quadrafire castile or st. croix hastings

[mghocko]

have been looking at stoves for the last month and have narrowed it down to 30 to 40k btu with the traditional look. Ive ruled out the harman xxv... My question is which is better the castile or the hasting.... pros and cons of both would be appeciated...

thanks

 

[Clay H]

I have a St Croix and love it...i have no experience with the Quadrafire.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I have zero experence with st croix, but was a quad dealer for a long time. It was a solid performer and considered a workhorse of the quad line. What do you dislike/like about both?

 

[woodsman23]

I also have a st croix and it has ben trouble frre for years. They are less expensive i believe than the quad. I would get the st croix for sure....

 

[MainePellethead]

I have the Quad Castile.... been absolutely flawless for me. Love it is the only way I know to describe. It has performed more than I expected.

 

[Former Farmer]

I've had a Castile insert for 3 years. Haven't had any problems with it. Had purchased the log set, looks nice but makes cleaning a lot more difficult. You may want to consider what you will be burning. If you burn straight corn in the quad, you will have to deal with the clinkers. I found that mixing 60% corn and 40% pellets was a lot easier to keep the unit cleaned. When burning straight pellets, I have to make sure to clean out the fines out of the hopper once a week to make sure that the pellets would slide down the hopper better. My wife really likes the look of the insert and the amount of heat that the unit puts out. If you plan on running the unit on high, the fan may be a little to noisy for you. We usually will only turn it on high when we are not going to be in the room that much.

Best of luck on your decision.

 

[peirhead]

I am a bit surprised you ruled out the XXV Harman....is it a dealer issue?.....We had no St Croix dealers here so I didn't consider them ...I was split between the Quad and the Harman and eventually chose the Quad based on availability at the time. I am very happy with the quad and it in fact does heat my whole house (approx 1600 ft newer 2 story) The one thing to keep in mind is regular maintenance...I spend about 15 minutes every 3 days or so doing a thorough cleaning/vacuuming, and pull the burn pot trap door at least 2x per day when the stove is between firings.

 

[Shortstuff]

We are very pleased with our Castile and really have no cons about it. I have zero experience/knowledge about the St.Croix but have heard good reviews about them.

Whichever one you decide on, always be confident that you've made the right choice. I say that either one is a great choice.

Steve

 

[imacman]

From reading all the above responses to the original post, it sounds like it's going to come down to the following factors:

1. dealer knowledge/support

2. personal preference on the looks

3. price

 

[kbjelka]

The main reasons I went with the Castile was my fireplace dimensions were limited and I liked the looks. I have been very happy with it. My only minor gripe might be an occasional sticky burn pot door. I always seem to have to chisel away at the build-up on the door with various items in my pot scraper arsenal. Otherwise it has been flawless.

 

[peirhead]

Groundhog...I use a Dremel (clone) tool to grind the carbon off the burn pot door......much easier than scraping with screwdriver or chisel.....I agree that the burn pot door sticking is the worst part of the Quad...but that's hardly a deal breaker. From what I read of the HastingsI think it has the VersaGrate which is somewhat a self cleaning design but there have been some complaints on this site about themn being noisy...I can't imagine that they would be that annoying though....I really like the look of them!!

 

[Clay H]

I am a bit surprised you ruled out the XXV Harman....is it a dealer issue?.....We had no St Croix dealers here so I didn't consider them ...I was split between the Quad and the Harman and eventually chose the Quad based on availability at the time. I am very happy with the quad and it in fact does heat my whole house (approx 1600 ft newer 2 story) The one thing to keep in mind is regular maintenance...I spend about 15 minutes every 3 days or so doing a thorough cleaning/vacuuming, and pull the burn pot trap door at least 2x per day when the stove is between firings.

Thats enough for me to stear clear of a quad. I spend a 1/3 of that time cleaning my St. Croix. The ash pan is easy to dump in seconds every 2-3 days and i spend 15 minutes every 7-10 days cleaning the glass. Nothing to vacumme other than the floor after I"m done.

 

[mnkywrnch]

My friend has the castile and loves it but did have the issue with the cleanout rod, I have st croix prescott and love it IMO you cant go wrong either way.Just try in make sure your buying from a reputable dealer.

 

[MainePellethead]

I spend maybe 5 minutes if that cleaning(dumping burn pot and emptying ash bin) my Quad Castile every 3 days or so....I vacuum only once a week or so...when I first got it I would vacuum every day or every other day....frig that lol. One thing thats forgotten... no matter what stove you have...alot is in the pellets. If you have dirty pellets you will have to dump your pot more often.

 

[Kittery]

From reading all the above responses to the original post, it sounds like it's going to come down to the following factors:
1. dealer knowledge/support
2. personal preference on the looks
3. price

Thats enough for me to stear clear of a quad. I spend a 1/3 of that time cleaning my St. Croix. The ash pan is easy to dump in seconds every 2-3 days and i spend 15 minutes every 7-10 days cleaning the glass. Nothing to vacumme other than the floor after I"m done.

We have a St. Croix Hastings in the living room of our 2-1/2 story 120+ year old colonial and we are very happy with it. It is run as our only source of heat for the entire house...with a little help from the boiler if it's really, really cold. As MacMan says "dealer knowledge/support" is very important...as you can see in my signature below (which I have tamed down a little since I first wrote it!). We burn it with the iron grate "doors" open so there is no obstruction to watching the flame...really nice.
I had some problems with it when, out of naivety, I got 'premium' pellets that really plugged it up.
As for the cleaning part, I am kind of a fussy person, so during the burn season I clean it every weekend. That includes removing the burn-pot, the versa-grate, the heat-exchange tubes baffle, the two trap covers, brushing the inside including up the back plane, vacuuming everything, emptying the ash pan, cleaning the glass, having a gulp or two of coffee, then putting her all back together again. I have a little bag of all the 'things' I need to accomplish this along with the shop-vac, and a little stool. The whole process takes about 45 minutes to an hour. On weekends where I'm too busy, I'll let it mostly go with just emptying the ash pan and cleaning the glass.
Good Luck!

 

[kbjelka]

Groundhog...I use a Dremel (clone) tool to grind the carbon off the burn pot door......much easier than scraping with screwdriver or chisel.....I agree that the burn pot door sticking is the worst part of the Quad...but that's hardly a deal breaker. From what I read of the HastingsI think it has the VersaGrate which is somewhat a self cleaning design but there have been some complaints on this site about themn being noisy...I can't imagine that they would be that annoying though....I really like the look of them!!

Thanks for the tip on the Dremel, I'm all over that. Maybe you could post a picture of the attachment you use? Certainly not a deal breaker, it has probably jammed up at most three times in the last year. I do spend a lot of time scraping the floor with various gasket scrapers to avoid the jams but it is not even close to a deal breaker. I really need to get picky to find any faults with my Quad Castile. It's been great.

 

[amick780]

Just wondering about the rule out of the Harman XXV....extremely satisfied with mine.

 

[peirhead]

I am attaching 2 pics of the Dremel type tool I use. I like the flexible shaft as it makes it easy to work in the burn pot. The grinding tip is approx 1/2" diameter cylinder with a flat bottom...I use the flat surface against the bottom of the burn pot.....just lightly so I don't actually grind into the metal of the pot!!...By the way this wasn't my Idea...I found it right here on Hearth.com!!

 

[kbjelka]

I am attaching 2 pics of the Dremel type tool I use. I like the flexible shaft as it makes it easy to work in the burn pot. The grinding tip is approx 1/2" diameter cylinder with a flat bottom...I use the flat surface against the bottom of the burn pot.....just lightly so I don't actually grind into the metal of the pot!!...By the way this wasn't my Idea...I found it right here on Hearth.com!!

Thanks peirhead, my endless search for the perfect scraper may be over. Hey not to get off topic but I have one more question, have you ever put the smartups to the test? I would be curious how long the run time is on that 1400 with the Castile and if it can handle an ignition cycle. thanks!

 

[kbjelka]

I am a bit surprised you ruled out the XXV Harman....is it a dealer issue?.....We had no St Croix dealers here so I didn't consider them ...I was split between the Quad and the Harman and eventually chose the Quad based on availability at the time. I am very happy with the quad and it in fact does heat my whole house (approx 1600 ft newer 2 story) The one thing to keep in mind is regular maintenance...I spend about 15 minutes every 3 days or so doing a thorough cleaning/vacuuming, and pull the burn pot trap door at least 2x per day when the stove is between firings.

Thats enough for me to stear clear of a quad. I spend a 1/3 of that time cleaning my St. Croix. The ash pan is easy to dump in seconds every 2-3 days and i spend 15 minutes every 7-10 days cleaning the glass. Nothing to vacumme other than the floor after I"m done.

You could certainly can let the 15 min clean and vacuum go for a week or longer on the Quad if you wanted. Daily maintenance is really quick scrape, pot dump, pull the two heat exchanger cleaning rods in and out a few times and maybe, if I'm feeling ambitious dust the fly ash through the cleaning ports into the ash pan. All done in probably less than a minute. I clean often like peirhead because it sure as hell can't hurt, but in the end it is probably overkill. I figure it is still a hell of a lot less work than burning wood. If I didn't want any maintenance I would just stick to oil. The Quad Castile is pretty low maintenance in my book. I doubt any other pellet stove choice would be much less work.

 

[Clay H]

don't need a dremmel with my St croix...

 

[kbjelka]

don't need a dremmel with my St croix...

Maybe not , but I sure see a ton of posts on various St Croix noise complaints, squeaks, squeals, and vibrations and "versagrate" issues. I think I'd prefer a sticky pot lever every few months.

 

[Clay H]

Really? Mine has never made noises like that?
Hmmmm?

 

[zinfit]

go with the Harman

 

[Stevekng]

I have a Quad Castile and a St. Croix Afton Bay. I like them both but the Quad pot lever froze on me this year because the mechanism rusted solid over the summer. I used pam on the inside like I always do on my other stoves but I will be sure to cover the pot lever mechanism from now on. It is accessible from the ash pan compartment.
By the way, the Quad is a no frills unit. The St. Croix has a lot of bells and whistles but the electronics, if not working, will shut you down until you have replaced one of the many interdependent sensors or control board. The Quad Castile is a more do-it- yourself friendly stove when it comes to repairs