their pre-orders which they sold to us. Installers said they only know of 3 in my area (South Jersey/Phila).
DH is cleaning the glass every day and cleaning out the "pellet" dust-we also should look for a little vac. (I checked out the Cheetah's but they are way over our $$$ range).
I am finding that we are setting the tem at 76 for the evenings-I don't think it's that warm where we sit but prob have drafts that disrupt the hot air. We had this problem with our oil baseboard heat too-setting it higher than we think we should. We have a 2 zone heat and I've completed turned off the heat for the front part of the house. (It's only a 3 br ranch).
I like the idea of the copper container-I already have copper in the room-so now I'm off to surf...
Ridgley

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Ohh i forgot to mention, polish the hopper with 00, 000, 0000 steel wool and the pellets will slide right on down.

 

[begreen]

Good tip! I forgot that one.