The Regency CI2600 & CI2700 operation thread

[waywardzombie]

Does anyone know about how long the auto on fan takes (or what the criteria is)? I've been watching mine for almost an hour now and it still hasn't kicked on. The stove was cool from over night (about 185 F) so I didn't get it too hot too quickly but it's been over 900F for half an hour anyway... still no auto on. It's about minus 22 F here outside today... Thanks!

Someone on here had a tip to put it on manual and then switch it to auto. This is what I normally do, manual for maybe 5 minutes once the cat temp is 1200+ and then to auto. It stays on for me after this until the stove cools.

 

[Lefty13]

Ended up having one of these installed at the beginning of February. I don't think my wood is the greatest, and I don't have a moisture meter (yet, coming tomorrow) to verify, but on the whole I'm liking it. It's a newer model with a cast iron plate.

I am getting 12 hours or so of "heat time" before the blower shuts off, and then have been able to restart from coals with kindling after 18 hours or so, which has been handy.

When I load E/W the glass gets real black in the lower right and left corners, moreso in the right corner. The only way to get the black off that works so far is a razor blade. The lighter stuff in the middle I get off with ceramic glass cleaner. When I load N/S the glass gets black at first, then will gradually clean up.

There's an issue with my gasket which I think is causing increased blackening. On the right side in between the hinges the gasket is...almost like it was soaked in glue I guess? And not puffed out at all. I don't think it's making good contact and is causing some of the blackening. I got another piece from the stove shop and will be replacing it.

That's interesting Zombie! Mine is about the same age (installed end of January) and I always get blackening in the bottom right side of the glass. Are you getting much smoke coming out of your chimney? I see a good chunk even when Cat. is engaged... makes me wonder about my installation... thanks again!

 

[waywardzombie]

That's interesting Zombie! Mine is about the same age (installed end of January) and I always get blackening in the bottom right side of the glass. Are you getting much smoke coming out of your chimney? I see a good chunk even when Cat. is engaged... makes me wonder about my installation... thanks again!

What about your installation are you thinking is wrong?

I see smoke until the stove gets up to temperature, once I close the damper and the cat temp gets up to 1200 I don't see much, maybe a little of what looks like steam to me at first then nothing.

I took off the top/sides of the decorative faceplate to adjust where the cable for the cat temp monitor came out (which sucks, by the way, huge pain to get back on) and I noticed that the thimble attaching to the stove isn't seated properly, I assume due to difficulties bending the liner. I was going to get some high-heat tape to put around it, the kind used on exhaust pipes for oil furnaces to try and seal it up.

I'm going to deal with the black glass for now (until the season ends) then replace the gasket as I know mine was delivered in rough shape. I just received a "Maxcraft 69283 Stubby Scraper", from amazon, which is basically a razorblade with a handle on it. I cleaned the glass with it for the first time tonight, took 30 seconds to get off the real bad stuff (that cerama bryte and ash-dipped rags won't touch) and then cleaned up the rest with ceramabryte and the yellow pads they provide, took a couple minutes total. Without the scraper I wouldn't have been able to get it clean.

I'm burning E/W tonight because I've got some longer, irregular pieces of wood to get through, the glass is already pretty black in the lower right corner.

 

[Lefty13]

What about your installation are you thinking is wrong?

I see smoke until the stove gets up to temperature, once I close the damper and the cat temp gets up to 1200 I don't see much, maybe a little of what looks like steam to me at first then nothing.

I took off the top/sides of the decorative faceplate to adjust where the cable for the cat temp monitor came out (which sucks, by the way, huge pain to get back on) and I noticed that the thimble attaching to the stove isn't seated properly, I assume due to difficulties bending the liner. I was going to get some high-heat tape to put around it, the kind used on exhaust pipes for oil furnaces to try and seal it up.

I'm going to deal with the black glass for now (until the season ends) then replace the gasket as I know mine was delivered in rough shape. I just received a "Maxcraft 69283 Stubby Scraper", from amazon, which is basically a razorblade with a handle on it. I cleaned the glass with it for the first time tonight, took 30 seconds to get off the real bad stuff (that cerama bryte and ash-dipped rags won't touch) and then cleaned up the rest with ceramabryte and the yellow pads they provide, took a couple minutes total. Without the scraper I wouldn't have been able to get it clean.

I'm burning E/W tonight because I've got some longer, irregular pieces of wood to get through, the glass is already pretty black in the lower right corner.

I'm not sure what would be wrong with it... just had a lot of smoke and black glass since installation. I think the biggest concern is my CAT temperatures drop immediately when I turn the blower on to minimum and then they drop again when I turn it to max. Does anyone else experience this? Thanks folks!

 

[waywardzombie]

I'm not sure what would be wrong with it... just had a lot of smoke and black glass since installation. I think the biggest concern is my CAT temperatures drop immediately when I turn the blower on to minimum and then they drop again when I turn it to max. Does anyone else experience this? Thanks folks!

My cat temperature will drop too when I turn on the blower to minimum, though only by 50° or so. How much does it drop? How hot do you let the cat get before dampering down? I usually go to at least 1200° before I start backing the air off, and after letting it sit for a little while will turn on the blower.

I've found the stove works best in cycles...start, full load up to 1200°+, damper down, blower on, allow to cool down to 400 or less, full load up to 1200°, etc...

Is what you see coming out of the chimney grey-translucent or thick and cloudy white?

 

[Lefty13]

My cat temperature will drop too when I turn on the blower to minimum, though only by 50° or so. How much does it drop? How hot do you let the cat get before dampering down? I usually go to at least 1200° before I start backing the air off, and after letting it sit for a little while will turn on the blower.

I've found the stove works best in cycles...start, full load up to 1200°+, damper down, blower on, allow to cool down to 400 or less, full load up to 1200°, etc...

Is what you see coming out of the chimney grey-translucent or thick and cloudy white?

Hi Wayward! Thanks for the reply and apologies for taking so long to get back to you after you tried to help me out... we were away on vacation and just getting back to the real world now. Anyway... I'd have to agree that I do a similar cycle to what you said with very similar numbers... 1200 to 400 or less.

I'd have to say it drops around 50 degrees as well but I'll take a closer look next time. Just good to hear I'm not the only one losing heat when the blower goes on.

As for the smoke, I think my wood is very inconsistent. A few weeks ago I loaded it up with about 7 logs... it pumped heat for 14 plus hours. That doesn't happen very often but I was blown away how long it threw heat for... it was down below 200 degrees F but the auto fan doesn't shut off until around 180 F or so. Somedays I have smoke or steam, other days nothing. It's weird... I'll check the smoke to see if it's grey or white. Thanks!

 

[Lefty13]

Hi again folks... just split a bunch of my wood and it's consistently coming out between 20 and 25% moisture. Is that enough moisture to make my glass go black after a few loads? The blackening seems to happen after I leave the cat engaged for 8 hours or so and it's completely black after about 3 loads. By completely I mean it's a U Shape around the bottom and the sides. The middle and top are completely clear. I'll attach a pic shortly. Thanks everyone!

 

[Heizer]

Hi again folks... just split a bunch of my wood and it's consistently coming out between 20 and 25% moisture. Is that enough moisture to make my glass go black after a few loads? The blackening seems to happen after I leave the cat engaged for 8 hours or so and it's completely black after about 3 loads. By completely I mean it's a U Shape around the bottom and the sides. The middle and top are completely clear. I'll attach a pic shortly. Thanks everyone!

Hi Lefty, my wood has about 15% moisture and I get exactly the same as you do. As soon as you choke down the air and engage the cat the blackening will start. What I have noticed is you can see smoke appearing at the lower right and lower left corner once you close the main air and have the cat engaged. This, in my opinion, is causing the build up. But no matter what I have done my glass always gets black. Leaving the damper slightly open and letting more air in reduces the blackening, but also reduces the heat output time.

 

[Wolves1]

https://assets.regency-fire.com/get...879-a98ec89e3423/Pro-Series-User-Guide-Insert
This may help,also look how full the stove is. You will always get some blacking on the corners. If your still getting complet blacking when running the stove that full and hot I don't know what else it could be other then not getting enough air or draft. The 15% is perfect if split take the reading in three spots and average it. This time of the year is hard to run that full and hot would make the home to hot.

 

[Wolves1]

Read the small print on the bottom of the second page.

 

[Heizer]

Read the small print on the bottom of the second page.

Thanks Wolves1. The pictures in this Users Guide shows the blackening too. So it seems to be normal, but still annoying. On the second page the pictures show what I experience when having the air control nearly closed. I guess we have to live with it. Still I don't understand why Regency has the air wash controlled by the primary air! Air wash should be independent from the primary air control.

 

[Softwood]

Hi folks, thanks for all of you sharing experience with this CI2600. I bought one in October last year after reading another 30+ pages thread in this forum, learned a lot and still a lot to learn on this stove, never got 6+ hours burning, I guess it's because of softwood I used and I never stuffed the stove full, and now I can clean the blackened glass in five minutes easily, tried hard on ash+water method, didn't work well.

When time comes to sweeping the flue, I wonder how you guys deal with this, do you hire a sweeper or you do it yourself? do you get the stove out, put a garbage bag under the flue and sweep from outside, on top of chimney, or sweep from inside the stove like this youtube video

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Thanks

 

[Lefty13]

Thanks folks! Appreciate all the info! Very interesting that their own brochure even has the blackening, eh? I'm going to cut and split my own wood this summer and cut it shorter just to experiment with it. I'll also really have to try to wait the 30 minutes for reloading I think as the brochure indicated... thanks again!

I've also never had a reading of less that 19% anywhere and usually in 21-23 range... guess that doesn't help things...

 

[Lefty13]

Just thinking outside the box here... do you guys turn off the Cat. Converter halfway through the burn? IE it gets nice and hot... 1200... slowly gets down to 500... at that point do you disengage the cat or let it keep going? I always leave mine in until the I reload... just wondering if that's causing my blackened glass... thanks again!

 

[Wolves1]

Just thinking outside the box here... do you guys turn off the Cat. Converter halfway through the burn? IE it gets nice and hot... 1200... slowly gets down to 500... at that point do you disengage the cat or let it keep going? I always leave mine in until the I reload... just wondering if that's causing my blackened glass... thanks again!

Sorry I don't check that much in the off season. I would keep the bypass closed till you are ready to reload.

 

[Lefty13]

check

Thanks Wolves! I haven't been on much here in the off season as well. Appreciate the feedback as always though....

 

[Wolves1]

It's getting close to that time of year, can't wait for my first fire. I just put more insulation inside the chimney found that there was a big gap and not enough insulation. Can't wait to here other people's input.

 

[Finnsp]

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading through this and a few of the older CI2600 threads as part of researching new stove options. I am currently zeroed in on:

1. CI2600
2. Osburn Matrix
3. Fyre Extraordinaire (Travis Ind)

I would like to use the stove as a 'primary heat source' for a portion of the house and then supplement with mini-split heat pumps where air/heat flow is simply not feasible. My house is extremely tight and well insulated and I have roughly 25' of masonry chimney so draw shouldn't be a problem. I also have easy access to lots of hardwood (white and red Oak, Locust, and Walnut.)

The CI2600 is currently my first choice but the amount of time and effort a lot of CI owners seem to be expending to get their stove running well is a little concerning. The leveI of detail and determination show by a lot of you seems to suggest the 2600 might not be exceptionally user-friendly. I had a free-standing Avalon Arbor in a previous house and it was an absolute breeze to use and pumped out a ridiculous amount of heat. I don't think my previous success was a function of my skill as a wood-burner either since that was my first and only stove.

Is the 2600 just a very temperamental stove or are inserts inherently more difficult to optimize performance than the freestanding guys? Also, my last stove was a non-cat so perhaps that could explain the greater challenge. I guess I've just gotten a little spooked by reading all these threads on the struggles of current (and likely much more experienced/knowledgeable) wood stove users.

I was also planning on installing the unit myself (did the last one as well and that seemed much more complicated as I had to go through the roof.) Any thoughts or warnings on that front?

Thanks in advance!

Steve

 

[Wolves1]

Sorry it's been a busy weekend. It's really not that complicated the only extra step is when the stove hits 500 just close the bypass, then just control the air like you would your non cat stove. It does give a nice long burn time.

 

[Finnsp]

Sorry it's been a busy weekend. It's really not that complicated the only extra step is when the stove hits 500 just close the bypass, then just control the air like you would your non cat stove. It does give a nice long burn time.

Hi Wolves,

Thanks for the reply and vote of confidence.

Have you found the heat output easy to modulate (ie...burn hotter or cooler) by adjusting air and or load size? I'm sure that erring on either side of that equation will impact efficiency but I am not certain about proper sizing. The layout is as follows:

1. Install Room - 650sft (8' ceilings)
2. Upstairs from Install Room - 450sft (12' ceilings and accessible via staircase right next to fireplace/chimney is 2 story with another fireplace upstairs with separate flue.)
3. Foyer - 150sft (15' ceilings and accessible from Install Room via 6' french door opening)
4. Upstairs Master Suite - 1400sft (14' ceilings and open throughout and 2 large ceilings fans)

I should be able to heat 1 and 2 (1100sft) without any problems whatsoever. #3 should also be doable via a box fan or a mini-split in fan mode pushing the warm air roughly 15' across the room and through the french door opening.

Heat obviously rises and a portion of what i can get into the foyer will rise up into the master suite area but, with the large volume, will likely not disperse throughout.

The above is the long winded way of saying I have 1250sft that I should be able to heat without a problem. I have another 1400sft of which a portion might be heated but likely not all. Do I aim for a 2600sft capacity stove and risk burning myself out of the main room or shoot for something a bit smaller (ie...the Osburn Matrix at 750-2100sft?)

My walls are R-25 to 30 and ceilings are R-45 - all closed cell spray foam. Blower door tests put me at 1.1ACH so the place is not passivehaus standard but pretty tight. My HVAC is all ductless so piggy-backing on a duct system is not an option. Lastly, I am at around 3000' elevation in Southwest VA off the Blue Ridge Parkway. While definitely not New England, we get some pretty cold temps courtesy of elevation and some mean wind patterns.

My gut tells me the best solution for heating everything is a 2nd stove in the master suite side but there is really not a good place to put one that wouldn't involve a lot of heavy lifting on the install side of things.

Thanks in advance for any insight you or anyone else might have. It seems like you only know if you sized it right after using it for a bit but I am hoping to not make a rookie mistake on the front end by shooting for the moon and ending up cooking myself in one room and freezing in another.

 

[Wolves1]

You can definitely regulate the heat output with load size and air control, I had a fire yesterday morning and this morning 4 pieces of wood split small outside temp was 51, it was perfect to take the chill out of the air. You can also turn the blower off if it's to warm. My house was 1600sft two floors the insert was great warming both floors. I did add a one room extension 610sft, very well insulated r-20 walls r-45 ceiling lots of windows 8 and 2 big doors, the rest of the house not as well insulated. I installed a stove the equivalent of the insert in the new room. Last winter was my first ( normal winter for Long Island) I found my self using the stove 24/7 to heat the house and used the insert only in the morning the take the chill out of the living room the furthest room away from the stove both on the first floor.

 

[griam01]

Was 50s all day and decided to break it in this evening. Feels nice. I have missed my fires.




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[Wolves1]

How did it burn?

 

[griam01]

How did it burn?

I didn’t pack it full and was only looking to warm up my room. It kicked out good heat for about 5 hours before I went to bed. Not sure how much longer it lasted. Temp was at 450 when I went to bed.


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[painful100]

Hey folks. I’m a new owner of this unit. It’s burns nice and hot, especially with Cat engaged. I am having the same issue as many others. The glass gets black easily. After every overnight burn i wake up to a 40% black glass. Sometimes more like 75%. Seems worse when I turn on the cat and turn down the intake airflow. And cleaning it is not as easy as previous stoves. Seems to stick more. Anyone have suggestions about how to clean glass better in this unit? Especially when hot. I want to burn for days straight and don’t want to wait for the unit to cool down before cleaning.