I have a quadrafire 5700 and last week it was 50's in the day and 30's at night. It was about all the stove would do to keep the house 69* or 70*. We are burning well seasoned hardwood. We have tried placing the wood in the stove different ways. We run the stove with the primary draft 100% open and the stove is usually between 300-400*. We also have a blower on the stove. This stove is not anymore efficient than the 25 year old earth stove it replaced. Anyone have any ideas what I can do to make it heat? Is there something wrong with the stove?
Quadrafire 5700 doing a horrible job heating
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Running with the air control open will send more heat up the flue. The best strategy with a modern stove is to burn in cycles, loading the amount of wood needed based on your current heating needs onto a good, established coal bed. As the load becomes well engaged and charred, close down your air in stages. This should help you achieve secondary combustion, which is where you'll get the majority of your heat. With wood that's in the 20% moisture content rage, you should have no problems hitting 600F on that stove, easy. I usually let my stove run at 600F for a good 10-15 minutes before I turn on the blower, as this lowers the temp about 100F.
In that case, I would at first suspect your wood. I know you say it is "well seasoned," and please believe me when I say that no insult is intended, but everyone makes that claim, especially new burners and firewood sellers. Unless the wood has been cut, split, and stacked in the dry for a year (in general), consider the wood as suspect.
If you have access to a moisture meter, take a piece of wood and split it again. Immediately take a reading from the center of the fresh split. If it's over 25% at the max, you're going to have a harder time sustaining secondary combustion.
The other thing to consider is some type of "negative pressure" situation that is giving you a slow or sluggish draft. Can you describe your flue setup? Masonry? Stainless steel? Height?
If you have access to a moisture meter, take a piece of wood and split it again. Immediately take a reading from the center of the fresh split. If it's over 25% at the max, you're going to have a harder time sustaining secondary combustion.
The other thing to consider is some type of "negative pressure" situation that is giving you a slow or sluggish draft. Can you describe your flue setup? Masonry? Stainless steel? Height?
Pagey said:
The wood is pretty dry it has been stacked for quite sometime and for about the past month I cover it before it rains. I do not have a moisture meter but the wood is cracked on the ends and when I tap 2 pieces together it sounds hollow. I had this same problem with the stove last year and thought some of it may have been the wood but this year I am better prepared and this is some of the best wood I have had in years. The chimney is masonry and I am guessing somewhere around 20ft high. It meets all of the guidelines in the quadrafire owners manual. The chimney worked fine with the old earth stove. The thing that confuses me about this stove is at 400* you can't feel much heat coming off of it and you can't feel much heat coming up the basement steps. With the earth stove at 350* you could feel heat coming off of it and and a heatwave up the basement steps.
Assuming the wood is in fact truly seasoned, the only thing I can think of is a sluggish draft due to the size of the masonry flue.
Here's a link to a chart with recommended sizes based on the stove's exhaust size.
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/holinsiz.htm
Perhaps you are not getting enough draft to sustain the fire? Is your basement insulated? Uninsulated basements bleed BTUs about as fast as you can generate them, unfortunately.
Here's a link to a chart with recommended sizes based on the stove's exhaust size.
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/holinsiz.htm
Perhaps you are not getting enough draft to sustain the fire? Is your basement insulated? Uninsulated basements bleed BTUs about as fast as you can generate them, unfortunately.
The 5700 is I believe, like my Endeavor, a jacketed convection stove. Meaning it is surrounded on 3 sides by heat shields. This significantly reduces the radiant heating area of the stove. I was amazed at how much better my stove performed with the blower attached, though I think the price they charge is outrageous for what is a glorified fan.
Was your old stove jacketed? Or was it more of a radiant heater? At this point, my only guess left is that a convection stove in an uninsulated basement has its work really cut out for it. But what I am at a loss to explain is why you can't get that stove up to 600F easily. Hell, I have to work to keep mine UNDER 600F, even with a small load of wood.
Was your old stove jacketed? Or was it more of a radiant heater? At this point, my only guess left is that a convection stove in an uninsulated basement has its work really cut out for it. But what I am at a loss to explain is why you can't get that stove up to 600F easily. Hell, I have to work to keep mine UNDER 600F, even with a small load of wood.
Yes it is shrouded on 3 sides. The old stove was a radiant heater without a blower. To maintain 600* with this quad you would probably have to burn pine or stay right there and tend to it and it would really go through some wood. We had it over 600* a few times last year but you still could not feel much heat. Before i got this stove one of the local dealers had one burning but it was the 4300. That heat coming off of it was so intense that if they laid a $100 bill underneath of it and told me to get it I don't think I could have done it. They only had 3 small pieces burning in it. I am going to go back there as soon as I get a chance and take my non contact thermometer and see what the surface temp is if the have burning.
I am sorry, but I am out of ideas at this point. Again, I think it could be that the basement is uninsulated and this is a convection stove. However, I am at a total loss to explain why the stove won't hit 600F without significant effort. Hopefully someone far more intelligent than me will chime in soon. Let us know what you discover at the dealer.
I want to know more about this wood. What kind is it and how long has it been SPLIT and stacked.
94BULLITT said:
Ding, Ding, Ding - we have a winner.
Get a $16.00 moisture meter. It will tell you all you want to know. The wood that would burn in your old stove, is not going to burn well in the new stove. I know dead oak and I have TESTED many dead oak split that exceeded 25% moisture after several months of stacked drying.
94BULLITT said:
I don't see why not. That is a new one to me, but states it has a +/- of 2%. Good enough for firewood. Just make sure you take a split and re-split it. Test the newly exposed area.
I just found this one I like better http://www.lowes.com/pd_78059-56005...pl=1¤tURL;=/pl__0__s?Ntt=moisture+meter and I won't have to wait to have it shipped. How much moisture is allowable?
If the fire is going out with 1/4 air open, maybe the splits are too big, as well. If you are not already doing it, try getting a good bed of coals before loading on the big oak splits. If you have 7 cords and it was all cut dead, there will be different levels of dryness in your stacks. Find the best stuff and split some down a little more. YOU WILL NEVER GET THAT THING TO HEAT IF YOU HAVE TO BURN WITH FULL OPEN AIR. Remember, even with the primary air closed, you have secondary air entering the stove. If the wood is dry, you should have to shut the air back some just to keep temps down.
If trying some super-dry wood doesn't get results, then you have a draft problem. The one thing to remember, this stove is very different than your old one, and you will have to treat it very differently to get best results.
If trying some super-dry wood doesn't get results, then you have a draft problem. The one thing to remember, this stove is very different than your old one, and you will have to treat it very differently to get best results.
94BULLITT said:
That does look like a little nicer unit. Shoot for 20%. Anything under that is a bonus. Anything over 23% is gonna start degrading the performance noticeably. (At least that has been my experience.)
I am going along with the wood train. Try burning a couple full loads of good dry pine split very small. I had a similar prob last year, and the pine showed me that the new stove really can get to 800 degrees, but the convection vs radiant thing really took a while to get used to. Step one, use some good dry wood split small to make sure the stove works as intended. If it does, then look at either your wood or how you're burning it; but you will definitely need the blower for a basement install with no insulation. Best $ you can spend is to insulate the basement, or at least try to cover the walls. The old stove warmed the walls through radiant heat, the new one warms the air which then loses the battle against the walls (more dense) so less warm air makes it upstairs.
To summarize (and agree with Pagey and Jags) . . . to get the most heat out of this stove you need to get the air control shut after bringing it up to temp . . . and if you cannot maintain the higher temps and the fire starts to go out when you start to close down the air control . . . . and your wood was only split and stacked 8 months ago . . . there is a good chance your wood is only semi-seasoned.
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