A little paint does wonders for an old Quad

[DaveInPhilly]

We bought our house last December and it came with an Quadra-Fire 3100 ACT that was installed about 25-30 years ago. The previous owners certainly didn't take good care of her and it showed, but as ugly as she was, after a good sweeping she was a great heater and got us through our first winter in the new house just fine.

I decided the old girl needed some prettying up so I got myself a can of Rutland High Temp Brush on and went to work. I took all the brass work off and polished it up. The main body of the stove is cast iron much thicker steel and took the Rutland paint very well. The side pieces covering the blower fans are sheet metal and for the life of me I couldn't get a decent coat of pain on them. In the end I gave up and brought them out to the garage, sanded them down and sprayed them with a couple coats of Rust-Oleum high temp BBQ paint that I had on hand.

Both paints worked well, but the Rutland is head and shoulders above the Rust-Oleum. The black is much deeper and richer and the finished product just looks nicer. The photos don't really show it, but I think the difference is pretty evident, wife says she wouldn't have noticed I hadn't pointed it out.

I'll try and get some better shots in better light, because my phone really doesn't do this justice. In the meantime here are some Before and After shots:

 

[Highbeam]

Looks great but that stove has no cast iron, it's all sheet metal of varying thicknesses cut out, bent, and welded together. A great way to build a stove.

 

[DaveInPhilly]

Looks great but that stove has no cast iron, it's all sheet metal of varying thicknesses cut out, bent, and welded together. A great way to build a stove.

Huh, interesting. I guess I just assumed it was cast iron. Makes it even more puzzling as to why I couldn't get the paint onto the side pieces.

 

[Lake Girl]

Looking good! The surround may have needed a wipe with acetone to prep the surface before paint would bond. The difference in looks now may be due to paint maufacturer differences. You can get Rutland in spray cans too.

 

[Ashful]

Nice.

 

[VirginiaIron]

I think the door is cast and covered with 24K gold. When I purchased mine, I think this option was another $500, so I passed.

 

[stovelark]

Hi Dave- I think you brought the old girl back to life quite nicely, one of my first stoves was a Quad 3100 FS with that expensive gold plated door...back in the day when Quad was Aladdin steel. Keep warm.

 

[DaveInPhilly]

Thanks for all of the kind words.

Lake Girl, I specifically chose the Rutland paint because it say it claims not to need primer and I deliberately shied away from the spray because I was painting the stove in place. I just happened to have the Rustoleum in the garage. If I couldn't have gotten those panels off so easily, I would have put more effort into getting a decent coat of the Rutland onto them.

Stovelark, I wouldn't be surprised if this is an Aladdin stove. I can't find anything about it on the Quadra-Fire website. My best guess is it was installed around 1991 when the previous owner had a bunch of other work done on the house.

 

[VirginiaIron]

Does this help you?

 

[DaveInPhilly]

Holy cow, that sure seems to be my stove. Where did you find that? I could only find info on the model with the Automatic Combustion Control mechanism. Thank you!

 

[VirginiaIron]

Holy cow, that sure seems to be my stove. Where did you find that? I could only find info on the model with the Automatic Combustion Control mechanism. Thank you!

I do not remember. I know I have my manual somewhere at the homestead, but I wanted to find information on the stove and found the present document online somewhere. I thought this manual is slightly different from mine because I think this manual includes some different/optional panels at the base of the stove. I also did not know if the filtering system was available for mine at the time- after 21 years, mine exhibited very little dust and debris in the plenum. Same fans, speed and air controls, HD steel baffle, wool blanket, # of air tubes, etc. I have not needed anything for mine except a BTU and clearance inquiry. I love this stove and would not be changing it out if it was large enough. Good luck with the information.

 

[stovelark]

Dave- Yes I too think that is an ACT (advanced combustion technology) model, circa 2003-2009. The brick pattern would confirm it. Do you have two vertical bricks in the back where the "shotgun" tubes come through? Or two verticals on the outside, one 6.75 inch brick on top of the tubes and a corner cut on the bottom where the tubes come through?? The ACT model also has the ceramic baffle on top vice the older steel baffle for Pre ACT models (2002 and older). The old manuals are available also at quadrafire.com. The ACC model (advanced combustion control) came out in 2009.
Anyway you look at it, yours looks great.