So, who has the biggest 6"...?

Ah, gotcha'. I do not know about the 'other' forum. This is the only wood stove forum I visit. Few years back, I was looking at possibly buying a stove and found this place with Flamestead detailing his time as a beta tester for the Ideal Steel. Along with a few other beta testers, excellent and what seemed honest info. so I continued to hang around after I did end up buying a stove. Nice group, nice forum and honestly, I do not remember ever seeing anything that was, or needed to be, moderated which speaks volumes for the users here IMO.

Brian

 

How about the Quadra-Fire Adventurer III … 4.5 cu. ft. fire box takes a 24" log, 630lbs. according to their brochure. I can't find flue exit size, but I'm fairly certain it's 6".

That Quad is a lot of stove too … touted 40 hour burn times … up their with the King. Just not too sure about all those electronics … unless I can hear from someone about the battery back-up feature and how they like it.

EDIT:
No manual controls on this stove. NONE. All electronically and thermostatically controlled.

That would kill the choice for me. Love the heft of that thing though. Heavy=heat holding ability in my book.

 

Yes, 6"

 

Thanks for posting this!

Took a look and it looks like a very interesting stove, mostly due to the remote and autonomous control. It has a large firebox but while they do not list the actual firebox sizes, at least as far as I could find, it does list the firebrick and insulator sizes so it <appears> that the firebox is 22" wide, slightly less deep. That means it can be loaded E/W and N/S and while the split length might be slightly less than 22" N/S, it should take 18" + splits in that direction. That would work for me.

The 'auto start' (my term- not sure what they call it) is worth its weight in..... well, silver at least A stove that will fully open the draft and then close it as the temps. climb is 1970's technology that we have not seen very much of well into the 21st century. To my knowledge, this is the first series of electronically controlled stoves, especially when controlled by a remote thermostat.

Unfortunately, no grate, no ash pan and no cat. so kind of a deal- killer for me but there are lots of people who either like or do not care about such things. Hopefully someone has one of these or will buy one shortly and report on how it works in the real world.

BTW: very nice touch in allowing eight (8) 'D' batteries to be used to control the stove for up to 30 days without any AC input. If both the batteries and AC (normal house power OR a wall- wart could be used at the same time, that would be a fantastic feature in the event of a power failure; otherwise, if the stove fully opened the draft and then the power failed, the stove could either over- fire or run very hot. Again, I have not seen one of these in the 'flesh' so am simply commenting on what I believe to be the situation. It is possible there is a 'dead man' device in the stove which would shut the draft down to some minimal amount in the event of a power failure.

Brian

 

40 hours from a noncat eh?

 

Yeah, kinda' an oxymoron.... like jumbo shrimp, huh?

Not knocking the stove but the lowest, slowest and cleanest burns I get are with a black firebox and a hot cat.. I have never seen a secondary combustion stove run as slow as a cat. based stove and am frankly skeptical.

Beyond my opinion, the efficiency percentage as well as the particulate emissions seem to bear this out from the mfg.'s own literature.

Brian

 

Quadrafire is a brand local to me. It would be great if they could deliver on the marketing promises.

I just keep imagining this thing running like a kuuma wood furnace. The technology sounds similar.

 

Yeah, and you ain't getting a 40 hr burn outta one of them, let me tell ya! A matchless relight after 12, sure...15 maybe...that's about it though.

 

Exactly. I’ve been reading and it sounds like the cruise control on this stove is quite a ways from functional with owner reviews not recommending a purchase.

 

Do we have any members using the KUMA?
I burn my IS hotter than BDF we have talked about it.. he's farther south ie warmer..
I know I get 24 hour burns in shoulder season but STT are 250 degrees at end.. (Not much heat) With enough coals to rake and reload easily..
Assuming firewood load has xxx btus per pound, I don't know how much longer you can extend that heat...

 

Yes, I am on my 3rd winter with the KUUMA VF 100.

 

Then you my friend need to start a thread with your experiences .

 

JRHAWK9 and Matthewchopswood have done threads here on 'em...so I guess there are at least 4 of us here now...and comanche79p has my old VF200...so hopefully he can chime in after it is installed later this year.
Just to be clear, these are wood furnaces, not stoves...

 

I'm skeptical of the burn times as well. Then again, using digital technology is a far cry better and lightning quick when compared to a bi-metal thermostat that many other stoves use … Blaze King, Vermont Castings, DS Machine, Hitzer, etc., so it might just be possible they can get those burn times. I sort of see it being hard without a CAT, but if what they tout to be true is actually correct, then I'd rather have the tube stove over the CAT if … big IF … if I can get a similar long burn like in the BK stoves. What else would you want really. I'd much rather have a stove I can see secondaries in when I want to as have one that runs black glass all the time.

Fire box size is listed here though not actual size Adventure III Wood Stove

For such a large firebox you'd think the numbers would be better than they are on this stove.

By the way, there is a way to manually control the stove, though it's a bit cumbersome. It can be found on page 20 at this link. https://downloads.hearthnhome.com/installManuals/4083_900.pdf

Also, I've looked at every brochure, part list, manual … everything lists the fire box being at 4.5 cu. ft.

These features would really curb tending frequency by a lot. However, I don't think I could buy one without first seeing a stove run in person and then talking in person to another owner AFTER they've had the stove for several years.

 

★★★★★ - Kuuma Vapor-Fire 100 Review

Furnace has arrived!

 

I got 20+ hours out of mine earlier this winter when I loaded 96lbs of black locust into her and set it on minimum burn.

 

Look around the other forum.....

 

Local hearth place was bragging them up to me a year or two ago when they came to the house to give me a quote for a simple return duct. They are a dealer of Quadra-Fire. This same person also did not believe me when I told him how clean the VF100 burned. I had nothing printed off so I'm pretty sure he thought I was just giving him a line of BS. This was before they were Phase II certified, so I was giving him the numbers from when they were tested in 2012 for the tax credit thing.

 

Coal … I could do that … but I just don't trust loading a wood stove with that much wood. I know it's odd … certainly by todays standards, but I just have a hard time with that thought process the way wood burns.

Not trying to tell someone they're wrong for doing so, not saying anyone shouldn't, just say out loud if gives me the willies thinking about it.

 

Two different animals there.