Hello all, need a bit of advice.
Currently I heat with a Fireplace Xtrodinair FPX 44. It's a beast. Overall, it has done everything it should. I do have a few complaints though. The jury is still out on the whole ' positive pressure' hipe, in my opinion. It heats the main part of the house quite well though. Problem is we have a large (1000 ft) bedroom that is down a hall (30 ft) and the heat just won't penetrate that door way. The rest of the house with is about 2500 remaining sq ft it heats well. Also, the ability to get overnight burns in the FPX is a challenge. Cold house in the mornings and quite a while to heat it back up.
I realize no matter what solution I go with I will still most likely have the heat problem in the back bed room. My wife and I are considering replacing the fairly new (3 yrs old) FPX 44 with a pellet or multi fuel solution. Mainly, wrestling with wood every season becomes a challenge. I usually cut 2 cords of wood oak and mix it with seasoned slab wood from a local sawmill. We usually go through about 4 2000 pound bundles of slab wood. It comes in 12 foot lengths and has to be cut up. Overall, the whole process it a pain. Those that have heated with an insert before also know that the daily shut down and shoveling of ash is not that much fun either. The dust in the house and bark everywhere has got my wife ready to look at other options.
My familiarly with pellet burners begin and end with my Treager Grill. I do know the idea of getting a Multi fuel insert is appealing. I really don't think tying myself to one type of fuel is a good idea. Other than that, I don't know what to even consider. Well, I guess I've started a list that is based on BTU's. Since the FPX is about a 90k BTU unit, I know I will be going backwards. My thought is that I'm not using 90k BTU's now so something around 50k should be enough. I guess. On the list so far is the Mt. Vernon by Quadrafire and the M55 by Enviro. I've heard of some quality control issues with Quadrafire aside from being pricey and don't know anything about Enviro. I'm sure that there are many other units I should be considering. Also, there might be some factors I'm not even aware of. Like how many zillions of tons of pellets am I gonna have to buy to heat my house? Stuff like that...
Also, what should my expectations be switching from the FPX to pellets? Those that have done it, is the juice worth the squeeze? Thanks in advance for your input. I really appreciate it.
~R~
FPX 44
Currently I heat with a Fireplace Xtrodinair FPX 44. It's a beast. Overall, it has done everything it should. I do have a few complaints though. The jury is still out on the whole ' positive pressure' hipe, in my opinion. It heats the main part of the house quite well though. Problem is we have a large (1000 ft) bedroom that is down a hall (30 ft) and the heat just won't penetrate that door way. The rest of the house with is about 2500 remaining sq ft it heats well. Also, the ability to get overnight burns in the FPX is a challenge. Cold house in the mornings and quite a while to heat it back up.
I realize no matter what solution I go with I will still most likely have the heat problem in the back bed room. My wife and I are considering replacing the fairly new (3 yrs old) FPX 44 with a pellet or multi fuel solution. Mainly, wrestling with wood every season becomes a challenge. I usually cut 2 cords of wood oak and mix it with seasoned slab wood from a local sawmill. We usually go through about 4 2000 pound bundles of slab wood. It comes in 12 foot lengths and has to be cut up. Overall, the whole process it a pain. Those that have heated with an insert before also know that the daily shut down and shoveling of ash is not that much fun either. The dust in the house and bark everywhere has got my wife ready to look at other options.
My familiarly with pellet burners begin and end with my Treager Grill. I do know the idea of getting a Multi fuel insert is appealing. I really don't think tying myself to one type of fuel is a good idea. Other than that, I don't know what to even consider. Well, I guess I've started a list that is based on BTU's. Since the FPX is about a 90k BTU unit, I know I will be going backwards. My thought is that I'm not using 90k BTU's now so something around 50k should be enough. I guess. On the list so far is the Mt. Vernon by Quadrafire and the M55 by Enviro. I've heard of some quality control issues with Quadrafire aside from being pricey and don't know anything about Enviro. I'm sure that there are many other units I should be considering. Also, there might be some factors I'm not even aware of. Like how many zillions of tons of pellets am I gonna have to buy to heat my house? Stuff like that...
Also, what should my expectations be switching from the FPX to pellets? Those that have done it, is the juice worth the squeeze? Thanks in advance for your input. I really appreciate it.
~R~
FPX 44