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

[msjones2452]

Regency told me that if your serial number is 429001192 OR HIGHER it was shipped with the restrictor plate already installed. I added a restrictor plate and it definitely helped, but I'm still nowhere near the advertised heating times.

Just ordered the HI400, hopefully it'll have the restrictor plate already installed. I haven't had a chance to contact my dealer yet to see if he could find out. What kind of burn times are you getting? What kind of wood you burning? How long is your liner and did you insulate it? Did you install a block off plate?

Sorry, I know that's a lot of questions but with mine coming soon I'm looking for all the info I can gather.

 

[KC_Michael]

What kind of burn times are you getting? Around 8-9 hours before the automatic fan switches off. Better since installing the restrictor plate but still far short of marketing claims.

What kind of wood you burning? Well seasoned oak (fresh split <20% moisture content). The "burn" times above are after stuffing the firebox to the glass (andirons removed).

How long is your liner and did you insulate it? Liner is 6" diameter and is 29 feet long. Draft is strong even with restrictor plate installed. Installed liner on interior chimney so NOT insulated.

Did you install a block off plate? NO. Not recommended per my certified chimney guy. What may seem like a good idea may not be for a number of reasons you haven't considered.

 

[msjones2452]

Did you install a block off plate? NO. Not recommended per my certified chimney guy. What may seem like a good idea may not be for a number of reasons you haven't considered.

What reasons? Most people on here highly recommend installing a block off plate.

 

[begreen]

I would contact Regency directly with this specific question for this specific insert.

 

[marty22877]

Well I got 13 hours today and I stopped it to add wood. It was in the high 40s today to maybe 50. Very happy with it now. I'm going through my stack next to the house in 11 days now instead of 7

 

[Wolves1]

With temps in the upper 40s I'm only putting in about 4 piece of wood in the morning and 4 at night. But the bottom corners go black again, this stove is like a race car it just wants to go. Glass was clear at full load.

 

[Nero]

In the back row (4 bricks) one has 3/4 to 1" gap. Along the sides 1/4 inch gaps and they move a lot. Likely not an issue but I can't figure out how to gain 8-9 hour to achieve burn time within the spec. Still 3-5 hours before having to add wood. How long is your CAT active. By that I mean 500 degrees to highest temp and back down to 500 degrees. To me this is an important duration as the 20-40 minutes of watching and hoping to hit CAT temp is and should not be considered burn time. The CAT is the almighty in this product and if not functioning how can it be considered part of the burn time.
Wolves in a normal day do you load your insert 2 times or 3 times a day?
To all if you are loading more than twice a day you are not achieving the burn time outlined by the product literature.
How about a roll call:
1. Yes CI 2600 performs as specified and burns up to 14 hours
2. No CI 2600 does not burn up to 14 hours.
3. Yes CI 2600 now burns up to 14 hours after modifications by the supplier, myself and regency additional products
4. No CI 2600 still does not burn up to 14 hours after modifications by supplier, myself and regency products

So where do all of you fall? I am a disappointed consumer because we are not in reach at all of 14 hours.

2. We don't get even 8 hrs of burn time despite talking to Regency mutliple times. Given the high cost of the over, I am not very impressed.

 

[msjones2452]

It's here!! Brand new HI400! Window's even bigger than I expected. Can't wait to get it installed.

 

[Wolves1]

It's here!! Brand new HI400! Window's even bigger than I expected. Can't wait to get it installed.View attachment 155829

When will you have it installed or will you install it?

 

[msjones2452]

When will you have it installed or will you install it?

If everything else ever gets here, I'm going to put it in. The liner will be here Monday. The temp. probe shipped the other day, I think it's estimated to be here on Thurs. The biggest issue is Lowe's. I ordered a package of Roxul to insulate the masonry fire box over two weeks ago. So far, they've changed the due date three times on me. Starting to get pretty antsy!

 

[mikeyG]

I'm about to pull the trigger to order the Regency CI2600 because of the sleek, modern look and hybrid design. Our local stove company, whose advice comes highly recommended, advises against it, saying the catalytic converter is problematic and costly to replace every 3 to 5 yrs. I was quoted over $600 ( by a Regency dealer) for this particular unit's catalytic replacement. Our local stove company also claims that catalytic stoves/ inserts are on their way out. Also, from some of my research reading, Regency seems like a company that will not stand by you when the unit develops problems. Since the Regency CI2600 is so new to the market, I can hardly find any reviews over the internet. I feel like I am back to square one. I am thinking either I wait until next year so that some users can share their experience or just risk it and be the guinea pig and learn the hard lesson (this unit will run me over 5K, unit plus materials and installation). Any opinion is welcomed. Thank you so much for your time.

Okay, so I'm sure the original poster has already made the purchase or moved on, but for anyone still on the fence about the CI2600, I'm replying to the original post because this thread has gone into 20 different directions.

1) I had the unit installed yesterday, just before a cold front came through. In the DC area stove inserts cost about 800-1200 to install.
2) We purchased this stove, because my wife and I have been to Auschwitz, and frankly, neither one of us will ever forget what the ovens their looked like, i.e. arched top, (google it). Bottom line: zero chance we were going to buy a stove that in anyway reminded us of that place.
3) At 7:30 pm, outside temp 45 degrees, I placed a few handfuls of twigs on one piece of wadded up newspaper, once it got going, I then place four pieces of maple in and waited until they were really on fire, all the while the door is open. It took aprox 20 minutes to really ignite the maple.
4) I closed the door and left the damper open for another 10 Minutes, as per the instructions said to do.
5) Next, I fully closed both the damper and bypass, again, as instructed.
6) I checked the fire at 8:30, downstairs room was noticeably warmer, fan manually set to low, to avoid noise. Metal surround was warm to touch but not hot. outside temp was now 40 degrees.
7) I checked the fire at 9:30, downstairs room was very warm, maple looked to be about 15 percent burned up, but hard to tell of course. Metal was still only warm to touch. outside temp, was 37 degrees.
Now for my narrative. At this point, I'm pretty disappointed. I thought the room would go from cold to hot, not just warm. I wondered if I'm doing this correctly. Then I go upstairs to see if my heat pump is on. NOPE, this is the first time I have seen the outside temp under 40, and the heat pump not constantly running. (Note:I live in a old block house and I always set my thermostat to 70.)

8) check the stove at 11pm. Looks like the maple is aprox 60 percent burned up. great heat in basement room, but not hot. Metal surround still only warm to touch, Fan still on low. I know the heat pump had come one, because I heard it, but once again, when I go to the thermostat, it is currently not running and now it's 35 outside.
9) At 6 am, get up get dressed, on my way out the door, I turn off the fan, at this point, the room is still warm, the metal surround is still warm, however, there appears to be nothing but ash in the stove. Outside temp is 25, and heat pump is running.


Notes:
1)my fireplace was huge, even my stack was enormous, the installer said I could have fit an 8 inch liner in my stack. He put a special cap on to prevent back draft. Not sure how this affects performance, if at all?
2) as you can probably tell, my stove was installed in the basement of a two level, 2800sqft, brick rambler. Fireplace is almost in the middle of the room, almost in the middle of the house too. I was told this was and Ideal fireplace for a stove.
3) as I said, I used only maple, and only 4 pieces, they were long pieces and just fit in the box, as far as girth, they easily fit in a 5 gallon bucket, in fact I probably could have fit six of these pieces in a 5 gallon bucket. thus, I do not believe the box was even close to full, maybe 60 percent full, to start with. This was my first fire, in my first stove, so I really just wanted to test it out. I used maple because my yard is full of maple and that is what I plan to burn...mostly.
4) my guess is, that fire lasted aprox, 6 hours, and put decent heat out for 8, but I had to go to bed, so that really is a guess.

More narrative:
I am not sure if this stove could really heat 2500 sq ft, I also doubt this stove can burn for 14 hrs. I believe, using only maple, I can push this stove to 8 hours of burn time, and heat about 1000 sq ft, no problem. I plan to attempt this tonight by really filling up the box.
Tomorrow, I plan to buy some oak, to test it out as well. I will follow up with my next two test results.

Bottom line: I'm happy, I do not have a dangerous 500 degree hunk of metal protruding from my fireplace. I now have a place to efficiently dispose of 6 maple trees, while adding warmth to my house. If the power goes out I feel more comfortable that frozen pipes will not be an issue. The last two winters in DC have been brutal, now, I could care less about oil, or electricity prices. I don't think this will keep the house at 70 on a cold night, but, I'm pretty confident it will keep the house well above freezing.

 

[begreen]

The odds of finding good, fully seasoned oak are very slim. If the wood is not fully seasoned, the heat is going to be disappointing. No one should have a dangerous hunk of metal protruding from their fireplace. Most do not have dangerous installs. The fact that it is protruding does not affect safety at all as long as the insert has been installed safely and with clearances respected. We have a freestanding stove in our living room. I have never once worried about its safety.

 

[mikeyG]

The odds of finding good, fully seasoned oak are very slim. If the wood is not fully seasoned, the heat is going to be disappointing. No one should have a dangerous hunk of metal protruding from their fireplace. Most do not have dangerous installs. The fact that it is protruding does not affect safety at all as long as the insert has been installed safely and with clearances respected. We have a freestanding stove in our living room. I have never once worried about its safety.

Sorry, I was not clear with my comment about "dangerous". My wife was totally against a stove that sticks out of the fireplace. She is not comfortable with something that gets hot being within reach of young children. Of course you can take all kinds of safety precautions, but we have a few two year olds in our family that really, really like to wander. Yes, I know, that is what baby gates are for. However, we have company over a few times a year, and right next to the fireplace is a guest bedroom, so it just makes for a difficult situation.

It is probably obvious, but my wife and I are what you might call city slickers. We have never had a stove so my comments are for folks that might be on the fence about a stove. Is it messy, Is it safe, is it worthwhile, will an "insert" actually work, how does the ci2600 affect the look of the room....those are the things we thought about.

Update:
I ran the stove again last night. This time started at 5pm and used 6 pieces of cherry, all well seasoned. Followed same startup procedures as yesterday. With six large pieces of cherry this time instead of maple, the stove was completely full.

I meant to do two things. get readings from my moisture meter, and place a thermometer in the room with the stove. Sorry, I got sidetracked, painting a room, and forgot to do both.

I started the fire at 5pm so I could better track the burn progress. Like the first test, I will leave the fan on low all night.

The stove fully loaded, and perhaps using cherry instead of maple, the stove seemed to produce much more heat. I did not use the thermometer, but the room where the stove is installed (24'x24') must have been at least 85 degrees by 6pm; outside temp was 42 degrees and the heat pump was off. FYI, normally this room feels like 65 degrees, without stove on.

Other than a few short bursts, the heat pump stayed off until around 10pm, outside temp was now 35.

From a full box of cherry, at five hours, there is now only a good size pile of embers. My guess is, it would have burned for at most, two more hours. Needless to say, that means I can only get about 7 hours of heat from a full load of cherry.

At this point(still 10pm), approaching the coldest part of the night, I fully reloaded the box.

I checked the box at 11pm, it was putting out a serious amount of heat at this point. If we were downstairs, we probably would have had to open a window.

Today at 7am, outside temp is 30, there was still a decent pile of embers in the stove and the heat was okay, but not great, room might be 75. (heat pump now running of course). So, 10pm to 7am is 9hours Not bad I guess. I will try to find seasoned oak today....and I might run the fan on high, to see if heat distribution throughout the house is better.

 

[Wolves1]

Sorry, I was not clear with my comment about "dangerous". My wife was totally against a stove that sticks out of the fireplace. She is not comfortable with something that gets hot being within reach of young children. Of course you can take all kinds of safety precautions, but we have a few two year olds in our family that really, really like to wander. Yes, I know, that is what baby gates are for. However, we have company over a few times a year, and right next to the fireplace is a guest bedroom, so it just makes for a difficult situation.

It is probably obvious, but my wife and I are what you might call city slickers. We have never had a stove so my comments are for folks that might be on the fence about a stove. Is it messy, Is it safe, is it worthwhile, will an "insert" actually work, how does the ci2600 affect the look of the room....those are the things we thought about.

Update:
I ran the stove again last night. This time started at 5pm and used 6 pieces of cherry, all well seasoned. Followed same startup procedures as yesterday. With six large pieces of cherry this time instead of maple, the stove was completely full.

I meant to do two things. get readings from my moisture meter, and place a thermometer in the room with the stove. Sorry, I got sidetracked, painting a room, and forgot to do both.

I started the fire at 5pm so I could better track the burn progress. Like the first test, I will leave the fan on low all night.

The stove fully loaded, and perhaps using cherry instead of maple, the stove seemed to produce much more heat. I did not use the thermometer, but the room where the stove is installed (24'x24') must have been at least 85 degrees by 6pm; outside temp was 42 degrees and the heat pump was off. FYI, normally this room feels like 65 degrees, without stove on.

Other than a few short bursts, the heat pump stayed off until around 10pm, outside temp was now 35.

From a full box of cherry, at five hours, there is now only a good size pile of embers. My guess is, it would have burned for at most, two more hours. Needless to say, that means I can only get about 7 hours of heat from a full load of cherry.

At this point(still 10pm), approaching the coldest part of the night, I fully reloaded the box.

I checked the box at 11pm, it was putting out a serious amount of heat at this point. If we were downstairs, we probably would have had to open a window.

Today at 7am, outside temp is 30, there was still a decent pile of embers in the stove and the heat was okay, but not great, room might be 75. (heat pump now running of course). So, 10pm to 7am is 9hours Not bad I guess. I will try to find seasoned oak today....and I might run the fan on high, to see if heat distribution throughout the house is better.

Should get even better with time.

 

[msjones2452]

Got the HI400 installed, started another thread on it. So far so good, only doing break in fires right now. Although I think I might have gone a little overboard tonight. I let her warm up with a medium burn for about an hour and a half. She was pretty warm when I loaded up with 4 med/lg splits of pine. Had to shut it down almost immediately. Nice glow from the Cat though! I was a little surprised by how much smoke I was getting out of the top at first. With the Cat engaged, there was still visible smoke for about 10-15 minutes. I know I went too far the first night because I was waiting for my temp. probe to register but it sounds like it my have a bad circuit board.

Wolves, I'd like to keep bouncing back and forth with you on our stoves. I know the season is all but over but I'll probably still have a couple burns here and there.

I'll keep all posted on my progress on the HI400 thread.

Thanks!

 

[Wolves1]

Got the HI400 installed, started another thread on it. So far so good, only doing break in fires right now. Although I think I might have gone a little overboard tonight. I let her warm up with a medium burn for about an hour and a half. She was pretty warm when I loaded up with 4 med/lg splits of pine. Had to shut it down almost immediately. Nice glow from the Cat though! I was a little surprised by how much smoke I was getting out of the top at first. With the Cat engaged, there was still visible smoke for about 10-15 minutes. I know I went too far the first night because I was waiting for my temp. probe to register but it sounds like it my have a bad circuit board.

Wolves, I'd like to keep bouncing back and forth with you on our stoves. I know the season is all but over but I'll probably still have a couple burns here and there.

I'll keep all posted on my progress on the HI400 thread.

Thanks!

Sorry I haven't responded but been very busy week and I am on vacation now in England so I'm not using my stove. Would love to keep bouncing back and forth, I know the burn season is all most over but we still can continue next season.

 

[NYSB]

I'll through my $0.02 in the mix... I am new to wood burning and having no prior experience, we chose a Regency Pro CI2600. We wanted a flush-mount insert that was big enough to give adequate heat for our house (around 2000 sqft). Hard to beat this unit on looks - very contemporary. I don't really believe any marketing materials for any product so I wasn't really expecting a full 14+ hour burn outside of ideal wood in ideal conditions. We've had the stove for about 2 months now and had it through most of Feb with many single digit temperature nights, as well as the last couple of weeks with lows in the 30s. I run it from Friday afternoons to Monday mornings. I have found with temps in the 30-40 range I can load it 1/2-3/4 full of wood about 3 times in a 24hr period and keep the entire house comfortable (68-70) and our central natural gas furnace does not run at all. With single digit temps I load it as full as possible 4-5 times per 24hrs and run it with primary damper around 50-60% open and fan on high. Last load would be around 10-11PM and in the morning there are still bright red coals and a decent amount of heat. During those 15 degree days the middle of the house was 76-78 degrees - very toasty - and 70-71 in the morning. The room with the fireplace was more than 80 during the day and the bedrooms on the opposite end of the house are 68-71. So I would say the unit is definitely meeting my expectations. Our house is quite long and the fireplace is on one end and the bedrooms on the other. The chimney is an external brick, lined with a square ceramic flue liner, now also lined with a flexible stainless steel liner connected to the Regency. There is some rockwool stuffed from below but no block off plate. Stainless liner is not insulated but the draft seems excellent as the stove lights off from cold no problem and I have not had smoke backfilling into the room. Once it gets to operating temperature there is no smoke from the chimney. I have measured the air coming out of the unit's fan at 250 or more! Glass front runs 600-700 as measured by infrared surface thermometer. Cast iron border around the glass measures 300-400. I don't have a cat thermometer, but I may add one later.

 

[bholler]

I don't have a cat thermometer, but I may add one later.

You really need one in order to run this stove correctly. It is very hard to know what is going on with out a temp

 

[NYSB]

You really need one in order to run this stove correctly. It is very hard to know what is going on with out a temp

Yeah - would be nice to have... I have about 5" of clearance between the top of the unit to the top of the masonry fireplace - is this enough room to install the cat thermo with the unit installed?

As an aside, Monday night I started a fire about 7pm and re-loaded about 50% full at 930pm. I left fan on low and damper about 2/3 closed. House was 70 in the am with glowing coals left. I did not reload at that time. Last night I started another fire at 730 and there were still some burried red coals from the night before (about 24 hours after the last load)! I re-loaded the stove at 10 about 2/3rds full and left damper 3/4 closed and this morning the middle of the house was 69deg with 30 deg outside temp. I guess I am one of the lucky ones with decent performance....

 

[msjones2452]

Yeah - would be nice to have... I have about 5" of clearance between the top of the unit to the top of the masonry fireplace - is this enough room to install the cat thermo with the unit installed?

As an aside, Monday night I started a fire about 7pm and re-loaded about 50% full at 930pm. I left fan on low and damper about 2/3 closed. House was 70 in the am with glowing coals left. I did not reload at that time. Last night I started another fire at 730 and there were still some burried red coals from the night before (about 24 hours after the last load)! I re-loaded the stove at 10 about 2/3rds full and left damper 3/4 closed and this morning the middle of the house was 69deg with 30 deg outside temp. I guess I am one of the lucky ones with decent performance....

5" clearance will be enough, but you may have to slide the unit in BEFORE putting in the probe. That's about what I have and it fits but it's pretty close. My problem was that my opening clearance is only about 3/4" so I had to slide the stove in past the lintel then insert the probe blind into a very small hole!! I may have used a little profanity at the time but I got it.

I'm glad to hear that your having success! I've only burned mine a couple times so far and I'm satisfied at this point. Like you, I don't put a ton of merit into advertised burn times. Too many variables! I haven't had a very cold spell yet to really stretch it's legs. It's supposed to start dropping tonight into tomorrow with some snow so hopefully I'll be able to test her out a little more. I'll keep all posted on my HI400 thread.

 

[Wolves1]

Once the stove is all broken in and temps outside are low 50s to about 45 the stove can do 14+ hours. Go back and look at page 28 feb 22 that picture was after 14 hours. But if temps are to cold outside you need more BTUs to heat the house and those hot coals are not enough to heat the house. The your looking to add wood every 6 to 10 hours depending how cold it is outside. God I can't wait till next burn season.

 

[NYSB]

Once the stove is all broken in and temps outside are low 50s to about 45 the stove can do 14+ hours. Go back and look at page 28 feb 22 that picture was after 14 hours. But if temps are to cold outside you need more BTUs to heat the house and those hot coals are not enough to heat the house. The your looking to add wood every 6 to 10 hours depending how cold it is outside. God I can't wait till next burn season.

Well, I'm not sure about more than 14 hours.... but I'm still pretty darn happy with how ours is working. If I keep perfecting my loading/burning technique I think I could get to 12, especially once I get the cat thermometer installed. Based on pictures I've seen on this thread I took a close look at mine to determine if the restrictor plate had been installed at the factory. From what I can tell they shipped mine with the side knockout plates removed and the restrictor plate installed. I can dial it down pretty well with the damper control on the bottom it'll put out good heat all night and into the next morning no problem. Last night I loaded it about 3/4 full at 10 o'clock and damped it down almost all the way. Temperature in the house at that time was 66 degrees. Temperature outside in the morning was 38 and temp inside the house was up to 70 - obviously our central heat did not come on at all. Had large chunks of bright red coals and still putting out good heat at 7AM. I did not reload this morning and based on my experience there will be some burried red coals when I get home tonight and it will restart very easily. I would expect house temp to be 65ish with no central heat.


This stove continues to meet my expectations - with temps in the high-30's low 40's I can heat the whole house for 24 hours on maybe 1.5 loads of wood. I think that is very efficient. I'm sure there are some even longer-burning stoves out there but not many that have such a flush and contemporary design...

Question: At a certain point last night I could damp it down all the way to the point where there were no visible flames - just the smoldering/smoking logs and a bright-red glowing cat with good heat output from the fan. Can one leave these stoves like this all night? Without active flames will the smoldering eventually flame out entirely? I'm sure the glass will get sooty, but that's a pretty minor issue and can easily dealt with on the next burn cycle.

Also has anyone experimented with making the primary air inlet even smaller than the restrictor plate, say 3/8" or 1/4"? I think this could be done with a stainless steel washer sandwiched on top of the restrictor plate and underneath the air nozzle. What would happen if it's blocked off entirely?

Hope this cool weather continues so we can keep burning into May!

 

[Woody Stover]

Question: At a certain point last night I could damp it down all the way to the point where there were no visible flames - just the smoldering/smoking logs and a bright-red glowing cat with good heat output from the fan. Can one leave these stoves like this all night? Without active flames will the smoldering eventually flame out entirely? Also has anyone experimented with making the primary air inlet even smaller than the restrictor plate, say 3/8" or 1/4"?

You'll have to experiment with it during the day when you can watch it, but I would think it will smolder with a cat-only burn as long as you don't cut the air too far (that could be a problem if you restrict the air too much more, as well.) As long as a cat burn gives you enough heat, great, but when the outside temp drops you may need more heat. The outside temp will also affect the amount of draft, so that's something you'll need to factor in when setting the air for overnight.

 

[NYSB]

You'll have to experiment with it during the day when you can watch it, but I would think it will smolder with a cat-only burn as long as you don't cut the air too far (that could be a problem if you restrict the air too much more, as well.) As long as a cat burn gives you enough heat, great, but when the outside temp drops you may need more heat. The outside temp will also affect the amount of draft, so that's something you'll need to factor in when setting the air for overnight.

Well, the adventure continues... I tried the experiment of completely plugging the "boost air" outlet on the inside lower lip of the firebox. I had some Roxul Rockboard 60 mineral wool insulating/soundproofing panels and I cut a small square and just wedged it in front of the air outlet. The air nozzle is a semi-circular slit about 5mm high and 15-20mm wide so one could accomplish the same by wedging a piece of fiberglass gasket material in there. It's probably still not a 100% airtight seal, but pretty close. This definitely enhanced the overnight performance of the stove. I started at 7pm with a few leftover coals from the night before (20+ hours prior). I placed the piece of Roxul and put 3 3" diameter 16" logs on the coals. Within a few minutes fire was going and I closed the glass door. After about 10-15min I closed the bypass and shortly after the cat started a glow dull. I then damped the air control to about 2/3rds closed. Good steady small flames with glowing cat. Took a look outside - no smoke at all. 3 hours later there was still some of those logs left and spread out the remaining and loaded for overnight. This time I placed 8-10 3-4" diameter 16-18" logs (kiln "dried" about 15-17% on MM). I arranged the bottom layer EW and most of the rest either diagonal or NS. This had the firebox about 2/3-3/4 full. I did the same procedure as before and had the bypass closed within 10-15min with a brightly glowing cat. I slowly damped down the air control over 15-20 min from full open to fully closed. At that point there was hardly any primary combustion visible - just a few orange flickers here and there but the secondaries were going crazy plus the cat continued to glow very well. The secondaries were particularly mesmerizing - yellow/blue flames in the back of fire box, around the secondary airtubes near the catalyst flame guard, and from the air wash with secondaries right up against the glass (kept the glass quite clean). I watched it from 1030 to about midnight like this. At 5:30 this morning there was nearly an entire log left and still had some flames going. Heat output with fan on low was still hot. Overnight low was 42 and middle part of the house was 69 deg. I threw three large logs on the nearly-white-hot coals and flame took off in about 10 min. Closed bypass and left air control about 2/3 closed before leaving for work.

Up to now I had never maintained continuous flame activity overnight - I had always just seen the red coals in the morning. I am going to try this experiment a couple of times.



I might fashion a sort of pinhole primary boast air nozzle with a stainless steel washer and some high-temp silicone.

 

[Grisu]

Up to now I had never maintained continuous flame activity overnight - I had always just seen the red coals in the morning. I am going to try this experiment a couple of times.

Flames for more than a few hours will be unlikely. However, there is still plenty of heat left in the coals and the cat will ensure you capture most of it.

3 hours later there was still some of those logs left and spread out the remaining and loaded for overnight.

Try raking them all in the front and drop some wood behind it and then on top. That should make for a more controllable burn. Loading dry wood on a layer of hot coals can make for rapid outgassing which can overwhelm the secondary burn/catalyst.

Still, sounds like you are doing well. Congrats to dial in the insert so quickly.