What I was told at the fireplace store

I found many of the stove dealers that I dealt with to be fountains of misinformation. There are good ones though.

As I reread the comments on this thread I started earlier today, I find myself saying: "Wow, what a great and interesting group of people."

All comments have been thought-provoking.

And two women equestrians to boot.

To the Webmaster--I probably should have specified the context of the salesman's comment regarding the three brands. They sell Heat&Glo;gas inserts, but not Quadra-fire gas inserts. I had asked about the Quadra-fire gas inserts initially, and was told they carried only Heat&glo;, and that there was no difference. I'm wondering if anyone knows that to be true or false.

Thanks to all.

i can do that...

sorry was baited, ok back to buisness folks , my bad

Woa, Rick and Steve. If you want to talk about boilers, let's have at it. I just decided AGAINST replacing my ancient gas hog furnace with a radiant system, BECAUSE of the boiler issues. That was after two months of research. I'm game if either of you are.

Sorry, I should have directed that to Rick and MIKE.

Rick--very nice ride. I mainly drive an old Blazer, but I love my John Deere and all-powerful Husqvarna chainsaw even more. But no one wants to see pics of those. Hopefully we'll get to see Eileen's truck too. My curiosity has been piqued...

[quote author="skamp" date="1215755344"

So if you want to be independent, and save tonnes of money, then by all means, welcome to the loonie wood bin. :-S[/quote]
Sonnyinbc your my hero. Your mindset is what I hope mine will be at your age. I have exercised since I was young guy I love all kinds. When I used to hunt deer I loved the exercise I got from hiking around. So anyways your my new hero. ;-)[/quote]

Sorry skamp: wrong guy for a hero--I am even more evil than brother bart. Talk about deer hunting? My brother-in-law shot our first deer when I was only 21 and when we went to clean it, well, we had a "gut fight" that is to say throwing the guts and stuff at each other to see who would look the worst at the end of the day? Can`t recall who got the worst of it, but just goes to show "hero`s " ain`t what ya think?

Texan`s are evil!! Canadians are even more evil!! ;-P

Sniff, sniff, I smell Ash Can.

Ok you want to info about those three brands.... I can tell you anything you want to know.

Ok...

- All the wood or pellet STOVES and INSERTS are labeled Quadrafire and made at the Quad plant in Colville, WA.
- All the open face ZC prefab wood units (branded heat & glo or Heatilator) are made at the Heatilator plant in Muscatine, IA
- Most (maybe all) of the direct vent gas units (ZC and insert) with all three brands are made at the Heat & Glo plant in Lave City, MN
- I think Quad makes all the cast and FS gas stove at their plant, and also Heatilator might make some gas units at their plant.


No they are not all the same, Heatilator is the "value" brand, Heat & Glo is all about "innovation" and Quad is the "rugged" brand.

- Heatilator usually is a basic unit with less features and less accessory options, they give you a basic quality fireplace with a good price.

- Heat & Glo is always looking for the newest and best technology and designs, they also have many designer fronts and accessories. This sometimes comes with a hefty price.

- Quad is all about being rugged and tough looking, they have all the wood stoves and pellet units, and the 7100FP has more features and bigger firebox than the HNG and HTL alternatives. Their gas units have fronts make out of things like hand hammered steel give them that high end look.

Any questions?

Hi all.

BeGreen asked about my motivation for visiting the FP store. That's a really drawn-out story, but the very short version is that I have the need to add a large supplementary heat source, and I have a large, long-dormant masonry fireplace (firebox is 42.5 wide x 24.5 deep x 29 high). From what I've read here and elsewhere, the most sensible thing is to put an equally large insert in the FP, which would be aesthetically pleasing and make the FP actually useful, instead of just letting warm air leak up the chimney.

So mainly, I want a big supplementary heat source. I agree NG would be easiest, but I'm open to at least the idea of "working" with wood. But probably for that location in the house, NG makes more sense, so I guess that's where I'll focus. Maybe later I'll put a wood insert in the basement FP.

Comments from jtp10181 about the three brands cleared up a lot. If i'm reading them right though, it would seem the salesman was wrong to say that since the gas inserts made by HNG and Quad were made in the same factory, there's no difference between them. And so if I'm mainly looking at gas inserts at this point, I should consider the two brands separately. (That particular store only sells gas inserts from HNG)

Today I'm off to visit three more FP stores. I'm sure I'll learn some more surprising things along the way. If so, I'll post them for critiquing.

If you want a gas insert that looks like a cast iron stove, look at the Quad units. Otherwise, you have seen what Heat & Glo has to offer (not cast iron). They are probably similar in the BTU, heat output, and the firebox itself. But the surrounds and fronts that Quad offers are much different. Out of the three brands that we sell, probably 98% of the gas inserts are Heat & Glo.

Hi jtp10181. If the 75% AFUE for the HNG FB-Grand is to be believed, it's pretty hard to beat. The Quad Hudson has AFUE listed at 66%, a significant difference. Since I plan to use it quite a lot in the colder months, performance is more important than looks or style.

How did you make out at the stove shops, Dave?

If'n I were closer, I could give you a hand hauling her home



The vehicle affectionately known as "The Beast".

I'll be using it to tow home the "feel free to use it, it's just sitting here" splitter, amongst other things. I also have a friend taking out a tree in her yard, to big for the truck alone, so I'll be using the trailer to put wood in as well.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Dave Thread

It's got the Tow Command sytem. Hook up your trailer, get going to 50 MPH, set your in dash controls, and it's done. Pretty much forever.

Helps for hauling heavier loads.

Quite handy for hauling wood. I've never had a really heavy load in the bed, aside from compost. I hauled that 25 miles... never even knew that I had a heavy load, in "haul" mode, once I got going.

And yes, I was safely able to stop

LOL--yeah Rick, I knew she couldn't resist. Equestrians are all about "showing."

But a very nice rig there, Eileen. We have some good ol' gals here in PA who would be jealous.

Was that photo taken where you live? It reminds me of the sandy forested shores of the FLA panhandle, where once I roamed. I assume though it's NY.

Three FP stores today. One was OOB, though their ad just came out in the new phone book.

At the second, no sales pitch at all. The proprietess was busy arguing with her credit card rep at the bank. I picked up the relevant brochures as I checked out the models, and left.

Third one--the sales woman basically read the respective brochures to me. She didn't seem to know any more than that about it.

But as I mentioned earlier, i'm leaning toward the HNG Grand-FB gas insert, because of the (relatively) high AFUE of 75%. I decided after that I'll pursue a wood burning stove for my basement workshop. My goal this winter is to not use the central furnace at all.

lmao!! yes you are going green but where in west mass are you??? nhamp? pitt? blanford? savoy?
hopefully you are close to me... i am going to start a west mass club on here ... we all get together cut split stack and go house to house !!

Hi again Rick. When I started this post, I was still undecided about wood vs. gas, but now I can see the right way to go. Gas insert in the big LR firebox, wood stove in the basement workshop, and maybe a gas stove in the Master BR. All local heat, and no ducts. If it works out, then scrap the ancient furnace.

I was pretty much thinking this particular post was getting stale anyway, and probably no one wants to scroll all the way to the end. I still haven't figured out what the Ash Can is, but we're probably tempting fate nonetheless.

Hopefully Eileen will continue her emoticon artistry. And I'll keep lurking/learning from you folks who are further ahead on this road.

Talk to you soon.

Dave