HELP PLEASE-ADVICE ON QUADRAFIRE INSERT

[xnetdoodx]

This is my second year heating my home with a Quadrafire woodburing insert, and I am just not pleased with the performance. It is advertised to heat 1700 square feet, and after 2-3 hours of buring, I am lucky if the living room is warm. The house is a 55 years old Colonial, older windows, with a nice staircase in the living room that should draw some heat upstairs. The upstairs attic door is capped nicely to prevent any chimney effect to the outside. The gentleman at the store refused to sell me the blower unit the first 3 months of last year, because he stated that it "would be way to hot", and that I didn't need it. If I don't have the blower on at full speed at all times, there is NO point in even having the unit on!

I was wondering if you could offer me any advice or burning strategies to increase performance. Here are the circumstances:

-Always use dry, hard-wood (purchase 50%, cut and dry myself 50%)
-Burn with the throttle at about 50%-75% open. I am afraid that with the air vent fully open that I would overfire the box
-Blower Fan always on
-Stacking the wood all the way to the ceiling of the box
-Wood is always stored in my covered rack outdoors


Any help you can provide would be awesome. Thank you. Are the older windows making THAT much of a difference? They do have new storm windows as a barrier that are about 10 years old.

I asked the same question a few days ago because of dissappointment in my monster 5100i. I have NO block off plate but should have one installed by tomorrow and hope that this corrects my issue. I will keep you posted as to my results.

yes we are waiting

There is NO question that the block off plate was the majority of my issue. Thanks to the help of this forum, I now have GREAT heat. I also replaced the ceramic blanket that Quadrafire suggested I remove. After only an hour of burning, temps are up in the house tremendously. Very dissappointed in the quality of help I received from Quadrafire in my 1st couple of seasons.

Many thanks to all who assisted

 

[begreen]

That's good news, I knew you had a good stove there xnet. That ceramic blanket was also an important part of the problem. Can you update your original post so that other's will find the conclusion?

 

[redbird77]

I have a Quadrafire 3100i, and agree that the blower is essential. I have around 1800ft^2 of living space, and can heat everything but the bedrooms if I crank things up. Some of the comments in this thread concern me, however. I tend to run with the main air at full throttle and the blower at full throttle, also. A number of posters are running at much less than this on both accounts. Am I misusing the stove? I am in my second season with the Quadrafire, having replaced a Vermont Castings stove (8", unlined ceramic chimney) with the insert (6", with liner) when I decided to have the liner installed.

 

[TMonter]

I guess it depends on the insulation in your house. I've done a lot of retrofitting in my and my attic is R-50 and I've spent a lot of time sealing up outside wall sockets, re-seating double pane insert windows, using foam to seal up the house ect.

I heat about 1500 square feet of my house with my Quad 3100i, but then again the temps here aren't usually too bad. This week it's been hovering around 23-25 and the house has been staying in the mid 70's with the room for the insert at about 79-81. I usually run the stove at 25% firing once it's burning clean. During the daytime I shut the doors to the bedrooms and don't open them until evening before bed.

I wouldn't say you are misusing the stove, but if your house is drafty you could be losing a lot of heat which would explain why you're firing hard. Was your liner insulated and did you install a block-off plate?

 

[redbird77]

I don't know about either the block-off plate or the liner insulation, since I did not do the installation work. I guess I need to pull out the stove and look. Why would insulating the liner affect this discussion? I can see the value in terms of preventing creosote buildup, but not preventing heat loss.

 

[TMonter]

Why would insulating the liner affect this discussion?

My experience is an insulated liner not only prevents creosote buildup but can help marginally on heat loss depending on the chimney. The block-off plate is a big one however. I have a really cheesy Block off plate I modified but above that I stuffed 2600 degree ceramic wool to insulate between the insulated liner and the ZC chimney.

 

[redbird77]

So do you recommend insulating all the around the firebox, or just above it where the block off plate would be?


Any further comments from other sources on the main air and blower flow rates would be appreciated.

 

[TMonter]

So do you recommend insulating all the around the firebox, or just above it where the block off plate would be?

Just above the block off plate, I packed the space tight so no air could get through. You can buy Ceramic Wool 2" thick for relatively cheap online or sometimes locally. I got mine as extra that was being discarded from a boiler job we were working on.

 

[jtp10181]

Just wanted to add this, not sure if it was checked at all.... We just had a customer with a 5100i newly installed. Could not get any heat of it and was going through tons of wood. Went out to find out the installer did not adjust the door correctly and it was not sealing at all. Basically what I'm saying is, check the door gasket and make sure the door is sealing tight against the stove body.

 

[TMonter]

Is it just the 5100 that has adjustment on the door?

I don't believe my 3100i has any on it's door and neither does my neighbor's 4300 Step-top.

That being asked, try doing the "dollar bill test" on the door JP. basically with the stove cooled down you close the door and latch it with a dollar bill between the frame and gasket. The bill should be difficult to pull out i.e. should require a decent amount of force to remove. This means that the gasket is sealing tight against the stove.

 

[jtp10181]

The 5100i and your 3100i both use the cam latch system which has a very limited adjustment. One washer or two washers between the cam and the door. They had two and we took one out to fix it. I think all the units with flat doors use this system.

Some of the other units, mostly the "bay" style that have a three sided door, have a hook latch and the pin they hook on can be adjusted with two set screws behind the surround panel.