Isle Royale & Hampton 300

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mtcox

Member
Apr 6, 2007
63
Stafford, Virginia
I run a Quadrafire Isle Royale AND a Hampton 300. Both are free standing. They are on opposite ends of a 1.5 story, 2,100 square foot home.

I’ve read a lot lately about 8-12 hour burns from other forum members. I’ve never been able to get more than a 4-6 hour burn time and produce enough heat to keep the house above 62 degrees. The wood is dry (white oak seasoned 2 years). When the stove is first loaded and running it produces good heat. However, I’m up 2 times a night feeding both stoves. Last night (23 degrees) I was up twice and was able to maintain the home at 70 degrees all night long with both stoves.

I’m simply wondering if I’m doing everything correctly to maximize the efficiency of these two stoves. Both are smaller in size and cannot hold a significant amount of wood. Are there any suggestions on where I might improve my skills?
 
I'll go out on a limb here.... if you're struggling to keep heat with two stoves and it's only 23 degrees outside, your problem may be you don't have enough insulation in the house to keep the heat in. Another thing I see is you are running that H300 with the air too open. I can get 10 hour burns with plenty of coals for a quick restart in my HI300 (same stove just an insert). Burning the stove with too much air sends a great deal of BTU's up the pipe.

It would help to have the following.

House insulation value?
Windows, are the in good shape or drafty?
 
This is the first time I have heard of the Isle Royale being called a small stove. I agree that the house sounds like it is leaking heat like a sieve. A professional energy audit could be the best investment you can make.

But to get back to your original question, the IR should be able to heat this place. But if either of these stoves is burning underseasoned wood, it is not going to be working at capacity. So the first thing is to take some splits and resplit them, then check for moisture on the freshly split surface (not ends) of the wood. If you don't have a meter, press it up against your cheek. If it feels cool and damp, that is issue #1.

Also, please tell us how you load and run the stove. Include wood loading, split size, air control settings, etc., so that we can see if there is an issue we can spot with procedure as well.
 
Thank you for the quick replies. I load the stove 5 or 6 times over a 24 hour period. I would be ecstatic if I could sleep through a night without tending to two fires.

The house is old, but renovated. It needs updated insulation in the attic and crawl space. The walls are 2 x 4 and have new fiberglass insulation. Most of the doors and windows in the home are less than 3 years old.

I burn east to west loading 2-3 medium size splits in the Isle Royale. The Hampton is limited to 2 medium splits and I load north to south or east to west depending on the best fit.

I'll be splitting wood tomorrow and will try the "cheek test" on a split that's 2 years old. I've been wanting to buy a moisture meter and I think I have my excuse now.

I run the stove's air dampers 75-80% closed depending on the logs, temperature and the heat output.

Let me know what you think. I'm desperate for a decent night's sleep!
 
mtcox said:
The Hampton is limited to 2 medium splits and I load north to south or east to west depending on the best fit.

If you have the Hampton 300, it should be 2.3 cubic feet. I have the HI300 and it's the same stove but just an insert. When I fill it up, I go N/S with three large splits on the bottom, two smaller splits on top of the bottom three, and then little splits to fill the voids. Load this box up, get her ripping, close the air slowly over time and you'll get the overnight burns.

This pic isn't the clearest, but it shows an example how I can stuff the box.
 

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mtcox said:
I burn east to west loading 2-3 medium size splits in the Isle Royale.

Heck - your only loading 1/3 of a load. I get 6 bigger splits or 8 medium splits in mine for the overnite load. Don't be afraid to pack that sucker full. It is a very controlable stove.

With the firepower of the IR and add on a 2.3 cuft stove (or whatever it is), you should roast yourself out of that home. If you are not, you definitely have a house problem. My house is 1750 sqft with good windows and questionable every thing else, sitting on top of a very windy spot and the IR has no problems with 8hr run times.
 
Yes, I burn more than 2-3 splits in mild weather. In winter, the stove gets packed to the gills for a good overnight burn.
 
Drafty house makes for a lot of burning. There is a big difference between meaningful heat and enough coals to relight the stove. If your house is drafty, like mine, you ain't going have a warm house when the temps plunge unless you reload during the middle of the night. I find that if I am burning hard, 3 to 5 hrs of intense heat is a good burn - considering my house is right drafty.

Good luck,
Bill
 
I see no mention of stove temps. What kind of temps are you running on these two stoves? Is it possible that your just not getting the performance that they are capable of?
 
+1,same stove and very familiar with the h300. +1 to jags reply, no problem getting an overnight burn from the IR. I run it the same way. On the h300,my nephew has one at his place in the adirondacks and when I'm up there I love it. His place has pretty good insulation and windows and the stove has no trouble heating a pretty big place.

+2 on BeGreen...Get an energy audit ( most places they are free now from the utilities) have them hook up the blower door etc and go to town. Insulation is cheap compared to generating heat. might as well keep all those btus than to send them outside.

+3 I'm guessing between the 2 stoves your probably talking +- 100k btu an hour so it sounds like you got some losses somewhere.

Do you have the blower on the h300? that really helps.
 
HI300 AND H300 are totally different fireboxes.
The insert is the identical replica to the regency plate steel I2400 which can achieve overnight burns.
The H300 has a smaller box and will have a tougher time acheiving an over night burn.

There is roughly a 20000 btu difference between the freestanding and the insert which is 75000btu
Just an fyi
 
I have been using an H300 for 3 years now & the firebox is only 1.7 cf . I heat 1000sf solely with the H300 & like it a lot but one drawback are the burn times . First off I don't go by " burn times " , I like to go by usable heat & the best I can get out of my H300 is about 6 hours . Of course when it's -8 degree's outside , like it was the other night that " usable heat " time goes down .
 
Thank you for the replies.

I'm getting stove top temperatures of 600 degrees. Anything below 300 and it's not heating efficiently.

I do have a drafty house and it contributes to the problem. I'm addressing the insulation issue in the crawl space but my walk up attic will have to wait until we're ready to renovate. We close the doors on the second floor in an attempt to keep the heat from escaping through the roof.

Concerning the Isle Royale, it appears I need to cut my splits in half and load front to rear. I'll attempt to pack it with more wood this weekend and see what type of burns I get. Do most owners load from the front door or the top? It seems I can get more wood in from the front.

The H300 is justs not big enough to load for an all night burn. I would be happy with 6 hours. I'll try fitting another split into that firebox, too.

I'm also interested in what folks consider medium splits, large splits, etc. Length and girth. I'd like to know I'm comparing apples to apples.
 
mt, I'm not sure about jags+northwinds (IR) but my normal reload is 4 splits that can easily fit into a 5 gallon bucket. I usually take 2shorties on the bottom north-south and 2 more e-w. Thats a typical reload. If its colder say 0 out I might go for six splits. Once I reload I open the air up full and start backing down for decent secondaries. Most of my wood is 3years css so its less than 20 mc. Usually go to coals before reload.

Incidentally, I weighed a reload bucket and we talking 23lbs +-. Hope this helps you.

Yes I use the front door. just seems easier for me.
 
This is my third winter with the H300. I can easily get four medium splits in and can usually stuff some smaller ones in between. But it's definitely not the biggest firebox around at 1.7 cubic feet. If I load it up at 11:00 p.m. and damp it down quite a bit, I will definitely have coals for an 8 a.m. restart but the real good heat lasts for probably only half the night.
 
I'm a front loader also. I load way more wood than maxed-out does. I stuff it to the gills, then stand back and kick the final piece into place (joking). I have actually weighed loads North of 50 pounds. 600F is a nice cruise for the IR, but don't be afraid of the 750F mark. There is a huge difference in the amount of heat the stove (any stove) will produce from 600 to 750F.
 
I'm trying the north/south method with shorter splits. How this look?

The five gallon bucket reference made understanding size and dimensions very easy. Thank you for the insight, Maxed_Out!
 

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Mt, good pic that looks excellent. You getting good heat from that? The only thing I do diff is..... bottom layer is the same, then longer splits e-w. I dont think it would change anything. By my ests Jags loads are double mine and thats fine. There are some nights where I do go to 50lbs but they are few and far between here in south central PA.

Did you ever let us know if you have a blower on the h300? I really like burning my nephews h300 - the blower makes a huge difference.
 
Maxed_Out,

It's running around 650 right now with good heat. Temperatures will only drop to the mid 20's tonight, therefore, keeping the house warm with both stoves isn't too bad. It's 78 degrees at our HVAC thermostat right now.

I forgot about the blower question. Yes, we have them on both stoves. It does make a difference. We've gone without power for 2-3 days and the heat can't make it around the house like it can with the blower option. I like the thermostat option on the H300, too. It cuts the blower off when temperatures drop too much in the stove. The Isle Royale doesn't have that option.

I'll try a few combinations of east west and north south. I loaded up at 6 PM and hope not to reload until after midnight. I'll report back over the weekend on my progress.
 

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I've got one of those for my insert. Works great. My Isle Royale moves heat the old fashioned-way--without a blower.
 
I've been using the north/south method for several days now and it's working to the tune of 6-7 hour burn times. I'm much happier with the 2-3 extra hours. Thank you to those that helped out. My wife is also a lot happier loading the smaller logs. Now is just a matter of cutting my splits in half!

I still have the insulation issue. I've received one quote for the crawl space. Take down the existing insulation, add 1" of spray foam insulation and put the old insulation back. $4,000 for a total of 1,782 square feet. Too rich for my blood.
 
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