Advice / Review need: Regency CI2600 fireplace insert risky & costly?

[Grisu]

How does everyone here adjust the air? Do you leave it fully open until the cat reaches temp, then close it fully and engage the cat? Has anyone tried to close the air stepwise maybe every 5 to 10 min by a quarter? I would waste an awful lot of heat up the chimney and probably burn through half my wood if I would wait 45 min or more before adjusting the air. Once I have a solid fire in the stove, I close the air until the flames become slow-moving (lazy), then I wait a few minutes until the fire has picked up again, close the air some more until the flames slow down and so on. I have found that my stove will burn much more controlled but also come up to temp faster than leaving the air open until it reaches 500 F stovetop when I would close the air fully.

 

[Wolves1]

How does everyone here adjust the air? Do you leave it fully open until the cat reaches temp, then close it fully and engage the cat? Has anyone tried to close the air stepwise maybe every 5 to 10 min by a quarter? I would waste an awful lot of heat up the chimney and probably burn through half my wood if I would wait 45 min or more before adjusting the air. Once I have a solid fire in the stove, I close the air until the flames become slow-moving (lazy), then I wait a few minutes until the fire has picked up again, close the air some more until the flames slow down and so on. I have found that my stove will burn much more controlled but also come up to temp faster than leaving the air open until it reaches 500 F stovetop when I would close the air fully.

Are you slowly closing the primary air first then when you hit 500 or over close the bypass? You are correct that a few weeks into burning it does seem the stove is burning better.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

How does everyone here adjust the air? Do you leave it fully open until the cat reaches temp, then close it fully and engage the cat? Has anyone tried to close the air stepwise maybe every 5 to 10 min by a quarter? I would waste an awful lot of heat up the chimney and probably burn through half my wood if I would wait 45 min or more before adjusting the air. Once I have a solid fire in the stove, I close the air until the flames become slow-moving (lazy), then I wait a few minutes until the fire has picked up again, close the air some more until the flames slow down and so on. I have found that my stove will burn much more controlled but also come up to temp faster than leaving the air open until it reaches 500 F stovetop when I would close the air fully.

I am starting to figure this out. We've had the same issue that Simon just discovered, that with a packed stove it takes forever to get the cat up to temp in order to close...which means by then 1/4 of the wood packed in the stove is gone. Closing the cat in steps from the start seems to help with this.

We woke up to another HUGE bed of coals and ash this morning, filling the whole bottom of the stove to the lip. I think it's partly due to the bio bricks that we started the fire with...they were on the bottom, with wood on top. When the bricks are on the bottom and form a good part of the coal bed, they seem to just hang around forever and make a bunch of ash in place. Gonna ask on a bio brick thread if anyone else sees this.

 

[Simon Templar]

That's a great question, Grisu, and hints at the fact that technique is critical. Being a newbie, I'll answer your question with, "incorrectly"

Truthfully though, I've tried damping as soon as I load wood, and also running fully undamped. It's tough to be patient for the cat to come up to temp when I'm eager to go to sleep (or back to sleep if I get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove).

Which leads to another question: what's better, to burn a load with the cat bypassed, or to engage the cat way too soon? When I get up in the middle of the night to reload I'm not in the mood to spend 30-60 minutes "doing it right", so I've been bypassing the cat, loading wood, and going back to bed.

 

[J RD]

That's a great question, Grisu, and hints at the fact that technique is critical. Being a newbie, I'll answer your question with, "incorrectly"

Truthfully though, I've tried damping as soon as I load wood, and also running fully undamped. It's tough to be patient for the cat to come up to temp when I'm eager to go to sleep (or back to sleep if I get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove).

Which leads to another question: what's better, to burn a load with the cat bypassed, or to engage the cat way too soon? When I get up in the middle of the night to reload I'm not in the mood to spend 30-60 minutes "doing it right", so I've been bypassing the cat, loading wood, and going back to bed.

You leave the bypass open for the entire load?

 

[Grisu]

The problem with too much draft and the air wide open is that a lot of "cold" room air will rush through the firebox. The fire may look impressive but most of the heat generated will go up the flue when the bypass is open. 45 min certainly sounds a bit long to get the cat up to temp. With reducing the air stepwise as I described above, you will keep the fire going but retain more heat in the firebox. That should heat up the cat faster so that the bypass can be closed earlier. Just don't wait for the thermometer to indicate when to close the air. Use the appearance of the fire as your guide. As long as the fire picks up again after each closing step and you see secondary action you will be ok. Once the bypass is closed the cat temp should not drop out of the active zone.

That's a great question, Grisu, and hints at the fact that technique is critical. Being a newbie, I'll answer your question with, "incorrectly"

Truthfully though, I've tried damping as soon as I load wood, and also running fully undamped. It's tough to be patient for the cat to come up to temp when I'm eager to go to sleep (or back to sleep if I get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove).

Which leads to another question: what's better, to burn a load with the cat bypassed, or to engage the cat way too soon? When I get up in the middle of the night to reload I'm not in the mood to spend 30-60 minutes "doing it right", so I've been bypassing the cat, loading wood, and going back to bed.

Once you know how to get a good overnight burn with the insert you should not need to get up at night anymore. You cannot just load it and immediately damp it down. Unless the stove is still hot and the cat active that will just generate a lot of creosote. And keeping the cat bypassed is operating the insert like a fireplace. It won't give you much heat.

 

[NH Burn]

I have to say that it's great to have this page with everyone's questions and answers. It seems that the more time passes with this stove the better the burn time gets. I have seen cat temps hit 1200 but it seems to hover around 800. I've learned to ( fight the urge to feed it) just let it burn when the wood is still in the shape of a split but is a big burning coal. Just let it keep blowing heat. I've been keeping a decent sized bed of coals w cat temps generally between 500-700 and then load it up quickly while still damped and bypass still open. Seems to drop 50 degrees when I do this but climbs right back up quickly. I've been putting 2 good size splits in for an overnight burn n wake up 8 hrs later with the unit blowing very hot air and lots of very hot coals. Then just add another good sized split till the wife gets around to adding another piece late in the morning. She seems to put a medium size piece every 3 hrs which seems to keep the first floor in the low to mid 70's. I did get the moisture meter Grisu and my stubborn red oak that was cut last winter is around 15% on the outside and around 21-23% on the inside when I split one in half. Luckily I still have a half cord in the garage from last season and all of that red oak is around 13%. Will probably remove the second set of washers later this wk even though the latch is still tight for now. Faithful hearth forum follower

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

Just took off a second set of washers on the door, a dollar was slipping right out. Seems to make a difference on how fast the burn is when I've got it damped all the way down.

One weird thing I have noticed lately is that the fire burns better on the left side of the insert, and there's more crap on the glass on the right side the next morning. This happens even when loaded all EW, and even since I took out a set of washers to tighten up the gasket some more.

This is last night's burn, about an hour after closing the cat.

 

[Jonny006]

Well, I am still not getting anything better than 7-8hrs. If I leave the fan on auto it takes an eternity to actual turn on and is off when I return.
Still have a massive coal bed that will ignite a log without a problem if I stir the bed and leave the door cracked for about 10mins.
I have not tried the bio bricks since other than the Bethany location, which is far away from me, I don't have a local source. I'm not holding my breath for better results either.
Heat output is fantastic for about 4 hrs then tapers off eventually until it basically is just an insulated pit of coals.
I can't wrap my head around why this thing will not kick out heat even with obviously very hot coals in it.
I have experimented with the damper, trying different opening settings to achieve a nice balance with mixed results. Fully closed gives the longest burn times while incremental openings speed up the incineration process but do little to increase prolonged heat output.
I have heard nothing back from Regency. I don't have a number to call them. I have filled out the contact form twice on the website but never get a response.
Oil is down to 2.50 a gal. I could heat my house 24/7 at 70F and pay about $2k. That's half what I spent on this stove not including the time and effort required trying to make it work correctly.
Maybe they'll call tomorrow..

 

[Wolves1]

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This morning after 8 hours, maintain a 550 temp. No reduction plate but getting my cousin to order one.

 

[Jonny006]

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This morning after 8 hours, maintain a 550 temp. No reduction plate but getting my cousin to order one.

How tall is your chimney?

 

[Wolves1]

How tall is your chimney?

About 25 feet.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

Well, I am still not getting anything better than 7-8hrs. If I leave the fan on auto it takes an eternity to actual turn on and is off when I return.
Still have a massive coal bed that will ignite a log without a problem if I stir the bed and leave the door cracked for about 10mins.
I have not tried the bio bricks since other than the Bethany location, which is far away from me, I don't have a local source. I'm not holding my breath for better results either.
Heat output is fantastic for about 4 hrs then tapers off eventually until it basically is just an insulated pit of coals.
I can't wrap my head around why this thing will not kick out heat even with obviously very hot coals in it.
I have experimented with the damper, trying different opening settings to achieve a nice balance with mixed results. Fully closed gives the longest burn times while incremental openings speed up the incineration process but do little to increase prolonged heat output.
I have heard nothing back from Regency. I don't have a number to call them. I have filled out the contact form twice on the website but never get a response.
Oil is down to 2.50 a gal. I could heat my house 24/7 at 70F and pay about $2k. That's half what I spent on this stove not including the time and effort required trying to make it work correctly.
Maybe they'll call tomorrow..

Try this guy. He's written me twice in the past week, and wrote me within 12 hours of sending in my comment form.

Joe GiannandreaDirector, Technical Services

Regency Fireplace Products ... 30 Years of Quality!
6988 Venture Street, Delta, BC Canada V4G 1H4
Phone: 604-946-5155

Fax: 604-952-6629

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://www.regency-fire.com

How my stove burns seems to be heavily dependent on how deep of a coal bed there is. I can't seem to nail down getting it to burn down all the way. Sometimes it burns down great, sometimes I end up with 5" of coals. I suspect most of it is due to wood moisture content. Will experiment more.

 

[Jonny006]

About 25 feet.

Same as mine. Do you have crazy draft? Mine sounds like a jet.

Try this guy. He's written me twice in the past week, and wrote me within 12 hours of sending in my comment form.

How my stove burns seems to be heavily dependent on how deep of a coal bed there is. I can't seem to nail down getting it to burn down all the way. Sometimes it burns down great, sometimes I end up with 5" of coals. I suspect most of it is due to wood moisture content. Will experiment more.

Thanks for this! I will call first thing in the am.

 

[Wolves1]

Same as mine. Do you have crazy draft? Mine sounds like a jet.

Thanks for this! I will call first thing in the am.

No

 

[NH Burn]

Wolves1 and Jonny006, my chimney is also 25' and I have a 6" liner just curious to see if you guys have the same size liner and also if you have fresh air piped into the stove and if you don't did you take the fresh air fins off in the back of the stove? Mine will only sound like jet if the door is cracked when I'm getting the fire going. So it would definitely sound like a serious draft issue, so I'm wondering if you checked your fork being reversed? Also have you looked at your chimney when you have a good fire going and the bypass open to see whats coming out of the cap? When i do this, there is visibly no smoke and you have to really look to see the heat against the outside cool air. I've also noticed that when I'm burning some of my less seasoned wood 23% moisture that I will have a lot more coals! Also after I've had a long burn going and have a bit of hot coals that the blower will continue to blow hot air for at least a couple hours. Hope your new contact has some helpful input Jonny006! We're all hopeful for you situation..

 

[J_Z]

It has been interesting to read about the learning process people have gone thru with this unit. Mine is on the way, and I hope I don't have too strong of a draft.

On a different note, would anyone be willing to share a picture of the cat thermometer with the insert. Is the thermometer unit wireless or wired and where do you mount the readout? I didn't order one, but it seems I might need to in order to best figure out how to burn in this stove.

Thanks!

 

[Wolves1]

Wolves1 and Jonny006, my chimney is also 25' and I have a 6" liner just curious to see if you guys have the same size liner and also if you have fresh air piped into the stove and if you don't did you take the fresh air fins off in the back of the stove? Mine will only sound like jet if the door is cracked when I'm getting the fire going. So it would definitely sound like a serious draft issue, so I'm wondering if you checked your fork being reversed? Also have you looked at your chimney when you have a good fire going and the bypass open to see whats coming out of the cap? When i do this, there is visibly no smoke and you have to really look to see the heat against the outside cool air. I've also noticed that when I'm burning some of my less seasoned wood 23% moisture that I will have a lot more coals! Also after I've had a long burn going and have a bit of hot coals that the blower will continue to blow hot air for at least a couple hours. Hope your new contact has some helpful input Jonny006! We're all hopeful for you situation..

My liner is 6" and I do not have a fresh air kit.

 

[Wolves1]

It has been interesting to read about the learning process people have gone thru with this unit. Mine is on the way, and I hope I don't have too strong of a draft.

On a different note, would anyone be willing to share a picture of the cat thermometer with the insert. Is the thermometer unit wireless or wired and where do you mount the readout? I didn't order one, but it seems I might need to in order to best figure out how to burn in this stove.

Thanks!

You can see the wire, the probe goes to the top of the stove regency has a place to stick the probe onto the stove.

 

[Wolves1]

Grisu what is the reason behind the stove burning better after a few weeks?

 

[J_Z]

Grisu what is the reason behind the stove burning better after a few weeks?

Thanks for the picts of the thermometer.

I suspect the stove's performance improves as the cat is 'broken in'. I wonder if the paint outgassing temporarily fouls the cat.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

+2 for the thermometer/stove pics. What did it cost you? I emailed my dealer about getting one about a week ago and haven't heard back from them :/

Is anyone in CT using a Regency dealer besides Superior Stone & Fireplace in Hamden? I really want one of these, and if my dealer isn't going to answer my emails, I don't feel like giving him more business.

 

[Wolves1]

(broken link removed to http://www.northlineexpress.com/digital-catalytic-monitor-sep-86-1015.html?fee=6&fep=1015&utm_source=googleproducts&utm_medium=feed&utm_content=cse&utm_term=5CN-9-86&kpid=5CN-9-86&gclid=CMLg98iFvMICFczm7AodeR0AfQ)

 

[marty22877]

So it's been a little over a week now with running the screws in, and i can say it definitely made a difference in burn times and in turn less wood burned, plus the heat is still the same. I put a call into my dealer today to get the restrictor plate but i can say that the screws made a difference. After 8 hours of burning last night with the outside temp in the mid 30s i woke up with one of the logs still semi intack and glowing red. I probably could have let it go for another 2-3 hours.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

So it's been a little over a week now with running the screws in, and i can say it definitely made a difference in burn times and in turn less wood burned, plus the heat is still the same. I put a call into my dealer today to get the restrictor plate but i can say that the screws made a difference. After 8 hours of burning last night with the outside temp in the mid 30s i woke up with one of the logs still semi intack and glowing red. I probably could have let it go for another 2-3 hours.

Wow. Can you post a pic of your screw placement?