Quad Mt Vernon AE autoclean design flawed in so many ways

[FordMastertech]

I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

On the fire boxes floor where the fire pot attaches directly to the left and right of the fire pot where the 1/4 inch bolts, 7/16 head, are there is a 6 or so inch seam where the stoves side walls meet. I always had fly ash that was blowing from a couple of areas at these seams. I just cleaned up the stove real clean and used a Scotch Britte pad to remove the grime, wet the area with water and applied a bead of high temp 2100 degree black Rutland stove cement I got from Home Depot from the front of the baffle plate to the front of the floor where the door is. I let it set up for several hours and started with a slow burn. Just follow directions on the caulking tube the stuff comes in. How long this lasts is to be determined but so far so good. I could try to take a picture but the stove is running right now. I would have to clean the fly ash off the floor to get a picture, maybe over the weekend when it warms up. Also make sure the burn pot holes are clean, I use a drill bit to clean mine out.

wow shiney....was that taken while still new?

Not my stove but it was one of the many pictures I found online when the MT Vernon AE was just coming out. I never even saw or touched one before I ordered it but there was info and pictures like this out there if you knew where to look.

 

[maglite67]

The auto clean is great. Just because the stove auto cleans does not mean you don't have to clean the burn pot. Your owners manual will say check it daily. The fuel your burning is probably the problem. I burned corn with 18% moisture same problem as you. I got 13% no problems cleaned dropped emptied ash pan every 3 days. Pellets every 2 weeks other brands every week. The springs get damaged from ash pan fires linked to poor maintenance. If your stove has unburnt pellets due to a missed ignition because you ran out of fuel then you dump pellets in and fire it the pellets burn in ash pan causing springs to loose tension. I scrap the clinker off every 3-4 weeks no problems. Only way to by-pass auto clean is to run on a battery.

 

[smoke show]

I got rid of the manual clean, for the AE. No problems, no clinkers, and no regrets. I clean my ash pan and vac it out once a week. Try a better pellet.

That succinctly describes my stove as well. My family loves it.

exactly I've been burning for three seasons and never even seen a clinker.

 

[BIGISLANDHIKERS]

I got rid of the manual clean, for the AE. No problems, no clinkers, and no regrets. I clean my ash pan and vac it out once a week. Try a better pellet.

That succinctly describes my stove as well. My family loves it.

exactly I've been burning for three seasons and never even seen a clinker.

Pellets or corn?

 

[smoke show]

when using high elevation is the combustion blower any louder?

 

[smoke show]

I got rid of the manual clean, for the AE. No problems, no clinkers, and no regrets. I clean my ash pan and vac it out once a week. Try a better pellet.

That succinctly describes my stove as well. My family loves it.

exactly I've been burning for three seasons and never even seen a clinker.

Pellets or corn?

canadian softwoods

 

[BIGISLANDHIKERS]

I got rid of the manual clean, for the AE. No problems, no clinkers, and no regrets. I clean my ash pan and vac it out once a week. Try a better pellet.

That succinctly describes my stove as well. My family loves it.

exactly I've been burning for three seasons and never even seen a clinker.

Pellets or corn?

canadian softwoods

I wish we could get softwood here. The few bags I did burn were great and no clinkers.

 

[jtp10181]

No one ever cleans the showroom display. That's been working for a few years now. They practically heat the showroom with it all winter.

 

[FordMastertech]

tsmith
I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

Pictures of what I sealed, floor to side wall of fire box. Hope this helps.
FMT

 

[tsmith]

tsmith
I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

Pictures of what I sealed, floor to side wall of fire box. Hope this helps.
FMT

So doing this helped eliminate the clinkers as well as replacing the springs? I am still getting clinkers sticking to pot sides and not dumping, also unburned pellets in ash pan. I am trying corn setting tonight to try adding fewer pellets to pot, but I will have 20 minute igniter on times now. :coolgrin: Also does anybody now the size of the springs, length and diameter, i would like to buy someplace other than a quad dealer, to get them cheaper.

 

[FordMastertech]

tsmith
I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

Pictures of what I sealed, floor to side wall of fire box. Hope this helps.
FMT

So doing this helped eliminate the clinkers as well as replacing the springs? I am still getting clinkers sticking to pot sides and not dumping, also unburned pellets in ash pan. I am trying corn setting tonight to try adding fewer pellets to pot, but I will have 20 minute igniter on times now. :coolgrin: Also does anybody now the size of the springs, length and diameter, i would like to buy someplace other than a quad dealer, to get them cheaper.

It did help, I do get fluffy ash build up on the sides of the burn pot but it doesn't effect anything. I am using the auto setting, sunflower seeds and high elevation at this time so I think the fluff is from the lower burn rate on the auto setting as it gets closer to the thermostats set temperature. I never really liked the auto setting because it seemed to take to long to get the house up to temps I wanted. I am running it now with a 2 degree differential and a thermostat temp set at 71 the house is more comfortable due to the stove running longer at a lower setting. It also helps with the start ups and shut downs thus saving the igniter.
Keep messing with the settings but allow some time to see the results.
I can't remember where or what the springs were off of but I really didn't look around anywhere except my junk pails to find something that would work. As far as measurements you would have to remove one of the good ones to check it out, CRS syndrome happing here. The Quad springs weren't that expensive $12.00 set of 4.

 

[PelletRat]

This is my third season with my AE and still on my first igniter. Even thought the AE is designed to burn just about anything I find that it may be necessary to make adjustments to some pellets.
I've read on several forums that people don't like Freedom Fuel from Home Depot. I personally love softwood pellets due to the high heat output and low dust. I started burning these this season but it seems that when the stove is running on low you’ll get clinkers in the bottom of the pot and they will also stick to the side wall. I set my flame height to -5 on the softwood setting which is the longest burn cycle of any of the choices.

By the way FF Pellets says 100% Softwood on the bag but they do have corn in their pellets and we all know that if the sugar is not burnt properly/completely it will cause clinkers.

My biggest problem has been with the thermostat which has been replaced 5 times and still has issues.

 

[kilbury]

We have an AE in the showroom and never have trouble with anything hangin up in it. Unless we don't empty the ashpan. I would say that ours gets abused and misused. If you want a true workhorse that doesn't shut down to clean and igniters don't burn out check these out, www.fahrenheittech.com. I can honestly say we do nothing with it including empty the ashpan for a month straight. Definately a misused machine in our store but it just keeps on going.

 

[tsmith]

tsmith
I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

Pictures of what I sealed, floor to side wall of fire box. Hope this helps.
FMT

So doing this helped eliminate the clinkers as well as replacing the springs? I am still getting clinkers sticking to pot sides and not dumping, also unburned pellets in ash pan. I am trying corn setting tonight to try adding fewer pellets to pot, but I will have 20 minute igniter on times now. :coolgrin: Also does anybody now the size of the springs, length and diameter, i would like to buy someplace other than a quad dealer, to get them cheaper.

It did help, I do get fluffy ash build up on the sides of the burn pot but it doesn't effect anything. I am using the auto setting, sunflower seeds and high elevation at this time so I think the fluff is from the lower burn rate on the auto setting as it gets closer to the thermostats set temperature. I never really liked the auto setting because it seemed to take to long to get the house up to temps I wanted. I am running it now with a 2 degree differential and a thermostat temp set at 71 the house is more comfortable due to the stove running longer at a lower setting. It also helps with the start ups and shut downs thus saving the igniter.
Keep messing with the settings but allow some time to see the results.
I can't remember where or what the springs were off of but I really didn't look around anywhere except my junk pails to find something that would work. As far as measurements you would have to remove one of the good ones to check it out, CRS syndrome happing here. The Quad springs weren't that expensive $12.00 set of 4.

How much stiffer where the springs you put in? I bought some today at the hardware store, but looking at whats in there, I think these are much stiffer, do you think this will cause a problem with the pot floor sliding? Also how did you replace them, from through the ashpan area or did you remove the burn pot? Thanks again for your help.

 

[FordMastertech]

tsmith
I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

Pictures of what I sealed, floor to side wall of fire box. Hope this helps.
FMT

So doing this helped eliminate the clinkers as well as replacing the springs? I am still getting clinkers sticking to pot sides and not dumping, also unburned pellets in ash pan. I am trying corn setting tonight to try adding fewer pellets to pot, but I will have 20 minute igniter on times now. :coolgrin: Also does anybody now the size of the springs, length and diameter, i would like to buy someplace other than a quad dealer, to get them cheaper.

It did help, I do get fluffy ash build up on the sides of the burn pot but it doesn't effect anything. I am using the auto setting, sunflower seeds and high elevation at this time so I think the fluff is from the lower burn rate on the auto setting as it gets closer to the thermostats set temperature. I never really liked the auto setting because it seemed to take to long to get the house up to temps I wanted. I am running it now with a 2 degree differential and a thermostat temp set at 71 the house is more comfortable due to the stove running longer at a lower setting. It also helps with the start ups and shut downs thus saving the igniter.
Keep messing with the settings but allow some time to see the results.
I can't remember where or what the springs were off of but I really didn't look around anywhere except my junk pails to find something that would work. As far as measurements you would have to remove one of the good ones to check it out, CRS syndrome happing here. The Quad springs weren't that expensive $12.00 set of 4.

How much stiffer where the springs you put in? I bought some today at the hardware store, but looking at whats in there, I think these are much stiffer, do you think this will cause a problem with the pot floor sliding? Also how did you replace them, from through the ash pan area or did you remove the burn pot? Thanks again for your help.

The springs I used weren't real stiff but stiffer than the original Quad springs. The easiest way is to remove the burn pot but you will need to get a new burn pot gasket for around $36.00. I did it through the ash pan but it was a real PITA to get the clips back in the burn pot floor rails. Stiffer springs will help the scraping of the burn pot floor and you can pin the springs a little loose by installing the clip through the spring instead of on top of it thus leaving a little extra spring for future adjustments if needed.

 

[tsmith]

tsmith
I’m not sure what you are referring to when you say about sealing up the sides where the floor meets the side of the stove, could you maybe explain this to me a little better? Thanks.

Pictures of what I sealed, floor to side wall of fire box. Hope this helps.
FMT

So doing this helped eliminate the clinkers as well as replacing the springs? I am still getting clinkers sticking to pot sides and not dumping, also unburned pellets in ash pan. I am trying corn setting tonight to try adding fewer pellets to pot, but I will have 20 minute igniter on times now. :coolgrin: Also does anybody now the size of the springs, length and diameter, i would like to buy someplace other than a quad dealer, to get them cheaper.

It did help, I do get fluffy ash build up on the sides of the burn pot but it doesn't effect anything. I am using the auto setting, sunflower seeds and high elevation at this time so I think the fluff is from the lower burn rate on the auto setting as it gets closer to the thermostats set temperature. I never really liked the auto setting because it seemed to take to long to get the house up to temps I wanted. I am running it now with a 2 degree differential and a thermostat temp set at 71 the house is more comfortable due to the stove running longer at a lower setting. It also helps with the start ups and shut downs thus saving the igniter.
Keep messing with the settings but allow some time to see the results.
I can't remember where or what the springs were off of but I really didn't look around anywhere except my junk pails to find something that would work. As far as measurements you would have to remove one of the good ones to check it out, CRS syndrome happing here. The Quad springs weren't that expensive $12.00 set of 4.

How much stiffer where the springs you put in? I bought some today at the hardware store, but looking at whats in there, I think these are much stiffer, do you think this will cause a problem with the pot floor sliding? Also how did you replace them, from through the ash pan area or did you remove the burn pot? Thanks again for your help.

The springs I used weren't real stiff but stiffer than the original Quad springs. The easiest way is to remove the burn pot but you will need to get a new burn pot gasket for around $36.00. I did it through the ash pan but it was a real PITA to get the clips back in the burn pot floor rails. Stiffer springs will help the scraping of the burn pot floor and you can pin the springs a little loose by installing the clip through the spring instead of on top of it thus leaving a little extra spring for future adjustments if needed.

i am going to attempt this on Saturday when i have a lot of time to work on it. I'll let ya how it goes, I just replaced the burn pot and gasket so I will be working through the ash pan, Yippee 8-/

 

[tsmith]

I read in the manual that if you have trouble with pellet clinkers sticking to the pot sides to switch to utility pellet setting. I did that yesterday and it seems to have stopped my problem. It cleans sooner and is not allowing a clinker to form. i am also getting a nice flame and heat from it.

 

[FordMastertech]

I read in the manual that if you have trouble with pellet clinkers sticking to the pot sides to switch to utility pellet setting. I did that yesterday and it seems to have stopped my problem. It cleans sooner and is not allowing a clinker to form. i am also getting a nice flame and heat from it.

The only problem with using the utility pellet setting is the frequent start, stop and more use of the igniter.
Have you tried the sunflower setting yet?
Softwood will give the longest burn time before auto clean, around 3.2 hours in the highest setting. Next would be sunflower seeds and corn at around 2.4 hours then hardwood at around 2.1 hours. After that wheat runs around 1.8 and utility pellet runs around 1.2 hours. All these run times are in the manual 5 setting and will be longer in the lower settings and on auto.
I have been running mine in sunflower seeds and high elevation and just recently have been trying the auto setting with a 2 degree room temp differential. So far is has been holding the temp swings in the house a little better running it this way. Before that I was using the manual 2,3 or 4 depending on outside temps and a 1.5 degree room temp differential. Running it in high elevation has allowed me to get my flame height settings closer to the 0 setting, before this I was always at -5 to keep the flame height down. I will have to see if the auto setting will keep the house warm in the real cold weather, time will tell.

 

[tsmith]

I read in the manual that if you have trouble with pellet clinkers sticking to the pot sides to switch to utility pellet setting. I did that yesterday and it seems to have stopped my problem. It cleans sooner and is not allowing a clinker to form. i am also getting a nice flame and heat from it.

The only problem with using the utility pellet setting is the frequent start, stop and more use of the igniter.
Have you tried the sunflower setting yet?
Softwood will give the longest burn time before auto clean, around 3.2 hours in the highest setting. Next would be sunflower seeds and corn at around 2.4 hours then hardwood at around 2.1 hours. After that wheat runs around 1.8 and utility pellet runs around 1.2 hours. All these run times are in the manual 5 setting and will be longer in the lower settings and on auto.
I have been running mine in sunflower seeds and high elevation and just recently have been trying the auto setting with a 2 degree room temp differential. So far is has been holding the temp swings in the house a little better running it this way. Before that I was using the manual 2,3 or 4 depending on outside temps and a 1.5 degree room temp differential. Running it in high elevation has allowed me to get my flame height settings closer to the 0 setting, before this I was always at -5 to keep the flame height down. I will have to see if the auto setting will keep the house warm in the real cold weather, time will tell.

i had used sunflower, the only problem was that setting dumps the most fuel in the pot and hamer pellets are very dense, so I need less dumped at one time in the pot. Corn and utility have the slowest feed rate and using corn setting would clean as much as utility but the ignitor would stay on much longer than needed. So for the rest of this year i will use utility and next year i am going with Turman pellets.

 

[FordMastertech]

I read in the manual that if you have trouble with pellet clinkers sticking to the pot sides to switch to utility pellet setting. I did that yesterday and it seems to have stopped my problem. It cleans sooner and is not allowing a clinker to form. i am also getting a nice flame and heat from it.

The only problem with using the utility pellet setting is the frequent start, stop and more use of the igniter.
Have you tried the sunflower setting yet?
Softwood will give the longest burn time before auto clean, around 3.2 hours in the highest setting. Next would be sunflower seeds and corn at around 2.4 hours then hardwood at around 2.1 hours. After that wheat runs around 1.8 and utility pellet runs around 1.2 hours. All these run times are in the manual 5 setting and will be longer in the lower settings and on auto.
I have been running mine in sunflower seeds and high elevation and just recently have been trying the auto setting with a 2 degree room temp differential. So far is has been holding the temp swings in the house a little better running it this way. Before that I was using the manual 2,3 or 4 depending on outside temps and a 1.5 degree room temp differential. Running it in high elevation has allowed me to get my flame height settings closer to the 0 setting, before this I was always at -5 to keep the flame height down. I will have to see if the auto setting will keep the house warm in the real cold weather, time will tell.

i had used sunflower, the only problem was that setting dumps the most fuel in the pot and hamer pellets are very dense, so I need less dumped at one time in the pot. Corn and utility have the slowest feed rate and using corn setting would clean as much as utility but the ignitor would stay on much longer than needed. So for the rest of this year i will use utility and next year i am going with Turman pellets.

I have also found that problem using the Hammer pellets I have, they are real small sized, dense and the stove goes through them like mad. I have been mixing them 2/3 Stove Chow 1/3 Hammers and the heat output is like the Hammers but they last like the Stove Chow. Maybe buy some cheap shoulder season pellets and mix them until the hammers are gone.
I wish this stove had more control over the pellet feed rates.