I searched the forum but most of the posts regarding ACC are several years old and deal with specific use, or issues .
For 20+ years I have been heating my home with wood I gather and use a wood-burning insert that is way older than that (probably from the '70's). I recently renovated the fireplace stone and finally removed this beast of an insert and got rid of it. So now we're in the market for a new insert and have visited a couple of local stores. Looks like I timed it right with the 2020 EPA standards. I'm sure I'll be burning much less wood than I ever have before to heat my 2100 sq.ft. single story home. The new tech in these devices is impressive.
Now I've always had to manually control my damper and air flow control...which always was a pain. On my old stove I had a thermometer and would have to check it often to tweak the dual air vents to keep it burning nicely (no glass either!). And when I loaded it up and went to bed...a guessing game. The last few years I had considered creating some sort of device with a thermocouple and a linear actuator to control these sliding air flow controls automatically, but never did.
To my surprise, a few of these new models now advertise automatic combustion control (Quadra-Fire "ACC"). We've looked at the Quadra-Fire Expedition II and the Vermont Castings Montpelier II models, which also advertises this feature. But then we've seen several models that still have the old manual control (Lopi NexGen-Fyre inserts). But then the Lopi inserts have the Green Start ignition system that sounds pretty cool.
So my question (finally) is this: Does it work!? On the one-hand, I hate to give up control...but on the other-hand, if it works to keep the fire burning in the optimal range, then I'm all for it. But I wonder how well this "technology" works. So for those that have it, what do you think? Should I steer clear, or make sure I find one that does have ACC?
Thanks,
Tom
For 20+ years I have been heating my home with wood I gather and use a wood-burning insert that is way older than that (probably from the '70's). I recently renovated the fireplace stone and finally removed this beast of an insert and got rid of it. So now we're in the market for a new insert and have visited a couple of local stores. Looks like I timed it right with the 2020 EPA standards. I'm sure I'll be burning much less wood than I ever have before to heat my 2100 sq.ft. single story home. The new tech in these devices is impressive.
Now I've always had to manually control my damper and air flow control...which always was a pain. On my old stove I had a thermometer and would have to check it often to tweak the dual air vents to keep it burning nicely (no glass either!). And when I loaded it up and went to bed...a guessing game. The last few years I had considered creating some sort of device with a thermocouple and a linear actuator to control these sliding air flow controls automatically, but never did.
To my surprise, a few of these new models now advertise automatic combustion control (Quadra-Fire "ACC"). We've looked at the Quadra-Fire Expedition II and the Vermont Castings Montpelier II models, which also advertises this feature. But then we've seen several models that still have the old manual control (Lopi NexGen-Fyre inserts). But then the Lopi inserts have the Green Start ignition system that sounds pretty cool.
So my question (finally) is this: Does it work!? On the one-hand, I hate to give up control...but on the other-hand, if it works to keep the fire burning in the optimal range, then I'm all for it. But I wonder how well this "technology" works. So for those that have it, what do you think? Should I steer clear, or make sure I find one that does have ACC?
Thanks,
Tom
