Quad 7100 vs FPX 36

[artfink]

I think I am settled on the Quadrafire 7100FP. And the price is REALLY good right now ($2,399 with standard door and does not include the piping). And I believe this will qualify for the $1,500 federal tax credit and a $300 state tax credit. Anyhow....

I am NOT going to be a 24/7 burner. Probably a three times a week burner.

I would like to use the zone heating kit but I think my run would exceed the 40ft or be really close to it. I would have to go up the chimney area about 18 feet, then into the attic and over about 20 plus feet. So the next question is

1) should I use the auxillary air to pull cold air from the same room I intended the heat zone kit to land in?
2) What would be the pros and cons of using the auxillary vs heat zone kit?
3) How well does the auxillary pull from other rooms?

Any other suggestions?

THanks

MIke

 

[ihookem]

The auxilery air doesn't work and zone heat won't work very well neither. You are getting a good price on the stove but have to warn you to make sure there is nothing that can burn inside the firebox. It's a "zero clearance" but I am done thunking there is such a thing. Don't line it with "firestop" that can burn like osb. I had one for 4 years and the woodburner fell apart from the inside and we never knew it until it was too late. I woke up christmas morning to find a fire behind the stove and it burned half the house down. If the woodburner fails you can not have anything around it that can burn. I would also go with steel studs around the woodburner. If I did it again I would plaster the whole inside over tile backer board so if something happens it might smoke a lot but won't take you house with you. We have had a bunch of fires around here and all were " zero clearance woodstoves. Otherwise we liked the Quadrafire but our new house will have a gas fireplace inside and an owb outside. Also, they are not meant to burn wood 24/7 . They don't tell you this when pluncking down the money though. They just don't hold up after a while.

 

[jtp10181]

ihookem, if its installed properly to the mfg specs and the fireplace is used correctly and not abused there will not be any problems.

They are made to burn wood 24/7. I have quite a few customers who do not stop using it all winter long and they have not had any major problem. Yes some components will wear out faster. What do you think would happen to a gas fireplace that's used 24/7 as opposed to one used once a week?

artfink, in our experience long heat zone runs to not perform well. You may be able to boost its performance by also ducting the AUX air to the same room. When you activate the AUX air it cuts the blowers off from the fireplace room totally, and they only pull air from the AUX supply. For your best chance you should run both the heat zone and the AUX in a similar fashion as you would a forced air system to that room. Keep the runs as short as possible with the least about of elbows or bends. I cannot guarantee good performance, but that will give you the best chance of it doing something useful.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

What was the fire departments final say that caused the fire? What did quad say? There is more to this story, fireplaces, of any brand or type just dont fall apart and burn your house down. If it did fall apart, is quad taking responsibility? WHat is your insurance company saying? I have never heard of this happening on any fireplace unit. What was your everyday fuel? Where did you read that you cant burn the fireplace 24/7? How far away was the heat zone kit installed? Where was the aux air pulling from? Can you link some stories from your area that would support all the fires you have had in your area due to fireplaces and stoves?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

also, i searched all your prior posts, is there not a thread on this issue you had? If so, please point to it.

 

[the_dude]

Don't count on the tax credits. I pretty sure only pellet/corn stoves meet the efficiency requirements to qualify for the credit.

 

[ihookem]

My insurance company is taking care of everything. I was asked by them not to contact them because they may very well have a case against them. So far it looks like it will go to court. The outside air vent was about 12' long. We were burning good dry hardwood until the fire. The fire department said it was a chimney fire so The insurance inspector and a state inspector spent a day studying the chimney and decided it was not a chimney fire. When we took out the fireplace insert the outside metal seems were apart and were not screwed together or tack welded. I won't comment much because I might have to go to court someday. I am not ripping quadrafire, it was a good unit until the fire except the fans were noisy. It was installed by the company that I bought it from and not me cause I was not positive what I was doing and passed inspection. What I am saying is that if it ever fails the installers need to make sure it is surrounded by NON combustible materials like Durrock or something similar or at least 5/8" drywall incase it does fail.(everything fails eventually) I don't know why Wisconsin approves "firestop" material that can start on fire so easily. I would have put another in but the wife is very nervous about woodburners in the house lately and they wanted 6,000 dollars for another one installed so I decided I was already sick of smoke, dirt and bark all over the family room. Hope this helps for the original poster. Later, Ihookem.

 

[jtp10181]

I would just like to state that we install quite a lot of Northstar and 7100FP units every year. We have never had a fire linked to one that I know of in the 4 years I have been around. Actually we have never been drug into anything major with any wood fireplaces or stoves we have installed. Sounds like ihookem has an isolated case and it could have been one of or a combination of many things that caused the end result. Hopefully they can determine the real root cause of the problem so everyone involved can learn from it.

Oh also about the noisy fans, if you still had your unit there was an upgrade kit that came out about 2 years ago which added some shielding to the fans. The plastic squirrel cages were warping on some people and causing them to make terrible noises. All the new units made now have the shielding build in, we have not had fan problems with any of the units since the design was changed. So anyone out there with an older 7100 and noisy fans, ask your dealer about an upgrade kit.

artfink, let us know if you have any more questions

Tax Credit info: (broken link removed to http://quadrafire.com/Tax_Credit/stimulus-tax-credit-stove.asp)

 

[ihookem]

I didn't mention this on any of my posts because I thought it would sound like I was ripping or trashing a product. This is a post about the 7100 so I mentioned it. Again if I could get it for 2400 dollars I would have gotten one again.

 

[artfink]

OK, can we please get back to my question? We seem to be off topic.

So heat zone or auxillary air, or both?

 

[jtp10181]

I already answered it, see post #2. Only other responses you will get is from people who actually have it, if any of them are hanging around yet.

 

[artfink]

Yes, I saw your post. Thanks for the info.

The room I'm trying to get the pipes to is the living room but it is upstairs and across the house from the stove. The other room I could get to for the heat zone would be the current master bedroom? If I did that, would it "cook" us out of that room? That would only be a 12-18 ft run.

 

[artfink]

OK, so maybe I'm changing my mind? How about an Opel 2? Little smaller but has the central air blower option? Looks very promising.

Any comments on the Opel vs Quadrafire?

Edited:

Thinking this through, how much advantage does the central air blower kit have (if installed properly) over just turning on the fan function of my current furnace for a 3,000 sq ft home? 2 story house with 1 return downstairs and 2 returns upstairs. The floor plan downstairs is pretty open with the return being about 30 ft from the stove location.?

My thoughts are putting the air from the stove into the ductwork would maybe spread the air more evenly than just relying on the furnace fan to do the same? Would this be an accurate statement?

 

[the_dude]

I can't comment on the blower kits, but I have had little success using my furnace blower to even out temps. I maybe had a flawed plan to begin with. I closed all of the vents on the first level of my home, leaving only the cold air returns open. Then I left all the vents open in the basement. My hope was I could move some of the warm air into the basement. At times, my upstairs would be 75+ and the basement was 55. I ran the furnace blower for hours to get the basement to 58.

 

[Hurricane]

Ditto with the furnace blower not doing much. I tried it as well, it did not work here as well. I am thinking of installing a return at the far end of the room where the insert is and running it maybe 15-20 ft across the basement and using an inline vent fan on a switch. I am thinking of using that insulated flex tubing above my drop ceiling downstairs and whenever it starts getting too warm upstairs turn on the switch.

The possible negative to this is it may screw with my draft by creating a negative pressure for a short while until the air starts moving back up the stairs. The air temp coming out of the vent will be 72-78 degrees and only one vent, I do not have high hopes of it warming the downstairs but would like if it took the edge off.

 

[jtp10181]

Yes, I saw your post. Thanks for the info.

The room I'm trying to get the pipes to is the living room but it is upstairs and across the house from the stove. The other room I could get to for the heat zone would be the current master bedroom? If I did that, would it "cook" us out of that room? That would only be a 12-18 ft run.

The heat zones don't push much air. I don't think you would get too warm. If it was warming it up too much in that room just turn the speed of the heat zone down some, or don't enable the AUX air.

Also the AUX air can be split and run to a few different rooms. The heat zone can only have two off the unit and should be kept as short as possible, least amount of elbows, and always vertical if possible.

 

[redpen]

you post is very useful
organisme de credit

 

[artfink]

Here is my layout. 3000 sq ft, 1,500 on the top level (entry level) and 1,500 in a daylight basement ( front is under ground, back is not, slopes down the front pretty quick. The room where the stove is going to go is the family room, in the daylight basement, and is a completely open 600sq ft, 40x15, but has low ceiling at just under 8 ft. Next to this 40x15 area is another 40x15 area that will have two bedrooms a bath and a utility room. Just up the staircase from the basement is a pretty open 800 sq feet that has the kitchen, dinning and living rooms. So if we get good flow of air up the staircase it should heat this area nicely.

There are three possible locations for the stove. Two would be on the 15 ft wall corners. This wall is opposite the stair case so I think there is a good chance with adding a blower that the air would travel towards and up the staircase. Plus hot air rises. This setup would NOT likely allow any connection to the central air ductwork (I think). The third location would be in the middle of the 40ft wall and also in the middle of the basement footprint. Meaning it would be on the backwall of one of the bedrooms and the chimney would go up the middle of our house where the old chimney was. This location could possibly tie into the central heating ductwork.

Two questions.

1) Is it worth it to try and tie into the central air ductwork?

2) Is the Delta2 too big if the room it is in is 600 sq ft?

 

[artfink]

So, I've changed the topic title to match my most recent choices.

I've learned a great deal the last couple weeks.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Quad 7100 and the FPX 36.

Thanks

 

[the_dude]

FPX36 has a cat, no?

Have you checked out the stove in my signature? I believe it has the option of aux air to another room (or straight up into your living space). Unfortunately, I didn't find out about that option until after install

 

[artfink]

Yes the FPX has a cat. But I think I'm OK with that.

The Kozy 42 is very similar to the Quad 7100Fp I believe, which is the other stove I'm considering. I've just talked to a couple people recently that have convinced me the FPX 36 is the superior stove. I do have a chimney issue though, cut I think that would be an issue with any stove.

Thanks

 

[the_dude]

I love my Kozy Heat, and when I bought, the price difference between the Kozy Heat and the 7100 made it a no brainer. I did look at the FPX, but it wouldn't fit where I needed it to go. I was replacing a Majestic cheep-o pre fab, and the Kozy Heat was the closest size wise. It is a great fireplace.

I've heard great things about the FPX. I would love a Cat stove too. Sure you have to replace the cat every couple of years, but it is worth it. It can take quite a while to get secondary burn from start up on the big non-cat fireplaces.

 

[FPX Dude]

I have FPX36 and didn't know about the 7100FP when I bought it. Nonetheless, the wife would only lemme go for FPX because of the cleaner look of gold face option and didn't want a "stove look". I also liked the remote blower with no electrical cords laying around and the sound is not even noticeable. I don't know many other advantages/disadvantages either, but had my eye on the FPX so that's what I got.

 

[gibson]

I think I am settled on the Quadrafire 7100FP. And the price is REALLY good right now ($2,399 with standard door and does not include the piping). And I believe this will qualify for the $1,500 federal tax credit and a $300 state tax credit. Anyhow....

I am NOT going to be a 24/7 burner. Probably a three times a week burner.

I would like to use the zone heating kit but I think my run would exceed the 40ft or be really close to it. I would have to go up the chimney area about 18 feet, then into the attic and over about 20 plus feet. So the next question is

1) should I use the auxillary air to pull cold air from the same room I intended the heat zone kit to land in?
2) What would be the pros and cons of using the auxillary vs heat zone kit?
3) How well does the auxillary pull from other rooms?

Any other suggestions?

THanks

MIke

Since you are getting a good deal and the tax credit, you live in the PNW and are only burning 3 days per week. I would go with a straight forward install. I live in a 2800' house in New England and I do fine with a full size insert.

 

[artfink]

Now that I've changed my installation from a corner install to a flat wall install.....should I get the FPX 44 or stick with my original plan of the FPX 36? The corner would not work because I couldn't get the chimney out of the house. The flat wall works as I can set the stove 4 inches into the wall (2x8 walls).

Facts:

1) 3000 sq ft
2) 1,500 in daylight basement where the stove will be
3) 1,500 up
3.5) Stove will be in the center of a 15ft wide wall pointing towards a 40ft x 15ft space.
4) Room that the stove will be in is currently 850 sq feet of open space with 7.75 ft tall ceilings. This space will be cut to 600 sq feet once a remodel is done.
5) Stove will be on the wall opposite the stairwell so draft upstairs should be really good especially with the positive pressure.
6) Will start as the occasional burner with 2 fires a week in the evenings. BUT, depending on the process, wood storage issues, and the eveness of the heat, I could easiliy become a nightly burner. I heated our last home with a wood stove for 2 years and don't think I will be a 24/7 burner again. But nightly could work.


What would you choose?