Hi Gingy, We had a Hearthstone Phoenix installed last week. It is on the first floor of a 2 story home. We already love it, and contrary to what Kristine-7 said, heat does travel horizontally as well as vertically. The heat does travel better upstairs than through the first floor due to particular details of our layout. But our thermostat, which is not in a place where the heat is travelling to quite as vigorously, and is down a hallway and around 2 corners from the stove, registers over 70 on days the stove is going. It is warmer than that upstairs in all the rooms where we leave the doors open. Our house is over 1500 sq. ft., maybe 1700 or more depending how you measure (some measure outside the house, some inside, etc.) The Phoenix is certainly adequate to heat our whole house. One thing I have noticed, the basement is colder now without the furnace running. Might need to do something about that in the dead of winter. We looked at the Heritage model a lot, decided the Phoenix was built better. We were also taken with the masonry types, but the installation was daunting. If you are building a new house then that would probably be a lot easier for you. We found a place in Canada that had nice ones in several colors, Faber King ceramic tile stoves. We were leaning towards that, but it is hard to find a good installer except those who work for fireplace stores, and they only install the ones they sell, the ones we talked to. We are thinking about getting a fancy thermostat that can make the furnace fan run when the gas furnace isn't on, but so far the whole house heats pretty well with no special effort. Our stove cost about $2K and the installation with all the pipes and so on was the same amount, so it was pretty pricey to this cheap soul. But we wanted a professional installation on something involving hot fire! Of course it costs more to send the pipe through 2 stories and an attic, but we wanted the stove centrally located in the house, so didn't go for the one room off by itself that has no upper story. As for safety around small kids, we built a raised hearth, the top of which is 28 inches off the ground. With the 16 inches back that the stove needs to be from the front of the hearth, that would make it hard for a small kid to reach. We don't have kids, we raised it so that we don't strain our backs so much and the fire is easier to see, but it is also a safety features when friend's toddlers come over. Good luck. Our only problem so far is getting a burn time as long as advertised. Marcia

I looked at the same 2. The regency is actually built MUCH better. Look at the hinges, ask the weight of both. You will be suprised. I was set on the regency when I found out that regency has a high line called hampton. Its a HI300. A little more money but if you want looks AND durability this is the one. I bought one last year and it completely heats my home and is a true focal point of the living room. I think its like hampton-fire.com if I remember right.

Hi Tommy, I wanted to know your experience in using the Regency 2400. We recently installed one in our house. With all the information posted in this forum, I expected it should heat up the house easily. However, it seemed taking at least an hour to first heat up the stove and then the warm air coming out from the blower will heat the house slowly. I have estimated that it took 3 hours to push the thermostat 2 degree F higher than the original temp in the house. Is it something I did wrong? I have no experience in using wood insert and this is my first one. I was very excited when the thing was installed and now I am a little bit disappointed. please shed some light on the correct way to operate it. Thanks! LW

I know the name Quadra-Fire (and have looked, but did not buy yet, fire place inserts) and think it is go good quality/design. That said, if you can trust the dealer and you like the Country Legacy, I'd go for it. By trust, I mean if you ask him important question can/will he give you accurate answers. For example: how heavy is the metal, what is it steel cast iron, is the stove lined with quality fire birck... these are questions that occur to me. Then you compare them with what Q-Fire offers. Oh yes, efficiency. Q-Fire pushes how efficent it is, gets more heat into the room. Given you are burning wood to heat, and you don't get the wood for free, efficiency is an important parameter.