Hampton GCI60

[JohnGalt]

Hello,

First off, I want to thank all of you for the help that you have given to me in selecting this pellet stove. Last year, my oil bill topped $4,000 and the house that I live in is set up really well for a stove, it has no doors and large entrances throughout the first floor. I knew that if I was able to find a good stove, I would be able to keep the first floor warm and let oil take care of my second floor. So I set out to get the best one that would lower my bills and keep my family warm.

I poured over many posts in this forum and I can now say that I am a very proud owner of the GCI60. It has been going since Friday and has performed up to my very lofty expectations. I am feeding it Cleanfire Pacific from woodpellets.com and have been getting great heat. As far as the savings go, I will need a few more weeks before that picture comes clear.

I do have two questions for the experts though:
1. Can I run this 24x7 if I clean it thoroughly? I need this to be THE source of heat in the house.
2. My dealer said not to run it under the third heat setting - he said it would damage the stove? I gotta say, on a day above 30 degrees, it's too darned warm - getting to 78 degrees in my house - can I run it on settings 1 or 2 without hurting the stove?

Any feedback is appreciated, I will also try to send a picture soon.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

Hello,

First off, I want to thank all of you for the help that you have given to me in selecting this pellet stove. Last year, my oil bill topped $4,000 and the house that I live in is set up really well for a stove, it has no doors and large entrances throughout the first floor. I knew that if I was able to find a good stove, I would be able to keep the first floor warm and let oil take care of my second floor. So I set out to get the best one that would lower my bills and keep my family warm.

I poured over many posts in this forum and I can now say that I am a very proud owner of the GCI60. It has been going since Friday and has performed up to my very lofty expectations. I am feeding it Cleanfire Pacific from woodpellets.com and have been getting great heat. As far as the savings go, I will need a few more weeks before that picture comes clear.

I do have two questions for the experts though:
1. Can I run this 24x7 if I clean it thoroughly? I need this to be THE source of heat in the house.
2. My dealer said not to run it under the third heat setting - he said it would damage the stove? I gotta say, on a day above 30 degrees, it's too darned warm - getting to 78 degrees in my house - can I run it on settings 1 or 2 without hurting the stove?

Any feedback is appreciated, I will also try to send a picture soon.

Your dealer quite frankly sounds like an idiot. What does your manual say about running on 1 or 2?
A lot of stoves have have a hard time on low because there is not enough fuel to maintain a good fire. And sometimes they may burn a little dirtier on low requiring extra cleaning or perhaps a daily running on a higher setting.

Anyhow, read your manual and go by what it states.

 

[handymanCT]

John I own this exact stove. This stove is the greatest burning stove I have ever come across. You can run it on 1 or any other setting you like without ever having an issue. I have run this stove on setting 1 for 24hrs straight with no issues, does it create more ash then a higher setting sure, does it matter? Hell no this stove will crank along forever and do its job with no complaints. By accident I once forgot to clean the stove for 18 days! Did it complain? Hell no it just kept cranking along doing its job! This stove will run forever!
I'm heating my whole house with it and it is my only source of heat, it pretty much runs 24/7 except when I shut it down to clean it. I have it on a thermostat. When its not too cold out I set it to auto/Off and just let it cycle on and off. When it gets into the teens and colder I'll set it to hi/low and again it runs all day and night with no issues. On average I use setting 3 as the highest, never even needed anything more then that. This stove rocks!
Ohh usually burn Hamers all season unless I can get a good deal on some oaks or turman's

ENJOY!

 

[Cleetussnow]

I have the same stove going into my second winter.

I run 24 7, and clean it 1 time per week. Brush its teeth pretty good, but i dont get into the baffles etc for every few weeks.

I have this on a thermostat, which i keep at 75 at night, and like 70 during the day. The setting i use is 3 or 4 depending on how cold. Then i have the stove on hi low. Seems to be cleaner and runs the igniter less. The thermostadt is on a 2 degree swing and that seems optimal. Doing it this way means i dont run it on 2 or 1 setting. Just when the thermo asks for heat, the flame jumps from a maintenance level to one that throws out the heat.

After playing around for a winter with it, i arrived at the above and that is the program i am on right now with no need to deviate. The only button i touch on the stove is between 3 and 4 setting. Thermo is key!

Awesome stove and the family loves it.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I have the same stove going into my second winter.

I run 24 7, and clean it 1 time per week. Brush its teeth pretty good, but i dont get into the baffles etc for every few weeks.

I have this on a thermostat, which i keep at 75 at night, and like 70 during the day. The setting i use is 3 or 4 depending on how cold. Then i have the stove on hi low. Seems to be cleaner and runs the igniter less. The thermostadt is on a 2 degree swing and that seems optimal. Doing it this way means i dont run it on 2 or 1 setting. Just when the thermo asks for heat, the flame jumps from a maintenance level to one that throws out the heat.

After playing around for a winter with it, i arrived at the above and that is the program i am on right now with no need to deviate. The only button i touch on the stove is between 3 and 4 setting. Thermo is key!

Awesome stove and the family loves it.

Hi/lo usually means whatever setting over 1 and 1. So when your thermostat is not calling for heat it is running on 1. Is this not the case with this stove?

 

[handymanCT]

correct hi low means your high setting kicks on when the thermo calls for heat, when its no longer calling for heat the stove by default drops back to setting 1

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

correct hi low means your high setting kicks on when the thermo calls for heat, when its no longer calling for heat the stove by default drops back to setting 1

Thanks for clarifying...this is what I thought. When the previous poster said the thermostat helps him avoid setting 2 or 1it was a mistake. They are probably running on 1 more times than not.

 

[JohnGalt]

Thank you all so much, this is the info that I needed that isn't mentioned in the manual, but is acquired via experience! Thank you for sharing your insights with me! Having it for a week, I am getting to know it much better and it is succeeding in what I bought it for - heating my lower level of the house - the awesome thing is that it also heats my upstairs pretty well I absolutely love this purchase and wish that I had made it a few years ago. I will also say that I was very impressed with woodpellets.com - they shoe-horned 3 tons of pellets into a very tight garage space in less than ten minutes. I hope that the picture of the stove comes through - and thank you all again!