Okay after about 4 bags of burning I cleaned out our E2 insert! Vacumed firebox, it might of had 3/16 of ash. Took baffle out and cleaned it and the stubs on the heat exchanger. Just a little fine dust on them. Emptied the ash pan just a little bit in it as I had checked that and emptied a couple of days ago. Scraped inside of firepot, couldn't notice any build up. Things I have noticed. 1: The ash in the ash pan is darker than I expected. Kind of a darkish brown/red. Normal? 2: Man some of that ask on the baffle is fine! 3: When you slide the lever to empty the fire pot it drops a clump of ash maybe the size of 1/2 of a cupcake, if you handle it it will crumble easily. Normal? 4: The baffle is real finicky to adjust sideways get the cams to line up to lock them in on the baffle. 5: The buildup on the glass was more then I expected and quite black. To be fair it was run on low about 70% of the time. Should I monkey with the air control dial? 6: Putting pellets in is a little bit of a pain. Gonna get a coal bucket or something to get them in a little easier. Overall I am a happy camper! Just waiting for some really cold weather so we can let Miss Daisy really stretch her legs! Gary
1. My AE leaves dark ash, never noticed redish though. 2. It should be, its compressed sawdust. 3. Mine has crumbly clinkers. 4. Yes, it'll get easier with time. 5. Burning on low chits up the glass quickly. 6. No experience with an insert...
I never had a Mt Vernon, but what Smoke said is what I have noticed in the 5 stoves I have burned in personally. Low burning means lower air flow and the Air wash gets less air. The red ash? Well, take a pic.. I would like to see it. It may be a result of the pellets? What brand are you burning? My Quad always has a light cake that would quickly disintegrate. I could normally burn for several days, to a week before I even pulled the rod. I like the fact that the new Mt. Vernon has a manual dump and it ramps up to help expel the ash every so often. The fewer moving parts, the better, IMO. Not taking away from the AE. But I loved my manual dump Classic Bay 1200. Any pics of this beast installed? And the ash if you could..
This is after only 30-40 minutes of burning today (first fire of the season). It doesn't take much on low to mess up some clean glass. You will soon learn to live with dirty glass. I cleaned mine 3 times last year.. But I was also seeing how long I could go between cleanings. This was after a ton of pellets burned last season. You could tell it was on because of the glow in the outer edge of the glass
I bought a few bags yesterday. I had about 4 handfuls left in the stove. Been dropping to almost 40° at night here. Needed a couple bags to keep the kiddos warm.
