Looking to replace Hampton H300 with a larger stove

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TheRambler

Feeling the Heat
Jul 29, 2014
478
CT
Howdy all, want to start by saying that this is an awesome forum that I have found invaluable over the past few months.

I just purchased a new home this past early spring and it has a Hampton H300 in the main floor living room. I have burned maybe 1/2 cord through it since we first moved in, and have found that it operates superbly but is lacking a bit in the heating the house side of the equation. So thus I am considering replacing it with a larger stove. I posted background info and more detailed information below for those that wish to read it.

My question/criteria is:
I am looking for a larger stove. I want to be able to heat the main floor of my house, and the bedroom level solely with wood stove heat. I want to be able to heat the main floor fairly quickly (within reason, say 2-3 hours) after coming home from work after 12 hours. I would like to have a stove that will put out adequate heat for at least 8-10 hours, and have enough coals left for an easy restart after 12-14hrs. The wife really likes the look of the H300, and wants a stove that is comprable in appearances. She really likes the look of the Progress Hybrid. I did some basic research of this stove and am leaning in this direction currently. It is rated on the epa charts of putting out i think it was 76kbtu/hr max(compared to my h300 25k btu/hr). and also rated as 14+hr burn time adequate for they say eaily 2200sqft.

I am leaning towards the PH because i like the high heat output and think this will be nice to quickly heat up the house after us both returning after a long 12-14 hour period away from home where the house has cooled off a bit. The H300 has a 1.7cuft firebox and i think the PH is 2.8, so a bit bigger. I am by no means looking for a miracle, but would like to have a stove that can heat my house rather quickly when needed, and also maintain a nice burn for at least 8 hours, and maintain a good coal bed for a restart for at least 12-14hrs. I would be expecting the PH to heat somewhere near its advertised BTU, be able to put out that amount of heat for at least 3-4 hours, put out adequate heat for an additional 4-5 hours, and enough coals left for restart for another 3-4ish hours.

I am looking for any input on other stoves to look at, and if anyone has a PH how it works for you, and if you think it would fit my needs or if I am wanting to get too much out of the PH. Thank you very much in advance!

If any other info is needed please let me know.

Background info:
House is 2100sqft, with probably another 800sqft in the basement, which about 600 of it is fully finished and the remainder is a utility room.

House has decent insulation, and good windows. House is not draftly/no known air leaks. House is a custom design built by Frank Loyd Wright, but is best described as a split level. The main floor has a very open floorplan, as does the basement. There are 5 steps going up to the bedroom level off of the living room where the stove is, and a 8 step L shaped stairway going down to the basement. Neither stairway has a door. The main floor has a kitchen , entryway, and dining room on the north side , and a large living/family room on the south side, withe the stairs leading up and down on the west side. Between the kitchen/dining and living room is a massive masonry fireplace that is about 20ft wide with a fireplace in the kitchen, dining room, and the living room. The stove is connected in the living room, to a SS flex liner that is single wall and has roxul insulation around it, chimney is probably 25ft+ and is a good 3ft above the roof peaf. I have no current issues with draft to my knowledge. In the living room, entryway, and stairs going up as well as the bathrooms upstairs there are cathedral style ceilings that around probably 18ft+ tall. I will try to post some pictures later if that would help.

Airflow as is with the stove is good and I can get heat throughout the house to an acceptable level. Not concerned with basement as I have a pellet stove down there, With much effort on the part and the wife and I we can get the main floor to about 72-73 and the upstairs to 68-70. The lowest outside temp we have burned at thus far is around mid to high 20s, and highs in the low 50s to 40s. So typical shoulder season weather here in CT.

I understand the H300 is a rather small stove even though Hampton calls it a large stove. Burning this stove cranked down all the way on the primary air does almost nothing to heat or maintain heat in the house. I have to burn the stove very hot and almost continuously to raise the temp in the house. We started burning this season about three weeks ago off and on on the cool days, and have been burning more frequently over the course of the last week. Over this 3 week period we have probably gone through about a 1/3 of a cord. Wood is a mix of different hardwoods, mostly black cherry, and oak. Measuring anywhere from 17-24%, the average being about 19-20%.

So while I am fairly happy with the stove's performance, it just simply doesnt through out enough heat for us. I am almost certain as real winter weather sets in we will find it unable to keep up with the outside temps. The wife and I both work 12hr shifts typically, so by the time we get home the house has cooled substantially and we have to run the stove full out for quite a while to get the house back up to temp. The stove manufacturer advertises 8 hour burn times, and 45,000 btu, and good to heat 900-2000sqft. I saw on the epa charg though that the max btu was actually tested at about 25k. I am getting what I would call average burn times of 2-4hours on a load running full tilt, and usually have good coals left after 8 hours to fire it back up easily.
 
Do you have a block-off plate in your chimney? That would help a lot as may ceiling fans. How cold is your house when you come back from work? The stove may put out some heat actually but that may go mostly to get everything up to temp again.

The PH would probably do the job and for long burn times the cat will be hard to beat. Other options for a "classic" cast-iron look more similar to the Hampton:
Quadrafire Isle Royale
Hearthstone Manchester
Jotul F600
BlazeKing Ashford 30 (also catalytic)
Pacific Energy Alderlea T6

All stoves in the 3 cu ft firebox category which should give you the heat output and burn times you are looking for.
 
Going up to a 3 cu ft stove from 1.7 should make a notable difference. The Progress Hybrid should be an improvement. I would also consider the Blaze King Ashford 30 based on the criteria mentioned. It will provide exceptional long and low burn times, but has the greater capacity you are looking for.
 
I do not have a block off plate. I do have some cceiling fans, and overall i have even heat distribution in the house.

If i just fill up the h300 and get it choked down it will do a good job maintaining the house temp for a good 5-7 hours. But to get it to raise the house temp i have to feed it a few logs every 2-3 hours and pretty much run it full out with the air about 1/2 open.

The house we try to keep about 70-73, and after a day when we are both away for 12hrs the house will be down to 60-64 depending on the day. It usually takes a good 6-7 hours of running the stove full out the next day to get the temp back up.

Typical scenario is we load it up at 9-10pm, house temp 70,wake up at 530 to just enough coals to fire it back up, house temp 66ish. Fill it up and leave for work about 6, get home anywhere from 3-6pm to a bed of either a fe w coals or none and a house temp of 64ish +/-2 and usually cant get the fire started by coals alone.

On the days someone is home and can feed the stove every 2-3 hours we can usually raise the house temp 1 deg every 2-3 hours as long as we keep the stove fed. Seem to cap out the heat increase at about 73-74, more often 71-72. The stove room is as expected a good 5-7 degrees warmer.
 
Thank you for the different stove suggestions, i will start looking into each of them tonight.
 
A block off plate will help keep more of the heat produced by the stove in the house. The lower it can be installed the better. Insulate with Roxul mineral wool behind the plate.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/why-damper-seal-is-needed/

Another trick that might help even out the heat in the house is to place a fan running at low speed. on the floor in the cooler room next to the stove room and blow the cooler air into the hotter stove room. This works quite well. Give it a test try. In 30 minutes there should be a notable difference with the cooler room warming up and the stove room cooling down.
 
Do I need a block off plate even if the stove is set outside of the fireplace opening. The liner is in the existing fireplace flue, then connects to the rear vent on the stove. The stove is fully outside of the fireplace by about 2 inches or so.

Sorry the pics are sideways, not sure why they are like that
 

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It's not essential, but it will help, particularly with an exterior chimney.
 
Forgive my newbie questions, but is this classified as an exerior chimney since its surrounded on all sides by living space. i.e. its in the middle of the house. except for where it leaves the roof obviously
 
Nope, that's an interior chimney. You're probably ok without a blockoff plate. The masonry will return some of the heat to the house as the stove cools down.
 
What makes you think that the H300 is 1.7 ft3? The insert version, HI300, is 2.3 ft3.
They have a similar model designation but a different firebox. The HI300 is based on the Regency 2400 firebox.
[Hearth.com] Looking to replace Hampton H300 with a larger stove
 
So as we can see from the specs on the manufacturers website the btu rating is 45.5k, why then does this stove on the epa list show only 12-25k btu? I also have a pellet stove that is rated at 50kbtu in the basement which i truely do believe is very close to that, but the h300 i think is much closer to the 25k on the epa chart than the 45 listed on the regency website,
 
Forgive my newbie questions, but is this classified as an exerior chimney since its surrounded on all sides by living space. i.e. its in the middle of the house. except for where it leaves the roof obviously

I would still put a block-off plate in. Right now the warm air rises up the chimney to the top where it hits the cool masonry and top plate. There it cools, circles back down and more warm air rises up. You have a heat exchanger which is transferring heat to the outside. A block-off plate at the roof level would be sufficient to stop that cycle but my guess is that will be hard to install.
 
I will look into the block off plate, a good friend of mine is a machinist/metal worker and could probably make me one for a good price. Should it be made of any specific type of metal and guage?
 
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