About a month ago I walked into a fireplace store hoping to find a new set of inexpensive doors for my fireplace. A day later I walked out of that same store the proud owner of a $4000 (fully installed price) Hampton HI300 (Oversized) insert. I had never seen Hearth.com before, but I spent the 24 hours between first seeing the unit and purchasing it researching many of the posts in this particular forum. Thanks all for a lot of valuable advice. (I'm still amazed that there's a whole room dedicated just to firewood.) I just wanted to relay a couple of my installation particulars for any other newbs looking for comfort from a fellow newb.
The installation was pretty bad. The two guys who did it were nice enough, but they couldn't adjust the unit correctly (the HI300 oversized takes a bit of work to get right), and also missed a lot of details I would have preferred. They didn't put in a block off plate (they stuffed the damper with insulation), and didn't put any kind of block off plate at the top of the chimney. Again, just more insulation stuffed between the vent pipe and the flue. They also didn't fully connect the insert pipe to the unit itself. It was connected using the flue connector, but was kind of hanging there; the pipe wasn't fully inserted in the insert collar.
The dealer said he would send the manufacturers rep out... but....being a perfectionist, I decided to fix it myself. I pulled the unit out, took the panels apart, and basically put it back together correctly (lots of trial and error and looking at the manual.) I also fixed the flue connector. Lots of wrestling with the pipe, but it eventually got in there, and a couple of sheet metal screws and some tape should keep it there. I decided to forgo the block off plate. In a perfect world it would be there, but the chimney is internal (no external wall), and I'll put some sort of block off on the top of the chimney once I can on the roof without freezing my tail off.
Now for the good part..... in spite of no block off plate, WOW does this thing put off some heat! In spite of using half-seasoned wood (yeah yeah, i know, but its all i've got), my wife is already complaining that its too hot in the family room. I haven't even fully loaded it yet. Still taking it slow for the first couple of fires. I've also noticed its much more efficient, and the logs last a lot longer. And, it really does look fantastic.
There's my tale. Thanks to all for educating someone who was totally ignorant when it came to fireplace inserts. I still just know enough to be dangerous, but I'll keep coming back to Hearth.com as I figure out how to get maximum performance out of this thing.
The installation was pretty bad. The two guys who did it were nice enough, but they couldn't adjust the unit correctly (the HI300 oversized takes a bit of work to get right), and also missed a lot of details I would have preferred. They didn't put in a block off plate (they stuffed the damper with insulation), and didn't put any kind of block off plate at the top of the chimney. Again, just more insulation stuffed between the vent pipe and the flue. They also didn't fully connect the insert pipe to the unit itself. It was connected using the flue connector, but was kind of hanging there; the pipe wasn't fully inserted in the insert collar.
The dealer said he would send the manufacturers rep out... but....being a perfectionist, I decided to fix it myself. I pulled the unit out, took the panels apart, and basically put it back together correctly (lots of trial and error and looking at the manual.) I also fixed the flue connector. Lots of wrestling with the pipe, but it eventually got in there, and a couple of sheet metal screws and some tape should keep it there. I decided to forgo the block off plate. In a perfect world it would be there, but the chimney is internal (no external wall), and I'll put some sort of block off on the top of the chimney once I can on the roof without freezing my tail off.
Now for the good part..... in spite of no block off plate, WOW does this thing put off some heat! In spite of using half-seasoned wood (yeah yeah, i know, but its all i've got), my wife is already complaining that its too hot in the family room. I haven't even fully loaded it yet. Still taking it slow for the first couple of fires. I've also noticed its much more efficient, and the logs last a lot longer. And, it really does look fantastic.
There's my tale. Thanks to all for educating someone who was totally ignorant when it came to fireplace inserts. I still just know enough to be dangerous, but I'll keep coming back to Hearth.com as I figure out how to get maximum performance out of this thing.
!!
