At Home In The Woods

Coyote machine · Apr 4, 2011

Obed, Today I was looking at an add for my propane supplier who also sold me my gas burning fireplaces for my home and my flip house. I noticed they are a Quadrafire dealer- which I thought they were anyway, but this confirmed it. So here's what I want you to do: give me all the specs on the fireplace, model, serial # and close up photos and measurements of the areas in question and I will see what I can do for you in getting some answers for you. I'm in his vicinity every couple of weeks and can stop by to look if he has one on the showroom floor or a demo or one in a box etc. I will however be going away for a while soon, so it may take a while to get back to you with any results.
Condense the pertinent details into one post or PM me with the same or both.

Obed · Apr 4, 2011

Obed said:
We have interviewed and gotten bids from 4 contractors for final excavation/grading work. A 5th contractor didn't show up for his appointment. Three days later he called, said he had had an out of town job and wanted to reschedule an appointment. He made no apology for the no-show. My wife told him we would call him if we wanted to meet with him. I'm amazed that some people can stay in business. Obviously, we would only call that guy back if we were backed into a corner.

One of the contractors is the guy who built or road, put in the septic, and dug our basement. We already know him and like him so he has an advantage. I guess we'll probably make a decision on a contractor this week.

It will really be nice when all the grading work has been done. I guess we'll still have a bunch of mud around the house for foreseeable future until we get the grass growing well.

We have picked an excavation contractor; he is the guy who built our driveway and dug the basement. He was the most expensive - maybe. One of the contractors gave us a "fuzzy" bid that could have ended up being the most expensive. One of the contractors did not have the big equipment for taking down some of the bigger trees. Our contractor is talking about bringing his equipment onsite Wednesday.

Obed · Apr 4, 2011

Tony,
The fireplace is still somewhat of an unknown. Yes, it does work "to a degree", just not how I would expect. There is one other thing I've considered. I may consider taking the ACC (Automatic Combustion Control) off so that I can see the entire air hole. If that hole is indeed not getting completely uncovered when set on "high", it might be possible to modify the ACC control so that it the air hole does get completely uncovered on the "high" setting. However, doing so would most likely void the fireplace warrantee and is something I don't relish doing.

It could be that we could just live with the fireplace as it is. Perhaps after burning wood in it for a season or two, we might get better at using it.

I think I will try to pursue finding another Quadrafire 7100 fireplace to verify whether or not the ACC control on my fireplace is defective.

Obed

Obed · Apr 4, 2011

Coyote machine said:
Obed, Today I was looking at an add for my propane supplier who also sold me my gas burning fireplaces for my home and my flip house. I noticed they are a Quadrafire dealer- which I thought they were anyway, but this confirmed it. So here's what I want you to do: give me all the specs on the fireplace, model, serial # and close up photos and measurements of the areas in question and I will see what I can do for you in getting some answers for you. I'm in his vicinity every couple of weeks and can stop by to look if he has one on the showroom floor or a demo or one in a box etc. I will however be going away for a while soon, so it may take a while to get back to you with any results.
Condense the pertinent details into one post or PM me with the same or both.

Coyote machine,
I'll take you up on that offer. It may be a few days before I can get that info to you. However, that would be a great help!

Thanks,
Obed

Tororider · Apr 5, 2011

Obed,
You could also try to find a farm share to get your veggies this year.

Joe H · Apr 5, 2011

it might be possible to modify the ACC control so that it the air hole does get completely uncovered on the "high" setting. However, doing so would most likely void the fireplace warrantee
Would that be the warranty you have now, the warranty where the dealer and the manufacturer tell you to buzz off, there's nothing wrong with your unit?
Joe H

Joe H · Apr 5, 2011

it might be possible to modify the ACC control so that it the air hole does get completely uncovered on the "high" setting. However, doing so would most likely void the fireplace warrantee
Would that be the warranty you have now, the warranty where the dealer and the manufacturer tell you to buzz off, there's nothing wrong with your unit?
Joe H

tony Cecil · Apr 5, 2011

How did you do in the storm? Sort of worried about you

Tony

Obed · Apr 6, 2011

tony Cecil said:
How did you do in the storm? Sort of worried about you Tony

Tony,
We did fine. We got to watch the tops of the trees sway back and forth but nothing got damaged. We lost power for the first time since we moved onto the property 15 months ago. When the power went out I realized that we didn't have water. After a few minutes I started wondering when we would get power back to run the well pump. Fortunately power was out only about an hour.
Obed

dstig1 · Apr 6, 2011

Obed said:
Tony,
We lost power for the first time since we moved onto the property 15 months ago. When the power went out I realized that we didn't have water. After a few minutes I started wondering when we would get power back to run the well pump. Fortunately power was out only about an hour.
Obed

Stay tuned, folks, for a new thread: "At Home In The Woods, With A Generator!"

:laughing:

RadarTech · Apr 6, 2011

dstig1 said:
Stay tuned, folks, for a new thread: "At Home In The Woods, With A Generator!"

:laughing:

yea--- I bet it will only take one more outage to make that happen!!!

brandoro · Apr 6, 2011

And once you buy a generator you will be pretty well guarrantied that there will be no more outages for a good long time.:laughing:
That's been my experience at least.

dcyrilc · Apr 6, 2011

brandoro said:
And once you buy a generator you will be pretty well guarrantied that there will be no more outages for a good long time.:laughing:
That's been my experience at least.

You sure got that right. I bought our 45KW generator two years ago and we haven't had an outage since. Never even took it out of the crate either.

Joe H · Apr 7, 2011

Obed, when the power goes out call the power company immediately. Out in the boonies you may be the only one who knows it's out. If you don't call they don't know.
Learned that first time I was out for 6 hours & finally called. They said I was the only call & they'd get right on it. PCO number is on speed dial now.
Joe H

Coyote machine · Apr 7, 2011

Obed said:
Coyote machine,
I'll take you up on that offer. It may be a few days before I can get that info to you. However, that would be a great help!

Thanks,
Obed

You're welcome; and take your time getting the info. I'm departing for St. John with the family on Sunday

It amazes me when manufacturers and dealers don't go to the lengths necessary to solve or at least attempt to solve problems for customers- but don't get me started on that subject- I could rant....

Get the info to me when you can....

CM

tony Cecil · Apr 7, 2011

dcyrilc said:
You sure got that right. I bought our 45KW generator two years ago and we haven't had an outage since. Never even took it out of the crate either.

You better check and run it before you need it....That is a big one....We find(not having a generator) up in the mountains, it is a regular occurrence...I have one in S C (25kw) and rarely need it....Tony

dcyrilc · Apr 7, 2011

tony Cecil said:
You better check and run it before you need it....That is a big one....We find(not having a generator) up in the mountains, it is a regular occurrence...I have one in S C (25kw) and rarely need it....Tony

We ran into some financial issues last year and haven't had the spare money to finish getting it installed. Therefore, it still sits in it's crate in my front building/shop. Eventually it will be the backup generator for the farm, but there is still a lot to be done before I get to that point. Until then it can sit, or if we get too strapped for cash we can sell it. Siemens brand, 45KW NG/propane, auto start with weekly self start and electronic self diagnostic. I would have to go back and check to be positive, but I think I paid around $10,000 for it two years ago.

Obed · Apr 7, 2011

dstig1 said:
Stay tuned, folks, for a new thread: "At Home In The Woods, With A Generator!"

:laughing:

Yes, I have to admit generator thoughts went through my mind.
Obed

firefighter9208 · Apr 8, 2011

Obed,

I have a 5500/8500 watt Generac that I use around the farm. I installed a plug on the outside of the house and ran it to a 50 AMP breaker in my main panel. You can get a generator lock out Generator InterLock Kit reasonably from this link to add to your existing panel.

I have gas logs and only use the generator to keep food cold in the refrigerator and freezers. And to power a couple lights.

We seldom have an outage, but this gives us the capacity to keep food from spoiling if we do.

When there is a storm predicted (this only works in the south for you northerners) I take and fill up all the gas cans I have (6) and make sure that all our gas vehicles are full. I also have a 77 GMC dumptruck (gas) that has a 50 gallon saddle tank. I keep that full all the time. If we have an outage I just siphon gas from the dump truck and use the six cans.

If they miss the prediction and we don't have an outage, I pour the gas into my wife's car and she needs it and it doesn't go bad.

Chris

Obed · Apr 8, 2011

firefighter9208 said:
Obed,
I have a 5500/8500 watt Generac that I use around the farm. I installed a plug on the outside of the house and ran it to a 50 AMP breaker in my main panel. You can get a generator lock out Generator InterLock Kit reasonably from this link to add to your existing panel.
Chris

Chris,
That lockout device makes a lot of sense. The auto-lockout panels are rediculously expensive.

I believe I may eventually get a PTO generator. I like the idea of not having another engine to maintain. I will hook up a generator jack to one of the service panels outside beside the power transformer. This approach has the advantage that I don't need a long expensive cable running from the generator to the indoor electrical panels. In addition, the outdoor service panel is far enough from the house that I won't have to worry about exhaust fumes. Plus, since the generator will be upstream of our main electrical panel inside the basement, I can turn on anything I want to in the house as long as I have enough power. Our water heater is gas and we can heat the house reasonably well with the fireplace. Eventually we plan to replace our freebie electric stove with a gas stove. In the grand scheme, once implemented, I believe we could live quite comfortably during an extended power outage.

Interestingly, if we were not on well water, I probably wouldn't get a generator. With cold water, a gas stove, and the fireplace, we could handle a day without power without much trouble. The only big concern about an extended outage would be the freezer. But since we have a well, we'll get a generator regardless.

Obed