Starting our new life

[cat fever]

Very true,
In Utah it would snow then warm up and melt and snow again. Here it snows then snows then snows but little melt in between.

But.......that's good for the sledding addiction. :laughing:

Another side benefit of snow is the gravel road in front of my house (400') is really rough. With the snow plowed to leave some, the road is smooth as ice. I will be fixing the road this summer.

 

[cat fever]

Thought I'd mention this for those thinking of buying a Quadra fire 7100 wood fireplace.

The fireplace in and of itself is nice, its burns complete meaning the inside is clean not black like previous wood burners I've had. It heats my whole house with no problem. It looks nice, we've had lots of positive comments on it.

Now the negative, there are two squirrel cage fans below the fire box. The motors are so noisy I can't stand to have them on. We specifically ask how loud the fans would be since they didn't have one we could look at while buying. The sales lady assured me we "would not be able to hear anything until the fans were turned up to about half speed." We called and had a service person look at it. He said "that sounds about normal." Well that was not good enough for me. I got the number for the area rep, after a lengthy phone conversation he basically said "I realize you paid over 8 grand for the stove but the fans are only about 300 bucks of that." He also said he does not "use the fans in his own house." I think it's ridiculous they can't get quieter fans for how much it cost. I want to be very clear about this; it's not the sound of the air I'm concerned about. It's the whine of the motors turning the fans. It doesn't matter where you are in the house you can hear them even on the lowest speed. So for the most part we never turn them on. Another thing of note is our fireplace in located on an interior wall. Maybe it would be a little quieter on an outside wall. But, like I said it still heats the house fine without the fans on. I do live in an area where it could get to -30 and I think on those times the fans might be needed. So far this winter the lowest is -10.

 

[s219]

Are the fans accessible? Could they be swapped? On my last two fireplaces, the fans were below the firebox, sitting on the floor. Just little centrifugal units. All they did was pull in air below the firebox and push it up around the back then out the top. They were removable through the lower slats and just plugged in to a receptacle down in the fireplace shell. You may want to try different fans or motors. I bet you can rig or retrofit them.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you for the update on the insert. I've been looking at different brands and because of your comments, I'm going to avoid Quadra-Fire.

 

[cat fever]

Are the fans accessible? Could they be swapped? On my last two fireplaces, the fans were below the firebox, sitting on the floor. Just little centrifugal units. All they did was pull in air below the firebox and push it up around the back then out the top. They were removable through the lower slats and just plugged in to a receptacle down in the fireplace shell. You may want to try different fans or motors. I bet you can rig or retrofit them.

The access is through the bottom of the firebox. Since it's brand new I thought the first action should be call Quadra fire.

If I can't get satisfaction with Quadra Fire I'll investigate other options.

 

[cat fever]

Thank you for the update on the insert. I've been looking at different brands and because of your comments, I'm going to avoid Quadra-Fire.

Eddie,

It might help get traction if you printed out my comment and take it into a place that sells Quadra Fire. If more of their own people hear it maybe they'll get motors that don't whine.

I did point out to the rep I had a 72" ceiling fan that even on high the only sound was air moving nothing else. It cost 200 bucks.

 

[EddieWalker]

There are only two fireplace stores in my area, but if I drive 200 miles to Arkansas, there are dozens of them with a lot better prices. Before I leave, I will figure out the top three that I'm interested in and buy it on that trip. Hearing the fans run wasn't something that I thought about. Right now, it's raining and nasty outside, so I'm searching for reviews on fireplace inserts and trying to figure out what's important and what's fluff. Seems like there are a lot of websites with reviews that don't really say anything.

 

[cat fever]

Eddie in all fairness I don't think it gets cold enough in Texas to warrant needing fans. The fireplace heats the house fine, in fact many times we have a door cracked open because it's too hot. They are worth looking at, just know going in the motor's are noisy.

 

[EddieWalker]

Tomorrow the forecast is for 18 degrees at 6 am and the high will be 30 degrees at 2 pm. Last year we got down to 8 degrees, which is my personal record for the coldest that I've ever been. We went a full week without hitting 30 degrees.

Currently we heat our house with a free standing wood stove, but when we add on and create our great room, we want a massive rock fireplace that will be able to heat our home. I'll sell the wood stove and I want to be able to rely on the fireplace insert to keep us comfortable. We have plenty of wood, so that wont be an issue.

From what I've learned from other people, weight is a good indicator of quality. A heavy insert is going to put out more heat then a light one. 500 pounds seems to be where I'm reading the best reviews.

My current favorite brand is Napolean for $3,700 But I'm still a couple of years away from buying anything. I just like to learn as much as I can before committing to something as permanent as a fireplace.

 

[LouNY]

My supplemental heat is a coal burning insert in a large stone fireplace.
This was built back in the early 70's and the stone goes thru the roof and above the roof, it's about 4 ft in depth and 9 ft in width.
I would never recommend this style, it looks good but it is a huge heat sink.
It will suck a huge amount of heat out of the house. I used to use it only as emergency heat. It would take 2 full days of burning wood to bring the huge stone mass up to temperature. Untill that mass was warmed the fireplace provided a direct radiant heat only to what was in the room. Once the mass was warm it would heat halfway decently.
With the coal insert, I'm using a Hitzer #503, as it burns continuously the rock mass stays moderated so the house does fairly well.
This insert is double walled with two blowers in it with 100cfm specs each, they definitely are not quiet, but when they go out or are turned off the heat output drops to well less then half what it is with them running.
Eddie if you build a stone fireplace I would recommend stopping the stone inside the structure and doing the roof penetration with a block or multiwall flue pipe.