New to Inserts - Looking at Napoleon 1401/1402 - Quadrafire 3100i - Questions

Hi all. I am new to high effeciency wood burning. Right now we have a 1952 Cape Cod with finished first floor, 1300 square feet, and a nice large fireplace which we have found sucks out all of the warm air in the house. It looks nice, but that is about it. We have been looking for a year or so at inserts. I had settled on the Quadrafire 3100i, but found that if you were looking for value, the Napoleon 1400 series was worth a look. I agonize a bit over 3,000 dollar investments, so wanted to post here before taking the plunge, as I have gained insite from hearth.com.

Current buying situation:
Have looked at 3 dealers. The Quadrafire is well over 2,000 dollars and probably closer to 3 (without install) if you add options like blower, etc.
I have a quote on a Napoleon 1402 at $1699 and a quote at another dealer who has a 1401 left for $1599. It looks to me like the install with full lining up the chimney will be about $1,000 in parts and labor, no matter where I go.

The dealer with the 1401 made a few statements that I want to verify. He stated that it was essentially the same as this years model 1402, with the exception of the fancy colors which I don't care about. He also stated that he installs UL listed liners and does not feel that insulation is necessary. I want to especially make certain of this. Our biggest concern and the reason for not doing it DIY is that the smoke goes up the chimney, not into the house. If we are going to invest this much, we want to do it right.

Final questions now that you know my situation.
Would there be anything that would lean us to spending more on the quadrafire? We want a functional fireplace that provides supplemental heat and takes the chill off of us. We like the idea of clean glass and not having smoke belching into the house.
Any others I should look at? Again, we want something that works well, but don't need to pay for a name. Like my old Pentax K1000 35MM camera. It did the job, but I saved a few bucks not buying a top name.
Anything that I am missing here?

I really appreciate your feedback and I also appreciate having a forum where people can ask these questions.

Jim

Thanks for all of the replies. I am also in sales, but an engineer by education. You can probably guess what I peddle. There is a clue in the name. I am in favor of educated consumers. My customers certainly are. That being said, I know that I am buying during prime time sales season. The wife vetoed me over the summer. Now it is getting cold and she wants one at any cost.

None of these guys have earned my business yet and the guy with the 1401 did not give me a satisfactory explanation of why I wouldn't need to insulate. The chimney is on an external wall. He did not ask about that, just tried to fast talk. I have also looked at the two (1401/1402) and decided that I just like the looks of the new 1402 better.

I am going to work a bit with the 1402 place. They have an installer certified with the NFI.

You guys have me thinking about the self install. The main thing is I want it to be safe and work. But I am a mechanical engineer who does his own plumbing, electrical, etc. I have found that I can save significantly and do it to code with some prework and studying. I don't like to do anything substandard and will pay more to ensure that if I go with an installer.

Thanks for being a friendly place. I always hate those forums where you ask a question, probably partially redundant, and get scathing replies. Every situation is unique.

Thanks again. Here is the update on the search. Today we went to two dealers who happen to be within a few miles of eachother, one with the quad and the other with the Napoleon 1402. Both dealers have installers who are certified by the fireplace instute, which seems like a plus to me.

I took my wife with me to check out the acceptance factor. I found myself leaning to the quad, because it just seems to be a heavier build. The thing that I have been sweating is reading reviews that say 18" is a bit generous for maximum log length. I know that I have wood in the garage right now for the fireplace that would need to be cut down, so I wonder how much of an issue this would be.

Anyway, I am standing there thinking about that and I saw the buck model 91. It has a really large interior, my wife really likes the extra glass, and it is one heavy mutha.

It is a cat model and I have read up a bit on that. I haven't really seen any negative comments on the bucks. My only potential negative that I can think of is that we have 1300 square feet here on the main living floor and I wouldn't want to get cooked out, but it sounds like once you get the cat going, you get long steady temps. I also plan on putting in a ceiling fan.

So that is where I am. It looks like the Buck costs in the range of the quad, with a lot more cubic feet to play with.

If you have comments on where I am so far, please feel free to chime in. I think I could live with any of the three. I am now leaning toward the buck, but researching a bit.

I wanted to update you all on what I did and a new question. My wife preferred the quadrafires, so we went with the 3100i to be installed this week. We went with and experienced dealer who seems pretty credible with answers. The house has a deep fireplace. On Monday, the installers worked for many hours to fit the liner to the insert. Because of the way the fireplace was built combined with the design of the 3100i, even with an offset adapter, it was not going to work. We called the shop and he upgraded me to the quad bodega bay which is nice, because it has a lot of viewing glass and it has the nice tapered back so that the liner went right in.

We have noticed that the two side pieces of glass built up a coat of soot quickly, as did the center glass, but it stays clean down the very center. I called the dealer and he asked me to see if it cleaned up when burning hot, which it did somewhat, but not completely. I only have one day burning experience, but it seems like if I damp it down to even a medium high setting, the buildup gets worse. The buildup is significant enough that it is difficult to see the fire through the portions that are affected. The wood was bought seasoned the winter before last and is very dry. I am not wood experienced enough to know what type of wood it is.

This is all new to me. Does anyone have an opinion about the air wash and if something might be amiss there? I left an email note for the dealer this evening, but it is always good to be an informed consumer.

Thanks for your help and suggestions along the way.

The wood should be very dry and well seasoned. It has not been in the weather at all. I have been searching around this forum and there is a lot of good information about the problem. As was mentioned to someone in another thread on the subject, it IS my first day. So I am going to play with this a bit over the next few days. I may have caused a problem the first few hours I am thinking by damping it down too quickly. We wiped it off and are starting over to see if it was newbie syndrome.