Wood Fireplace Insert advice

[RDOG]

Thinking of buying an insert, for 1st floor of 2400 sq ft colonial, fireplace located at end of house, no high ceilings....looking for heat, ambiance, would like to have a bed of coals in am to restart fire with....wife not into gold trim....any suggestions on brands/ quality,etc... Located in CT its cold out!

 

[offroadaudio]

Quad 4100I or 5100 I - if it will fit
Regency 2400
Jotul

Just a few to consider

 

[Fsappo]

Quad, Regency and Jotul are all good choices. Since you have a good sized house I would go with a larger insert. You may find yourself loving the heat and wanting over night burns and a larger dent in your heating bill. Another nice one is the Hearthstone Clydesdale. More of a medium sized insert, but a soft even heat, HUGE glass viewing area and you can squeeze an overnight burn out of it.

Remember, a good stove is as good as the dealer you buy it from. Try to get referals, check the BBB, Angies list and ask if their installers are NFI certified.

 

[btuser]

I like my Lopi but of course I'd like to try them all. I think next time I might go with a CAT stove, because I like to burn in the shoulder seasons and keeping the big insert at an efficient temperature is often too much. Lots of glass was the most important feature for us, and my wife isn't into the gold look either. My house is about the same size and I can heat with just the insert, although the farthest bedroom corners are getting chilly as we approach -10f. I'm glad I bought the largest insert I could fit. When you factor the size of the firebox, ash capacity, and the amount of wood you can actually fit into it my 3CF firebox is closer to 2CF.

 

[smokingolf]

RDOG,

What part of CT do you live in? I live in Bloomfield and bought my quad 4100I from Superior Hearth and Leasure in Avon, they also have a bigger store in Southington. I have a small cape about 1400 sq ft. I was interested in the quad 2700i strictly just for the sq ft of the house, my fireplace was big enough for the 4100i and they were pushing me to buy the bigger stove, I forgot what the price difference was but the strongly suggested that I get the biggest stove you can fit in the fireplace and of course what you can afford. Reason being you get more heat from a larger stove, if it is too much you can just build smaller fires. If you get a smaller stove, on cold days like we are going to get this weekend the small stove won't be able to give you the heat output you will need. Superior pushed for a bigger stove and everyone on this forum will say the same thing biggest stove that will fit. If you can't afford it wait till the summer or fall and save for it, it will be well worth it.

Short story of the integrity of Superior. My stove is 5 years old now and the door wasn't sealing as good as it used to, it was failing the dollor bill test around the latch. So I felt it was time for new gaskets, I didn't want to do it my self so I took the door in to the store. One of the guys looked at it and said the gaskets still look in very good shape so he took the door over the the 4100 they had on display and put my door on the display unit and did the dollar bill test. He agreed it wasn't a tight fight and told me how to adjust the latch. I didn't understand so he took the trim unit off of the stove and showed me how to do it. Came home and took the trim off, made a slight adjustment and now the door seals fine.

I just got up a little while ago and had a nice bed of coals, threw a couple of splits and I now have a good fire going.

I forget what other brands Superior carries they carry a few brands and there are other dealers in the greater Hartford area, but I'm partial to Superior with how they treated me.

Brian

 

[fredarm]

The best insert is one that will fit in your fireplace. Seriously, measure your dimensions first, including the tapering (if any) on the sides and back. I spent a lot of time looking at inserts on the web that utimately wouldn't fit because I have a small fireplace. I'm happy with my Vista (my wife likes gold trim), but there are times it would be nice to have a bigger firebox. Check out the mid-size Pacific Energy Inserts--the Pacific, Super and Alderlea. If it will fit, the Summit insert will put out a lot of heat. The gold door is optional.

 

[cmonSTART]

:caugh:Blaze King:caugh:

 

[Lanningjw]

This insert can heat my house. I am very happy with it, no gold....

(broken link removed to http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/TJec7bst8knl0Y8qirgGKQ?feat=embedwebsite)

 

[firefighterjake]

Assuming you are looking at starting to burn next Fall . . . getting well seasoned wood at this point in the burning season would probably classify as a small miracle.

 

[krex1010]

Love my pacific energy insert, the Summit would do you well. Lots of happy summit owners here.

 

[dafattkidd]

The stoves mentioned seem to be the higher end, and more expensive stoves. Rarely do we hear any complaints bout these units. I am on a budget and i just bought an Osburn 2400 insert to replace my smaller existing insert. It is rated to heat 2700 sf. I spent $1755 on the unit. For the money I can't imagine there's a better insert out there. However, I bought the insert online, and did the install myself. Here's where I bought it http://www.dynamitebuys.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1053. Hope that helps.

There are many great inserts that will heat your home. This is just one of the more affordable stoves, but seemingly without compromise of integrity just a lesser known brand. It seems to be a work horse. Right now it's 10* outside and my house is between 73-66, and I'm going easy on the stove.