I've got 5 seasons on my current stove and it has been a huge PITA. Stove is a little free standing unit built by Grain Stoves Inc in Ontario, Canada. I've replaced the main combustion blower 4 times, the solid state auger/fan timer twice, and the shear undependableness of it "the stove is out again".
My exhaust piping is only about 5ft and the pipe fills up with fine ash terribly, needing to be vacuumed out every 4 to 6 weeks or it will choke the fire out (we still clean the clinker daily and vac the stove weekly).
I need a recommendation of a replacement that isn't gonna burn all the savings of burning corn on replacement parts and can do a better job of keeping it's own chimney clean.

First off, welcome Olddaze! This could get interresting. I am burning an '04 model Harman PC45. Burn corn and pellets, but all pellets this year. Burning this stove hard from Oct/Nov, when ever it gets cold enough, thru April, for 7 seasons so far. Only thing I had to do was just replaced the igniter last month and replace a couple of stir rods. Very trouble free stove and puts out great heat!

I would say this is as close to plug and play as you get. I have a long vent pipe going over a doorway and out the wall. I clean it 2 times during the burning season and at the end of the spring. With pellets, I don't have to empty the ashes but once a ton has burned or do anything else except knock a little ash off the exchangers once in a while. Would I buy this stove again, absolutely!

everybody will have their favorite and good reasons for it being their favorite. But we are all different and our needs are different.
To some people a small ash pan or a small hopper is not important nor is a thermostat or auto ignition.
To some people a box store stove works fine. Others insist on a dealer and warranty support.
I like a stove that has a large hopper and a large ash bucket so I don't have to babysit it all the time. I also want it to be dependable and be fairly easy to fix so I am not stuck with having to depend on a dealer to fix it. I also want a stove that can be controlled by a thermostat so I am not wasting fuel. I also want a stove that is multi-fuel and stays running 24/7 with not a lot of excuses.
I own a Bixby which is 5 years old and I put two igniters in it and a set of bearings in the convection fan. You can buy a new one for 2000.00 on E-bay. No warranty but Bixby wanted close to 4,000.00 for it 3 years ago.
Like I said above we all have preferences.

welcome Olddaze

My requirements are the same as Rona's with the biggest thing being multi-fuel so I can grow my own fuel. Fill it up, clean once in a great while, and know the house is going to be warm. Most of the time warmer then it needs to be. Bixby has filled that task for the last two years and starting on the third.

My hopper size (about 10 gallon of corn), weekly combustion chamber cleanings, daily clinker cleanings, even running the corn through the Sur-Clean I don't mind. I guess the biggest thing I find under built on this stove and many like it is the combustion blower. It's basically a little circulating blower and doesn't have anywhere near enough umph to move any wayward ash outside and any ash that hangs a right instead of a left destroys the motor bushings. Bushings, I guess that's what I'm getting at. that motor should be bigger and have bearings.
My buddy is a wood burning kinda guy and has a US Stove down in his basement. That thing has a blower twice the size of mine and he cleans his chimney once a year.
Oh, and in 5 years he hasn't had to put anything into his stove but wood. Makes it kinda hard to tout the benefits of corn burning to him.

I think my AES Countryside 3500P (P=pedestal) is 10 years old. It runs constantly from the first cold days in the fall, about October, into May, when we want some heat. Up to a couple of years ago when the price of corn got too high (for burning) I have burned wood pellets. Still running the original motors. I did replace the contol board due to a fluke cold solder joint that I repaired and so I have a backup. I did replace a couple of stirrers when I was using the stirrer pot but for some years I've run a home built clinker pot. The thing works so good that my wife shuts the stove down and re-lights it.

It runs the majority of the time on the #1 burn rate and in colder weather on #2 and #3 (out of 5). The exhaust goes straight out the front of the house and has an outside air intake to the stove. The hopper holds about 1-1/2 bushel and the ash pan can hold a couple of weeks worth of ash/clinkers. Running the stirrer pot filled the ash pan quicker when burning corn.

Still using the original backer board. I've been using a leaf blower to vacuum the exhaust every couple of months. Open up the stove and place the leaf blower air intake up to the exhaust pipe and suck the ash/soot out. Blow downwind

Olddaze, there is a big difference between the wood burning stove and a pellet/corn stove. To my knowledge there is no such thing as a power vent on a wood burning stove. They rely on sufficient heat loss up the stack to clear creosote, and since their stacks are vertical with minor bends they usually have little soot to clean. I assume the blower on your buddy's stove is the room blower. These can vary in strength depending on model and manufacturer.

The combustion blower on the pellet/corn stove is totally different. Properly engineered, they change speed with different heat settings to provide better combustion and less heat loss out the stack. All power vent stoves have soot accumulations eventually. Speed up the blower to blast soot out, and so goes your heat with it. Chances are you wouldn't be able to maintain a burn. This actually happened to me. My first furnace was US Stove which I bought about six years ago, and it went back to the store within a week of buying it. Either the draft blower was too strong or it leaked air, but what it would do is burn the initial fuel quickly on startup and then flood the pot. Even with the factory's help, the draft couldn't be cut to continue the burn, so it went back to the store and sat right next to another returned model. I figured at that time US Stove hadn't worked the bugs out of it.

After that I bought AES magnum line, a furnace and their baby stove. I did have trouble with the baby combustion blower slowing down and not even starting at times. Soot did accumulate, but it wasn't the soot that was the problem; it was the motor bearings dried out. I took the motor apart and reoiled the bearings and resolved the problem.

The bearings were non oilable bushings. and I agree with you they should be ball bearings. Good luck finding them on a stove. I no longer have the baby stove, but had I kept it, I would have made my own oilers somehow, probably with hobby shop tubing.

For soot accumulation, Tallcorn is right about the leaf blower. I bought a Toro electric just for that purpose, since it comes with a pickup tube that you can adapt with a plumbing fitting to go right on the exhaust. For every day soot maintenence, try tapping the exhaust chamber lightly with a tool. It can knock loose soot down before it bridges.

Have AES 3500P also. 2001 year model. Replaced exhaust and room motor only so far. Use stirrer pot with 60-40 corn/mix. My take after looking at the forum is that the 3500 is more of a bullet proof type stove. Although other stoves look the same, I think the quality built in is the real test over time. (No I am not a salesman) If you look at the stove manufacturer on this forum may give you a good idea of the problems and comments on various stoves. I have looked a the Big Box, F/F, Menards, etc stoves and when I look at the firebox, and shaft sizes, stirrer, and inside at the layout I usually go away shrugging my head. (Could be wrong). Also since corn prices are going over the hill and pellets stable lately you might lean to a better corn/pellet stove setup or a straight pellet stove. (I have seen some pellet stoves up here and they seem to work OK but no real feel for them). My take is to buy as simple a machine (No igniter, no varible controls, etc) I like as simple a machine as I can get from a maintainence and clean stand point.

Oops, forgot to mention I have replaced the stirrer bushings (slight pain until you do it one or two times. I have also found a good sourse of surplus parts for the stove and have them on hand instead of having to buy if need them. (Availability of parts and service is a plus on any stove.

I have found that the best stoves are your name brands. the box stoves are cheaper for alot of reasons. How ever it is the stove that fits my needs and I understand my self how it works and if it is not running to my satifaction I will now it right away and fix it my self or if your not into fixing ,Than it's all ways nicer to have dealer as a close friend. Not to fun having a red tractor in a green town when you need parts etc.