Hampton HI300 Insert vs...

[burntime]

Hello wood guru's. I have searched hi and low and talked to some local fireplace/insert guys in Wisconsin and never get a straight answer. I am replacing an old Cemi Concept 2 1982 insert with a new Hampton HI300. The Cemi was suposed to be 109k btu, the hampton 75k btu. I know that the hampton is 77% at peak. Any idea if the hampton will do a better job with usable heat being a 6 inch liner vs. the old 13 inch square chimney? Any idea if it would say increase the usable heat by 10%, 20%, or ? I used to burn about 5+ cords a year in the old woodburner...think I will save some wood? I burn 24/7, or at least try to. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Shane]

I'm sorry I don't want to do the math but figure there are around 8000 btu in 1 lb of wood (this will vary greatly species, mc etc.) So at peak efficiency you'll be getting around 6000 btu per lb out of the Hampton. Just a rough guess but your old stove is probably around 50% efficient at best so you'll be getting alot more per pound of wood.

 

[the_guad]

I know that I may be publicly flogged for saying this, but I really believe that most of the modern inserts are quite similar in things like burn times. The variations come when you introduce an automatic damping system like what I think the Pacific Energy EBT is. I, like you, tried to research burn times, max BTU's, peak efficiencies and found out that it was all subjective based on an ideal load of fuel at the correct elevation with ideal draft and perfect relative humidity. In the end we picked the HI300 insert because it looked good in our home and on paper it was comparable to everything but the biggest stove I saw (at the time the Pacific Energy Summit Insert was the biggest I could find). I love our HI300 and it has fulfilled on its promise of heat output. I can heat my whole house and look good in the process.

That said, I'm not even sure how they measure burn times because I can only get about 4+ (4-6) hours out of a full load. I really have to rake around to find a hot coal after 8 hours but the firebox is still warm. I'm trying to measure burn times from the time I get the wood ignited to when it no longer provides heat to the room and I feel the temperature drop. Does anyone know if there is an official burn time test? Are these numbers from the manufacturers just representative of how long a wooden square will burn until there's not an ember left (that would be very misleading).

 

[burntime]

Thank you both of you. My fireplace will be installed this week. Won't be burning until October-ish. What about the heat output comparison. From what I have checked my old unit was at best 50% but could have been as low as 35% efficient. One good indication is when it was cold...like o degrees, I would have to close off the air intake or there would have been a net loss of heat in the house...it just seemed like the heat would not distribute thru the house as well. So would my old stove be say 100k btu at 40% so it put out 40k btu's? Thats my guess that the old rating was input and the new ratings are output??? Any guesses? Also since you have the same stove Quad...how durable is the finish?

 

[Shane]

They usually measure burn time from the beginning of the fire to the last coal. The newer inserts, especially non cats, don't have the burn times that you could get out of the older stoves damped down caking your chim with creosote. Why? Because non-cats burn the wood faster with larger amounts of combustion air simply put the wood is consumed more quickly and more of the heat value is extracted than ever before. A cat will have a slightly longer burn time because the catalyst chemically reacts with the hard to burn hydrocarbons effectively lowering their combustion temperature which allows you a lower consumption rate. Burn times in modern appliances are hindered by the secondary combustion method used in non cats and since the fireboxes are smaller since the new appliances are capable of higher combustion efficiencies.

 

[the_guad]

Ours was installed in January so I can't say how durable it will be. The installers had some problems getting the mantle surround to fit properly because they had pushed the insert too far into the hearth. So long as you don't have the parts rubbing together though you shouldn't have a problem. Make sure you do the break-in fires though.

I find it hard to wrap my mind around this fact since everything else I buy has an absolute quantitative number associated with it, like GHz, GB or DPI for computers... but your fireplace performance can really differ from the lab tests performed so just consider them a benchmark.

If you're having a problem with negative air pressure in your house when the fireplace is going you'll want to search for some threads on that too (there are plenty of them). But I'll save you some time and say that anything that has a fan (A/C, stove hood, bathroom exhaust, etc) can cause that. Don't close off your outside air kit completely because the air will just be drawn in from the outside through other sources, like doors and windows. I read that people use their A/C fans to help circulate the air in the house but I've found that it actually cools rather than circulates hot air...

With one burning season and about 1000 hours of forum time I'm still but a newb when it comes to all this stuff, so one of the senior guys can give you more info.

 

[PaulyV]

Good Morning, newbie here and cant seem to find out how to start a thread..so I will add on here for now. To all the Hampton HI300 owners, how well is the air wash system on this stove? It looks like a great set up with the vent tubes directly above the glass. I omned a Lopi Freedom at my old house and boy did it throw some heat! The air wash was not the greatest though. I plan on purchasing the Hampton this coming week, although I wont be able to have an install by Christmas...ba humbaaag!

 

[burntime]

As long as you are burning seasoned wood it is great. You can always see thru the glass. If it gets some buildup the next time you get it hot it cleans right up. Mine has been going since early October in Wisconsin and I can honestly say I have only wiped it with a wet paper towel maybe 10 times when it was cool. This was just to get a little better view not really necccessary. Enjoy, this has been one of my favorite purchases