I purchased a Hampton HI300 insert with the brown enamel finish last fall. I've been very happy with the unit, but I wasn't getting the burn times I was hoping for. Usually the unit was cold by morning. I knew part of the problem was my wood. The seller said it was "seasoned", but as many people on this site have experienced, it wasn't up to snuff. About half the splits were "juicy", meaning water bubbled out the end grain as they came up to burning temperature in the stove.
So last April I cut my own wood out of the State Forest along the coastal mountain range here in Oregon. A $10 pass gets you up to two cords. Well, $10 plus $120 for new safety gear the wife insisted on, plus $40 in gas, plus $30 for lunch at Dairy Queen for me and the kids, plus a stop at the beef jerky shop, plus miscellaneous chainsaw expenses. Ended up being the most expensive "free" wood ever! But I loved doing it. And the kids won't admit it, but they liked it too.
It's all douglas fir up there, so I was a bit concerned about getting good burn times out of it. On the plus side, the wood I got must have been down for a year or so because it was already dry. I burned some of it immediately after cutting and it was way better than the "seasoned" stuff. Now, after drying all summer it's excellent.
Last night I fired up the Hampton from a cold start at 6:30pm with a moderate load and let it cruise until 10:30pm at which point the glass temperature was reading about 450 and I was looking at a medium size bed of coals. I would have let it go another hour or so, but I needed to get to bed, so I raked the coals forward and loaded 4 large splits and one medium split E-W with the largest split (about 8" diam) in the rear of the firebox. The new load took off right away and I had the air choked back to about a half-inch open within about 15 minutes. That's the most I've ever choked it down, for fear of creosote, but after watching it burn so nice I am confident that with the strong draft of my chimney, plus quality dry wood it's fine. The glass temp. peaked somewhere around 700-800F (I wasn't watching it too close) which is pretty normal for a full load on a hot bed in my unit. When I went to bed around midnight the glass temp. had settled in around 700, maybe a little hotter and was on a slow decline. I had a low level of bluish wispy flames like aurora borealis wafting through the firebox. It looked great.
Woke up this morning at 6:30am to find the automatic blower still on, glass temperature around 250F, and not a lot, but enough coals that I just tossed on 4 more medium splits and with 15 minutes it was back up and running just fine! Success! An 8 hour burn on douglas fir!
Here is my recipe for the all-night burn.
1. Use dry wood.
2. Use large splits.
3. Shut the air way down. Looks like I can get away with shutting it almost completely off with my new dry wood.
4. Rake the coals forward and set the splits E-W with the largest in the rear of the firebox.
I know there's nothing new there, just a confirmation that the advice all the old-timers on this site give really works. I thought fellow Hampton HI300 owners who are learning to run their stove might like to know that the 8 hour burn time claimed in the HI300 specs really is achievable. Heck, if had oak to work with I think I could have made it to 10 hours! That'll be my next project.
-Jim
So last April I cut my own wood out of the State Forest along the coastal mountain range here in Oregon. A $10 pass gets you up to two cords. Well, $10 plus $120 for new safety gear the wife insisted on, plus $40 in gas, plus $30 for lunch at Dairy Queen for me and the kids, plus a stop at the beef jerky shop, plus miscellaneous chainsaw expenses. Ended up being the most expensive "free" wood ever! But I loved doing it. And the kids won't admit it, but they liked it too.
It's all douglas fir up there, so I was a bit concerned about getting good burn times out of it. On the plus side, the wood I got must have been down for a year or so because it was already dry. I burned some of it immediately after cutting and it was way better than the "seasoned" stuff. Now, after drying all summer it's excellent.
Last night I fired up the Hampton from a cold start at 6:30pm with a moderate load and let it cruise until 10:30pm at which point the glass temperature was reading about 450 and I was looking at a medium size bed of coals. I would have let it go another hour or so, but I needed to get to bed, so I raked the coals forward and loaded 4 large splits and one medium split E-W with the largest split (about 8" diam) in the rear of the firebox. The new load took off right away and I had the air choked back to about a half-inch open within about 15 minutes. That's the most I've ever choked it down, for fear of creosote, but after watching it burn so nice I am confident that with the strong draft of my chimney, plus quality dry wood it's fine. The glass temp. peaked somewhere around 700-800F (I wasn't watching it too close) which is pretty normal for a full load on a hot bed in my unit. When I went to bed around midnight the glass temp. had settled in around 700, maybe a little hotter and was on a slow decline. I had a low level of bluish wispy flames like aurora borealis wafting through the firebox. It looked great.
Woke up this morning at 6:30am to find the automatic blower still on, glass temperature around 250F, and not a lot, but enough coals that I just tossed on 4 more medium splits and with 15 minutes it was back up and running just fine! Success! An 8 hour burn on douglas fir!
Here is my recipe for the all-night burn.
1. Use dry wood.
2. Use large splits.
3. Shut the air way down. Looks like I can get away with shutting it almost completely off with my new dry wood.
4. Rake the coals forward and set the splits E-W with the largest in the rear of the firebox.
I know there's nothing new there, just a confirmation that the advice all the old-timers on this site give really works. I thought fellow Hampton HI300 owners who are learning to run their stove might like to know that the 8 hour burn time claimed in the HI300 specs really is achievable. Heck, if had oak to work with I think I could have made it to 10 hours! That'll be my next project.
-Jim