HI300 Handle Broke!

We've had the HI300 for a couple weeks. Got the oversized surround installed Friday and everything looks great. Ran it all day Saturday without incident. On Sunday, the wife came home and wanted to start a fire. She was struggling to open the door (the latch is very tight) and snapped the handle right off! Looks like the bolt that attaches the handle broke, and half of the bolt is still inside the latch. Is this a common problem with these units?

The dealer was very responsive and is coming out today to repair it.

Glad to see you have a good dealer. Let us know how the repair goes. I've sold a few HI300s and havent had to replace a handle yet.

Generally you can look at the break area and tell wether it was cracked prior to the failure or if was a clean break all at once.

Hmmm, sorry about that handle. Mine is going on 4 years now and no signs of breaking. I do know you are suppose to take out washers after the first few burns and I wonder if this was the result of the hardness to open and close. The handles are replaceable so it should not be too much of a hassle. Read that manual about taking out the washers to adjust the door latch.

I guess nobody messes with your wife.

Well the dealer came out yesterday afternoon and replaced the whole handle assembly. He said he thought the door was a little tight when they originally installed it, but they were hoping the latch would loosen a little as the gasket got compressed. The new handle opens much easier than the original. I'm happy they were so responsive. Guess I'll have to wait til Fall to get it running again. 70+ degrees today!

I did see that section in the manual about the washers. I'll have to look into that more closely once we get this thing broken in.

And you're correct... no one messes with the wife! Maybe I should give her the chainsaw and splitting axe!

On the other hand, if it's still stinky when fired up, the windows can be opened without getting too chilled.

Wow. Just had the same thing happen to me this week Had an enamel Hi300 with oversized surround with blower put in a couple of weeks ago. We got about 5 fires out of it before the handle broke off in my wife's hand.

I wasn't home when it was installed, but the installer told my wife it would "loosen up" over time. It actually seemed to be doing just the opposite.

They are coming out today or Monday to fix it.

The service manager commented that that have had this happen more than once recently and are contacting Regency to see if they changed anything.

My H200 (same handle I believe) is fine. No issues yet.