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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
This question was asked in another thread but it probably belongs in a thread by itself. Anyone know anything about Quadra-Fire wood burning inserts? We're ready to buy a wood stove insert and are looking at the Quadra-Fire 5100i that is supposed to be capable of heating up to a 3500 sf house (many variables here). They look to be pretty well built but I'd be interested to hear from owners or dealers about any good or bad experiences.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Thanks for the input. I was sort of amazed that we could even fit a 21" log into an insert in this fireplace. Do the LOPIs load end-first or sideways? The end-first loading is appealing to us since we've had logs roll out before and that won't happen loading end first. The QF does have several damper controls.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
The house is pretty well built. A blower door test showed 0.48 ACH and all the ducts have been sealed and tested with a duct blaster. There are 8-10 returns in the house and the heat pump fan runs continuously so I'm hoping the heat distributes well. We shall see. One change I need to make is to rewire the heat pump fan so it will run off the generator during power outages.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
The house is 3500 sf with three floors (including an unfinished but conditioned and insulated basement). For the most part the insert will be used for supplemental heat. Here we get some very long power outages and then the insert would become the primary heat source. We also have a fireplace in the basement that can supply some heat and will eventually be installing radiant floor heat in the main floor. Last year we lost power for 4 days when the outside temp was in the 20s and the fireplace could get the house no warmer than about 58 degrees. If we can get it to 68 with the insert during similar conditions I'll be happy. The generator has enough capacity to run a few thousand watts of space heaters for the colder rooms if needed.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Joel, my intuition says you'd end up losing money on your proposition but even if you did manage to save $1200/year it seems that's an awful lot of labor each year to save $1200. And I'm not a farmer but I don't think you can grow corn year after year without depleting the soil.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Thanks for the input. I'll go look at the LOPIs tomorrow and then make my choice. The windows shouldn't be an issue, they're efficient sealed dual pane Low-E units.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Murf, there's a local dealer for Pacific Energy so I'll check those out too. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
I checked out the LOPI at a dealer and they had nothing that would fit. The setback of the flue in our Heat & Glo EM48 fireplace is 16 3/8" measured from the fireplace face to the center of the flue and none of the brands he carried (LOPI, Regency and Vermont Castings) would fit even with flue offset adapters.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
According to the LOPI dealer the top of the fireplace is too low to fit the flue offset adapter on top of the insert. He said even if they made it work it would never draft right. The Quadra-Fire looks like it may have the same problem but not to the same extent. I don't fully understand the issue since our existing fireplace was the biggest Heat & Glo unit made when it was installed and it seems like there would be a lot of room to work with. The guy is coming out to look over the installation prior to finalizing a price and I'll ask him how they intend to handle that.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
We would have to heavily modify the raised masonry hearth and hardwood floor to make a standing wood stove work. As it is a hearth extension will be required on the wood floor to meet code and we haven't found one of those that looks good. I may have to make one. An insert can be made to work but we would prefer minimal hacking. It will be interesting to hear what the site survey guy says.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Dennis, that hearth extension looks just like the "Hearth Classics" one that we might buy. The only problem with those is that they don't have a model that would look right with the synthetic round river rock surround of our fireplace. We're toying with the idea of buying one initially for code compliance and then replacing it with something else afterwards.
Murf, it could be done but I'm not too enthusiastic about it. Another idea is to buy some of the concrete flat hearth rocks that are on the raised hearth and build an extension that will just sit on the wood floor.
KT, yes, the fireplace is on an outside wall but it's well insulated with cellulose and a layer of foil faced batts. Thanks for bringing that up now.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Ha, tractorpoint decorating tips! I love it 
We've got a big 10x14 Tibetan rug in front of the hearth so another rug may not look so good. But I was thinking of buying one of those, cutting it up, and using it as a base for stone that might lay on top.
I dunno. Good idea, Dennis, on taking the samples home. I'll ask if they'll let me do that.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
I've put a deposit on the Quadra-Fire 5100 but the install hasn't been scheduled yet. The guy came out and confirmed it will fit and didn't see any problems with the flue arrangement. I think for the flooring we'll just lay down a fiberglass hearth rug. It doesn't meet code but I'm only worried about sparks when the door is open. Since the wood loads lengthwise it's unlikely that a log will roll out.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Joel, it would make a difference to your rates if the stove is an insert going into an existing fireplace or a new addition to the house. I'm sure having a wood burning appliance does increase the risk of fire by some degree.
I'll install a hearth extension for insurance purposes if necessary but it will be covered with a hearth blanket anyway for appearance sakes. Seems like a waste but the insurance company must be satisfied.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Apparently *nobody* makes an insert that will work with this fireplace without taking a sawzall to it. So a woodstove is out of the question. I guess we'll take that money and invest in radiant floor heat on the main floor.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
The Energy King sure looks like it would heat the house but locating it would be a major problem. It wouldn't fit in our mechanical room and getting a chimney in there would take an act of God anyway. It might be possible to fit a water-to-air heat exchanger in the air handler and remote locate a wood burning water heating appliance but those exterior wood burning furnaces make way too much smoke as they heat up and cool down. I've pretty much gone full circle with this whole house auxiliary heat issue and keep coming back to a BIG diesel generator that will provide enough oomph to start and run our heat pump during outages. That or a major construction job to rip out our two fireplaces and surrounds and rebuild them with woodburning stoves in mind. Either way it's too much money.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Nosteiner, the chimney sort of runs up the center of the house. On the main and upper floors the backside of the flue is in bedrooms and the backside in the basement is electrical panels. It's probably possible to put it somewhere in the basement and run a new flue up the side of the house but we don't want the EK or something similar in finished space. Instead we'll put the money into radiant floor heat on the main floor and see how much that helps during outages. If we could keep the house above 60 with no power we'd be happy.
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
09-26-2007, 14:51 
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