New insert

Like Horkn said you can easily do it yourself. I did. That 1400 included the stainless liner and an angled exhaust fitting I needed to make the connection.

Is it heavy? Yes, but my wife and I didn't need any other help, and she's not exactly a body builder at 120 pounds...

I'd recommend a dolly-for moving it around while still on the pallet , an angle grinder, an electric drill, a metal saw, and an adjustable wrench for changing the height of the feet. It's pretty easy.

I went with the insert to get more heat out of what we had... I did not want to rip out the fireplace. We like how it looks, and the 1800i allows us to keep the look and style but get serious heat out of it.

 

Menards is doing the 11 % thing this week... Search around and u should be able to get brand new insert for 900 ish.

 

Yeah, that drolet 1800i is a great deal, and a great big window. I know you've got Menard's around you. A SS liner kit is about $400.


Here's a close up of the quadrafire 4100



There's other quadrafire inserts that passed my wife's very discerning eye test.

The grand and regular Voyager are beautiful stoves.

But there's other bow/ bay window quadrafire inserts.

There's other brands too, that are good. But most are pricey.

 

We did look at the voyager online yesterday. I think besides the big window she likes the "detail" so to say of that insert.

 

I'd look for used one if you have to have the fancy details.... That's real money. I don't like spending real money.

 

10 additional FHC rewards points for you!

Since you have the 1800i, quick question, I think the 1400i and the 1800i are made the same, do you have trouble with ash accumulating in the crack between the top plate of the blower box, and the stove body? I do on my 1400...that would be about my only gripe other than being too small...but nothing can be done about that without about $10-20k worth of fireplace remodel!

 

Yes, the details matter. That's why I jumped on that barely used Quadrafire 4100. The nickel details and the bow window really add some nice touches. The surround on mine is plain black, but with the brushed nickel outer trim. The other options quadrafire offers for the surrounds make it stand out versus the just plain black, of the likes of the drolet. You could always do some metal work to give it more character though.

When I saw the insert in CL, I jumped on it. It paid for itself the first winter.

 

Yeah if you are sloppy with the shovel. I got a small vacuum that is rechargeable...lithium battery!... For Xmas a couple of years ago and it eagerly sucks up any loose ash. I initially looked at the 1400i, I was worried that the 1800i would be too big for the opening but it fit great. A full load of oak or locust will deliver an eight hour burn during normal heating needs. Bang for your buck, it seemed to be the best deal out there.

 

Who you calling plain?

In all seriousness it's more handsome than it looks in pictures, but I think that your Quadra fire is a better looker...Great score btw. Nothing like that was available on Craigslist here at the time. My biggest want was a modern stove with either a secondary burn, or a cat. Nearly everyone I talked to told me not to go cat... I hadn't found this site yet... I suppose they had poor experience with old cat stoves, although I think a few folks I talked were anti cat because they thought it was the big bad old government putting on the cat because some tree hugger told them to... Not because it was more efficient. People are so strange now... Let's shun science and engineering and believe in political dogma and stupid slogans on ugly hats.

 

Here's a link to my install thread.

Got my efficient Fireplace insert!!!!

Had I needed to buy new, I was considering a cat insert stove. They are certainly more efficient than a tube stove.

Cat stoves even more so need dry wood, compared to tube stoves. So you can typically rack up bad experiences to improperly seasoned wood.

 

That's true. How bad was removal of the original install? The closest thing to a modern insert I found on Craigslist was some 80's turd with a gold door, gold trim and a single tube at the top. Rusting away in dude's garage... And for 400 it could have been my rust. No thank you sir.

 

The worst part was the removal of the damper plate and the fitting of the SS liner to the stove. Obviously the insert itself was heavy, but moving the stove into place wasn't bad at all.

 

I didn't think getting the damper out was bad, but yes the steel liner is unwieldy.

I was asking about the place you pulled it out of. Didn't you have to remove it from the house it was in?

 

It was in a ranch home there too. Removal was easier than install, but install was easy. Obviously I took my time and did it right. We didn't have to worry about the house on removal from the home. It was being leveled as the guy sold the house to a party that was putting a gas station at the property. It was a perfect place for a gas station, location wise.