Question For Quadra-Fire 7100 Owners....

[mtj53]

I was hoping some of you guys that are using a Quad 7100 can answer a question for me. The brochure shows the Indoor convection cold air return option. As I understand it, I could run cold air return ducts to the further ends of my house and they hook into the bottom of the fireplace, this helps move warmer air toward those rooms. Have you guys ever done this? Remote zone heaters aren't really an option for me because of the length of the runs. Also have the option I guess of constantly running my current 17-18 year old furnace fan (not variable speed) to keep the air moving in the house. My dealer seems to think constantly running the furnace fan is the way to go, my basement is unfinished, I can very easily run ductwork to a few rooms though to provide a cold air return back to the fireplace if doing that works better. Just wanted opinions from you guys that have "been there & done that". If anyone has any suggestions for me I'd very much appreciate it. Thank you...

 

[oak194]

I don't have the cold air return part set up that way. I have mine drawing in outside air supposedly to pressurise the house. But I have tried using the furnace fan, and it did not work. If anything it cooled the house off. I ended up using 2 small fans upstairs on low, to blow the cold air downstairs to the 7100. That so far has worked very well and even in 0deg temps has kept the whole house warm.

Now that said I am planning on having two heat zones installed this spring to the upstairs to get rid of the fans. Hoping that the hosue will be more evenly heated. But right now my dealer wants $381 for each zone not including the b-vent flex pipe for the run.

If any quad dealers read this and are interested in selling my the heat zone kits alone or with b-vent pipe at a better price than $381, I'd be very interested.

 

[21acrewoods]

I just bought a heat zone kit for my new 7100 for $221. I later found out that Menards has B-vent for less than half of what my dealer sold it to me for.
MTJ53 I wouldn't be afraid to go the 40' that the manual says you can go. I think you would have better luck with blowing air off of the fireplace into the room and drawing it back, than just drawing it back. Like I was telling you in our E-mails, my run wound up being some 30', 5' of which is straight down and I get warm air out of mine. If you used a real powerful fan for your standalone return you may get good results, but I bet you would need at least 500 cfm.
Quad dealer is Kerns Fireplace and Spa in Celina Ohio.

 

[ernie]

I did hook the optional return to my 7100 and it is great! I would highly recommend it. I have 50 ft of flex on my unit. It splits with a tee in the attic and I have one return in the far bedroom and one in my master bath. It does pull the air really well. An additional plus with this set up is that if ash falls out the door when refueling, the blower is not sucking the ash into the blower because the suction is coming from somewhere else.

DO IT.

Here is another tip, put some 1/2" stove door gasket in the crack between the faceplate and the body of the fireplace. That will block any ash from falling down in an area you can not easily clean.

I installed some andirons in my unit also to keep the logs from rolling up against the glass and also made a heat shield extension for the eye brow over the door to keep my mantle cooler. I made it from sheet metal painted it and attached it with magnets.


ernie

 

[huskyokc]

Ernie,

Did you ever run the 7100 without the air returning from those rooms ? I mean just pulling air in from the front of the unit ?

 

[stoveguy13]

I just bought a heat zone kit for my new 7100 for $221. I later found out that Menards has B-vent for less than half of what my dealer sold it to me for.
MTJ53 I wouldn't be afraid to go the 40' that the manual says you can go. I think you would have better luck with blowing air off of the fireplace into the room and drawing it back, than just drawing it back. Like I was telling you in our E-mails, my run wound up being some 30', 5' of which is straight down and I get warm air out of mine. If you used a real powerful fan for your standalone return you may get good results, but I bet you would need at least 500 cfm.
Quad dealer is Kerns Fireplace and Spa in Celina Ohio.

Glad it is working for you but most of the long runs only seem to make lukewarm air out of them i think you would be in the minority of people who the heatzone has worked well for at that distance

 

[mtj53]

Hi All, Thanks for the great tips and info so far. I've talked with a few different folks about this so far and some agree it really helps to have the cold air returns, and some say it doesn't do alot of good, but so far everyone agree's on one thing, and that is that there really is no downside to it at all. Sounds like something worth doing. Thank you all for taking the time to post with your thoughts.
Mark

 

[Fake coal burner]

On My home made set up I used 2 60 cfn bath fans for my old wood stove and the new gas stove. Nigher stove had the blower options. The front fan is in the the front room buy the stove, the other fans is in the back part of the house where an old close shoot was. Un finished basement. I mounted the fan and ran some aluminum dryer flex pipe with the wire inside of flex pipe. Cut a hole 3-1/2 threw the front room floor with abs T pipe connector to join both fans used 3 inch single wall gas vent pipe. It just slipped inside of the abs T with a slight snug fit. Taped the flex pieces to gether with aluminum tape and used duct tape and staple gun for the hangers. I have the switches for both fans or front or rear fan auto or manual over ride. Works good but you wont feel much air coming out. The cold air is being moved toward stove, and the warm air is flowing . Kinda like a loop affect. Works good been that way for 15 or more years. cost for all about $50 The only draw back is the fans are noisy.

 

[21acrewoods]

The factory "heat zone" fans are also very noisy.
If you are getting luke warm air that is fine, what is the difference in the room temperature running the heat zone vs not running the heat zone. That is how I determined mine was working good. The air coming out of the duct is not hot but it raises room temp several degrees.

 

[Fake coal burner]

Go to its a gas: "Question on blower set up" fake coal burner you can see my pictures.
Temperature from blower mounted at bottom of stove is 80 deg. all the time even when 15 deg out side. I run room temperature where stove is between 75 deg. to 78deg. If I don't I get about 18 inches high of cold air on the floor. The back of the house is about 70 deg. with the rear blower on only. Lots of air redirects around corners. in back half of house. Hope this helps you.