I have had wood stoves since 1978, except for 7 years in Minnesota (of all places) during the 1980s. Had an early catalytic stove in Utah in the early 80s and a large QuadraFire in Pennsylvania during the 90s, both in basements. Since 1998 we've been using an small-medium no-name stove that was already in the house we bought in west-central Illinois (near Burlington Iowa). I've never really been happy with its heat output, especially since we replaced the glass in it a few years ago. Well, the glass has broken again and I'm ready to bite the bullet and get a new stove. The nearest dealers that I can find of branded models sell QuadraFire and Regency. Since I haven't dealt with buying in a long time, and this is the last one I'll ever buy, I thought I would ask for some advice on sizing, brand and model. Below is some detailed background on the room/house setup, with questions below that.
BACKGROUND: The stove is in a 400 sq foot family room addition done by the previous owner with vaulted ceilings, two skylights, 5 windows and a sliding glass door. The room has no heat other than the stove, which is in the far corner of the room and vents out the ceiling; I hardly ever run the ceiling fan because it seems to mess up the current stove draft, and the current stove doesn't have a blower. The room has tile floors and has a large entry (formerly double french doors) into our dining/kitchen area. This area takes up half of our 1100 sf downstairs, and has double doors, a hallway, and another door into the two rooms in the front half of the house, and the central hall goes to the stairway to our upstairs. The current stove helps warm the dining/kitchen area, but doesn't really seem to get into the front half much. We keep the central thermostat at 66 degrees; our all electric home has an in-ground geothermal system, and we have our roof covered with solar panels that generate about 75% of the electricity we use throughout the year. Our highest electric bills are in the winter, esp. when snow covers the solar panels. $350 is the highest monthly bill we've ever had. We generally burn wood at night from late October to early April, and during the day on cold cloudy days or when the solar panels are snow covered, and I'd estimate that we usually go through about two cords of wood, which I gather from the local yard waste site and split with our electric log splitter.
SIZING. I'd like to get more contribution from the stove to heat the house as a whole, but don't want to blast us out of the family room, which is where we watch TV every night. So I'm thinking that a medium size stove with a blower may be best. But different brands "mediums" vary, and max BTU output and estimated heating square footage vary widely. So, WHAT SIZE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR MY SPACE, MEDIUM OR LARGE? IS THERE A MAX BTU THAT WE SHOULD STAY BELOW TO KEEP THE FAMILY ROOM FROM BECOMING A SAUNA?
BRAND: We loved the QuadraFire we had in Pennsylvania but I bought that in 1992. Has their quality stayed up? The Regency line looks good but I've never heard much about them before. For the same efficiency and low emissions rating the Regency uses a catalyst and QuadraFire doesn't, and the Regency's have higher rated BTU output than Quads and are more expensive. ANY COMMENTS ON QUALITY OF QUADRAFIRE VS. REGENCY? COMMENTS ON CATALYSTS THESE DAYS? ANY OTHER BRAND WITH AS GOOD QUALITY AS THESE TWO THAT WON'T COST OVER ~$3500?
MODEL: In the QuadraFire I've been looking at the Millenium (esp. the 4100 and 3100) and the StepTop 4300, which seems to have all the same specs as the Millenium 4100, but is pricier due to (I guess) the classier look. I wonder if these two (1100-3000 sf, 63.7K BTU) would be too big for our space and the Millenium 3100 (100-2500 sf, 57K BTU) would be better. ANYONE HAVE ONE OF THESE THREE QUADRAFIRE MODELS? COMMENTS? CAN YOU COOK ON THE STEPTOP 4300?
In the Regency I'm considering the ProSeries F3500 (up to 3500 sf, 75K BTU), the Cascades F2500 (1500-2000 sf, 78K BTU), and maybe the Classic F2450 (1500-2000 sf, 75K BTU) which is a non-catalytic steptop design that they say you can cook on, but has double the emissions as the others. ANYONE HAVE ONE OF THESE THREE REGENCY MODELS? COMMENTS? CAN YOU REALLY COOK ON THE STEPTOP WELL?
Well, that's a lot of detail, but I thought I'd save having to come back and provide it later. Thanks in advance for any and all input!
BACKGROUND: The stove is in a 400 sq foot family room addition done by the previous owner with vaulted ceilings, two skylights, 5 windows and a sliding glass door. The room has no heat other than the stove, which is in the far corner of the room and vents out the ceiling; I hardly ever run the ceiling fan because it seems to mess up the current stove draft, and the current stove doesn't have a blower. The room has tile floors and has a large entry (formerly double french doors) into our dining/kitchen area. This area takes up half of our 1100 sf downstairs, and has double doors, a hallway, and another door into the two rooms in the front half of the house, and the central hall goes to the stairway to our upstairs. The current stove helps warm the dining/kitchen area, but doesn't really seem to get into the front half much. We keep the central thermostat at 66 degrees; our all electric home has an in-ground geothermal system, and we have our roof covered with solar panels that generate about 75% of the electricity we use throughout the year. Our highest electric bills are in the winter, esp. when snow covers the solar panels. $350 is the highest monthly bill we've ever had. We generally burn wood at night from late October to early April, and during the day on cold cloudy days or when the solar panels are snow covered, and I'd estimate that we usually go through about two cords of wood, which I gather from the local yard waste site and split with our electric log splitter.
SIZING. I'd like to get more contribution from the stove to heat the house as a whole, but don't want to blast us out of the family room, which is where we watch TV every night. So I'm thinking that a medium size stove with a blower may be best. But different brands "mediums" vary, and max BTU output and estimated heating square footage vary widely. So, WHAT SIZE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR MY SPACE, MEDIUM OR LARGE? IS THERE A MAX BTU THAT WE SHOULD STAY BELOW TO KEEP THE FAMILY ROOM FROM BECOMING A SAUNA?
BRAND: We loved the QuadraFire we had in Pennsylvania but I bought that in 1992. Has their quality stayed up? The Regency line looks good but I've never heard much about them before. For the same efficiency and low emissions rating the Regency uses a catalyst and QuadraFire doesn't, and the Regency's have higher rated BTU output than Quads and are more expensive. ANY COMMENTS ON QUALITY OF QUADRAFIRE VS. REGENCY? COMMENTS ON CATALYSTS THESE DAYS? ANY OTHER BRAND WITH AS GOOD QUALITY AS THESE TWO THAT WON'T COST OVER ~$3500?
MODEL: In the QuadraFire I've been looking at the Millenium (esp. the 4100 and 3100) and the StepTop 4300, which seems to have all the same specs as the Millenium 4100, but is pricier due to (I guess) the classier look. I wonder if these two (1100-3000 sf, 63.7K BTU) would be too big for our space and the Millenium 3100 (100-2500 sf, 57K BTU) would be better. ANYONE HAVE ONE OF THESE THREE QUADRAFIRE MODELS? COMMENTS? CAN YOU COOK ON THE STEPTOP 4300?
In the Regency I'm considering the ProSeries F3500 (up to 3500 sf, 75K BTU), the Cascades F2500 (1500-2000 sf, 78K BTU), and maybe the Classic F2450 (1500-2000 sf, 75K BTU) which is a non-catalytic steptop design that they say you can cook on, but has double the emissions as the others. ANYONE HAVE ONE OF THESE THREE REGENCY MODELS? COMMENTS? CAN YOU REALLY COOK ON THE STEPTOP WELL?
Well, that's a lot of detail, but I thought I'd save having to come back and provide it later. Thanks in advance for any and all input!
