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

[BigRocco]

Hey all,I just tried some of my neighbors wood that he raved about and ended up with big thick coals, which im not used to ,anyone else try different wood with different out comes? I have a 40 buck handheld moisture meter that showed his at 18 in the middle 21 at the edges and when split it was 25 in the middle. He said its maple but I am not a wood expert,i know the difference between pine and hard wood that's about it

 

[Simon Templar]

Hey all,I just tried some of my neighbors wood that he raved about and ended up with big thick coals, which im not used to ,anyone else try different wood with different out comes? I have a 40 buck handheld moisture meter that showed his at 18 in the middle 21 at the edges and when split it was 25 in the middle. He said its maple but I am not a wood expert,i know the difference between pine and hard wood that's about it

BigRocco, I'm a novice here, but I've noticed this too. Up until a few weeks ago I only burned in an open fireplace, and never really had any issues with unseasoned wood that I noticed; I lit a fire more for ambience than heat. When I ordered my insert I started stockpiling more wood; I had about a cord I split myself plus I bought a total of 4 cords from 3 other vendors. Some of the wood I have is 2 years old and reasonably well seasoned (mid-teens on the moisture meter); in the two weeks I've had my insert I noticed that this wood burns well, down to mostly ash. Other wood that registers mid-twenties with a moisture meter burns down to a big pile of coals without giving off as much heat. It still burns, just not as long or as hot. I can't wait to get ahead and have a 2 year supply on-hand so I'll have enough seasoned wood each year.

 

[Woody Stover]

ended up with big thick coals.....when split it was 25 in the middle.

Yep, that's too wet, and you get the big coals.

 

[Wolves1]

My reduction plate should arrive today. Been getting 9-10 hours of stove giving off heat, let's see what the plate does.

 

[dondero14]

My reduction plate should arrive today. Been getting 9-10 hours of stove giving off heat, let's see what the plate does.

Hey wolves how full are you packing your firebox. I just put in the cat thermometer recently and have been getting about 8-9 hour burns with minimal coals in the morning and the fan still blowing. The cat was reading cool in the morning and about 1250-1300 at its hottest. Is this pretty normal compared to yours? My logs aren't long enough to fill the front of the firebox left to right and I don't go past the andirons. I def feel though that seasoned wood is a big factor with how well this stove burns too with regards to heat and burn time.

 

[Wolves1]

Hey wolves how full are you packing your firebox. I just put in the cat thermometer recently and have been getting about 8-9 hour burns with minimal coals in the morning and the fan still blowing. The cat was reading cool in the morning and about 1250-1300 at its hottest. Is this pretty normal compared to yours? My logs aren't long enough to fill the front of the firebox left to right and I don't go past the andirons. I def feel though that seasoned wood is a big factor with how well this stove burns too with regards to heat and burn time.

I'll put as much wood as I can fit about 8 to 9 logs. I'm seeing the same has you. I got the reduction plate today and tonight will be my first full load with it on will let you know tomorrow.

 

[Wolves1]

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This is the burn rate after 1 hour with the plate in.

 

[marty22877]

Nice, your cat is really glowing

 

[Wolves1]

After ten hours this morning lots of coal still red hot, stove at 400.

 

[marty22877]

So how was the second night

 

[begreen]

After ten hours this morning lots of coal still red hot, stove at 400.

That sounds like good progress. Thanks for the update.

 

[Wolves1]

So how was the second night

I went to bed late and I always wake up between 5-6 so I only put 4 logs.

 

[J_Z]

I just installed my new CI2600 and here are my observations after 4 days of continuous burning. Regency now ships the units with the side fresh air ports open. I don't have the reducer plate yet unfortunately and the fire is difficult to control. But after 4 days, I only have 2" of fine ash - no charcoal even with a few wet logs thrown in.

• More logs causes a faster burning fire, because the cat temperature shoots way up, leading to a really strong draft and a really strong jet of fresh air thru the inlet port.
• This jet totally decimates wood and I believe N-S loading accelerates burning because the jet will eat away both sides of logs in the center. I think I can get better control by placing the wood E-W which forces the fresh air jet to burn a hole thru the front log and doesn't give as much surface area.
  
• I can burn a single medium size dry log (6" dia) for 3 hours, keeping the cat around 550.
• However, burning 6-8 logs will only last for ~8 hours (only 1 hr/log). Cat temps shoot up to 1300F in about 1hr, and after 2.5 hrs the wood is about 1/2 consumed, but then the cat temp drops to 800-900F and combustion slows down. It is very frustrating that I cannot control the fire thru this stage. The fire gets too hot to even stay in the room and eats up all the wood (inefficiently). I may try throwing in 2 wet logs out of 8 for overnight burns to help keep the peak cat temps down.
  
• Logs burn faster and hotter thru the first half, because they are outgassing more volatiles (more smoke) that burn off in the cat and keep the temp elevated. The second half of burning a log gives very steady heat output.
• Finally, I don't like the idea of the reducer plate. It is a bandaid approach to the problem. The proper approach is to be able to control the fire thru the draft. The reducer plate will likely make it more difficult to get fires started in a cold insert without leaving the door open.

 

[k3751]

Not sure how this compares with what everyone else is seeing. Had the insert for about three weeks now, and I've removed one set of washers. Per the "dollar bill" test, I don't need to remove another yet. I'm getting about 7-8 hours of heat out of a pretty full box. It seems like it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to burn my load of wood down to coals, and I'll get heat off of that for a few more hours. I do not have the restrictor plate (yet). What's your guys' experience? Is anyone getting the advertised heat time without the plate?

It seems like I'm burning wood down to coals too quickly, and I'm assuming this is where I'm missing the extra heat/runtime. Looking at the fire, it seems pretty fast considering I've got the draft all the way closed. When I do open the door, it is literally roaring inside the insert.

I don't have much to compare this to as I've never had an insert or stove before, but would appreciate any input. Hell, I had to have my sales rep help me get my first fire going!

 

[Wolves1]

Not sure how this compares with what everyone else is seeing. Had the insert for about three weeks now, and I've removed one set of washers. Per the "dollar bill" test, I don't need to remove another yet. I'm getting about 7-8 hours of heat out of a pretty full box. It seems like it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to burn my load of wood down to coals, and I'll get heat off of that for a few more hours. I do not have the restrictor plate (yet). What's your guys' experience? Is anyone getting the advertised heat time without the plate?

It seems like I'm burning wood down to coals too quickly, and I'm assuming this is where I'm missing the extra heat/runtime. Looking at the fire, it seems pretty fast considering I've got the draft all the way closed. When I do open the door, it is literally roaring inside the insert.

I don't have much to compare this to as I've never had an insert or stove before, but would appreciate any input. Hell, I had to have my sales rep help me get my first fire going!

I was getting about 8-9 hours without reduction plate. Then took knock out plates out and reduction plate in and have not had a really cold day yet (upper 30s to 50s). Last night I put 4 logs(1/4 full) at 9 woke up at six fan still blowing warm air on auto by 7 fan turned off. I just put 4 logs in fire started no problem.

 

[dondero14]

Wolves who did you contact for the reduction plate. Also has anyone had any issues with there blowers. My blower is noisy as hell and vibrates the frame like crazy when on high. It seems like it blows out air great sometimes and then just so so. Anyone else know if this is normal or how to fix this. Starting to get cold here and the low speed won't cut it anymore.

 

[J_Z]

Vibration problem is probably due the bottom plate of the unit vibrating. I would put some sort of filler material (like metal shims) between the bottom plate and your hearth or else between the blower and the bottom plate, to keep the bottom plate from vibrating.

 

[Wolves1]

Wolves who did you contact for the reduction plate. Also has anyone had any issues with there blowers. My blower is noisy as hell and vibrates the frame like crazy when on high. It seems like it blows out air great sometimes and then just so so. Anyone else know if this is normal or how to fix this. Starting to get cold here and the low speed won't cut it anymore.

Need to call the dealer for the reduction plate. The blower has four rubber pieces on the bottom corners, when the blower was slid in a lot of times one if not more of the pieces comes off if you don't put some kind of lubricant to slide the blower in.

 

[Wolves1]

Filled stove 9 pm woke up 6 am with stove temp 450.

 

[toytech88]

Hello I am new to this site and waiting for my CI 2600 model to come in!! Has anyone had an electrical outlet installed inside the hearth to power the blower and hide the wires? I know it would be exposed to a lot of heat, but if the fan motor and wires can take it. Why couldn't the outlet take it? Any help would be appreciated! Also my closest outlet is 10 foot away so it would be a long extension to string out. Thanks

 

[dondero14]

Nailed it Wolves. Pulled the blower out today and 1 of the 4 rubber pieces were in. 2 were not connected and 1 was missing somehow. Made a makeshift one and slapped her in there and its working like a charm. Took out another set of washers so I'm down to 2 on each bolt and changed out the glass gasket cause there is sign of air getting in through where the gasket was overlapped. Am gonna stack the stove full tonight and see how it works out. Can already tell a huge difference with the way the flames have been looking this evening.

 

[Wolves1]

Nailed it Wolves. Pulled the blower out today and 1 of the 4 rubber pieces were in. 2 were not connected and 1 was missing somehow. Made a makeshift one and slapped her in there and its working like a charm. Took out another set of washers so I'm down to 2 on each bolt and changed out the glass gasket cause there is sign of air getting in through where the gasket was overlapped. Am gonna stack the stove full tonight and see how it works out. Can already tell a huge difference with the way the flames have been looking this evening.

How did the overnight burn go?

 

[dondero14]

How did the overnight burn go?

Overnight was ok. Firing really hot. Cat temp was 1500 at on point with damper closed. A lil too high for my liking. I loaded it up at 10 and got up at 8 with the blower off and a small pile of coals left black. I kicked up a bunch of red coals and had the box heated up and was nothing to light another fire. I had 6 good sizes splits east to west and a small split jammed in each end north to south. Is everyone taking the andirons out and loading it up to the door. I saw that the manual advises not to. Stove is burning a hell of a lot better since doing that work yesterday. Blower hummed softly all night with no vibration and I could tell by the secondary flames the stove is a hell of a lot more air tight.

 

[Wolves1]

Overnight was ok. Firing really hot. Cat temp was 1500 at on point with damper closed. A lil too high for my liking. I loaded it up at 10 and got up at 8 with the blower off and a small pile of coals left black. I kicked up a bunch of red coals and had the box heated up and was nothing to light another fire. I had 6 good sizes splits east to west and a small split jammed in each end north to south. Is everyone taking the andirons out and loading it up to the door. I saw that the manual advises not to. Stove is burning a hell of a lot better since doing that work yesterday. Blower hummed softly all night with no vibration and I could tell by the secondary flames the stove is a hell of a lot more air tight.

I did take the andirons out I put longer logs east west on the bottom and shorter logs 16 inch under north south on top. You should be ok the logs won't roll and hit the glass. Do you have the reduction plate in? I usually get the stove to 1,300 or under.

 

[n20integra]

Hey guys, been lurking on here for a few months now. Starting doing my research on the forum this summer when I started shopping for a wood insert to go in my living room fireplace.This forum has been so much help along the way. After comparing a few inserts, and without any real reviews available at the time, I settled on the HI400 due to its advertised burn times and log length capacity (The wife loved the look). I ordered it and installed it november 1st. Since then I've had alot of the same problems you guys have been having.

Short burn times
Large coal piles
Dirty glass

I tightened up the up the door gasket early on and that seemed to help out to improve burn times
I talked to regency rep a few weeks ago and they gave me the restrictor plate to try out. Seemed to do very little.

My draft seems like it could be improved so I'm hoping at some point to make up a block off plate but I'm going to run out the winter without one.

My biggest gripe is that the primary air control lever does so little. I wish it would have more of a range. Sometimes I want lots of air during start up and for a high fire. Other times I need little air for an overnight burn. The restrictor plate definitely slowed things down but then you lose the high flow setting altogether.

I do not have a moisture meter but I have been burning 3yr cut and split cherry and oak that my father was kind enough to donate and also have been trying out Envi blocks. So it really isn't a case of sub par fuel.