Need Help - Anybody else have a Regency I2400?

[Roguedog]

Hi guys,
New member here. Been reading the threads here for years but haven't joined. Anyway, I was hoping I might benefit a little from the collective knowledge base on this forum. First, I have a Regency 2400 insert. No problems there. I'm happy with the stove. However, this year I decided to begin doing my own chimney cleaning and just purchased the necessary equipment. My hopes are to clean the stove from inside the house rather than have to climb up on my steep roof. My problem is that in order to get the brush and the rods up the flue pipe, I need to remove the burn tubes from inside my stove.

Does anybody have any experience removing the secondary burn tubes from a Regency/Hampton stove product?

The owner's manual indicates that there is a notch and that you need to turn the pipes a certain way and then slide them out. However, this simply is not working. I read somewhere else, I believe on this forum, about attaching a vise grip to the tube and using a hammer to to knock the tubes out of there holes. But....I would rather benefit from someone else's experience before I start using a hammer to knock things out! Anyway, I really appreciate any help that you guys might be able to provide.

Thanks and Take Care!

Jeff

 

[Dieselbreath]

Greetings.
I have a I2400 and would have liked to clean from the bottom up also. I recently purchased a Sooteater flexible cleaning system that would have worked fine except for the offset box and J hook that kept me from inserting the sooteater into the liner. However, I found the Sooteater small enough I was able to extend it past the burn tubes without taking them out. So I did a top down cleaning with it and it worked great.
Sorry I can't help you with the removal of the tubes but maybe you won't have to?

 

[KB007]

You can download the manual here: http://www.regency-fire.com/RegencyFireplaces/files/62/628fea4c-bf69-4133-b170-6bc812fccedc.pdf

It does say to use a vicegrip and tap to the side to remove / install the tubes. Be careful not to crush the tube with the vice grip.

 

[onion]

I cleaned mine from the bottom up last spring. By tap they meant whack. I really had to hammer mine pretty good to get it out. I started out very cautiously tapping but frustration got the better of me.

 

[Roguedog]

Thanks for the replies Gentlemen. Now I have an idea going in that I will have to get manly with it!

 

[midwestcoast]

Welcome fellow I-2400 owner. Just had my 2'nd fire of the year lastnight.
I understand the desire to clean from the bottom, believe me, my chimney tops out nearly 30' off the ground :gulp:
I'd just like to suggest you think about whether man-handling the burn tubes like that every year for a cleaning will damage them sooner or later. I did my cleaning on Saturday (windy! :grrr and found that a lot of the build-up was in the chimney cap. That's hard to clean from below. Also it's a lot less mess to clean from the top into a closed stove.
Best of luck

 

[wood spliter]

I have a Hampton which I have yet to clean. I thought we had to take the tubes out to clean the shelf?

 

[burntime]

I clean top down and just end up tipping the two top boards to clear it...

 

[midwestcoast]

By shelf, do you mean the baffle? (2 pieces of firebrick material resting on the burn tubes). I took the baffle out before cleaning so I wouldn't hit & break it with end of the brush. I found one piece of the baffle was already cracked. :shut: Is there another shelf i need to clean?

 

[woodjack]

I cleaned mine from the bottom up last spring. By tap they meant whack. I really had to hammer mine pretty good to get it out. I started out very cautiously tapping but frustration got the better of me.

+1.
I have a Regency wood stove and have cleaned it a few times. Even if you do a top down cleaning I still think you need to remove the tubes and fire brick plates that rest on it to clean the everything you scraped from the chimney.

I firmly set the vice grip on the tubes and whack it with a hammer until the tube slides out. Those tubes are a stronger than you may think.

 

[wood spliter]

By shelf, do you mean the baffle? (2 pieces of firebrick material resting on the burn tubes). I took the baffle out before cleaning so I wouldn't hit & break it with end of the brush. I found one piece of the baffle was already cracked. :shut: Is there another shelf i need to clean?

I'm not sure what I mean by shelf. When they installed the insert they were saying how it was dirty. That was before they put the stove in. It was also mentioned to me in another thread which I will look for today.

 

[midwestcoast]

FYI all, there are instructions for removing the baffle (2 pieces of board resting above the burn tubes) in your manual, or the manual available @ www.regency-fire.com. You don't have to remove the burn tubes to get the baffle out, but it is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. Also explains how the baffle should sit.
I realize the OP will still have to remove the tubes.

 

[DAKSY]

Be careful not to crush the tube with the vice grip.

If you're using a standard pair of visegrips, you won't crush the tubes.
They're a pretty beefy grade of stainless steel, & I don't think any normal human
has the kind of hand strength required to distort that stuff.
The handles on the pliers are way too short to exert the machanical force...

 

[wood spliter]

I down loaded the instructions. But the cleaning was confusing do to the shelf some of the guys were talking about. I'm pretty mechanically inclined so I should be able to figure it out.

 

[Roguedog]

Well, I just got finished cleaning the chimney liner. I was able to remove the baffle tubes and clean from inside the house. I'll probably need to clean the chimney cap at some point but maybe I can do that every other year or so? Anyway, thanks for the replies. I used the vise grip method and the baffle tubes came out fairly easily. It took more than a love tap but I didn't have to use a ton of force and it appears that the baffle tubes are pretty well made and that the steel was not damaged or bent. The whole process only took about a half hour so I feel pretty good about that. Plus I saved about $150 dollars doing it myself. Another bonus is that my burning techniques must be okay because I didn't get a ton of stuff out of the liner. Just some fine black dust type particles. I just wanted to let you guys know about my experience and to say thanks again for your helpful replies.