Quadrafire Cumberland Gap Firebox

[jalter]

Hi Folks. New to this forum and really finding a lot of good info. I'm narrowing my stove purchase choices to three: Lopi Leyden, Quad 4300 step top or Quad Cumberland Gap. I like everything about the Cumberland Gap, except I'm a little concerned about the shape of the firebox. The back of the firebox is angled on each side to meet the sides, so it looks likes like an 18" log would only fit if it was in the front part of the firebox. In fact it looks like you would need a 12" log to get right up against the back wall of the box. Even though the Cumberland Gap and 4300 have similar sized boxes, it appears that the 4300 has much more "usable" firebox capacity. Can anyone with a Cumberland or stove with a similar shaped firebox weigh in? I believe the Isle Royal has the same geometry in the box.

 

[begreen]

Greetings jalter, good question. Having used stoves with fireboxes that taper towards the back, I'm really enjoying a plain, square corner firebox for it's flexibility and usable capacity. You might also want to look at the 2 cu ft Pacific Energy Spectrum (Pacific, Super 27 or the cast iron jacketed Alderlea T5) or the Napoleon 1400 for alternative 2 cu ft jacketed stoves with a rectangular firebox.

 

[jalter]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check those stoves out, though I really do like the looks of the Quad cast irons. Given the unusable percentage of the Cumberland Gap box, I'm inclined to look at the Isle Royale. My dealer thinks I shouldn't get anything over 2.5 cu.ft. for my home. The stove will go into my 1,000 ft2 finished and insulated walk out basement and I hope to heat as much as possible of the 1250 ft2 upstairs (decently insulated with a cathedral ceiling) without making it unbearable in the basement. The dealer told me an EPA stove will not heat cleanly or efficiently if it's not being run with a hot fire, so to burn it right he says I'll be too hot. I'm thinking the Isle Royale, while it lists a 3.0 box, is practically more like a 2.5 unless a person is willing to cut and split the right kind of log to fit in the back. I know it's better to go too large than to small, but I also don't want to run a creosote building, inefficient fire to stay comfortable. For those with more experience with these stoves than I, would the Isle Royale be too large?

 

[northwinds]

I also have a walkout basement and similar square footages with the vaulted ceiling upstairs. I'm not going to lie to you. In order
to heat the whole house, the stove room does get significantly warmer than the rest of the house when it's cranking heat. It can
easily hit 80 in the stove room in order to get the rooms furthest away to 70. The differential isn't that bad for the entire burning
cycle. I'm often wearing t-shirt and shorts when I'm in the stove room when it's warm.

As far as burning efficiently with the Isle Royale, I don't think that's a problem. When you don't need as much heat, and we've enjoyed
40's here in the last few days, I just burn short, hot fires with less wood. You don't have to fill the firebox to hit 600 degrees stovetop.

Almost forgot. My wood is not all of the same size, so I can always find a piece that will fit in the back of the Isle Royale.