Talked to my dealer about what settings I should use on my Mt Vernon AE. I told him I use manual mode, flame height -2, hardwood setting if using hardwood, softwood if using softwood, and usually heat setting of 2 or 3 because I like to have the stove burn for longer periods of time rather than reach temp quickly then cycle off. Does anyone else do this? He discouraged that, saying that you get a much cleaner burn using heat output settings of 4 or 5 and that the stove was designed to burn on higher settings and cycle on and off rather than burn for long periods on lower settings. I expressed concern about the frequency of the ignitor coming on but he said it is a fact of life on these auto light stoves that ignitors do go bad and they are around $42. Much less than a combustion blower that goes bad from running 24 hours a day.I would like input from those of you who have a thermostat controlled pellet stove and like to burn for long periods of time rather tha n have your stove cranking out the heat and cycling on and off more often.