Quadrafire 4100 newbie

[Heidi245]

This is our first season with our new wood stove and we love it! However, i feel like i'm still making the transition from fireplace to wood stove,
so i have a few basic questions. (Don't laugh too hard!) Are metal sounding creaks and pops normal? I'm unsure how much wood to put in the box;
load it up or a couple of logs at a time? (actually, i'm very tentative about putting too much wood in. I think i'm afraid the whole thing's gonna blow! haha)
I've tried both ways and even with the air flow cut way back, i seem to be reloading every hour or so. This just
doesn't seem right. (it's all seasoned oak wood) Does laying the wood east/west or north/south make a difference? Should i let it get down to coals and then reload?
I have read the instruction manual thoroughly but it really doesn't give as much detail as i would like. There are so many of you that know what you're doing!
Thanks for your input I really appreciate it!
p.s. I had a previous post about the height of our mantle. After consulting a local mantle guy we decided to keep our existing one. He said we should just keep an eye on it and feel how warm it gets. We've been doing that and it seems to be fine. Yeah!

 

[zuegnu]

Heidi245,

I have the same insert and it is new to me too. I loaded for the first month east/ west and had very inconsistent fires and was a little frustrated at times. I have found that if you can build or load without blocking the two holes in the rear portion of the box and give them a somewhat clear shot to the glass in front, I get much nicer fires and they are far easier to control with the air adjustments. Quadrafire should have said this somewhere other than only once in the promotional literature "featuring safe and easy front to back loading". I was told by my stove shop that it wouldnt really make much difference, well it does in my opinion.

Certainly there is a learning curve and I watch a lot of my fires to try and figure out what is working and what isnt. I have recently started getting confident filling the firebox quite full and getting really good heat out of the insert.

My insert does make a lot of noise as it heats and cools. As far as I can tell it is not out of the ordinary. Fast ticks as it warms and gets into nice hot territory and then slow spaced out ticking as it crests over and cools . Pretty quiet at a cruise.

I dont know if any of that helps? In short, load north/south, dont be afraid to fill it up pretty good, watch closely when you have the time, blower on high really helps if you think the fire is getting "out of control".

Good luck, and try to enjoy it!