Harman vs Quadra-Fire

I'm building a new house and my builder has given me a list of stoves and fireplaces to choose from. I want something as auxiliary and backup for when power is out and just hate a fireplace that doesn't produce much heat. The fireplace I had my eye on (Heatilator Constitution) is just too expensive and I'm not convinced the ducting will work well without power. So that leaves stoves, and the stoves are all Harman or Quadra-Fire. I've narrowed it down to three, in no particular order:

Quadra-Fire 3100 Millennium - I like the price of course, and fortunately I like the looks of the Millennium instead of the step-top which is more expensive. As near as I can tell most folks that own them seem to be pretty happy with them. One question - what is the purpose of the step-top? Is it just for looks?

Harman Oakwood: I saw this in a shop today and I liked the looks of it. But I've read on here that the Harmans can be hard to get operating at first light because the down-draft technology requires a bed of hot coals and are best used for 24/7 usage. Is this accurate? I will most likely be a night time and weekend burner, so going through half a load of wood more before it is operating at peak efficiency isn't appealing.

Lastly the Quadra-Fire Cumberland Gap. Naturally it's the most expensive and probably larger than I need but the Yosemite is only 1.7 cu ft and I'm afraid that may be too small. Haven't seen this in person yet but it looks good on the internet.

I know the steel stove will heat up and cool down faster than the cast iron stoves. I'm fine either way on that. Other than price and appearance, is there a reason I (or you) should consider one of these stoves above (or below) the other?

Also, I notice that all three of these stoves have an optional blower. Assuming for the moment that the BTU ratings on these stoves are accurate, how close to that rating am I going to get without the blower? In your experience how noisy are they?

JA600L said:

Spend the extra money and get the step top Model. The Millennium like I have has no ash pan . My Quadra Fire 4300 (big brother) burns excellent and I would definitely recommend it. I don't have a blower I just place a fan to the corner of it.

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I'm not particularly interested in using an ash pan. I think I'd prefer to just shovel it out. I'm used to doing that having used a fireplace, and I've heard ash pans are not very helpful unless they are pretty big.

So the blower is just for moving the air around, not for "extracting" a little more heat from the stove? I've got ceiling fans for that, and can install more if necessary.

bholler said:

I would look at regency also they are similar stoves to the quads but are slightly cheaper and I think the new regencies are made better that the new quads. Don't get me wrong the quads are still good stoves but I think they have gone down in quality a bit in the last few years. And their changes to the way their tubes are mounted makes them a little bit of a pain to work on now. I have not worked on any new harmans but was not a big fan of their old ones but that doesn't mean much so I will defer to others as far as the harmans.

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I think I'm tied to the stoves they offer without incurring an upgrade charge. I'm sure I can get anything I want, but it will cost me extra and probably eat up any difference I saved by buying a Regency. So unless there is something specific about Quadra-Fire I think I'll stay with that.

Having said that, what do you mean by "made better"?

Looks like I should take a better look at the Cumberland Gap. I thought I'd like the steel stove's appearance better than the cast iron. I planned to put tile behind it that very much resembles slate and thought it would be more modern looking. I've got the builder pricing out stacked stone for me so maybe I'll get a Cumberland Gap priced too and see what the difference is. If it's not too much difference, maybe I'll get the Cumberland.