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

[dondero14]

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.

No not yet. I need to get a hold of the store that I bought it from to have them order one. I did see this morning i'm getting some decent amount left burning in the back this morning. Got about 9 hours of burning last night. Cat temp said 350 but for some reason the blower had shutoff. Stove was still warm. Things are starting to get there.

n20intergra, do you have a contact number for your regency rep. I live not too far from Norton and would like to get a hold of a restrictor plate. That is my curiosity too with getting the fire heated up with the restrictor plate in. If you have anything less than semi seasoned wood i'm sure its gotta be pretty tough to get fired up and up to temp to close the bypass.

 

[n20integra]

No not yet. I need to get a hold of the store that I bought it from to have them order one. I did see this morning i'm getting some decent amount left burning in the back this morning. Got about 9 hours of burning last night. Cat temp said 350 but for some reason the blower had shutoff. Stove was still warm. Things are starting to get there.

n20intergra, do you have a contact number for your regency rep. I live not too far from Norton and would like to get a hold of a restrictor plate. That is my curiosity too with getting the fire heated up with the restrictor plate in. If you have anything less than semi seasoned wood i'm sure its gotta be pretty tough to get fired up and up to temp to close the bypass.

I bought mine through quarry brothers in rehoboth, ma. You just need the serial number under your blower so they can submit the request

 

[k3751]

Can anyone run through their typical "burn" and how they control the stove? I usually get a fire going with a couple smaller pieces. When it's going steady, I load up the box. I'll leave the door cracked or at least have the damper wide open until I'm sure the rest of the splits are going to catch. Then I turn it down about half to 3/4 until the cat gets up to temp. When the cat's up to temp, I close the bypass and close the damper all the way. When I see the blower has a steady or increasing temp, I turn the blower on. I pretty much leave it like this until there's no more heat coming out. Is this pretty comparable with what everyone else does?

Towards the tail end of the burn, while coaling, will opening the damper back up give me more heat?

On a different but related note: this seems to have been working well with the weather recently (mid-20 ish) We've got a cold spell coming in (high of -6 on Wed). If I need the stove to kick out more heat, will opening the damper do this (at a cost of increased wood consumption, I assume)? In trying to increase the heat output, at what point in opening the damper do I start having more heat going out the flue than into the room?

I've been happy with the stove output, I'm heating about 2200 ft^2 and if the fire is going, the furnace doesn't. I just wish I could get my runtimes up.

Sorry about all the q's. This is my first stove/insert. I'm fighting my own learning curve and the issues a lot of us are having with this stove. I don't know how much of it is me and how much is the stove.

Thanks

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

I wish that instead of the reducer plate, there was some kind of baffle that distributed the incoming air along a channel that covered more of the front of the stove, instead of just pouring in through a single opening. Lately I have been getting a kind of "blowtorch effect" where the air is rushing in. It burns the hell out of the fuel right in the center of the stove, but not the sides.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

So to sum up....do those of you who have modified your CI2600 recommend getting a reduction plate AND removing the knockout panels, or one or the other?

Is this something I should be expected to do, or is the dealer expected to come out and do this? For a fee or no charge?

 

[bmwloco]

I have burning Envi Blocks exclusively in my Vermont Castings Resolute for the past 2 years. When the glass gets mucked up, I scrape it with a razor blade. It cleans it up quickly.

When I burn Envi blocks, I get about 6 hours of 650F burn out of a mix off big ones and little ones

 

[n20integra]

I wish that instead of the reducer plate, there was some kind of baffle that distributed the incoming air along a channel that covered more of the front of the stove, instead of just pouring in through a single opening. Lately I have been getting a kind of "blowtorch effect" where the air is rushing in. It burns the hell out of the fuel right in the center of the stove, but not the sides.

Same thing here. I was thinking of trying to fab something up to redistribute the air along the front but that may create another problem of not getting any air towards the back of the firebox.

In other news, even shorter burn time (6hrs?) overnight and TONS of coals this morning. I'm guessing due to the increased draft from the colder weather.

I had taken the plate out since it was getting difficult to start without leaving the door open for an extended amount of time. I may reinstall it for this cold spell that's coming the next few days.

 

[marty22877]

so last night here it was in the low teens, i set my stove up at 11pm and went to bed, woke up at 230am to go to the bathroom and wedged a couple more logs in. Came down at 730 this morning and nothing but ash, the blower was still on but I could tell it wasnt going to be on for long.

Also i dont have my plate yet, still running with screws in.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

Same thing here. I was thinking of trying to fab something up to redistribute the air along the front but that may create another problem of not getting any air towards the back of the firebox.

What would you make it out of that would withstand the heat?

 

[BigRocco]

i was told hard wood cord wood only,no bio bricks or anything else like them. My localTS store had some so i called the dealer and they said in hybrids or cat stove they could damage the cat...my 2 cents

 

[kcoombs]

Does anyone know how hot you can safely burn this insert? We usually have it up to about 1200, then it starts lowering. We burn the Envi blocks- (4 to start), and actually bought this insert because they dealer said these were the only ones that have been tested out with the bricks and deem them ok to burn. However our dealer along with installation has been far from optimal. And they came back out to put in our blower and recommended that we don't burn over 500-600 degrees That's crazy right? We are new to this, so what do we know, but the cat wouldn't even work if I understand this right. We get probably a good 6 hours of heat, before we need to refuel. The heat is great, but like most others a little disappointing on the burn time. And I would love to talk to a regency tech, but cannot find a number, just a note that says there's a support line for the dealers. How did you guys get to talk to a Regency tech?

 

[Wolves1]

Does anyone know how hot you can safely burn this insert? We usually have it up to about 1200, then it starts lowering. We burn the Envi blocks- (4 to start), and actually bought this insert because they dealer said these were the only ones that have been tested out with the bricks and deem them ok to burn. However our dealer along with installation has been far from optimal. And they came back out to put in our blower and recommended that we don't burn over 500-600 degrees That's crazy right? We are new to this, so what do we know, but the cat wouldn't even work if I understand this right. We get probably a good 6 hours of heat, before we need to refuel. The heat is great, but like most others a little disappointing on the burn time. And I would love to talk to a regency tech, but cannot find a number, just a note that says there's a support line for the dealers. How did you guys get to talk to a Regency tech?

No that's wrong if you have the probe in the stove at 500-700 close the bypass then it will easily go to 1200, that is normal. If the temp goes over 1500 you shouldn't keep it there for to long.

 

[edge-of-the-woods]

Welp, our blower looks like it died. The surface temp is 500 degrees, the cat is glowing cherry red with a nice fan of flames dancing along it, but the blower will not go on automatically.

Any advice?

 

[kcoombs]

Welp, our blower looks like it died. The surface temp is 500 degrees, the cat is glowing cherry red with a nice fan of flames dancing along it, but the blower will not go on automatically.

Any advice?

Our first blower kicked the bucket with 1st use. This 2nd one we have now took a long time to kick on...we had cat temp at 1200 and it kicked on about 30 min later. Thanks for your reply wolves1

 

[marty22877]

Turn it in for about ten minutes and it will work on auto, the fan helps bring the temp up. The manual says wait till the auto kicks on or thirty minutes

 

[Strictlysmoke]

I just had my unit installed in the beginning of December and have been having the same problem as everyone else. I have been re-reading everything that I can to find out what is wrong with this stove and not having any luck. The brouchure that I was given says that this stove is extremely efficient and burns less wood then other stoves and will heat for14+ hours instead of saying burn time. If my dealer or the company can't fix this problem then I hope they can exchange this stove with one that works as the company claims.

 

[Jonny006]

Well, I said I would not post unless something came up that wasn't a complaint. Its been hard not to do that. My dealer has spoken with regency and they are replacing my stove with an older proven model, the I3100. This would not be my first choice, but from what I have seen this stove does not have the issues that the 2600 has. It's not attractive, but its' been around long enough that it works. I hope.
I have been waiting a very long time for the replacement and as of now I still don't have it. It has been on the 2's and 4's here at night and it is very cold. I am still using the stove but every day I am more annoyed by it. On wed and thu I was home all day doing work inside. I had to feed that stove 3 times from 7am to 4pm. The heat was negligible. My thermostat was set at 61 and my furnace was running alot. I can only assume that the majority of the heat is just flying out the chimney.
Also, loading this stove is a major pita especially if it's floor level like mine. Hands and knees loading and there never seems to be enough space to load the wood. It seems that you need to have wood split to kindling size in order to fill the stove. Probably would not be an issue if there was an actual significant burn time.
My wife almost burned the house down yesterday. She was freezing since the stove had stopped kicking out heat, as usual. So she loaded wood in on top of the coals and cracked to door in order for it to start up. Once the flames started the wood shifted, and since there are no andirons after the Regency tech took them out btw, a burning log rolled out onto the hearth floor. Luckily she was in the room and caught it in time and was able to use the welding glove to get it back in. Unfortunately an ember made is way out onto the newly finished hardwood floor burning a decent hole.
This stove has been a curse from the day it went in. Nothing but frustration and annoyance. For $4000 I would have expected more. As I have said before, my $500 Craigslist VC worked better, used less wood and was a joy to operate in comparison. So far this has been a very expensive lesson in newer doesn't mean better.
I'm really hoping the new stove gets installed soon. If not, then there is gonna be Hell to pay.

 

[jatoxico]

Hey Jonny this is a long thread so I don't now if you mentioned it but do you have a block off plate? Burn times aside you don't want all the heat going up the chimney. When they're replacing the insert at least get the area above the insert insulated if you ain't already.

 

[Wolves1]

Well, I said I would not post unless something came up that wasn't a complaint. Its been hard not to do that. My dealer has spoken witI'm h regency and they are replacing my stove with an older proven model, the I3100. This would not be my first choice, but from what I have seen this stove does not have the issues that the 2600 has. It's not attractive, but its' been around long enough that it works. I hope.
I have been waiting a very long time for the replacement and as of now I still don't have it. It has been on the 2's and 4's here at night and it is very cold. I am still using the stove but every day I am more annoyed by it. On wed and thu I was home all day doing work inside. I had to feed that stove 3 times from 7am to 4pm. The heat was negligible. My thermostat was set at 61 and my furnace was running alot. I can only assume that the majority of the heat is just flying out the chimney.
Also, loading this stove is a major pita especially if it's floor level like mine. Hands and knees loading and there never seems to be enough space to load the wood. It seems that you need to have wood split to kindling size in order to fill the stove. Probably would not be an issue if there was an actual significant burn time.
My wife almost burned the house down yesterday. She was freezing since the stove had stopped kicking out heat, as usual. So she loaded wood in on top of the coals and cracked to door in order for it to start up. Once the flames started the wood shifted, and since there are no andirons after the Regency tech took them out btw, a burning log rolled out onto the hearth floor. Luckily she was in the room and caught it in time and was able to use the welding glove to get it back in. Unfortunately an ember made is way out onto the newly finished hardwood floor burning a decent hole.
This stove has been a curse from the day it went in. Nothing but frustration and annoyance. For $4000 I would have expected more. As I have said before, my $500 Craigslist VC worked better, used less wood and was a joy to operate in comparison. So far this has been a very expensive lesson in newer doesn't mean better.
I'm really hoping the new stove gets installed soon. If not, then there is gonna be Hell to pay.

I'm sorry to hear that, I just can't understand why some people are just not getting the burn time I'm getting.

 

[marty22877]

What are you up to now wolves?

 

[Wolves1]

What are you up to now wolves?

Filled my stove at 8am it is now 4pm temp still 450 and the house is still 72 and giving off heat and I dont have to add wood. Thinking did the stove just get even better till I went outside and realized that 35 feels like spring after this last week.

 

[marty22877]

Whats left wood wise after8 hours? And you have the plate right?

 

[marty22877]

Also what fan speed?

 

[Jonny006]

As an addendum, today at 5:30 the stove was loaded with wood. Packed to the gills so to speak on top of a red hot coal base. Got the fire going good and strong. Engaged cat and temp was 1150. Closed down damper and went to dinner. At 8:30 there was a bed of coals and temp was 350. 15mins later the fan shut off and temp reading was "cool".
Anyone else have this issue? I would love to know why Wolves1 has such amazing luck with his stove.
What really sucks is how much wood I've blown through already feeding this stove. So much for the manufacturer claims..

 

[Wolves1]

Whats left wood wise after8 hours? And you have the plate right?

Looked something like this. This is an old picture.