Hampton HI300 overfire

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jophysx

Burning Hunk
Apr 12, 2011
191
SW Michigan
Had my first, and hopefully last, overfire in my Hampton HI300 insert last night. Stupid mistake on my part. I loaded a medium size load on coals with the stove somewhere around 350. Like I've done many times. Wood wasn't the best, so I figured it would take longer than normal to get going. Well I was wrong. I left with the damper a little more than half open. When I returned the glass temperature was 850. I've been there before, but this was different. I immediately closed the damper all the way figuring it would starve the fire of oxygen and the temp would start dropping. The opposite happened. Ordinarily the HI300 is very controllable, but in this condition even with the damper 100% closed there was such a strong draft that the fixed supply to the secondary tubes was enough to sustain a healthy burn. Plus shutting off the main air supply meant the heat in the box really started building up. The temperature on the glass shot up to 930, and I noticed the top of the firebox was faintly glowing red (in the dark). Scary.

I remembered reading on hearth.com that opening the door was good for cooling down the firebox. I remember thinking that opening the door would just introduce a flood of oxygen to the fire and things would really get out of control. But i tried it anyway. It works. Yes the fire does spark up a bit, but the flood of room temperature air into the box has a powerful and rapid cooling effect. I opened and closed the door a few times to try to bring the temperature down slowly to avoid thermal shock. In about 10 minutes I had it back down in a reasonable range.

No horrible popping noises, indication of weld problems, warpage, or air leaks. Stove is back to running normal. I had grown a little complacent thinking the stove was totally controllable, because under normal operating conditions, it is. No more leaving the stove during startup for me.
 
From what others have told me here, the temperature of the glass isn't an indication of how hot the box is. You should be "shooting" the top of the box with your IR gun. I was doing the same thing at first.
 
From what others have told me here, the temperature of the glass isn't an indication of how hot the box is. You should be "shooting" the top of the box with your IR gun. I was doing the same thing at first.
Yes. I know that. But I find the glass temperature to be a very simple, repeatable, and reliable reading that works quite well for me. I know that the stove runs great when the glass peaks in the 700-750 range. On the HI300' shooting the top of the box is difficult because it has to be done at a highly oblique angle due to clearance issues.
 
Hi. Thanks for the info.

New HI300 owner here. Had first fire today. It does seem pretty controllable.
 
Jim--Did you have the blower on? I think it would be hard to overfire with the air half way and the blower on.
 
I would want to at least get a baseline comparison before I go using the glass all the time. All stoves are surely different but my glass temp is quite a bit less than stove top. Yours might be too.
 
Run that blower on HIGH and close the air down all the way when you see a glowing top on the HI300. It takes care of the problem within a few minutes. This has happened to me a few times and this works all the time. Frankly, I only use the blower on HIGH for this purpose. Always on LOW otherwise.
 
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Run that blower on HIGH and close the air down all the way when you see a glowing top on the HI300.

How about opening the air all the way with the blower on high? I had what I thought was going to be an overfire situation last season and I remembered that somewhere on here I read that opening the air up all the way allows the heat to escape up the chimney. It worked for me. I tried closing the air all the way down first and it seemed to be make things worse.
 
Run that blower on HIGH and close the air down all the way when you see a glowing top on the HI300.

How about opening the air all the way with the blower on high? I had what I thought was going to be an overfire situation last season and I remembered that somewhere on here I read that opening the air up all the way allows the heat to escape up the chimney. It worked for me. I tried closing the air all the way down first and it seemed to be make things worse.

Here's a quote from the HI300 manual. It doesn't mention to turn the blower on HIGH, but I do this to move the heat away from the glowing stove top. By closing the draft, you are starving the box for air. You will see a back draft form and fill the firebox. This backdraft goes away shortly you close it down.

5) Do not overfire your insert. If the insert begin
to glow, you are overfi ring. Stop adding
fuel and close the draft control. Overfiring
can cause extensive damage to your stove
including warpage and premature steel corrosion.
Overfiring will void your warranty.
 
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