Hampton HI300 Owners Operation Tips

[sticksnstones]

Hello, we just installed Hampton HI300. 6" double wall, 30' liner top to bottom with well-sealed blocking plate. I am old Vermont Castings Vigilant stove user who quickly discovered this is a much different type of stove to run and I would like anyone's input who has experience setting up long slow burns.

Specifically, I was running the stove for about 5 hours nice an easy, one log at a time last weekend and it was doing very well. I was really impressed so I decided to load it up with my well seasoned oak and see if she would go through the night. About 30 min later, I couldnt seem to control the fire and it was getting excessively hot. Even with the damper rod open 1/2" and the fan on low (as manual instructs) the secondary tubes were glowing red and it all seemed to be worsening. Disregarding the manuals instruction to make sure the damper was open at least a smidge with the fan on, I shut the damper but It didn't seem that the damper was fully choked even with the rod fully pushed in. Fortunately I've read enough on this forum about the cooling effects of opening the door (slowly) so I did that and slowly began to tame the burning beast. I really dont want that to happen again so I have a few questions; does anyone know how close the logs can/should be allowed to get to the secondary tubes (did I put them up too close? Is there such a thing?)? Although the stove says it can take 18" logs, I am getting the sense I should've been using smaller pieces. Thoughts/observations on that? Is anyone finding that loading logs left to right or front to back is working better? I've read the manual portion about the recommendation of leaving a "trench" down the middle in the embers so the air can move to the back. Anyone know about any negative effects of not doing that? II'm wondering if when I loaded I blocked that path and that's what caused the overfire. Any experienced input on the stoves successful operation is appreciated.

 

[Grisu]

Specifically, I was running the stove for about 5 hours nice an easy, one log at a time last weekend and it was doing very well.

That is a rather inefficient and time-consuming way to run the stove. Try loading it up full, adjust the air, let the wood burn down to coals, rinse, repeat. That way you will have burn cycles of 6 to 10 hours depending on how much heat is desired and you will lose less heat up the flue.

I was really impressed so I decided to load it up with my well seasoned oak and see if she would go through the night. About 30 min later, I couldnt seem to control the fire and it was getting excessively hot. Even with the damper rod open 1/2" and the fan on low (as manual instructs) the secondary tubes were glowing red and it all seemed to be worsening. Disregarding the manuals instruction to make sure the damper was open at least a smidge with the fan on, I shut the damper but It didn't seem that the damper was fully choked even with the rod fully pushed in.

Don't stick too close to the manual; you have a pretty tall flue and dry wood. I am pretty sure you can close the air fully and still have a clean and hot burn. To get more control of the fire in a warm stove with coals try the following:
Rake most/all the coals forward towards the door, drop ~2 splits E-W behind the coals (wearing welding gloves!) creating a level surface with the coals, load more splits on top of the wood/coals until it almost hits the baffle. The tighter you can pack it the more control you should get and the longer your burn times will be. With the door slightly ajar I wait until the wood has caught fire, then close door. Let the fire establish, then start closing the air about a quarter every 5 min (your stove may differ). After every adjustment the flames should be slow moving ("lazy") but when you wait a few minutes they should get vigorous again. If they don't recover just open up the air a bit and wait for the fire to establish itself again. After 15 to 20 min air is fully closed, secondaries are blasting, stove will climb to 650 to 700 F over the next 30 min. I won't touch the stove for at least 6 hours; it will still be putting out heat and have hot coals after 10 hours. Plus, coals will be manageable as the old ones burn down with every reload.

I recommend an IR thermometer to get an idea how hot you run the insert. Was the top glowing in any way when you had that strong fire? I am wondering whether you were really overfiring the stove or you just got a good burn. If the changes in operation won't help in getting more control you may need to look into restricting the secondary airflow. Given your tall flue you could suffer from overdrafts.

 

[velvetfoot]

That is a rather inefficient and time-consuming way to run the stove. Try loading it up full, adjust the air, let the wood burn down to coals, rinse, repeat. That way you will have burn cycles of 6 to 10 hours depending on how much heat is desired and you will lose less heat up the flue.

ditto

ditto on just about all that above.

The place you don't want to glow it the top, which you can see through the slot where the heated air comes out.
If I feel things are getting too warm I turn the fan on high and close the air rod, and that was once.
I think when all the wood is charred and the air is slowly turned down so the flames don't go out, I wind up with about 1/4" out. But you have to see how things work for you.
I do the full load as above, rather than a piece at a time too. Never have problems.

 

[sticksnstones]

ditto

ditto on just about all that above.

The place you don't want to glow it the top, which you can see through the slot where the heated air comes out.
If I feel things are getting too warm I turn the fan on high and close the air rod, and that was once.
I think when all the wood is charred and the air is slowly turned down so the flames don't go out, I wind up with about 1/4" out. But you have to see how things work for you.
I do the full load as above, rather than a piece at a time too. Never have problems.

Thanks for the replies so far, In answer to the question about what was glowing; I really only saw the tubes glowing red. I did not notice any other parts of the body glowing, but there were some pretty strong tinking sounds which was what initially prompted me to see what was going on at the stove.

 

[sticksnstones]

That is a rather inefficient and time-consuming way to run the stove. Try loading it up full, adjust the air, let the wood burn down to coals, rinse, repeat. That way you will have burn cycles of 6 to 10 hours depending on how much heat is desired and you will lose less heat up the flue.


Don't stick too close to the manual; you have a pretty tall flue and dry wood. I am pretty sure you can close the air fully and still have a clean and hot burn. To get more control of the fire in a warm stove with coals try the following:
Rake most/all the coals forward towards the door, drop ~2 splits E-W behind the coals (wearing welding gloves!) creating a level surface with the coals, load more splits on top of the wood/coals until it almost hits the baffle. The tighter you can pack it the more control you should get and the longer your burn times will be. With the door slightly ajar I wait until the wood has caught fire, then close door. Let the fire establish, then start closing the air about a quarter every 5 min (your stove may differ). After every adjustment the flames should be slow moving ("lazy") but when you wait a few minutes they should get vigorous again. If they don't recover just open up the air a bit and wait for the fire to establish itself again. After 15 to 20 min air is fully closed, secondaries are blasting, stove will climb to 650 to 700 F over the next 30 min. I won't touch the stove for at least 6 hours; it will still be putting out heat and have hot coals after 10 hours. Plus, coals will be manageable as the old ones burn down with every reload.

I recommend an IR thermometer to get an idea how hot you run the insert. Was the top glowing in any way when you had that strong fire? I am wondering whether you were really overfiring the stove or you just got a good burn. If the changes in operation won't help in getting more control you may need to look into restricting the secondary airflow. Given your tall flue you could suffer from overdrafts.

Yes I really want to invest in the proper thermometer. I haven't bought one yet because I'm a bit confused as to exactly the right application for this unit. Can you suggest an exact make & model IR thermometer ? I have no trouble sitting it right on the top shelf if necessary.

 

[cableman]

Good info! Im new to this stove also. So far ive had small fires and use my harbor freight ir gun to aim at the flue through the top vent, seems to work well. I may leave a magnetic stove top one just inside those vents, not sure if ill be able to read it though...

 

[Huntindog1]

These stoves work best from full load cycles on coals but not too many coals just enough for relight.

When you kept loading one split at a time you primed your stove for this situation as you kept the stove and flue hot and kept lots of coals in the stove.

I imagine you loaded a really hot stove with lots of coals with high btu fuel that was most likely good and dry.

Then you should have shut it down quickly to compensate for the hot load with lots of coals.

Then you have a 30ft liner that was already good and warm and a 30 foot liner draws really strong but inserts dont have where you can install a damper to compensate for the really tall flue.

So make sure you load on a small amount of coals which means timing your loads in cycles and loading up the stove to last the amount of time needed like say right before bed so you only have the right amount of coals and the stove has cooled down some as your towards the end of the previous cycle which was loaded when you got home from work. So now your ready for the over night load on a reasonably cool stove with just enough coals for relight. But you can use kindling if the coals are not enough for relight and a firestarter like a super cedar.

Just dont reload a full load of oak on a really hot stove and big bed of hot coals.

Good Luck you will learn , we all did.

 

[SeñorFuego]

Sticksnstones,

Great timing in starting this thread as I had a lot of similar questions. Thanks!
I fired up the new HI300 3 hours ago and I'm already in heaven with doors and windows open and IR gun in hand. I already recognize the benefit of a larger firebox and just the efficiency in general compared to a regular fireplace, but have a long way to go to master the craft.
Enjoy!

First 5 minutes of first fire....the metallic smell now smells like VICTORY!

 

[velvetfoot]

I love mine!

 

[SeñorFuego]

I love mine!

Velvetfoot,

Your previous posts and feedback in other threads about the HI300 were definitely a factor in my decision.

I feel like Dr. Jones.

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[jophysx]

This is the IR thermometer I have. It works fine. There are cheaper units available that probably work fine too.
Kintrex IRT0421 Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer with Laser Targeting
-Jim

 

[jophysx]

A few more comments about running this stove. My experience has been that it likes to run on the hot side. Secondary burn tubes glowing red is normal, and nothing to be concerned about. The thing you absolutely don't want to see is the firebox glowing red. To see that you have to look in that small gap between the false top and the insert body (where the air comes out when the fan is on). You don't want to see anything glowing in there.

I measure the temperature of the glass to calibrate my burning habits, because it is an easy, repeatable place to measure. In my opinion, it's ok to run this stove up to a glass temperature of about 720F. Anything more and I start to get nervous, although I have had it hotter. At that high of a temperature, the secondary burn tubes will be cherry red.

I prefer to cruise at 500-650, depending on how much heat output is needed. I have had no problems packing the firebox full, right up to the secondary air tubes. You can get into a runaway situation if you reload a bunch of new wood on top of an already hot coal bed. My experience is that you should wait until the temperature on the glass is below 400F before reloading if you are going to pack it full. If you are just going to add a couple of splits, you can do that safely at 500F or below.

Here is an old post with some more information https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...auxiliary-air-experience.136469/#post-1831547

-Jim

 

[jophysx]

One more post you might find useful
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...-night-burn-hampton-hi-300.72960/#post-930092

You'll notice in that old thread I was saying 700-800F is a good cruising temperature. That was before I installed Roxul insulation and block-off "plate". Now I can sustain a very nice burn with lots of secondaries at a lower temperature, 500-650F.
-Jim

 

[velvetfoot]

I personally am not sure what aiming the IR thermometer at the glass measures. I'm not sure it's the glass. Maybe something in the firebox? Heck, if I aim that thing at a shiny object, like the galvanized stovepipe of the oil boiler, I get a very low, bad, reading. For a copper pipe, I'd put a piece of black electrical tape or paint or something. Flat black is best, in my opinion.

 

[cableman]

I aim it at the flue inbetween where the air blows out, seems to be the most accurate for my hi300

 

[jophysx]

It's not really that important what the or thermometer measures when you point it at the glass as long as it is reproducible (fire it fire), and highly correlated to the firebox temperature. I have checked it vs. the Rutland thermometer (bimetallic coil) that I have mounted directly on the firebox. The readings always correlate with decent accuracy given the known poor accuracy of the rutlands.

At the wavelengths used by an or thermometer, glass is opaque. If the glass was transparent to the IR, you would be getting temps of >1000F. So you are getting the temperature of the glass, not the fire inside. The only issue is the emissivity of the glass surface. I don't know what glass is like in terms of emissivity, but this is usually a small correction. And again, the key issue is not accuracy. It's how well the reading correlates to what is going on inside the firebox.

Jim

 

[velvetfoot]

Ok, I'll give it a whirl.

 

[Grisu]

The only issue is the emissivity of the glass surface. I don't know what glass is like in terms of emissivity, but this is usually a small correction. And again, the key issue is not accuracy. It's how well the reading correlates to what is going on inside the firebox.

Emissivity can vary a lot with the type of glass and I have not seen the special ceramic glass of stoves listed somewhere. It is possible that it gets close enough to 1 to work. Nevertheless, I see two problems: You will get some IR radiation from the fire itself that will go into your detector. I doubt that will give you any consistent reading between burns. Plus, the air wash that keeps your glass clean will also cool it down and therefore give you a lower reading than what you should get at other parts of the stove/insert. Maybe in your case both effects pretty much cancel out but I would be cautious to suggest that approach to all users.

Since a stove is usually black with an emissivity of approx. 1 and a great heat conductor like steel or cast iron it makes much more sense to use a reference point on the stove body to measure the overall temp of the stove itself. That should give much more consistent and reliable readings.

 

[velvetfoot]

I aim it at the flue inbetween where the air blows out, seems to be the most accurate for my hi300

That's what I used to do until I figured out that all that was unnecessary.

 

[cableman]

That's what I used to do until I figured out that all that was unnecessary.

Im new to burning it myself! Guess it just makes me feel better seeing the highest reading.
Definitely wants to take off more then my shelburne did, i dont mind it though just need the wife on board!