Advice on inserts for a large fireplace?

[fire_me_up]

Hi gurus,

I'm in the market for a wood insert for my fireplace. First, it's a really big fireplace (one of the reasons I bought the house). Dimensions are roughly 27" x 36" with a 20" extending hearth. The tile+cement is only about 1/2" off the wood floor. Some questions:

1) I really like the protruding inserts but most go out by 7". Only way for me to support that is to add a hearth extender. Adding a 1"+ extender would look funny with my hearth. Are there any thin hearth extenders available (<1/2")?

2) Assuming I solve (1), two inserts I've been looking at are the Regency i3100 and the Quadrafire Merrimack. Anyone have one of these and have a particular preference? Anything to watch out for?

3) Assuming I don't solve (1), then I've also been considering a flat fireplace. Two in particular are:

a) The Hampton Hi400. It's quite nice and is catalytic. I heard catalytics can be a pain to maintain (can't burn paper / wet wood). However, the non-starter for me is the seller said the glass goes black when you burn due to the high temperature, also the door itself seems kind of small. Anyone experience this?

b) The Voyageur Grand (Quadra fire). Nice and big. Haven't seen it in the show room yet. Anyone know about this one?

Thanks in advance if anyone has pointers, or pointers to other/better inserts! Learning about inserts has been a bit more involved then I thought it'd be

 

[webby3650]

a) The Hampton Hi400. It's quite nice and is catalytic. I heard catalytics can be a pain to maintain (can't burn paper / wet wood). However, the non-starter for me is the seller said the glass goes black when you burn due to the high temperature, also the door itself

Where do I start? ... why would you need to burn paper? Or wet wood? Paper is fine, no glossy or color paper, which won’t burn well anyway. Wet wood will cause a problem in any stove.
I find a cat stove to be more tolerant of under seasoned wood because they have a bypass damper.
The glass does not go black because of high temps. Although wet wood will cause it. They tend to have dirtier glass because they have the ability to burn much slower, unlike non-cats that throw much of their heat up the flue. Many non cats are efficient, but are unable to burn slow cleanly.

 

[fire_me_up]

Where do I start? ... why would you need to burn paper? Or wet wood? Paper is fine, no glossy or color paper, which won’t burn well anyway. Wet wood will cause a problem in any stove.
I find a cat stove to be more tolerant of under seasoned wood because they have a bypass damper.
The glass does not go black because of high temps. Although wet wood will cause it. They tend to have dirtier glass because they have the ability to burn much slower, unlike non-cats that throw much of their heat up the flue. Many non cats are efficient, but are unable to burn slow cleanly.

Thanks! This helps a lot. I typically won't burn wet wood, but I was a bit worried about under seasoned wood that was still a bit green.

Not sure if you have seen this particular unit, but are you able to still watch the fire burn or does the glass get dirty pretty fast? I was told the glass actually self cleans (burns the gunk off quickly?), but one of the reasons for a fireplace is to watch the fire actually burn. I'll use it as a supplement heat source.

 

[fire_me_up]

Anyone else have comments? Particularly curious about the Grand Voyager. It's kind of my favorite flat insert just from the looks of it. Not sure how good it is at burning though

 

[fire_me_up]

Decided to go with the Voyager Grand for a variety of reasons. Thanks. I'll be using the other thread for further discussion on experience with this --> https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/quadrafire-voyager-grand-vs-regency-ci2600-hi400.164254/