Regency - HI300 Enamel Less Heat?

[tonyburns]

Hi all and thanks in advance for reading. I have a Regency HI300 installed by a "pro" last December. I've gone through a season with this thing and am now entering my second season. Although I have seasoned hardwood, split and dried myself all sitting below 20% moisture when checking a fresh spout piece this thing is just not heating the way I feel it should (struggle to get our 1300sqft first floor to 70F during a 35F Day). Its installed On external wall in a masonry chimney that has a clay liner and an un insulated stainless steel liner which was installed with the stove.

I've played with everything in terms of air/fan settings. Cutting air early/late, etc. No matter what I do the top of the stove even with the blower on low will barely break 200F. Now some other people seem to be reporting way higher temps than that with this stove. My question is whether or not this is related to the enamel finish on this stove? Does it not radiate as well as raw cast iron?

In terms of the install, he did not install a block off plate, he did however stuff some insulation to block off the old flu opening but I can't say for sure whether it was Roxul or not but I know it wasn't just standard pink insulation. I'm ot a wood stove newbie by any means, have had a family place upstate for decades with primary heat being freestanding wood stoves with everything from cheap Tractor Supply stoves to the new Hearthstone soapstone we have in there now with a catalytic converter but this is my first insert and I'm really not happy with it. I'm used to having to be in a t-shirt with a wood stove roaring but with this I'm still wearing long sleeves in the house and I just don't think that should be the case. This thing is barely doing better than the small quadrafire pellet stove which was here when we bought the house and I'm burning through wood like crazy (last year I used around 3 1/2 cords). I can get secondaries but even when those are firing real nice there's no major difference in room temp and again the surface of the top of my stove will never break 205F

I'm open to any advice in terms of what to check, suggestions or similar experience. Thanks in advance for reading.

 

[turbocruiser]

I'm far from an expert here however I had a much smaller Regency Freestanding Wood Stove (Alterra CS1200) and now a much larger Regency Insert Wood Stove (Regency i3100) but even that little Alterra was able to basically bake my wife and I out of the house when it was running and we are in a pretty cold climate.

One thing to realize with an insert as opposed to something that stands freely is much of the heat the insert produces is "tucked" into the opening that the insert goes into. Therefore it is important that the top of that opening (ie the chimney cap and chase cap) is sealed up so the outside air doesn't leak in and the inside air (or even worse air already heated by the insert) doesn't leak out. Blowers help too for the same reason.

Something to realize when referencing stove top temperatures though is that some stoves are "single-wall" (not really an accurate description) where you are essentially able to put the thermometer on the other side of the fire while other stoves are double-wall or triple-wall in the sense that between the firebox and the area you are able to place the surface thermometer are two or three additional layers of metal.

On my Regency Alterra, there was the firebox, then another envelope around that of steel with about a couple inches of air gap and then on top of that was this thick cast iron "cooktop" piece with another inch or so of air gap. The only place I realistically could put the surface thermometer was on top of the cast iron cooktop and therefore that surface temp would be much less than a surface temp on the first or second layers of steel. Still, when the Regency Alterra was really rolling, the surface temp was reading 350 to 400. Anything over 400 and I was trying to slow the stove down because it basically was just too much heat especially with the blower blowing. 200 to 250 was purrrfect.

Again I am not an expert by any means but I am very familiar with Regency Stoves in specific and they work terrifically well trust me. If yours was installed by a pro I would softly suggest having them examine the issue; I'm not familiar with your exact model of stove but that thing should be super warm and not at all struggle to suffice. I hope this helps, if it generates any other questions please feel free to ask them.

 

[brazilbl]

FWIW, I have a Regency H2100, and my IR gun reads 450 - 550, depending on the usual Caveats. I wonder if looking at an exploded view of the two stoves to see if there is additional factors in your stove having such a low STT.

 

[begreen]

The HI300 is an older Hampton model. It was a very good heater. The HI2450 is the updated, non-cat verion. Is this the new HI500? That is the model where the cat was introduced. When are you engaging the cat by closing the bypass? Whatever the problem is, it's not the enamel.

 

[velvetfoot]

My HI300 puts out a lot of heat.
I have a thermocouple resting on the top of the stove and I have a thermo switch set to go to high when it reaches 700F.
I don't what the heck that 200F reading is, but putting a thermocouple on the stove top has worked out well.
Maybe hire a guy to do an infrared camera study? The winter would be a good time to do this.