Not burning as well when it gets really cold

[Mattd]

mid to upper 30s my quadrafire 7100 burns great. Load it up with wood and sit back. House gets too hot if I don’t throttle it back.

Once we get into the 20s and below it never really gets blazing hot. Wood will burn, and house is warm. But i have to feed it more wood, which dosent burn as hot, and dosent last as long.

The only cold air intake on the QF is on the wrong side for me. It leaves the box, turns 90 degrees, goes up 3’, then turns 45 degrees and goes another 5’ over the top of the box to the exterior wall.

I think this long run keeps it from running as good as it should I’m general. But when it gets colder out maybe it has a harder time pulling the denser, heavier air thru all that duct?

 

[bholler]

mid to upper 30s my quadrafire 7100 burns great. Load it up with wood and sit back. House gets too hot if I don’t throttle it back.

Once we get into the 20s and below it never really gets blazing hot. Wood will burn, and house is warm. But i have to feed it more wood, which dosent burn as hot, and dosent last as long.

The only cold air intake on the QF is on the wrong side for me. It leaves the box, turns 90 degrees, goes up 3’, then turns 45 degrees and goes another 5’ over the top of the box to the exterior wall.

I think this long run keeps it from running as good as it should I’m general. But when it gets colder out maybe it has a harder time pulling the denser, heavier air thru all that duct?

Your fresh air intake cant run up from the stove. It can be dangerous.

As far as your problem goes as temps drop your draft will increase. This means it will be pulling harder decreasing burn times and in some cases can suck more heat out of the stove leading to lower heatoutput. How tall is your chimney?

 

[Mattd]

I don’t have any choice, has to run up and over. It sits in the corner at a 45. The intake points to the interior, and it’s a very tight fit in the chase, only minimum clearances in the corners. House is 2.5 years old and was built, and inspected, with fireplace in place.

If the draft increases, seems like I would have more fire, burning faster and hotter. It’s low 20s now and I have it full open and it’s barely burning. It does have a turbo mode that is used for starting the fire. If I open that it will take off. But last week when it was 35, full open no turbo would be burning strong. Same wood.

Chimney is taller then roof. Not exactly sure how tall

 

[Mattd]

This is burning with the intake full open with no turbo. Logs have been in and are black like charcoal, but not even close to all the way burned up. Just a couple little flames in the back. The glowing coals in front is where the intake is, but they look brighter in the pic then they really are.

 

[Highbeam]

Temporarily unhook the oak and maybe even crack a window. Your fire is almost dead. Are you sure you’re opening the draft and not shutting it?

 

[Mattd]

Positive on the open vs close. The doors of the stove are shut tight. Not sure if cracking a window will do anything.

Just put 2 new big logs in and opened the turbo. It takes right off. But even this isn’t as big as it was last week w the turbo on. There was no getting close to it then.

 

[Mattd]

Those bars across the top....those are like a door wash I think they call it. I believe fresh air comes in thru them and blows fire on the glass to keep it clean. And when those jets are burning there’s rolling flames at the top from the smoke and all gases getting fully burned.

In the last pic it is full open w turbo mode on. Those jets aren’t even blowing. And my glass is dirty.

That just wasnt the case last week when it wasn’t as cold. I think the quadrafire, at least for my application is junk. Def struggle with it every year. Thought I had it figured out this year, but now that it’s colder I’m back in the same boat.

 

[Hogwildz]

If you are running constantly at full open, that is part of your problem. You need to but the air back as far as possible without smouldering. Then the secondaries kick in and it will rise in temp.