I had emailed the company in regards to the fact that I hadn't seen the 7500 in their product list, and they claim it was discontinued a couple of years ago.
Anyone know why that was? I don't think the 6500 which is still in product is able to produce the same amount of btu's that the 7500 did.

Tim,
Thank you for getting back to me. I have a local dealer about 10 miles from me who I'll stop in to see. I'd like to take a look at one of these units and to see what he charges. I have to agree though 7k is pretty steep in price. I'll query him on installation,but I'm hesitant on his installations. The neighbor across the road,his brother had this dealer put in a pellet/corn burner of some type which went bad. We're talking a 700k house,huge insurance bill,lawsuit etc. So I want to be sure there isn't anything complicated about the set-up.
As for the calculations I'm sure CB could help with that when the time to buy comes. I was just thinking the bigger the better,the more hot water you get through the heat exchanger, the faster you get the house heated.
I did take a look at the CB site and found there parts list,absent any prices. I see the insulated pipe comes in rolls from 100ft. to 300ft. I'm surprised not to see any inquiries on this web site for anyone that might want to sell what they had left over. I'm sure I'd be looking at no more than 30 ft. That's with the unit close to the back side of the house.

Yes it certainly sounds like maybe my next way to go. Although the AES magnum 7500 is running just fine tonight,knock on wood! Hopefully maybe the price will come down to a more realistic range.

The only downside to all this pellet/corn burning is once you have something that works,you're kind of out of the market for a number of years. You don't keep up with technology and what's out there. These furnaces are nice and all, but I've never seen anything in print as to how long they're expected to last.
I know my old Duo-Matic oil,wood,coal burner was going strong at 27 years. Whether you can get that out of a Maxim, I don't know.
Thanks for the input.

I don't think you can ever burn without getting the window sooted up. I know it always soots up on my 7500 regardless if I burn pellets or corn. Every two days I do shut it down for an hour to cool down and I give it a cleaning. While I do that a quick wipe of the glass with 0000 steelwool cleans the glass nicely. I don't think the soot on the glass bothers anything, it's strictly a cosmetic thing.

jimbob,
How and why did the dealer set the static pressure? When I installed my 7500 I played with the intake of outside air and the two slide plates under the door until I got a nice clean flame and have never looked back. Are you saying I could even get a better burn out of my 7500 than what I have should I look into "static pressure"???
Thanks

I've been reading all the posts on the 250, and it appears for the most part everyone is happy with their purchase. As always, there are a few questions that come to mind during one's reading of the posts.

1. There seems to be a big issue with setting the draft on these units as many folks have reported about "melting" stirrers. Is the draft setting that big an issue with these units?

2. Many folks have done the installations themselves. I've even reviewed a clip on Youtube about installation which reinforces the idea of the do-it-yourself project. Yet there have been a few posts which elude to the issue of using the correct size insulated pipe and pumps (gpm rates). It appears the common pipe size is 1 inch. 1 1/2 was mentioned, but I have yet to see were anything other than 1 inch is offered by the manufacturer or talked about in detail on the forum.
With that said, the post I read suggested to rely on a good experienced dealer and install staff to work out the lines and pump size calculations for each specific install.

This in itself brings a couple of questions to mind. First, it kind of throws a damper on the do-it-yourself project without these technical calculations.
Second, considering these econonomic times, I doubt everyone is rushing out to purchase one of these units,thereby giving the dealer all the install experience he can handle. I think any dealer if asked, would claim to have all the necessary install experience to be able to calculate the line and pump sizes.

So if someone would be so kind as to shed some light to these questions, it would certainly clear-up the water some. Thank you!

I'm happy with my Magnum 7500 for the most part. I have had to replace the auger motor 3 times though. It was a bad design from the start and I think AES knew it as they offered for sale a retrofit kit for it. Other than that it has served me well. I do clean it every other day which isn't a big chore to do. I burn strictly pellets now and 5 tons per season usually gets me through here in Michigan. I'm kind of interested in the Maxim 250 central boiler. I'd like to see one of those running. I'm just a little afraid that anything that stands outside is going to consume far more pellets/corn than a unit inside the basement.
I'm also kind of hesitant about anything that is loaded with a lot of electronics.Just more stuff to go wrong on a cold January night!

Pipps,
It sounds like you have a good dealer who can respond to your needs in a timely manner.
After using my Magnum for 6 years or so, one tends to be out of the market and doesn't keep up with what all is out there. I often wondered about those outside boilers and if they were efficient to run. I have a friend that has a woodmaster, heats around 7000 sq.ft. and goes through 15-20 cord of wood per season! Now that sure seems like a lot of wood to me. I was just wondering if the outside pellet furnaces like the Maxim devoured mass amounts of pellets. At the moment I can get by with 5 ton per winter. On a night when it drops down into the teens I might go through 2 bags in 18 hours.

I hate the thought of putting in another furnace to use only as back-up. I see the Maxim runs about 7K plus installation, and another small lp furnace probably about 3K plus installation. I could see an easy 10K spent.

Since your unit sits outside,have you had any trouble with the electronics? I see there is a touch pad that appears to be loaded with function choices.

I've found a couple of dealers in my area so I'm going to see if I can see a unit in operation somewhere. At the moment, I'm just kind of looking down the road a piece for when I do have to do something. Thanks for your answers.
Rick

Just my two cents here...when I started out, I burned corn which gave a hot fire with a lot of clinkers. As the price of corn when up and pellets went down, I made the switch. Less clean-up, no clinkers and a little ash from the Pro Pellets.
I have a moisture meter and my corn always ran about 12-14% moisture. I always assumed that the reason the corn burned hotter was because of the corn oil in the kernnel. Oil burns hot, the pellet has no oil, thus a hotter fire with corn. Just my thoughts on the subject.

Pippsfarm,
Thank you for your comments. Since you had a gear go out, how much down time do you figure you had before things were up and running again? The answer you give will tell me a lot about the company and how well it responds to emergency part requests.
When your unit was down, how did you heat your house?

When I installed my Magnum years ago,it was meant to be an add-on unit. But I had read so many posts on the old forum from folks who used it as an add-on and couldn't get the draft right etc. piping the heat from the Magnum 7500 into the main furnace duct work was presenting a number of problems.
At the time, my regular furnace was on its last leg so the decision was to remove it and put in the Magnum as the main and only heat source. I did and haven't had a bit of draft problems and it burns nice. The only worry that keeps me awake on a cold January night when the temps are hovering around zero, is should something go bad, it's not going to be a phone call to the local furnace repairman and back-up and running in a few hours! It's going to be days waiting for part shipments and trouble shooting!To be honest, I have to give AES a "D" for customer service. They are not good at all!
So I think you can understand my question on reliability,customer service, how complicated the unit is to trouble shoot, etc.
I really think folks are going in the right direction with the pellet/corn burning furnaces. A lot of money can be saved over the cost of fuel oil and LP. As long as they're easy to trouble shoot and get parts quickly for, they'll work just fine!

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with either one of these furnaces. I've been using a AES Magnum 7500 the last 6 years and just wanted to keep ahead of what's going on in the industry so that when it's time to replace the 7500 I'll have a good idea of what I want. I'm looking for reliability issues and amount of pellets/corn consumption rates.

I have never had to replace my room fan,(knock on wood) but I was wondering were it was located. Do I have to remove all the screws around the top and lift that plate off to get to the fan?