Hi all…I’ve been lurking on the forum for the past month, and finally have some questions. I just purchased and had installed a Hampton HI300 insert. I did a couple of small break in fires and started burning for real yesterday. After day one I have several questions. This is probably going to be a lengthy post so I apologize in advance.
My questions are relative to damper controls, how to burn the stove, optimal stove temps, and fan speed. Let me describe what I did. With the damper wide open I started a small fire with kindling, got that going, added a few small splits, got the fire going a little bit more, and then I loaded it up stuffed with splits and got it roaring. Currently I only have an IR gun. This is where I am a little confused. With the fire roaring and using the IR gun shooting through the air outlet openings I was getting temps varying from 350 to 700 depending upon where I aimed it on the firebox. If I aimed it maybe a few inches in I will get temps around 350 to 400 whereas if I shoot it farther back I will get 500 or so. If I shoot where the flue pipe connects to the insert I will get as high as 650 to 700. I also shot inside the firebox through the glass and was getting temps of about 800 to 850 and if I shoot the top of the shelf just below the Hampton flame logo I will get right around 300. At this point not wanting to over temp the stove I would dial down the damper in steps over the course of maybe 3 to 5 minutes. I dial it all the way down to ½†from fully closed (the most the manual tells you to close it with the fan on). I should also point out that the fan is on auto high at this point. Once I turn the damper down I believe I get secondaries (I see flames shooting out of the air tubes on top) and the insert puts out great heat, but the issue is my flames only last for an hour to an hour and a half max before I’m left with coals. Once I get down to coals the stove temp seems to drop quite a bit. Being a noob I would reload with splits at this point and start the cycle again but after a few reloads I quickly had a stove full of coals and no place for any more wood.
To give some more data points my house is 2900 sq ft. 500 of which is a finished bonus room above the garage. I have that door closed and I put a weather strip under the door. I’ve also closed the doors to my 2 other bedrooms upstairs since they aren’t in use right now either. The house has a very open floor plan and it does have 9 ft ceilings. When I started the stove it was 61 downstairs and I got it up to a high of 69, but that quickly fell off once the stove was full of coals and I had to wait for them to burn down so I could reload the wood.
Sorry for the lengthy post. Any help or advice you can give me on how to run this thing would be great! Also, do you find it better to run the stove with the fan on High or Low. I would think High puts out more heat into the house, but from a few posts I’ve seen it looks like some people have better luck on low?
Thanks in advance
My questions are relative to damper controls, how to burn the stove, optimal stove temps, and fan speed. Let me describe what I did. With the damper wide open I started a small fire with kindling, got that going, added a few small splits, got the fire going a little bit more, and then I loaded it up stuffed with splits and got it roaring. Currently I only have an IR gun. This is where I am a little confused. With the fire roaring and using the IR gun shooting through the air outlet openings I was getting temps varying from 350 to 700 depending upon where I aimed it on the firebox. If I aimed it maybe a few inches in I will get temps around 350 to 400 whereas if I shoot it farther back I will get 500 or so. If I shoot where the flue pipe connects to the insert I will get as high as 650 to 700. I also shot inside the firebox through the glass and was getting temps of about 800 to 850 and if I shoot the top of the shelf just below the Hampton flame logo I will get right around 300. At this point not wanting to over temp the stove I would dial down the damper in steps over the course of maybe 3 to 5 minutes. I dial it all the way down to ½†from fully closed (the most the manual tells you to close it with the fan on). I should also point out that the fan is on auto high at this point. Once I turn the damper down I believe I get secondaries (I see flames shooting out of the air tubes on top) and the insert puts out great heat, but the issue is my flames only last for an hour to an hour and a half max before I’m left with coals. Once I get down to coals the stove temp seems to drop quite a bit. Being a noob I would reload with splits at this point and start the cycle again but after a few reloads I quickly had a stove full of coals and no place for any more wood.
To give some more data points my house is 2900 sq ft. 500 of which is a finished bonus room above the garage. I have that door closed and I put a weather strip under the door. I’ve also closed the doors to my 2 other bedrooms upstairs since they aren’t in use right now either. The house has a very open floor plan and it does have 9 ft ceilings. When I started the stove it was 61 downstairs and I got it up to a high of 69, but that quickly fell off once the stove was full of coals and I had to wait for them to burn down so I could reload the wood.
Sorry for the lengthy post. Any help or advice you can give me on how to run this thing would be great! Also, do you find it better to run the stove with the fan on High or Low. I would think High puts out more heat into the house, but from a few posts I’ve seen it looks like some people have better luck on low?
Thanks in advance
