Hi Rhonda, I just had my Quadra-Fire 2700i wood insert installed. The total package, wood insert and installation, cost me $2,700. I've run two fires through it and it has performed flawlessly. My Quadra-Fire was installed in a 30 year old masonry fireplace. Just prior to installation, I had the masonry chimney repaired. The top two course of the old chimney formed a drip line (bricks were extended out slightly). The bricks were very loose. These top two course were removed, bricks cleaned, and reset flush with the other bricks of the chimney. The crew poured a 4 inch cement cap with 2 inch drip line. Tuckpointed the entire chimney. Took off roof shingles around the chimney, reflashed and reshingled everything (2nd story roof and 1st story garage roof both butted against chimney). Then the chimney was cleaned. The total chimney repair cost was a small fortune, $4,200. They then recommended a double wall stainless steel liner be installed with thermal installation (thermix?) poured around it. This additional work would have cost me $3,100 more with no net gain on my heat production. I refused the optional work and went wood insert shopping. The Quadra-Fire insert crew arrived the next week. The two man crew worked quickly, but encountered two snags. The damper had to be removed and this took almost an hour. Apparently there was cement (brick?) rubble dropped drow the flue by the original masons (30 years ago). None of the chimney sweeps that I hired over the past two decades ever said a word. The Quadra-Fire Crew remove two 5 gallon buckets of rubble, then the damper came out. Who knew? The second snag was the stainless steel liner. The liner was inserted down the chimney easy enough, but the battle was to connect it to the insert. Apparently the liner twists and locks on the insert. It took the two man crew two hours to get the liner to lock. I asked them if this install was overly difficult because it was a masonry fireplace rather then a prefab. They said that two man crew had installed about a thousand of these so far, and this was about normal. They claimed the prefabs were more difficult because it was a tighter fit. The two man crew was paid by the job, not by the hour, so they had no motivation to work slow on this. It took them a total of 6 hours to do everything, and they had all the tools and experience. Sorry for the long story, but some of you might think about "doing this yourself". I wanted to warn you about the difficult work needed to do the job right. This didn't look like a job that a beginner should even consider attempting. The other reason I tell this long story is because it was this thread that convinced me to look at Quadra-Fire inserts. I had looked at Regency, but the store didn't answer my questions to my satisfaction. So I bought a more expensive Quadra-Fire. Hope this helps you with your wood insert research. Tom

Thanks for the link. I had come across that post which prompted my safety concern. Seems that there are stoves and inserts rated for zero clearance boxes, but no zero clearance boxes rated for stoves and inserts. I'm leaning toward tearing out the existing chimney and box and starting from scratch. A masonry fireplace leaves me open to a lot more options and a larger stove.

Xanndra: Thanks for the quick response. It's the alignment of the chimney with the insert flue outlet that is causing the problem. I am looking for someone that actually had an insert installed in one of these fireboxes for advice on which one was used. One installer wanted to cut the top of my firebox to allow access to the liner in the chimney, and I don't really want to do that. The smaller inserts actually cause more of a problem, since their flue outlet is closer to the front of the firebox and causes more of an offset. Seems like with the hundreds of thousands of these fireboxes installed, someone would have had an insert installed in one, but I'm finding out that even in Michigan, many installers have worked with only masonry fireboxes.

Drew, Was your bad vibe in Milford by any chance? Prices there are a few hundred more than in Meriden, and I really liked everyone I spoke to in Meriden. I found prices in New Milford to also be high. I am not able to install the insert myself, and New Milford was $100 more than I'll be paying, just for installation. I don't anticipate any problems with the installation. The dealer won't even set up an installation appointment until/unless the stove or insert is at the dealership. Which is one reason the Harman insert was just going to take too long to arrive. The price of natural gas in CT (SCG) went up 31% per ccf just this last month (versus the previous month). And it is going to go higher. I think that buying a wood burning insert was a smart thing to do! If natural gas prices go up as high as they are predicting, the insert will definitely pay itself off within 2 years. Anyway, good luck with your Pacific Summit insert. I am sure you will enjoy it! I will add an addendum to this post in November, when my insert is installed. Hopefully I'll have a couple of cords of wood by then, though I have enough to burn for at least a couple of weeks now. Let us hope for a mild winter, now that we are prepared! Have fun! Rhonda