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

marty22877 said:

Where do the long burners set their damper? All the way closed?

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Yes I'll load as much wood as I can fit once the temp inside the stove hits about 600 I'll slide the primary air controller on the bottom completely closed then after 20 seconds I'll close the damper on top ( spoke to my cousin this morning he installed the stove for me and he's a regency dealer he told me to do it in that order). He also told me don't load the stove if there are still logs burning that is going cut your burn time.

Guys, I consider myself a glass half full kinda guy. There is nothing about this unit or most out there today that makes me think it won't do what it says it will. Certainly not by the bigger guys out there. Thats why I contacted the techs. I figured if they say it can burn that long, it can and they have to able to back it up. Then I figured it might just be me who needs to change the old habits. I'm sure everyone on this blog wants the same end results so we can probably all learn a bit from each other. I read guys like Marty and Wolves, and even the cheap guy Big
Rocco. They all get results but still want better. So we are all doing some stuff right.
Personally I have used oak, big pieces, around three accross the way at the bottom and five to seven front to back for my best results long burning. I also did this almost the same size cuts using pine just for giggles. The only difference was about the size of the coals when I got home in the morning. Both lasted thru 14 hours (ish) and both started up after a rake over and me tossing on some small kindling to restart. In the time I have been playing with this, I have never once cleaned out my ashes. I just rake and start again with kindling only. I have lit this fire using a fame only once in the last two weeks and the rest was just throwing kindling on and sitting back.

Ithink my problem might be enough wood. I'm going left to right and only putting like 4 logs in at night

marty22877 said:

Ithink my problem might be enough wood. I'm going left to right and only putting like 4 logs in at night

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It might be. Load the box. I think you'll like the results. I was a bit disillusioned at first thinking the claim of "saving fuel" meant less per load. It really means less wood over the season and I can relate there. I am heating more, with even temperatures, using around 75% of the wood i used before over the same couple of weeks

Hey M

Wolves1 said:

Yes I'll load as much wood as I can fit once the temp inside the stove hits about 600 I'll slide the primary air controller on the bottom completely closed then after 20 seconds I'll close the damper on top ( spoke to my cousin this morning he installed the stove for me and he's a regency dealer he told me to do it in that order). He also told me don't load the stove if there are still logs burning that is going cut your burn time.

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Hey Marty. I guess he meant that for when you are readying for the long overnight?

woodstove guy said:

Hey M


Hey Marty. I guess he meant that for when you are readying for the long overnight?

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Yes that's for long overnight burns

Wolves1 said:

Yes that's for long overnight burns

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That makes sense by not getting it started burning full too early. But i have noticed that the unit shuts down well when its full. I sure love the way the catalyst glows when the bypass damper is shoved in.

About how long does it take to hit 600? And can someone post a pic of their temp guage? I'muessing its time for me to get one

marty22877 said:

About how long does it take to hit 600? And can someone post a pic of their temp guage? I'muessing its time for me to get one

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It takes about 10-15 min. I maybe getting good burn times but I have no idea how to post a picture, you can go to page 30 of owners manual it's there.

I got only 9 1/2 hours and the fan turned off but there was still lots of hot coals, Rocco I have an old Italian lira I'll send you If you can give me some tips to get me to that 12+ hours. Sounds like I would have to send more money to woodstove guy but if you could get me to 16 hours I may consider it.

Hmmm..My techniques are much like others here. Depending on my wood size I load both north/south and east/west.
Coal bed is never a problem.
Starting up a new fire from them is never a problem.
Problem is lack of heat.
That bed of coals of which we speak, while it will fire up quickly does not produce"heat". My blower is off and while I may not be able to touch the glass with my bare hand, the unit is not heating the room.
Believe me, I've fully wrapped my head around this unit and it's intended goals and performance. I too bought it b/c with three kids under 3 and a wife who doesn't have time to fiddle with a stove I was looking for something that would allow me to tend to it before work and not have to worry until I return.
My draft is too strong. It's clearly the problem. 25' liner and when the stove is going, as it's doing whilst I type this, it sounds like a Lear Jet is idling up. The EPA has made this stove difficult to control with it's mandates. My hope as I have been saying is that when I get this plate installed, my draft will be reduced and I will achieve these times like others have posted.
Make no mistake, I do not need to see flames after 8-10hrs. A coal bed is fine. But I do want to have heat.

Wolves1 said:

I got only 9 1/2 hours and the fan turned off but there was still lots of hot coals, Rocco I have an old Italian lira I'll send you If you can give me some tips to get me to that 12+ hours. Sounds like I would have to send more money to woodstove guy but if you could get me to 16 hours I may consider it.

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I would be happy with that even!
The heat part. You can keep the lira.

Jonny006 said:

I would be happy with that even!
The heat part. You can keep the lira.

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Could it be the fresh air kit if I remember you had the fresh air kit.

Wolves1 said:

Could it be the fresh air kit if I remember you had the fresh air kit.

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No. I don't have a fresh air kit.

Is there any chance air is getting into the stove in some uncontrolled manner? I think I recall from earlier in the thread you said the door seal is good (passes the dollar bill test). I'm not sure where else you could check other than looking for a crack in the firebox or something dramatically wrong like that. But since this is a new unit, I wouldn't expect that sort of failure right out of the gate. 25' is a long chimney, but I doubt it's outside of the range that this stove was designed for.

Have you tried finding the EPA hole(s) and plugging them? I did that on my stove and it made the stove much easier to control.

-Jim

Jonny006 said:

Make no mistake, I do not need to see flames after 8-10hrs. A coal bed is fine. But I do want to have heat.

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What is the cat temp at this time? Cat stoves don't need flames as long as the cat is still active and burning the smoke.

Grisu said:

What is the cat temp at this time? Cat stoves don't need flames as long as the cat is still active and burning the smoke.

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There is no temp reading at the point of just coals. It only reads "cool".
The door was checked and I removed a set of washers to tighten up the seal.
I wish I knew where the friggin EPA holes are. I think this stove could be great if the EPA had not meddled with it. The only area I know of that the air comes in is the center lip just inside the door. I believe that is where the new reducer plate will go.
I will be very happy if after I put this plate in that I can start to see some extended "heat times". No one has chimed in on my query about whether or not their coal bed is producing heat. I bought the stove to heat my house.
Heat.
Follow me?

Jonny006 said:

There is no temp reading at the point of just coals. It only reads "cool".
The door was checked and I removed a set of washers to tighten up the seal.
I wish I knew where the friggin EPA holes are. I think this stove could be great if the EPA had not meddled with it. The only area I know of that the air comes in is the center lip just inside the door. I believe that is where the new reducer plate will go.
I will be very happy if after I put this plate in that I can start to see some extended "heat times". No one has chimed in on my query about whether or not their coal bed is producing heat. I bought the stove to heat my house.
Heat.
Follow me?

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I use the stove as my primary source of heat. I have a 1600 square-foot home, best test was tues night the temp outside dropped to 22. I put about 8 pieces of wood at 9:30pm the next morning at 6:30am the temp about 25 feet from the stove was 69.8 that is on The first floor where the stove is, the second floor was 67. The stove had hot coals the stove temp was 450,the auto fan was running on low and heat was blowing out.

Haven't said much on here for a while but have been following religiously. Last time I checked in I said I was getting roughly a burn time of about 9.5 hours. Not much has really changed. After 9.5 hours there are very minimal coals when I get up in the morning, but once mixed up and leaving the door cracked, they are not hard to get nice and red again. Am able to start it up pretty easily with a pile of kindling after that. I have gotten some pretty good tips off of here though, one being the washers, which nobody ever told me about. I just removed a set last night and can definitely tell a difference with the tightness of the gasket. I never once tried loading logs back to front, only left to right, getting about 5 or 6 of em in there if i can really fit em nice. Will try stacking them different and see how that works out in the AM. As far as putting out heat, I do gotta say it does pretty good. I have an open floor plan with a cathedral ceiling above where the fireplace is with a ceiling fan up there and the first and second floor was 72 deg with it being 22deg outside the other day. I am very interested though to hear how that restricter plate works out and if covering up the EPA holes do much difference. Why are the EPA holes in there anyway, is that part of helping it burn hotter and more efficient or something?

I removed my second set of washers today and then stacked it front to back then left to right and let her rip with an outside temp of high 30s, it went 9 hours and the fan was still running on low with barely any coals left visible. I had to throw some logs on because iwanted to get a nice bed of coals ready for the night, but that second set of washers really made a difference

The EPA does not make any holes in the stove. What it does is setting emission limits for particulates (aka "smoke"). The stove manufacturers came up with different designs in order to meet those limits. One is putting a catalyst in, the other is to inject preheated air in the top of the firebox through those baffle tubes. We also call that here the "secondary" air. That will lead to an ignition of the combustible gases emitted by the wood and will burn them up including the smoke particles. The ensure that the stove cannot be downregulated in a smoldering mess, this secondary air cannot be controlled by the user.

The Regency stove talked about here is actually a "hybrid" with both technologies.

Hi all, my wife and I had the Regency CI2600 installed almost a week ago today. We ran the 6 or so small fires they ask to burn it in, and have since been trying all-day and overnight burns.

Before I get into how we're not seeing the results we expected, let me ask a question about the temps.

We got a thermometer from our dealer to affix to the stove, it's on a magnet. When I placed it on the stove, the needle never moved, so I stuck it on the stove door...the metal frame around the glass. Once I did that the needle shot right up. The temp NEVER reads over 400 though, in fact it shows a "best operation" zone from 300-450, and anything over 500 is in the "danger zone".

I see where some of you are talking about getting this thing up to 500 or 700, and wonder what we're doing wrong...is this thermometer supposed to be placed in a different spot? Our liner is fully inside the chimney, so the only place to stick it is on the door, the stove, or the shielding.

edge-of-the-woods said:

Hi all, my wife and I had the Regency CI2600 installed almost a week ago today. We ran the 6 or so small fires they ask to burn it in, and have since been trying all-day and overnight burns.

Before I get into how we're not seeing the results we expected, let me ask a question about the temps.

We got a thermometer from our dealer to affix to the stove, it's on a magnet. When I placed it on the stove, the needle never moved, so I stuck it on the stove door...the metal frame around the glass. Once I did that the needle shot right up. The temp NEVER reads over 400 though, in fact it shows a "best operation" zone from 300-450, and anything over 500 is in the "danger zone".

I see where some of you are talking about getting this thing up to 500 or 700, and wonder what we're doing wrong...is this thermometer supposed to be placed in a different spot? Our liner is fully inside the chimney, so the only place to stick it is on the door, the stove, or the shielding.


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The thermometer that most of us have has a probe the goes inside the stove. The temps are next to the cat inside they can reach 1000+ easy.The thermometer you have won't be accurate. If you look at the manual I think it's page 34 you will see the correct thermometer you need. To get a good overnight burn you would have to load as much wood in as you can fit with a good bed of hot coals, also when you load not to many gaps put the wood all stacked up next to each other. If done correct you should fit about 7 to 9 pieces of wood. You need to hit temps between 500-700 to activate the cat (don't go by temp on your thermometer) if no thermometer when you see a nice flame take about 10 to 15 min then close the top that activates the cat wait about 30 sec then close the bottom. Don't forget to take one set top and bottom of washers off the lach (one set at a time every couple of days or the door won't close). I hope this helps.

Where did you mount the thermostat on the outside?

edge-of-the-woods said:

Hi all, my wife and I had the Regency CI2600 installed almost a week ago today. We ran the 6 or so small fires they ask to burn it in, and have since been trying all-day and overnight burns.

Before I get into how we're not seeing the results we expected, let me ask a question about the temps.

We got a thermometer from our dealer to affix to the stove, it's on a magnet. When I placed it on the stove, the needle never moved, so I stuck it on the stove door...the metal frame around the glass. Once I did that the needle shot right up. The temp NEVER reads over 400 though, in fact it shows a "best operation" zone from 300-450, and anything over 500 is in the "danger zone".

I see where some of you are talking about getting this thing up to 500 or 700, and wonder what we're doing wrong...is this thermometer supposed to be placed in a different spot? Our liner is fully inside the chimney, so the only place to stick it is on the door, the stove, or the shielding.


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Where did you get your wood? Is it kiln-dried? Otherwise, it does not looked seasoned; no cracks in the ends or any discoloration from the sun. Maybe that's part of the reason your results are unsatisfying.