Fireplaces w/ Central Heating Option

Mrs. Rob From Wisc. is very interested in the conventional
look of zero-clearance, high-efficiency fireplaces. One of the
selling points of such units is ability to add a "Central Heating"
blower that can be integrated directly into heating ductwork.
Does anyone out there have any experience/opinions on this
option?? Thanks...

Rob

They talk alot about the quadrafire 7100 fp duct system in this thread.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/firepl/msg1209522524987.html

Yep, I caught this thread already. Makes me a bit cautious on jumping at
a new model of relative complexity - wait a couple of years until all the bugs
are worked out....

Rob

I believe its on its third season, we have had one burning in our showroom since the beginnng. I have not personally had any issues with my burn unit, or ones we have sold. The heat transfer system i believe works well, but honestly i havent had any feedback. My best advice is follow the manufacturs recomendations, dont try to enginer things yourself. I would recommed downloading the manual and reveiw it carefully before you make a decision. One thing i can tell you is that the 7100 is HOT, and it holds a lot of wood. I can get close to 16 hour burn times in here with the firebox stuffed.

Do you already have central heating (baseboard, forced air, etc?) I have existing forced air heating (oil furnace) that is well ducted for heat & return vents. To prevent my woodstove from (over) heating the living room where the thermostat is (causing the rest of the house to be frigid), Im rigging a bypass into the blower motor. That way I can turn on the ventilation system without firing the oil furnace, which will suck the warm air out of the hot living room and blow it throughout the rest of the house, averaging out the temp house-wide.

Havent tried this yet (about 1 week from hooking up the stove), but will let ya know how that works if you have the option of forced air.

I put a supply to the furnace up high in my catherdral celing and my furnace has a fan setting. Thats exactly what i do to even out the house and it works great.