After a long week and a half dealing with a chimney issue that an incompetent mason left for me, we finially have our stove up and running.......safely I might add. So far we are very pleased and impressed with the amount of heat this thing puts off and can't wait for it to get colder. The only issue/question I have that is surprising me is that the glass gets dirty and needs to be clean everyday, sometimes twice a day. After all of the research I did prior to buying this stove, I thought that I wouldn't be dealing with a dirty door daily. This doesn't always happen when the stove is on low fire, it does it with higher settings too. Could this be because it is new and the paint is still curing and oils are baking off of it?
Pics of my Quadrafire 4300 installed.
- Thread starter kenberlew
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Nice install! Be sure you're using dry wood and burning hot enough, at least some of the time. Your glass will get a bit dirty (I clean mine once a week) but it shouldn't get so dirty that you have to clean it every day.
Virtually everyone who complains about dirty glass after their stove is installed finds out that their wood is not as dry as they thought. (myself included!!) Or a combination of that and not hot enough. (myself included!!) Beautiful job, stove and stone look great.
With N/S burning a big cause of dirty glass is the ends of the splits being too close to the glass. Volitles cook out of the ends of the wood and collect on the glass just like they will on the side bricks of a E/W load. With the ends farther back the airwash blows them back into the fire before they get to the glass.
Since I went to 16" splits placed N/S in the 30-NC I don't have to clean the glass but maybe once a month.
Since I went to 16" splits placed N/S in the 30-NC I don't have to clean the glass but maybe once a month.
BrotherBart said:
This happens a lot. Mostly with not so dry wood, and/or low fire conditions.
It's worse this time of year.
Dave
Best way to clean the glass is a hot ripping fire. If that doesn't clean the glass off, then your wood is not optimal, and you are not getting it hot enough inside. I had a customer last year who only had his 7100FP for 3 weeks and he had thick black crud on his glass and on the chim cap also. I had it cleaned off totally clear in 30 mins with a good fire, I think I even started a mini chimney fire in the process and cleaned his chimney out for him.
I'm also curious as to how you resolved the issues. Looks like the wood paneling was cut back around the thimble up above, but that's all I can tell. I hope my info helped you win the fight and get it done properly.
I'm also curious as to how you resolved the issues. Looks like the wood paneling was cut back around the thimble up above, but that's all I can tell. I hope my info helped you win the fight and get it done properly.
Thanks everyone, it took alot of work but it was enjoyable work for the most part. What made it special too was that I picked the base stone off of the mountain behind our home. JTP, after much thought here's how I fixed the mess that the mason left. A word of advise to anyone.......double check whatever your mason suggests to do, make sure it's up to code and safe because alot of them don't have a clue what they are doing. Then check to make sure he did what he said and it's correct.
Here's what I came up with....I all cut the wood back to code then went a little crazy, lol. I lined the area with fire resistant masonary cement, then cement board, then bricked it with furnace cement, then put wire mesh and scrached coated it, then made a template of the area to be stoned and used the left over cultured stone from the project to make it look nice......then FINIALLY I used a Simpson zero clearence wall thimble and relined the whole chimney so I'll have no worries.
Here's what I came up with....I all cut the wood back to code then went a little crazy, lol. I lined the area with fire resistant masonary cement, then cement board, then bricked it with furnace cement, then put wire mesh and scrached coated it, then made a template of the area to be stoned and used the left over cultured stone from the project to make it look nice......then FINIALLY I used a Simpson zero clearence wall thimble and relined the whole chimney so I'll have no worries.
Nice set up ken ...like was mentioned smaller splits and burn hotter and the glass will be cleaner.
You can rake coals to the front and watch that air wash dog house ^ melt them away. But keep it clear of ash...ash will plug it up and prevent the air wash from cleaning the windows and letting the stove operate as designed.
You can rake coals to the front and watch that air wash dog house ^ melt them away. But keep it clear of ash...ash will plug it up and prevent the air wash from cleaning the windows and letting the stove operate as designed.
I have a 4300 Step Top.... Burn it hot and it will clean the glass.
What temps do most of your guys burn at? What is a steady temp I should be reading on my stove itself.
Thanks
What temps do most of your guys burn at? What is a steady temp I should be reading on my stove itself.
Thanks
That's a sweet setup. Once you get that stone hot you can enjoy the heat coming off that for hours!
Matt
Matt
sone looks great next sove i put in will have good stone work like that, how much was all the mason work if u dont mind me asking? thanks.
The whole job.....wire mesh, nails, motar for scratch coat and stone, lumber and cement board for the base, and the stone itself came to a little over $800 doing all the work myself. I'm curious what the job would have cost if I paid someone to do it.
I got several quotes to do the stone work and install the stove. That is, only doing the hearth and not the walls and the 'install' of the stove was running a chimney liner only a few feet past the fireplace surround damper. The average quote was 3K and a little change. After getting a lot of people in to give me quotes I realized that the 'masons' didn't know what they were talking about. After a productive visit to the county permits office I did the job myself and had a great looking hearth. kenberlew you probably saved yourself a good 2300.
Looks Good
Looks Good
Thanks for the info. Again a word of advise to everyone with questions...........double check everything your mason says. Most don't know whats right and whats wrong regarding chimneys.
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