New Quadra-Fire Trekker

[Tim M.]

Anyone have a lead on this new model they will be selling this year? Swapping out a 25 year old Regency wood stove this season - came with house I purchased 3 years ago and was planning on replacing with Jotul Carrabasset however previous owner did not build hearth to code with clearances to combustible walls etc so will now be switching to pellet stove .... its a new model this year which makes me nervous, no history on how this thing will perform and my understanding is it comes heavily weighted with technology which to me in a pessimistic way just means more things can go wrong with it but the "cool" factor of some of the features are pretty impressive and I'm intrigued. Thought I had my mind made up on an Enviro M55 but then saw this and got curious. Too new for any real reviews - local stove shop that is a Quadra-Fire dealer in my area says they were 1 of 5 stove shops chosen to bet test it over the last year - and they of course would love to sell me a stove so their going to be a bit biased. Anyone have any inside info on this model ?

 

[Barry I]

Anyone have a lead on this new model they will be selling this year? Swapping out a 25 year old Regency wood stove this season - came with house I purchased 3 years ago and was planning on replacing with Jotul Carrabasset however previous owner did not build hearth to code with clearances to combustible walls etc so will now be switching to pellet stove .... its a new model this year which makes me nervous, no history on how this thing will perform and my understanding is it comes heavily weighted with technology which to me in a pessimistic way just means more things can go wrong with it but the "cool" factor of some of the features are pretty impressive and I'm intrigued. Thought I had my mind made up on an Enviro M55 but then saw this and got curious. Too new for any real reviews - local stove shop that is a Quadra-Fire dealer in my area says they were 1 of 5 stove shops chosen to bet test it over the last year - and they of course would love to sell me a stove so their going to be a bit biased. Anyone have any inside info on this model ?

I recently ordered a Mt. Vernon E2, but my local dealer received a Trekker instead. They were told that Quadra Fire is no longer making the E2 and the Trekker is the replacement. My local dealer honored the E2 price even though the Trekker was $140 more.... I was excited at first, but haven't gotten the stove to run yet. The reason is the wireless thermostat (aka appliance) will not keep a constant "bluetooth" connection even though I'm standing 3 feet away from the receiver, in line of sight. The dealer called Quadra Fire and were told it was most likely a bad battery. I tried both batteries that were included with the wireless thermostat and purchased a third, but end up with the same result. My big issue is, if the wireless thermostat cannot connect to the stove, and btw it controls EVERY aspect of the stove, the stove does NOT run. The default of the system is if the wireless thermostat loses connection to the stove, the stove automatically goes into shutdown. Also there is no override to run the stove in a manual mode. The battery in the remote thermostat is not a common battery, and has to be ordered special.
Now I'm concerned that if in the dead of winter when the wireless thermostat loses it's connection to the stove, I won't have any heat.
One more irritating aspect of the Trekker is, the exhaust port is not centered in the back of the stove like most pellet stoves, so either you install the stove off center on your hearth (I have a permanent hearth) or you have to tilt your stove pipe....
I'm returning the Trekker tomorrow and getting the E2 which has been around a number of years and it uses a tried and true "wired" thermostat.