# MT Vernon AE Max Drop Tube Temp Error



## JoeV (Dec 15, 2010)

1st Post long time lurker.
MT Vernon AE 2 yrs old.
Its a insert DV thru wall.
I ran 5 Ton thru it last year.
1 Ton so far this year going for 6 tons this season
Clean stove all the time.
Had service done over summer.
I just started getting this error this morning when stove was running on high.
I powered down and it reset .
Ran all day on med to med high .
Turned up to high and within a 1/2 hr it had the error again.
Any thoughts ?
Going to put a call into dealer tomorrow.
Stove has been great .
Heating a 2700 sqft house.
Did go thru one igniter after the 1st ton 1st year.
Thanks
JoeV


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## smoke show (Dec 15, 2010)

got the flame height adjusted according to owners manual?
make sure to post up what the dealer says or does for ya.


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## tsmith (Dec 15, 2010)

Temperature is getting too high in drop tube from running too long on high setting and tripping the snap disc. Built in safety feature. probably should run on medium high setting or at least check for proper flame height. Depending on what pellets you are burning they may be hotter than others and lower settings need to be used. I am burning Hamer's and I am getting all the heat I need on the low setting.


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## BIGISLANDHIKERS (Dec 15, 2010)

You should be able to run this stove on high without the error.  I run mine on -5 flame all the time so I don't know if flame height could be an issue for you.  Check the connections on your snap disk and see if they are burnt.


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## kilbury (Dec 15, 2010)

When you had it cleaned by the "pro" did they remove the exhaust blower and clean into the exhaust chamber? If not after that many ton you could have enough build up in there to back up the heat in the stove thus making the drop tube TC pop up max temp. Ooooorrrrrr your convection blower is dirty or crapped out on you which in that case you should get conv over I on wall control. I suppose if you were burning a very hot pellet it could over heat but I have never seen one do that, not sayin it can't happen, just sayin sayin I have never seen it.


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## maglite67 (Dec 15, 2010)

The Mt vernon has a therm coupler on the drop tube that is round with a wing nut make sure it is tight.  Also make sure your room fan is clean and moving enough air.  That t-couple controls fan speed and if it gets to hot it goes out on an error.  If it's only there on high heat output then we know the control board is connected right otherwise it would be there all the time.  make sure that wing nut is tight and that the blower is clean.  the blower on an insert is easy to get out and a pain to get back in if it's the pin style.  if it has the quick trigger piece of cake.


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## JoeV (Dec 15, 2010)

Thanks Everyone
Flame height is 0 
I will check out the disc .
I used to run on high all the time with no issues.
I have been running Hammers and Energex Canada 60/40 blend.


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## victor (Dec 21, 2010)

Joe:

I'm having a problem close to yours.  I can run my Mt Vernon AE insert on manual medium and it runs fine for a day or so then gets an error like ""Conv Blower Over I", Convection Blower Jammed or max drop tube temp exceeded.  Shortly before the error occurs the convection blower makes a howling noise, like the bearing is going out.  

If I try to run it on anything higher than medium the blower motor will howl after 10 minutes or so of running and the error appears and the convection blower stops.  If I unplug the stove and plug it back and wait a few seconds the convection blower will come back on and the stove will go through the auto-clean and restart process but will shut down soon afterwards with the error. 

I had a new convection blower put in at the end of October.  At that time the blower was making a constant howling noise, almost identical to the noise it makes now but louder, but it never gave me an error.

When the blower makes the howling noise the volume of air coming out of the stove decreases, like the blower is slowing down.  This makes me think it is a bearing and it is getting harder to turn the motor.  Is it reasonable to assume that the controller "sees" the blower drawing more current and thinks it's jammed and shuts power to it?  I'm guessing the max drop tube temp exceeded error is because the heat is building up on the cast iron plates while the blower is slowed and not removing the heat at the rate it is supposed to.    

The service guy came back to look at the stove and said the replacement blower must have been bad and he'll bring another one.  I'll let you know how it works out.  I'd be interested in hearing how you do.

Jim


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## JoeV (Dec 21, 2010)

Jim
I was told to reduce flame height on mine from 0 to-5.
I did this and so far it has not tripped again.
Service guys are supposed to come out on the 23rd but I think I will cancell.
The stove was super hot when I had the error occur.
My insert side plates were almost too hot to touch.
I never had another error other than the drop tube over temp one.
It does seem to be putting out less heat now.
However I dont have any real proof except for my reading on the thermostat in the house.
Hopefully they can get your stove fixed.
Let us know how you make out.


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## LJ4174 (Jan 24, 2011)

JoeV said:
			
		

> Jim
> I was told to reduce flame height on mine from 0 to-5.
> I did this and so far it has not tripped again.
> Service guys are supposed to come out on the 23rd but I think I will cancell.
> ...



I'm having this same error again...  My stove shut off on me the last 2 nights with the "Max Drop Tube Temp" Error.  I started a thread a while ago about this and someone mentioned about running it on Utility Pellet.  My flame is at -5, it seems when I had it on Utility Pellet is put less heat out and it was less consistent if that makes sense, and as mentioned when using this setting, it autocleans all the time.  To my stoves defense, it is in need of it's weekly cleaning and it's about 0 degrees here and has been burning a bunch, so perhaps after I give her a good cleaning today it will be OK...  Never fun waking up to a chilly house with the forced hot air oil system running...  :  On mine though, on both the hardwood pellet and the utility pellet setting, it seems like the flame is really big...


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## FordMastertech (Jan 24, 2011)

LJ4174 said:
			
		

> JoeV said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




In the last couple of days I have had mine running on the max settings for hours and had no problems but you have to keep the convection blower wheel clean or the air volume drops a lot and can trip the snap disk or set the convection and drop tube over messages.
I had similar problems like this except no convection blower noises and found the connections at the snap disk were getting burned from the excessive heat. I had to get a new snap disk, fell apart when wires were removed, and then soldered a couple of short 2 inch leads to it with the spade terminals on the end of the wires to connect to the stoves harness, also replaced the spade terminals on the stoves harness. It hasn't tripped since then and this was a couple of years ago. I feel this mod keeps the terminals cooler and prevents the disk from burning up.


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## JoeV (Feb 1, 2011)

Thanks
I will check out the convection blower.
I dont think the tech cleaned it out.
It was mostly a $140 paint job from what I saw.
I cant find any cleaning instructions for the blower.
The manual has replacement instructions.
Any tips on cleaning it ?
Looks pretty simple to get out.
I need to get the stove running 100 % again.
I hate turning on the furnace to supplement the stove.
By the way I am about 800 ft from the Burlington line on East Chippens(Perkins ST in Bristol)
Nice to see some fellow CTrs here.

Thanks
for the reply


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