My husband built our wood stove and hooked it up into our heat ducts he also poured a concrete slab for it to sit on (in the house)he added some decorative blocks just for looks. Being you are in a mobile home I'd check to see how good of flooring you have before pouring concrete. Yes the piping is expensive we picked ours up at ace hardware the single wall part and then went to okc for the triple wall part this is what goes in the attic part. We did have a mobile home at one time and as a temparory solution we put the piping out a window but I can't remember what we used around the pipe to keep it from catching fire. Without proper piping it can be dangerous. I like the triple wall piping in the attic it makes me feel safer. Just remember once you paid for that triple wall piping it lasts for YEARS. We still have a tank full of propane we haven't used in years. Do you have enough resource for wood? Do you already own a chainsaw? Does hubby like cutting wood? We get our wood from our own place and from neighbor farmers that wants trees cut down but we have to pile up the brush as we go (courtsey). Hope this may help a little.

Kats, You might want to look at the thermal mass radiant stoves made by Fred Seton in Montana. They are big stoves which have a considerable amount of refractory material in them for thermal mass and cleaner burning. We were interested in his newer stove with what he calls the Turbo top which has a circuitous smoke path with an afterburner like those found in masonry heaters or tile stoves. These are essentially 'portable' masonry heaters to an extent. My wife wasn't crazy about the looks but I know you can get his stoves with tiles on the outside. We were looking to put soapstone tiles on both for looks and for more mass. This might work for you. I only wish we could get some of the European stoves like the Topolino which is another thermal mass stove which is more or less portable but with excellent styling and looks. Rika and Max Blank are other European stovemakers with droolworthy products but no North American distributors. Here is a link that might be useful: Montana Stove Company

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.

Stowy, In most places for $3,800 you could get a nice fireplace insert like an Hampton HI300 and a stainless liner installed, (ballpark). I'm biased to the Pacific Energy brand and would also suggest you look at a PE Summit insert, which might even be less. There are obviously other brands as well. Two things to note: first, virtually all new wood stoves have glass windows, nice for atmosphere and you can monitor the condition of the fire much better. Secondly, stainless flex pipe will not burn out in two years unless you misuse your stove and have a lot of chimney fires in it. It is the mainstay of the industry for most relines. Interestingly, I had almost exactly the same quote for my fireplace. One reason it is so much is that most fireplace flues are 12x12 or bigger. There is much more stainless steel in a 12x12 square liner than a 6" round liner so the cost of the product is much higher. I just bought my own 316Ti stainless 6" liner for $300 and insulated it and installed in about 4 hours with some family helping out. This is going into a wood stove which I put in my fireplace. I thought about an insert but stole a nice used stove at a yard sale for $75 and fixed it up for $50 of parts and paint. I bought $40 of unfaced ceramic blanket insulation, $35 for a stainless mesh wrapper and $5 of foil to tidy up the ends of the insulation. So I'm safely burning in an as good as new stove for just about $500 but as my name suggests I am a New England Yankee skinflint. It is a fairly easy thing to do if you are relatively handy but not everyone likes getting on a roof. A lot of stove shops in my area charge about $1,000-$1,200 for a reline. I would suggest you look at doing a hearth mounted wood stove if you have the room but be mindful of clearances to a mantle if you have one. You'll generally get a bit more heat from a stove than an insert. Also inserts have integrated blowers which need electricity. If the power goes out, it is nice to have a stove which can convect more heat. Good luck