Hampton HI300 help

[USMC80]

Had her installed in June so this is my first season with it. Did the recommended break in fires but am still getting some smell even after 5 fires. I've gotten it pretty hot, enough of a load to burn for 4 hours at least. Not sure what temp I've gotten but great secondaries rolling and able to shut her down completely with secondaries going for hours. Is this normal? Do I have to run her harder to get rid of the smell?

 

[begreen]

The paint bakes in when the stove gets over 500F. But different parts of the body are going to take longer to get up to that temp. It takes a longer burn to heat up the lower parts of the insert. I'd give it a couple more tries. With each normal fire the smell should get less. Once you are burning 24/7 is should go away completely.

 

[USMC80]

thank you, glad to hear that. I'll get her going tonight and try out my new thermometer. I just want her to be able to enjoy the fire without her having to leave the room from the smell

 

[begreen]

For now keep a nearby window cracked open, maybe with a little fan going to exhaust the smell. Pretty soon you will be burning longer hotter fires and this should be just a memory.

 

[USMC80]

Well gotta her up to 600 f last night for a good couple of hours and she can put out some heat! A lot of radiant heat, much more than I was expecting. At about 500 it started smelling again and smelled throughout the night. I was expecting that. Was able to wake up in the middle of the night and shut the windows because the smell was gone. Hoping I can run a small fire for us tonight without a problem now.

4 small splits of punky wood in at 2200 last night and woke up (0600) to a big bed of coals still pushing out very good heat, fan still going. Talked to old lady and she said it was still kicking out heat at 0700. Loving this thing!

 

[begreen]

 

[velvetfoot]

Hi fellow HI300 owner! I had some oak in there yesterday morning - lasted all day. Of course it's not cold out, but still... As long as you don't see red glowing through the air outlet. It happened to me once. You are using the fan, right?

 

[USMC80]

ya keep the fan on auto low, thinking about putting a rheostat in to make it lower if possible

 

[velvetfoot]

I'd like something in between low and high. The low is quiet enough for me, and I like the idea of a certain amount of air carrying away the heat, but high is loud. Necessary in the winter, but loud.

 

[USMC80]

how much are you heating? I have a feeling I will never need the high setting, only heating 1000 sq ft upstairs

 

[velvetfoot]

2000 ft2, with a little help from some electric heaters. If you got the insert good and hot though, I'd think about cranking up the fan to remove some heat.

 

[Sprinter]

A lot of radiant heat, much more than I was expecting.

As you've probably discovered, the blower will trade some of the radiant heat for convective heating of the air. The intensity of the radiant heat is a 4th power exponential function of the surface temperature, so it doesn't take much cooling of stove's surface to cut down on the radiant heat.

 

[velvetfoot]

Plus, it's an insert.

 

[Sprinter]

Plus, it's an insert.

Okay, missed that... Not much choice there.

 

[USMC80]

small fire last night, maybe 400 degrees and no smell! Wife was happy.

 

[lsirois]

The HI300 does smell...for a little while anyways... The fires get hotter and it becomes more "seasoned". I guess all the humidity gets flushed out of the stove? I'm on my second Hampton now (first one's firebox cracked) and this one just stopped stinking up the house.