My Quad 4300 ACC - not happy with it

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richg

Minister of Fire
Nov 20, 2005
888
Yes race fans, from the title of the thread, you can tell how much I love the 2010 Quad 4300 ACC. It eats a lot of wood, doesn't put out much heat, makes a ton of ash and unburnt coals, and even better, it rattles and hums like a marching band! The $300.00 blower moves less air than a mouse fart. Wow, I'm soooooooooooooo happy with this thing. NOT! After getting fed up with flushing $2300.00 down the toilet, I tinkered with the stove a bit....the primary air would not close all the way, so $1.25 in magnetic tape fixed that one and the runaway fire was tamed a bit. What was really strange was after taking the heat shields off, the stove was able to hit 600 degrees on the stovetop with no issue and the house actually got warm! After putting the heat shields back on, stove top temps are down to the 400's even with a raging fire. YES!
 
Sorry to hear that your stove is not working out. That particular model has a lot of 5 star reviews on our ratings section.....but, as you say, it may be that their first attempts at overseas manufacturing didn't work out perfectly. Nothing wrong with Chinese products or craftsmanship....as all our macs, ipads, iphones and other gadgets attest. But there is a learning curve when companies go over there.....

All that stuff may have been fixed by now.....
 
To my knowledge, all Quadra-Fire wood stoves are still made in the Colville WA plant. There may be a few parts (door casting perhaps) that are sourced in China though. I did have a dealer tell me that the performance of Quadra-Fire wood stoves definitely changed when they introduced the AAC stuff.

Jason
 
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richg said:
It eats a lot of wood, doesn't put out much heat, makes a ton of ash and unburnt coals,
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What are your air settings? How dry is your wood? Is this going into a lined chimney? What are your stove top temps? What was your previous stove?
 
Oh, if this is more than the first complaint, it should be erased. This is not a complaint board. Once is fine, but the real fair thing to do is to post ONE review of it in our ratings section. Otherwise, this board would be filled with people trying to "get even" with others, and it would not give a fair view.
 
My dealer told me my new Grand Voyageur was made in WA and the castings came from Ireland.

Of course he told me a lot of stuff :mad:
 
Your oak measures 16% on the outside? Did you split it and measure the inside?
 
richg said:
What was really strange was after taking the heat shields off, the stove was able to hit 600 degrees on the stovetop with no issue and the house actually got warm! After putting the heat shields back on, stove top temps are down to the 400's even with a raging fire. YES
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I find that interesting, any one venture to guess why, don't know much about how this stove is built.
 
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I am learning a valuable lesson my first year....wet wood does not burn well. I don't mean not seasoned...I mean like wet from rain or snow. I figured (was told actually) the fire would "dry" the wood but it doesn't do a good job. Raging fire and very little heat. Now I bring about a weeks worth of wood inside and let it dry proper (if it happens to get wet) and it burns much better.
 
richg said:
Yes race fans, from the title of the thread, you can tell how much I love the 2010 Quad 4300 ACC. It eats a lot of wood, doesn't put out much heat, makes a ton of ash and unburnt coals, and even better, it rattles and hums like a marching band! The $300.00 blower moves less air than a mouse fart. Wow, I'm soooooooooooooo happy with this thing. NOT! After getting fed up with flushing $2300.00 down the toilet, I tinkered with the stove a bit....the primary air would not close all the way, so $1.25 in magnetic tape fixed that one and the runaway fire was tamed a bit. What was really strange was after taking the heat shields off, the stove was able to hit 600 degrees on the stovetop with no issue and the house actually got warm! After putting the heat shields back on, stove top temps are down to the 400's even with a raging fire. YES!

Throw in the jackwagon dual-function lever that controls startup air and rear air, leaving you unable to control either of them, and the Quad 4300 is just such a great stove! That is, if you're looking to spend a lot more time cutting splitting and stacking wood, moving wood, cleaning out ash every day, etc. Oak that measures 16% on the outside is too wet for the Quad. An insulated, double wall chimney is of no help, nor is an outside air kit.

Quad used to make decent wood stoves, and then they sourced manufacturing to China. Oh boy, Chinese wood stoves are great for China. They are not so great if you want to heat your house with wood. I'm RichG, and I approved this message.
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Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.......huhuhu.....WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH !!!!!! ;hm
 
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Put it on a pallet. Send it prepaid to the FedEx freight terminal in Manassas, VA c/o BrotherBart and be rid of that pain in the butt. I will dispose of it properly.
 
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My grand Voyaguer works fine. The flue is set up like quad recommends. 16 ft from top to floor of hearth. Roxul in chimney top and bottom. Block off plate and stainless flue top. Use top down lighting method,push and pull acc away we go. Like it a lot better than 1984 buck.
 
Elle said:
I am learning a valuable lesson my first year....wet wood does not burn well. I don't mean not seasoned...I mean like wet from rain or snow. I figured (was told actually) the fire would "dry" the wood but it doesn't do a good job. Raging fire and very little heat. Now I bring about a weeks worth of wood inside and let it dry proper (if it happens to get wet) and it burns much better.
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Not sure who told you that, green wood or wood that's just wet from rain or snow is not a good idea, water don't burn.
 
webbie said:
Oh, if this is more than the first complaint, it should be erased. This is not a complaint board. Once is fine, but the real fair thing to do is to post ONE review of it in our ratings section..
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OK where is this elusive "ratings section" ?
 
Top o the screen, just to the right of center, under "stove reviews" (Dead center under the pup in the Hearth.com logo ==c)
 
So, Rich bitches like a whiny child and doesn't answer any questions. Sure seems like user error from top to bottom. Learn how to use your stove, Rich.
 
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brenndatomu said:
Top o the screen, just to the right of center, under "stove reviews" (Dead center under the pup in the Hearth.com logo ==c)
Click to expand...

Thanks! I was looking in the forums.
 
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