Questions about new Quadra Fire Voyageur Insert

How did you measure your woods moisture content? How tall is your chimney?

First off welcome to the forum.

How did you check your wood moisture? Sounds like you may have just stuck the mter into it. You need to resplit a piece then check on the freshly exposed area.
Ash is good, excessive unburnt wood is bad.


If your wood is good, I see a dollar bill test in your future.

Mary Oliver said:

For some reason, it feels like an air circulation issue to me. I say this because:
1) Not getting the secondary combustion. Is this typical?
2) Slow startup
3) Manipulating the air-intake and burn valves doesn't seem to make any difference. Do these ever have mechanical problems?

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This all screams wet wood.

Mary Oliver said:

Here's one other thought. I'm in central PA, and of late, it really hasn't been very cold outside. I lit the fire for two reasons -- 1) I wanted to see how it's working; and 2) I have a little bit of a pyromaniacal love of playing with fire (ha ha! But I think I'm in good company here.) Anyhow, do you think this might be addressed to any degree when the weather gets colder?

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I'm in eastern PA, it is is just as mild here. The stoves have been a little sluggish at times, but they were all able to get up to temp and burn clean. Go to the local Giant supermarket and pick up a couple of bundles of their kiln dried wood. It should be a cheap an easy test to see if there is a difference in how the stove burns. Get three or four bundles. That should give you a cold start and several reloads with that insert.

See if it burns different. Starting tomorrow the weather will be colder. Give it a go with the kiln dried wood and see what happens.

Mary Oliver said:

Okay, well this is helpful. The logs that I've been burning have been inside in my basement for about a year, but I'm going to try to ones from Giant to put it to the test.

Thanks very much, and any additional ideas are most welcome.

Kind regards,

Mary

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These "logs", are the split or unsplit?

Every season newbies swear up and down that there wood is seasoned and it's not!

My first thought is also, not quite as dry wood as being thought.
Where in PA are you?

Mary Oliver said:

Hi Everyone,

So today I went out and got some kiln dried wood as suggested, and same thing happened. I'm at a loss. I'm ready to give up this insert. So... last ditch...

Is anyone willing to post what their window looks like after a day? Perhaps I'm being unreasonable. I would like to see what other people are seeing after a day. I'll post on another thread, too, to see.

Thanks!

mob

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What temperatures did you get? What did the fire look like? What were your air controls at?

Did you ever do the dollar bill test? Most my glass sooting problems are because of a weak seal. In fact you can see streaks start to form where the gasket seal is weak You can adjust the handle where the door latches.

Mary - Are you relatively local to Halifax, PA? Maybe I could take a trip over and give you some tips on operating the unit and make sure that everything is normal with your unit.

No post since Dec. 7, we lost her. :long:

In another thread she seems to have figured it out. It was a combination of new to stove burning and warm weather/poor draft. On a colder day it burned well with cleaner glass.

Important Note: The outside air cover on the right side of the unit has to be removed prior to installation on the Voyageur. You even have to do this if you are NOT installing the outside air kit.

All of the complaints to us about heat were a result of this not being removed. It is kind of stupid because in the installation instructions, it tells you this under the "optional outside air kit" section in the instructions (which you would never read unless you were installing an outside air kit). It says:

If Not Installing the Outside Air Kit
1. Swing grille down to expose the two screws. Figure 40.1
2. Remove the two screws and pull the access assembly
away from the appliance.
3. Remove the outside air cover plate A and discard.
4. Re-install the access assembly.

Thanks for this forum; it's hard to find objective opinion on this insert. I too, have a Quadra Fire Voyager and I'm only mildly satisfied with it. First, Mary is NOT off-base with her assertion that it is woefully short of air supply. I have been burning wood for some 45 years now with many different types of wood stoves AND wood. This one needs air, short and simple. I have freshly stacked seasoned (over two years) dry wood; mixture of cherry, ash, red oak and tamarack(larch). SEASONED WOOD!! That's to all you folks who think they are the only experts in that arena... ;-)

If I leave the door open slightly, everything goes along swimmingly, hot fire, great heat, minimal glass staining ( a problem, though). If I follow directions with this insert, I get a smoldering, smokey mess, with both controls fully open. BTW, Mary was right; the controls are utterly useless...

The glass is really a problem... I find I'm cleaning it daily, with really strong stuff too. Rubber gloves, eye protection and respirator. Not what I want to do every day.

While I don't think this stove is a clunker, it needs to go back to the drawing board. If it truly wants to be a heater when it grows up, it needs some AIR!! I also love the overstated referenced cautioning to "over firing" of the stove. That cries out: "I have really cheap, fragile components!" Since when can one not have a good old fashioned blaze in a fireplace? Isn't that what it's for? I'm sure that comment will draw attention...

I'm an old farmer and used to the whole experience regarding heating with wood. I've seen several chimney fires, dealt with wet wood and inherent creosote (in other words, learned my lesson), managed ash stands for my wood supply, and still split wood by hand. I'm sure I still have something to learn on this subject, but not much.

Once again, mildly impressed only; perhaps it'll get better?

Tom

Did you check for to see if the the outside air cover was removed as per the previous poster?

mellow said:

Did you check for to see if the the outside air cover was removed as per the previous poster?

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Thanks for your reply. There are actually four heavy duty scews in that access assembly, which makes me think that the installer used self-tapping screws in order to secure that unit. They are really hard to remove, so I'm contacting the installation firm to see if they indeed, removed that outside cover plate. I'll let you know...

Any suggestions regarding the glass issue? I have a year-old Harman pellet stove that gets covered with soot and creosote and it cleans easily with soap and water. Thanks

Tom

olivermb said:

Hello Everyone,

First, thanks to all for such a great forum. I've been reading with a great deal of interest -- really trying to soak up the great advice.

I'm new to inserts, but recently had a Quadra-fire Voyageur installed. It really puts out the heat, but so far I'm worried that there is definitely something wrong. Here are the things I've noticed:

1. The glass is very VERY hard to keep clean. Within about an hour it starts to get some spots on it, almost always one at about 1 o'clock, and another at around 10 o'clock. Sometimes by the end of the day it's very dirty. I would have to clean it every day. I'll attach a picture about it.
2. I notice that I almost never get those secondary combustion type fires -- the rolling flame kind of fires that I see in everyone else's inserts or stoves.
3. There seems to be excessive ash left over.
4. I notice that moving the air intake or the burn valves don't seem to make any noticeable difference to how the fire is burning. Shouldn't I see something when I move the knobs?

Just a couple of things:
-My wood is dry (10% moisture)
-I don't have an outside air kit, so one of the installers confirmed that I had the panel removed as was suggested on this forum.

My dealer suggested that I play with various configurations of the air intake and the burn values, and I will, but all of these symptoms together is making me worry that there is something wrong.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My warm regards (pun intended!),

Mary

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I wish I'd seen this pic before buying this tonka toy! Mine looks the same, and I burn ONLY dry, seasoned firewood!