Greetings_from a new Quadra 7100

[mecreature]

I have been searching and researching and found this forum.
We are adding on to the house to the tune of more then doubling the size. and it has to have a open floor plan and a nice fireplace. After a ton of consideration we decided on the Quadra-Fire 7100. It was about double what we wanted to spend but what the heck, and we will qualify to get the 1500 bucks.


So I have went thru the install manual its at 72 pages these day (what a head ache).. not really, i like to be informed. I am not sure what to do with the aux conv air option.. the person at the install place says they usually run it into the chase... I think for better options I would like to run it to a place where I can in the future extend it to where I want...

1. Is this a big deal or not.. I have read the topics and its kind of hit or miss and turns into a OAK discussion instead..

2. Am I going to be kicking myself later if I don't go with the heat zone?

I am sue I will be back with a few more questions..

thanks in advance

 

[wendell]

bump

 

[shawneyboy]

Well I can't answer your questions, I am unfamiliar with the model and the "heat zone" but I wanted to say welcome to the forum. If you don't get an answer by tomorrow afternoon, try and remember to give the thread a bump for Friday and the weekend Hearth crowd.

 

[mecreature]

thanks for the bump and greetings.

I edited the title a bit to get the bump

 

[climb.on]

I just finished installing this unit in my home. I still have plenty to do (stone work) but it's burning and throwing a ton of heat! For more background & pics on my situation, you can see a post I made earlier here https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/59449/

I don't know if you will kick yourself or not, for skipping the heat zone kit, since you have an "open floor plan" where I do not. If you have a short run (>10') to another part of the house that may be challenging to get the heat to, then I say, DO IT. If the run is horizontal, downward or over 15' I would say it's probably not worth it. There will be too much heat loss along the way and it will blow little to no warm air by the time it gets to it's destination.

What do they mean "run it into the chase"? This sounds like a bad idea if they are planning to draw air from INSIDE the chase. OR do they mean "run it THROUGH the chase?" I have both of mine running through the chase and I made an insulated enclosure for the heatzone pipe maintaining proper clearances and insulated the heck out of the aux air pipe, so these pipes wouldn't lose heat to the cold/uninsulated part of the chase.

A primary concern for me was/is how to move the heat from our basement living room to the rest of the house. Now I've had a chance to see the aux air and heat zone options, in action. I went through a LOT of extra work to install one heat zone and the Aux Air, but after only a week I "think" it was worth it. Well, the heat zone was for sure. I think the heat zone kits are good concept, but I hadn't read anyone who felt like they worked well. Since I had a very short run to the room above the fireplace, I felt I should get a good result and I did. It blows some nice warm air upstairs, not a ton, and it's not super hot but it will make a nice improvement.

The Aux air return is run into the same room above my fireplace (not ideal) but this was really my only option. I thought it would draw more air, but since it feed the main blower, it has to keep the basement cooler and help push more heat up the stairway.

Keep us posted!

 

[mecreature]

thanks for the info climb.on.

I read through your thread several times already.
I am having all new ducts ran from the furnace hot and cold anyway.
I am considering running an inline duct fan run front to back of the house both floors, and pull the cooler air
from the opposite side of the house to the room with the FP.
It should move a lot of air if I need it to.

thanks again for the reply.

 

[Gazerbeam]

Hi..I'm still in the process of installing mine. I finally have some time off over the holidays and am going to finish this project.

Regarding the Auxiliary Convection air, I decided not to use this feature. I'm going to remove the three screws that fastens the aux. convection air collar to the box and cover the hole is with a sheetmetal plate. I'm pretty constrained space wise inside my chase and really don't have the room for additional duct work anyway.

Also, from what I've gathered from reading the forums is the heat zone feature is like you said, "hit or miss." For me, with the fireplace being in an exterior chase and really not having a good way to duct the hot air to any other rooms with out a pretty long run with a lot of bends, I didn't want to go through all the trouble to do it and have it not work. I have a single floor ranch with an open floor plan (about 1700sqft), along with the full unfinished basement, so I'm pretty confident that it should heat the ground floor of the house ok with out it. I have several ceiling fans that I hope will circulate the air nicely through out the main floor.

 

[mecreature]

My chase is inside so should stay plenty warm.
I am not sure if the air that will be moved by the aux is worth piping around as opposed to an inline type fan pushing air.
Like anything else, at best its a balance of compromises.