Quadra Fire 1200i good/bad ????

[Kenpobldr]

Hi all

As alot of people, we are sick and tired of the current oil prices for heating our home and are looking to supplement our heating oil cost. We have a 15 year old 2,300 sf traditional colonial with a family room attached to the side that has a 13' opening to the back of the house. The family room is where the fireplace is located and where we would like to install a pellet insert.

This past winter we kept our home at 64deg on the first floor (2 zones fhw) and our secound floor at 60deg (1 zone fhw) and by natural convection of heat the 2nd floor zone hardly runs. We use apx. 1900 gallons of oil for our heat and hot water per year. I realize that there will be more hot/cold areas with the pellet insert based on its location that is why I am looking at this as a supplement to our heating costs. I intend to set the pellet thermostat at 72 deg in the room that it is installed hopeing that the open floor plan with the back of our home and the natural covection to the 2nd floor keeps our home comfortable.

Although the Quadre Fire 1200i may not be the most attractive insert on the market we are considering it based on its btu input, proximity of the dealer, and the design of our fireplace opening that will only allow for a 30"x40" panel. We are also considering the Quadra Fire Santa Fe insert with a btu rating of 34,400.

I would like to know any of your opinions or experiences with Quadra Fire and any sizing recomendations that you might have.

Thanks

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I placed an order yesterday for a Quadrafire 4100-I wood burning instert. This was after a lot of research and discussions on this forum. I concluded the Quadriafire is a good "stove", and we like the looks of the 4100, which has a lot of glass for watching the fire. We were going to buy the 3100-I, but on seeing the 4100 changed our minds...my wife's mind, thus mine. The 3100 is slightly more efficient and cleaner burning, again looking at wood.

Whatever you decide I think your heating paradigm will work well, use the insert to give you a "warm room" for reading and watching t.v., whatever, and let some of that more economical heat supplement to cooler parts of the house. We have a 2,000 SF two story, and have used a much less efficient insert in our fireplace for years, and when we had it going the central heating would be off for hours, the whole time the fire was burning. This made the living/family room run in the 70s, the back part of the first flow maybe as low as 60 and the upstairs bedrooms in the low 60s, about the way we like it for sleeping. We also run our forced-air central fan on low when heating with the insert to help distribute the warm air.

 

[begreen]

We had a 1200i for 5 years and really liked it. The stove was simple and low-maintenance. All I would do it vacuum it out and clean the glass every other week. And at the end of the season I'd give it a thorough cleaning. With every bag of pellets you run the heat exchanger cleaning rods up and down a couple times and that's it. The automatic thermostat startup worked great. We had it on a digital thermostat and it was great to hear it coming on at 6am, warming up the house for me at 6:30 when I'd roll out of bed.

For repair, the main thing that went was the convection blower snap disk. They were cheap ($7 at the time) so I had a spare. I think in 5 years we went through 3. It took all of 5 minutes to replace one and the symptoms were obvious.

On the con side, the glass would smoke up and definitely needed a cleaning after 2 weeks 24/7 burning. And the hopper slope is shallow so the hopper works best if polished (with fine steel wool) then waxed with a hard wax like carnauba car wax. This is a common problem with insert hoppers, they need to be shallow so that the stove doesn't protrude too much on the hearth. The blower is a little noisy on high, which is the only speed we ran the stove on in winter. We got used to it; heat was more important.

One caveat: if you're just heating an area of the house then the 1200i might be large enough. But if this is an open floorplan, and the goal is to heat a lot of the house, I would get the larger Mt. Vernon instead. It is more advanced technology, much quieter and a serious heater for those zero degree nights. Should fit right in for looks in a colonial house. You may not have to get the insert. A freestanding stove on the hearth might workout just fine and would give you greater hopper capacity.

 

[Kenpobldr]

Do you have the Mt. Vernon now?

 

[Shooter]

I just installed a 1200i this past March. It sits in a gutted out DV gas fireplace on one end of our 1800 sq ft. The floor plan is open (we love it for entertaining and ease of moving about). Two bedrooms are on the opposite end and the master is off of the living room around the corner. It's the perfect setup for primary heat. I tested the "heatability" by shutting off the furnace and using only the propane DV in the den. It carried the task well enough that I changed my mind about location and quickly purchased and installed.

The 1200i is simple, effective, attractive (you can buy "gold" grill and door trim), the surround gives a finished look, stove is not noisey for us.....and wow, does it heat!

Our home is 4yrs old, sits on a high hill with Lake Michigan in view.....to give you an idea of the wind factor here.

 

[PutnamJct]

We have had our 1200i for 3 seasons and are quite happy with it. Heats our open layout 1400 sf quite well. Set the thermo in October and don't touch it until May. I clean weekly during the heavy use months (Jan - Mar) and every other week or so otherwise. The blower is loud if you are sitting right next to it and it is on high, but it isn't really an issue.
I have not had any repair issues with it thus far, my dealer comes out once a year for a full check up and cleaning.
I used to use the oil furnace, but the 1200i heats the whole house on it's own. Upstairs bedrooms are at 70 - 72 even when it is 0 or below outside.
House has good windows, but the walls are very thin.

John

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I just looked the 1200 Classic Bay Pellet insert on the Quadrafire web, GREAT looking insert. I read this thread with interest even though I just ordered a Quadrafire 4100-I wood burning insert. I assume the quality of design and function is similar throughout the Quadrafire line. Sounds like the 1200-I Pellet is well loved.

Good choice/luck.

 

[Shooter]

I just looked the 1200 Classic Bay Pellet insert on the Quadrafire web, GREAT looking insert. I read this thread with interest even though I just ordered a Quadrafire 4100-I wood burning insert. I assume the quality of design and function is similar throughout the Quadrafire line. Sounds like the 1200-I Pellet is well loved.

Good choice/luck.

I read somewhere that the design is preserved with little changes over the course of 20yrs. That's a good reputation.

 

[flueinc]

I think you will be pushing the 1200 alot of the time with your sq footage a mt vernon is a lot better sized for your house

 

[Kenpobldr]

Hi All....Thank you for all your input it was helpfull. We finally decided to go with the Mount Vernon by Quadra Fire. The Mount Vernon was about $850 more than the 1200i but I looked at it this way its a quiter stove, and puts out more BTU'S.

I did call three dealers to try to get the best price but given the high demand right now there was no real movement in any of their prices. I did however get the dealer to include the log kit and two bags of pellets for free. I really didnt care about the log kit and most likly won't use it but I guess it will look good at christmas.

thanks again for all your help....... but does anyone want to help move it in place? (LOL)

 

[begreen]

Good choice, that's a nice stove. It is a heavy sucker, get some help moving it in.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Wow, that looks like a real heavy duty heater, from the specks you shouldn't have to run it full-blast to heat all you can reach from its location.

Welcome to the Quadrafire club, I say while I am yet to receive the wood burning Quad insert I have ordered.