Review: American Energy Systems Magnum Countryside
Reviewed January 29, 2012 by
Michael in Vermont
Overall Performance:
Efficiency:
Ease of Use:
American Energy Systems Magnum Countryside
We are 4 months into our first season using the stove and are incredibly disappointed with performance.
We burn a hard/soft mix of wood pellets.
Pros:
1. The unit is very efficient and heats our 100+ y.o. house well.
Cons:
1. NOISY auger and stirrer. We have to turn the stove down to setting 1 or OFF to watch a movie in our living room. On a cold winter day, that's sad.
2. Stove salesman has been to our home three times in 4 months to repair the auger that locked up.
3. We now let the hopper completely empty after every 7 bags of pellets (average every 3 days) and do a complete cleaning of the stove. Vacuum out hopper of fines, vacuum auger where we can get to, vacuum and clean front of unit and scrape fire pot.
Conclusion: This stove might have been a good idea for the prairie states with bountiful corn, but for here in VT is was probably a mistake. Our next source of heat will be a Wood Stove. Wood in this area is inexpensive. Wood stoves operate with almost no noise, it will not fail during a power outage, and there are no moving parts to break on us.
This model has turned me off from pellet stoves completely.
michael.x.connolly@gmail.com