The length is whatever I make them. I'm looking at some new pelletizing equipment and the stock die comes with 8mm hole. I can get 6mm (1/4") as a special order.

thanks for the help!

Hi Guys -

Does anyone know if a MT vernon AE can feed 8mm (.314") diameter pellets without plugging up?

thanks!!

Thanks guys, especially for the a/c times. -

Yes, I am present during the testing. I wouldn't live to see the dawn if I burn the house down with my experiments. The wife would get me. Even if I ran, she's a pretty good shot!

I was reading my manual and I'm confused on a couple of setting and what they actually do, specifically flame height and the heat output settings. It seems to me, in reading the manual, they they conflict with each other.

A 'high' heat setting dumps lots of air/fuel into the firepot. Is that correct? Which, in my mind is going to give a big flame. So, to keep the flame from getting to large, one should use a negative flame height. Correct? How does the flame height setting adjust the flame and what affect does it have on how fast it feeds fuel?

I guess, what I'm thinking is if I can run with a low fuel feed rate, and lots of air (to Kap's point maybe blow more of the ash out of the pot) I can keep the firepot from filling up before the clean cycle. I've been running on utility pellet but on a lo heat setting and a -3 flame (which is what I use on my wood pellet).

thanks again! I appreciate the help!

When we bought the stove back in late 07, our dealer stated that it could be programmed thru the thermostat for different fuels as Quadrafire qualified them for the stove. The program from quad would adjust the stove settings for that particular fuel and I think they said it would be on a thumbdrive. Now, I’ve never heard of any updates coming from Quad in this regard so I don’t know if they were blowing smoke or not.

So, I’ve been experimenting with BioMass in my MT Vernon AE (specifically grass/alfpha pellets). I have found that they burn very well in the stove with the exception of the additional ash that is produced (as compared to wood). What I’m finding is that the firepot fills up almost to the top before it finally empties. Course, at that point, it’s not burning very well. Is there a way to pick a fuel in the thermostat (say corn for example) and reprogram to empty the hopper earlier or even better yet, create a new fuel profile? Or, is there a particular combinations of settings that I can use (fuel type/flame height, heat output) that would allow for a more frequent cleaning of the firepot?

If there was some way to plug into the board or t-stat with a laptop with some type of interface (USB ?), that would be bad-a**. Kinda like programming a car computer for performance
Any ideas?

Hi Guys -

Running a MT Vernon and this year I'm having issues with smoke backing up in the house (coming from the ash pan) and the fire pot not getting cleaned out during a cleaning cycle. I found the fact that the firepot wasn't getting cleaned out when I went to clean the stove and the filter on my shop vac started on fire. Now the house REALLY stinks.

I noticed that there is a small gap on the floor plate of the fire pot, on the left hand side. I'm wondering if maybe the pot isn't sealing up well any more?

Any advice what to look for? I thought that the heat sensor in the firepot was supposed to keep active coals in the pot until everything was cold? Maybe that thermocouple is going?

thanks!
Joe

Thanks Kap -

When I mentioned the issue to the wife, she nonchalantly said,

"oh yeah, the power flickered off and on yesterday"

"uh huh" was my reply.

I looked at the user settings and it wasn't set for corn anymore. It reverted back to hardwood along with a couple of my other settings. I cleaned that all up and its been plugging along nicely since I posted. I've lost power in the past but never had to reset things. Oh well, live and learn.

Hi Guys -

I've been running the AE this past week to blow the cobwebs out of her and started running corn for the first time. The brother in law has our acreage in field corn, so I thought I'd "rob" some out of the field to give it a try.

Its been burning well, I don't know the moisture content, but I've been hearing that the corn coming out of the fields is 12-15% since we've had such a dry summer/fall.

Anyways, tonight, I came downstairs to find the pot overflowing the auger still trying to stuff corn into the fire pot. The fire was starting to shoot up the drop tube. For my own piece of mind, would the stove have shut off on its own if the material in the drop tube lit up?

I've never seen the fire pot fill up like that. I'm going to re-lit it and watch to see what happens. I've got the flame adjust on a -3, set the fuel type to corn, manual setting (ML). Anything else that could have caused this?

Any input is appreciated.
Joe

Thank you! The spare parts list will come in handy.

Joe

Hi Guys -

I'm looking for a good online source for parts (ignitors etc) for a Mt vernon. My local place doesn't normally stock them and last time I needed one it took almost 2 1/2 weeks.

Looking to buy two ignitors. Can anyone recommend any other parts to stock?

Much thanks

Lost mine after 2 years. Luckily it was still under warranty. I kept my old one as a back-up in the even of a catastrophic failure of my "new" one.

You can keep the crack from propagating by drilling a very small hole at the end of the crack (.078-.080). I'm not sure what drill size that is off the top of my head. I don't know what that will do to the functionality of the stove, but it will get a little more life out of the baffle.