The Regency CI2600 & CI2700 operation thread

[localmotion]

Presuming that 1200F is the cat temp. Keep it below 1500º. Stove temp and overfiring is different. Moving the heat is a different issue. Start a new thread and include a sketch or two of the floorplan showing the insert location.

Thank you! I will take your advice and start a new thread.

Going back to the insert,
- I loaded the insert with 5 pieces (all i could fit) of hardwood and the damper set all the way to the right and catalyst engaged.
- Burn time was only 4 hours before the wood turned to coal.
- I did noticed the fire was roaring inside even though the damper was closed. I could see a visible flame coming from the bottom middle which I believe is normal.

Is the length of burn normal? I hear people getting 10-12 hours of burn . Pic attached of the roaring fire from the vent.

 

[tadmaz]

Is the crack in the back right upper corner, but more on the right side? The inside of your stove looks really clean, wow. Mine not so much.

 

[sleepingtiger]

Thank you! I will take your advice and start a new thread.

Going back to the insert,
- I loaded the insert with 5 pieces (all i could fit) of hardwood and the damper set all the way to the right and catalyst engaged.
- Burn time was only 4 hours before the wood turned to coal.
- I did noticed the fire was roaring inside even though the damper was closed. I could see a visible flame coming from the bottom middle which I believe is normal.

Is the length of burn normal? I hear people getting 10-12 hours of burn . Pic attached of the roaring fire from the vent.

View attachment 268602

No It is NOT normal. I am able to sustain a fire above 500F for 4 hours and left with coals at 200F after 8 hours. Forget the 12 hours as advertised... Anyway, I had a restrictor plate installed because my chimney is tall which causes a suction effect as i understand it. anyway, please look into that... it is common amongst owners of this insert.

I have to admit after 1 year of having this insert, and having trouble with the door, burn time and air blower... that i really wish i could replace it with a traditional wood stove/fireplace that is entirely external with chimney vent exposed to air. I dont know why others dont mention this more often... but a fireplace with a single load of wood can really create a lot of heat... in the case of an insert or a fireplace most is up the chimney.

 

[Jason H]

Hi everyone, like my previous post said, I'm getting a very hot burn even with the air fully closed. My regency supplier told me that he inquired with regency and was told that there is no air restrictor available for the ci2700. Does anyone have any way around this?

 

[sleepingtiger]

Hi there,

I've been looking at the Digital Catalytic Combustor Monitor and notice that everytime it is turned on it either displays hi or lo and a different number flashes before stabilizing. I've misplaced my manual and cant find any information on what the hi or lo means. Anyone have any insight?

this is NORMAL. Lo i think is displayed when temp below 600? and Hi when 900??? i would guess... Anyway, i dont use it and have no idea what it means, and yes it shows a wrong number and then quickly stabilizes and shows a more accurate one. BUT it is mostly useless.. Its mere purpose is to make sure your STARTING fire from cold has sustained a temperature over 500. That is what i was told by regency staff. After it is warm, and even if reloading, as long as the wood is properly seasoned you can immediately engage the catalytic.

 

[sleepingtiger]

Hi everyone, like my previous post said, I'm getting a very hot burn even with the air fully closed. My regency supplier told me that he inquired with regency and was told that there is no air restrictor available for the ci2700. Does anyone have any way around this?

You can contact regency directly and they will let you know there in fact is a plate that is installed BUT ONLY when certain conditions are found by the installer. Anyway, you should note that it will not STOP all airflow, it will only reduce when there is TOO much air... I have it installed and the counter affect is that more smoke comes into house when i open door (no matter how slowly) and it is a tad bit more difficult to start a fire.

I get a temperature reading of 1050F from the device when box is fully loaded with catalytic engaged (so yea it gets hot), but the restrictor has more an effect on keeping the flames very low, such that it is more sustained. This is best for overnight. If you want a long fire during the day, i would instead suggest that you add a VERY large chunk/log and let some air in (damper only half way) with catalytic engaged. This will actually save you firewood if you are in shortage, and will keep the stove hot (over 600).

 

[Jason H]

You can contact regency directly and they will let you know there in fact is a plate that is installed BUT ONLY when certain conditions are found by the installer. Anyway, you should note that it will not STOP all airflow, it will only reduce when there is TOO much air... I have it installed and the counter affect is that more smoke comes into house when i open door (no matter how slowly) and it is a tad bit more difficult to start a fire.

I get a temperature reading of 1050F from the device when box is fully loaded with catalytic engaged (so yea it gets hot), but the restrictor has more an effect on keeping the flames very low, such that it is more sustained. This is best for overnight. If you want a long fire during the day, i would instead suggest that you add a VERY large chunk/log and let some air in (damper only half way) with catalytic engaged. This will actually save you firewood if you are in shortage, and will keep the stove hot (over 600).

Thanks for the reply. Do you have the 2700 or a different model. I tried contacting them directly and was told that they only deal with the installers. And my installer told me that he contacted them and was told that one isnt available for this model. If you have the 2700 then I must be getting wrong info, if not then I was hoping to find an alternative. Fully closed my cat can get up to 1250 and in the morning the fan was off (only 7 hours after filling the box). Way too fast of a burn considering what was advertised.

 

[Jaro]

Is anyone having issues with one side of the glass getting black and in particular the wood not burning right?

I can get the stoveto 1200 but the right third of the stove sort of simmers like charcoal and never really burns. In return, the glass soots up and never goes away unless I wipe it down. Is anyone else having this issue? Air wash issue or maybe something clogged?

here is a video and picture of what I mean.
It was installed just a month ago...ugh

regards,

jireh

 

[patdale]

Is anyone having issues with one side of the glass getting black and in particular the wood not burning right?

I can get the stoveto 1200 but the right third of the stove sort of simmers like charcoal and never really burns. In return, the glass soots up and never goes away unless I wipe it down. Is anyone else having this issue? Air wash issue or maybe something clogged?

here is a video and picture of what I mean.
It was installed just a month ago...ugh

regards,

jireh

My glass get the same way but the wood always burns down.

 

[Jaro]

My glass get the same way but the wood always burns down.

My wood does eventually simmer down but it doesn’t burn like the other side does. Have you looked into it? Doesn’t make sense that one side would burn well and the other side doesn’t burn. Almost like the air flow is geared toward one side.

 

[patdale]

My wood does eventually simmer down but it doesn’t burn like the other side does. Have you looked into it? Doesn’t make sense that one side would burn well and the other side doesn’t burn. Almost like the air flow is geared toward one side.

The air seems to come right in the middle. I start the fire on the left side near the door opening so I thought maybe that contributed to the dark glass on the right. When I engage the cat, I usually have smoke driven by the air wash on the right side. I've seen others have the same complaint about the glass.

 

[Jaro]

The air seems to come right in the middle. I start the fire on the left side near the door opening so I thought maybe that contributed to the dark glass on the right. When I engage the cat, I usually have smoke driven by the air wash on the right side. I've seen others have the same complaint about the glass.

I wonder what would happen if you started the fire on the right side.

 

[gassy3000]

Smoked myself out yesterday for a few minutes starting a fire in my CI2700.

Loaded a medium sized fire, lit the starter lint, closed the door and made the mistake of walking away for the next 2 minutes to do something for my daughter. Came back to smoke pouring INTO the house. Picture is from a few minutes later, but I had a full cloud in there for a few minutes. Had to clear out the room by opening the patio door and cranking the nearby stove exhaust to max. But it wasn't really stopping, because enough paper was burning to keep generating a ton of smoke.



Thankfully I've been reading enough about fireplaces to solve my problem shortly afterwards though! I was experiencing back draft and to solve it I had to do some things that seemed counter-intuitive to clearing out the smoke. I turned off the stove exhaust, turned off my forced air heating (it was running, and I think contributing to the back draft pulling air through), and lit a stronger fire. Got the draft going in the right direction and a few minutes later had a nice solid fire for the night (albeit a bit stinkier in the room than I had planned)

The morning after I get a lot of the window gunk that others complain about, but I find most of it comes off pretty easily with a wet paper towel dipped in ash.

 

[Jason H]

Hi everyone.

So I just picked up a restrictor plate to install in my regency 2700 but there were no instruction of how to install it. I've searched this site a bit and found pictures of how it looks when installed but not how to install it. Can anyone give me some advice? Do I I still it from inside the firebox, or remove the faceplate and install it from the outside...etc.

Thanks in advance and merry Christmas.

 

[localmotion]

Hello!

So i've been burning kiln dried wood for the past few weeks and the results were amazing. The insert burned hotter and longer! The previous wood I had wasnt seasoned as advertised.

I bought an air quality monitor and see that after the fire has been burning for some time and the blower turns on, the PM2.5 score goes up from 1 to 30-45ug/m^3. Does anyone know where the blower fan pulls air in from? I am wondering if this can contribute to what I am seeing.

I also noticed the PM2.5 is slightly lowerwith the fan off,~25-30.

I am using the CI2700 that is located in the bottom floor of a split level home.

 

[begreen]

Hi everyone.

So I just picked up a restrictor plate to install in my regency 2700 but there were no instruction of how to install it. I've searched this site a bit and found pictures of how it looks when installed but not how to install it. Can anyone give me some advice? Do I I still it from inside the firebox, or remove the faceplate and install it from the outside...etc.

Thanks in advance and merry Christmas.

Jason. Did you get this figured out. I seem to recall someone posting a picture illustrating the location. Maybe early in this thread?

 

[Jaro]

Hello!

So i've been burning kiln dried wood for the past few weeks and the results were amazing. The insert burned hotter and longer! The previous wood I had wasnt seasoned as advertised.

I bought an air quality monitor and see that after the fire has been burning for some time and the blower turns on, the PM2.5 score goes up from 1 to 30-45ug/m^3. Does anyone know where the blower fan pulls air in from? I am wondering if this can contribute to what I am seeing.

I also noticed the PM2.5 is slightly lowerwith the fan off,~25-30.

I am using the CI2700 that is located in the bottom floor of a split level home.

Jason. Did you get this figured out. I seem to recall someone posting a picture illustrating the location. Maybe early in this thread?

Hello!

So i've been burning kiln dried wood for the past few weeks and the results were amazing. The insert burned hotter and longer! The previous wood I had wasnt seasoned as advertised.

I bought an air quality monitor and see that after the fire has been burning for some time and the blower turns on, the PM2.5 score goes up from 1 to 30-45ug/m^3. Does anyone know where the blower fan pulls air in from? I am wondering if this can contribute to what I am seeing.

I also noticed the PM2.5 is slightly lowerwith the fan off,~25-30.

I am using the CI2700 that is located in the bottom floor of a split level home.

what temps are you getting in the insert? Above 1200 ? and how long are the burns for?

 

[JRFarmer]

Loaded a medium sized fire, lit the starter lint, closed the door

Came back to smoke pouring INTO the house.

I had this problem early on but I learned how to avoid.

Don't stack your load first and then light the stack. If you do that, you run the risk of generating a box full of smoke before you have established a draft.

A better way is to light a small amount kindling and your starter. This very small fire will establish your draft without creating a lot of smoke. Build the fire by adding more kindling and small splits. This might smoke a lot, but it all goes up the chimney because the draft is established.

You can achieve the same result by doing a top-down burn. That will let you pre-stack the load if you insist upon it. I've had a lot of trouble with top-down burns, it always seems to take a very long time to get the cat up to temperature. The procedure I outlined earlier gets hot a lot faster because you are putting the fuel on top of flames and coals.

 

[localmotion]

what temps are you getting in the insert? Above 1200 ? and how long are the burns for?

I can get to 1200 no problem with a load of wood and it will last for at least 10 hours. I typically load 4 pieces before I go to bed around 10 and there are coals left when I go to reload at 8. Usually takes a few pieces of kindling and it’s back

 

[JRFarmer]

I can get to 1200 no problem

Agreed, getting to 1200F should not be difficult. If you put 3 or more splits in the box, you should expect to see 1200F on the cat.

 

[Jaro]

I can get to 1200 no problem with a load of wood and it will last for at least 10 hours. I typically load 4 pieces before I go to bed around 10 and there are coals left when I go to reload at 8. Usually takes a few pieces of kindling and it’s back

How long was it lasting before you used the kilns dried wood?

 

[Jason H]

Jason. Did you get this figured out. I seem to recall someone posting a picture illustrating the location. Maybe early in this thread?

Yep I did, thanks. Inside the box where the air intake is there are two bolts to loosen, then the hood over the intake and be pulled out enough for the restrictor plate to slide in and tighten the bolts

 

[localmotion]

How long was it lasting before you used the kilns dried wood?

I would get maybe 8 hours out of it and the heat was not very high. I would have to pack the stove with the wet wood and it would eventually get to 1000F. Now with Kiln dried, I put 4-5 splits in and it hits 1000F with ease and it lights very fast.

 

[JRFarmer]

@localmotion are you not able to get seasoned cord wood delivered? If all you have available to you is green (wet) wood, hopefully you have the space available and you're stacking that wood today so it will be ready to burn next season.

 

[Eduardo K]

Hey folks,
I just got a CI2700 installed a week ago and figured I'd say hi. I've read through the thread and it's been very helpful. It looks like there is a bit of a learning curve with loading, lighting, and getting the most out of the stove. So far I've made a few observations, but will observe and confirm before chiming in. Until then, I'll continue to follow the thread.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond and contribute to this thread!

-e