Quadra Fire Explorer 2 - cook top? - boil water?

[Ronbert]

Hi, I had decided on a Jotul F400 to replace my old VC Resolute III but a very good deal fell through and now I am being offered a Quadra Fire Explorer 2 as an alternative. I understand this is a jacketed stove. Can I cook on it in a pinch? We do not intend to have a fan installed in the stove if that matters.

Not a deal breaker but a real consideration as we do get occasional power failures here.
I guess I'm interested in what kind of top surface temperatures would be common with this stove.

Thanks,

Ron
SW Ontario
much loved VC Resolute III (retired)
Stihl MS260

 

[Ronbert]

I have been meaning to follow up for quite some time. We got the Quadrafire and are quite happy with it. Yes the top gets hot enough to cook on but not like our old unjacketed Resolute. Suggestions on this forum suggesting a larger stove is better than a small were useful - this stove has a 2.4 cu ft firebox, but you don't have to lad it up to make the stove burn well. This unit fit in perfectly where our Resolute III was and could have been put even closer to combustables. The stove starts easily and burns well. There are operational techniques that differ from nour old stove and need fto be learned. You can't open the door quickly without creating a low pressure situation that allows smoke tonenter the room - you need to establish a procedure and follow it. This stove doesn't like unseasoned wood at all ( i now understand this to be the case with all modern EPA stoves). You can't completely close off the air to control a hot stove - this is different than the Resolute - but again i understand this to be afunction of it being an EPA stove. So loading with the right type and size of wood is a little more finicky - practise helps. So we are now burning 24/7 and can report the stove puts out a lot of heat and in combination with a small heat exchanger air circulation system is able to heat 2000 well,insulated sq ft easily. It has a user friendly ash pan but we really don't use it much at all.

Enjoying our 2 year old red oak in SW Ontario.

Ron.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the update Ronbert. That's a good looking stove Do you have a picture you can post?

 

[moresnow]

Good to hear it worked out!