Howdy all,
Last night was the very first successful run of our Quardrafire Classic Bay 1200i insert. This was a CL find and it's few years old, probably more than six years if my memory serves. As most of you know, project like these can nickel and dime you so I started to acquire parts since last summer. The stove sat on a furniture dolly in the garage while I sourced parts from Amazon. The stove came with one part of a two part wireless thermostat. The receiver was still connected to the stove but the transmitter was still in the house where this stove used to live. Thankfully, I was able to operate the stove in the garage and it fired right up! This was very exciting for me as purchasing used items from CL/Ebay can be a nerveracking experience.
While the stove was sitting in the garage, I cleaned up the interior, along with the fan blades. Listened for any squeaks and such but didn't find any. Removed the snap discs and using a propane torch+thermocouple tester, made sure they are working according to specs.
Skytech
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A1OQHS/?tag=hearthamazon-20
First thing was to change the color from black to a baby blue color. Two cans of Stove Brite paint took care of the transformation using two coats over two days. The temps were cold in the garage so I had to use my 11 year old daughter's bathroom. As she was heading to bed one night, she gave me a stern lecture "daddy, I BETTER have my bathroom back my tomorrow at 6am". Well, alrighty then. I hung up plastic sheets everywhere, heated up the bathroom, put on the respirator and went to work. It turned out pretty well and complements the living room nicely.
So, now I have a Liberty Lopi wood stove on one corner and this pellet stove insert inside the fireplace. The previous owner of my house hired a pro to install the wood stove so I'm not sure if it's going anywhere for a while. After ten years of gathering wood, hauling, cutting, chopping, splitting and stacking, it was time for a change. Perhaps if my downstairs floor had updated windows and the heat retention was optimum, I would've stuck with the wood stove. But, reality being what it is, the heat loss was just too great along with a huge volume that needed to be heated, the wood stove was becoming more of a chore after getting home from work. I found myself relying on the propane fired boiler/base board heating system to keep the temp at a min and just layered up on the clothing.
At least now I can use a programmable timer to have the pellet stove operate mornings & evenings. We can fire up the wood stove for a quiet heat during the weekends when we'll be hanging around the house more often. I found the same Skytech t-stat on Ebay for $60 and snatched it up. It was brand new!
This particular pellet stove is a very simple to operate and troubleshoot. I assume most are probably similar, I don't know. The schematic is easy to follow and understand I thought.
Understanding how a chimney liner functions is important and I called Rockford Chimney for some education. It just so happens, they have a decently priced chimney liner kit on Amazon for $280 shipped. USA made products, you can't beat it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YIWA5M/?tag=hearthamazon-20
I used the following product to make the transition from the stove outlet to a 3" to 4" adapter. It's a 3" exhaust pipe that I cut up and fabricated a stove exhaust adapter. I had to keep everything on the left side of the stove and this little project worked out nicely.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YIWA5M/?tag=hearthamazon-20
At my elevation, 4" liner is recommended so a trip to the hardware store produced a 3" outlet to a 3" double walled SS chimney liner adapter. Then came the 3" to 4" double walled SS chimney liner adapter. I had to use a 3M high temp 600º heat tape on the connection between the 4" chimney liner and the 3"-4" adapter just to keep everything snug inside the fireplace.
Running a 4" chimney liner meant that I either cut a hole in the flue damper plate, simply leave it open permanently or remove it. I removed the plate and cut two holes using a plasma cutter. One 5" for the liner, one 3" hole for the fresh air. The holes are larger because of the angle of the damper plate and how it sits. Having larger holes allows you more wiggle room working with the rather stiff chimney liner. This way, I can keep the flue damper closed and keep the cold air out of the fireplace. I had my daughter pull on the 4" liner while I fed it from top of the fireplace. This liner is somewhat flexible but VERY stiff to work with.
All in all, this little gem heats up the large volume rather quickly so we're pleased with the outcome. I got two tons of pellet last summer and bulk of the winter is just about over here in NM but I'm looking forward to going home today to a warm house!
Ali
Last night was the very first successful run of our Quardrafire Classic Bay 1200i insert. This was a CL find and it's few years old, probably more than six years if my memory serves. As most of you know, project like these can nickel and dime you so I started to acquire parts since last summer. The stove sat on a furniture dolly in the garage while I sourced parts from Amazon. The stove came with one part of a two part wireless thermostat. The receiver was still connected to the stove but the transmitter was still in the house where this stove used to live. Thankfully, I was able to operate the stove in the garage and it fired right up! This was very exciting for me as purchasing used items from CL/Ebay can be a nerveracking experience.
While the stove was sitting in the garage, I cleaned up the interior, along with the fan blades. Listened for any squeaks and such but didn't find any. Removed the snap discs and using a propane torch+thermocouple tester, made sure they are working according to specs.
Skytech
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A1OQHS/?tag=hearthamazon-20
First thing was to change the color from black to a baby blue color. Two cans of Stove Brite paint took care of the transformation using two coats over two days. The temps were cold in the garage so I had to use my 11 year old daughter's bathroom. As she was heading to bed one night, she gave me a stern lecture "daddy, I BETTER have my bathroom back my tomorrow at 6am". Well, alrighty then. I hung up plastic sheets everywhere, heated up the bathroom, put on the respirator and went to work. It turned out pretty well and complements the living room nicely.
So, now I have a Liberty Lopi wood stove on one corner and this pellet stove insert inside the fireplace. The previous owner of my house hired a pro to install the wood stove so I'm not sure if it's going anywhere for a while. After ten years of gathering wood, hauling, cutting, chopping, splitting and stacking, it was time for a change. Perhaps if my downstairs floor had updated windows and the heat retention was optimum, I would've stuck with the wood stove. But, reality being what it is, the heat loss was just too great along with a huge volume that needed to be heated, the wood stove was becoming more of a chore after getting home from work. I found myself relying on the propane fired boiler/base board heating system to keep the temp at a min and just layered up on the clothing.
At least now I can use a programmable timer to have the pellet stove operate mornings & evenings. We can fire up the wood stove for a quiet heat during the weekends when we'll be hanging around the house more often. I found the same Skytech t-stat on Ebay for $60 and snatched it up. It was brand new!
This particular pellet stove is a very simple to operate and troubleshoot. I assume most are probably similar, I don't know. The schematic is easy to follow and understand I thought.
Understanding how a chimney liner functions is important and I called Rockford Chimney for some education. It just so happens, they have a decently priced chimney liner kit on Amazon for $280 shipped. USA made products, you can't beat it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YIWA5M/?tag=hearthamazon-20
I used the following product to make the transition from the stove outlet to a 3" to 4" adapter. It's a 3" exhaust pipe that I cut up and fabricated a stove exhaust adapter. I had to keep everything on the left side of the stove and this little project worked out nicely.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YIWA5M/?tag=hearthamazon-20
At my elevation, 4" liner is recommended so a trip to the hardware store produced a 3" outlet to a 3" double walled SS chimney liner adapter. Then came the 3" to 4" double walled SS chimney liner adapter. I had to use a 3M high temp 600º heat tape on the connection between the 4" chimney liner and the 3"-4" adapter just to keep everything snug inside the fireplace.
Running a 4" chimney liner meant that I either cut a hole in the flue damper plate, simply leave it open permanently or remove it. I removed the plate and cut two holes using a plasma cutter. One 5" for the liner, one 3" hole for the fresh air. The holes are larger because of the angle of the damper plate and how it sits. Having larger holes allows you more wiggle room working with the rather stiff chimney liner. This way, I can keep the flue damper closed and keep the cold air out of the fireplace. I had my daughter pull on the 4" liner while I fed it from top of the fireplace. This liner is somewhat flexible but VERY stiff to work with.
All in all, this little gem heats up the large volume rather quickly so we're pleased with the outcome. I got two tons of pellet last summer and bulk of the winter is just about over here in NM but I'm looking forward to going home today to a warm house!
Ali
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