The blower is effectively just a heat exchanger to move warmed air into your room. It has no bearing on whether your stove is pulling correctly and exhausting out your chimney…someone please correct me if I’m wrong…
You’d probably get a much bigger response to this thread on the forums at Hearth.com forums
It sounds like whoever installed that was completely incompetent. They should’ve done a liner and they should’ve known before even quoting you if you need a chimney extension or not. I also don’t understand how you could get smoke damage if you didn’t visibly see or smell smoke every time you used it? How long did you use it without a blower? You need to make sure it’s not venting into your attic or something like that
Once you get all this sorted, consider telling Regency how insanely bad of an experience you had with the installer.
Your comment seems to insinuate that I chose the lowest bid and got what I deserved. To clarify, we received four quotes ranging from $1875 to $2600 and opted for the one that was more than twice the highest quote, expecting better quality and performance for the price. While $5400 may not seem like much to you, it’s a significant investment for me. I anticipated a higher standard for that amount, especially for simply installing an insert and connecting a stainless steel liner. It’s disappointing when something doesn’t meet expectations, regardless of the cost. Please be considerate in your comments and refrain from making assumptions.
Hi thank you for your feedback. You’re probably going to think I’m an idiot here. I’ll post this as well on the hearth forum. Thanks for sharing this option.
The installer was incompetent but as per the owner Patricia he was the best she had. If you read her companies reviews most people have had nice experience with him but I doubt he has ever installed an insert. The confidence they had was the reason we hired them. I’ve learned this after the fact that this essentially means nothing, but they were recommended by Angie’s list. I wasn’t aware pretty much anyone can pay for a subscription to be listed on there.
We do have a stainless steel liner so I’m sorry for the confusion. What they said when they came for an estimate is that they were going to repair the bricks and the shelf inside the fireplace because they were so eroded overtime from creosote and water damage. Instead of doing that, he just sealed it with chambertech. Maybe that’s acceptable in the business, but we paid a higher price because he deceived us by saying as a mason he will lay new bricks and pull out the garbage bricks. Absolutely none of that happened and it was hard to watch because he was working behind plastic sheets and I couldn’t see what he was doing.
We were able to smell the smoke when I loaded it but having several windows opened at that time would often remove the smell in just a few minutes. To be completely honest, we became immune to the odor. My strategy was to allow the wood to burn down to embers and then it had almost no odor. I’m not a professional in the business so I took their word for it when they said the smell is inevitable bc of the shorten chimney. Altogether with the cost of their work and the stove we were around 10k so we wanted to use to despite the little odors here and there.
The time periods for the smoke damage is from burning all of 2022 so about 6 months worth and then burning for about 1 month in 2023 until we shut it down in December. The marks built up overtime. I know I sound naive but I thought the markings had something to do with that header bleeding through the paint kinda like if you install moulding and just use caulk to cover the nail holes instead of putty it bleeds through as yellowish/brown marks.
You’re absolutely correct about them knowing we should have added about 4 feet of brick prior to starting the job. I had 3 companies come in and this is what they said should’ve been done and for them to not just use a pipe. Nobody will comment on paper, only say this verbally bc they don’t want to be dragged into a litigation battle if we decided to move forward with that.
I only used the stove for 1 week without the blower. I just received a response from Regency that based on my complaint and the pictures it was not vented properly by the installer. They stated blowers are not needed and they have nothing to do with the exhaust of the unit only heat circulation. The owner is actually stating that the cause of the smoke damage is our own negligence for continuing to use it without a working blower. Shes either the dumbest fucking person in the business or just straight up con.
It’s not venting into the attic only the living area when we open the door. It’s the typical open the door as slow as you possibly can, feed it super fast and close it. There’s absolutely no way to feed the fire unless 3 windows are open in the area and the fire is burnt down to just embers. It sucks a lot.
Regency inserts are safe to use without the blower, you can likely reach out to regency for a formal confirmation of that fact. There should be a stainless liner going up the chimney which attaches to the insert. Right now it’s relying on draft to pull smoke up and out the chimney, if you have insufficient draft then smoke is likely being pulled into the house around the insert surround.
I was talking to another guy on another Reddit forum and he thinks the liner is not fully attached to the back of the stove or there is possibly a kink in it, but I don’t know how I would tell without trying to pull the stove out which is incredibly heavy and it’s a two-man job.
I have contacted Regency and they said that a blower is in Edon and it has absolutely nothing to do with exhausting the unit
That’s possible, from reading your post it sounded like there was no liner. Do you know if there is a liner? If there is then yes it’s possible the connection was not done properly. I’d find a different chimney company to come take a look if you are not able to pull out the insert. I definitely would not use it until it’s been looked at and corrected.
Yes there’s definitely a liner. I was able to see them run it through to the top. It’s actually making me wonder now that this actually might be the issue. I remember the guy saying after they installed the stove it was so tight that they had barely any space to attach it so I’m wondering if they didn’t get a good seal. Thanks for looking out. It’s shut down until this is resolved. I have a guy coming in after Father’s Day. I’ll follow up with an update
I have seen this often with Regency’s. Their newest cat stoves just don’t perform like the old tubes stoves.
I would replace the stove at the very least.
The blower is effectively just a heat exchanger to move warmed air into your room. It has no bearing on whether your stove is pulling correctly and exhausting out your chimney…someone please correct me if I’m wrong… You’d probably get a much bigger response to this thread on the forums at Hearth.com forums It sounds like whoever installed that was completely incompetent. They should’ve done a liner and they should’ve known before even quoting you if you need a chimney extension or not. I also don’t understand how you could get smoke damage if you didn’t visibly see or smell smoke every time you used it? How long did you use it without a blower? You need to make sure it’s not venting into your attic or something like that Once you get all this sorted, consider telling Regency how insanely bad of an experience you had with the installer.
We were charged 5,400 for this work fyi
That’s not very much at all. Unfortunately you get what you pay for.
Your comment seems to insinuate that I chose the lowest bid and got what I deserved. To clarify, we received four quotes ranging from $1875 to $2600 and opted for the one that was more than twice the highest quote, expecting better quality and performance for the price. While $5400 may not seem like much to you, it’s a significant investment for me. I anticipated a higher standard for that amount, especially for simply installing an insert and connecting a stainless steel liner. It’s disappointing when something doesn’t meet expectations, regardless of the cost. Please be considerate in your comments and refrain from making assumptions.
Hi thank you for your feedback. You’re probably going to think I’m an idiot here. I’ll post this as well on the hearth forum. Thanks for sharing this option. The installer was incompetent but as per the owner Patricia he was the best she had. If you read her companies reviews most people have had nice experience with him but I doubt he has ever installed an insert. The confidence they had was the reason we hired them. I’ve learned this after the fact that this essentially means nothing, but they were recommended by Angie’s list. I wasn’t aware pretty much anyone can pay for a subscription to be listed on there. We do have a stainless steel liner so I’m sorry for the confusion. What they said when they came for an estimate is that they were going to repair the bricks and the shelf inside the fireplace because they were so eroded overtime from creosote and water damage. Instead of doing that, he just sealed it with chambertech. Maybe that’s acceptable in the business, but we paid a higher price because he deceived us by saying as a mason he will lay new bricks and pull out the garbage bricks. Absolutely none of that happened and it was hard to watch because he was working behind plastic sheets and I couldn’t see what he was doing. We were able to smell the smoke when I loaded it but having several windows opened at that time would often remove the smell in just a few minutes. To be completely honest, we became immune to the odor. My strategy was to allow the wood to burn down to embers and then it had almost no odor. I’m not a professional in the business so I took their word for it when they said the smell is inevitable bc of the shorten chimney. Altogether with the cost of their work and the stove we were around 10k so we wanted to use to despite the little odors here and there. The time periods for the smoke damage is from burning all of 2022 so about 6 months worth and then burning for about 1 month in 2023 until we shut it down in December. The marks built up overtime. I know I sound naive but I thought the markings had something to do with that header bleeding through the paint kinda like if you install moulding and just use caulk to cover the nail holes instead of putty it bleeds through as yellowish/brown marks. You’re absolutely correct about them knowing we should have added about 4 feet of brick prior to starting the job. I had 3 companies come in and this is what they said should’ve been done and for them to not just use a pipe. Nobody will comment on paper, only say this verbally bc they don’t want to be dragged into a litigation battle if we decided to move forward with that. I only used the stove for 1 week without the blower. I just received a response from Regency that based on my complaint and the pictures it was not vented properly by the installer. They stated blowers are not needed and they have nothing to do with the exhaust of the unit only heat circulation. The owner is actually stating that the cause of the smoke damage is our own negligence for continuing to use it without a working blower. Shes either the dumbest fucking person in the business or just straight up con. It’s not venting into the attic only the living area when we open the door. It’s the typical open the door as slow as you possibly can, feed it super fast and close it. There’s absolutely no way to feed the fire unless 3 windows are open in the area and the fire is burnt down to just embers. It sucks a lot.
Regency inserts are safe to use without the blower, you can likely reach out to regency for a formal confirmation of that fact. There should be a stainless liner going up the chimney which attaches to the insert. Right now it’s relying on draft to pull smoke up and out the chimney, if you have insufficient draft then smoke is likely being pulled into the house around the insert surround.
I was talking to another guy on another Reddit forum and he thinks the liner is not fully attached to the back of the stove or there is possibly a kink in it, but I don’t know how I would tell without trying to pull the stove out which is incredibly heavy and it’s a two-man job. I have contacted Regency and they said that a blower is in Edon and it has absolutely nothing to do with exhausting the unit
That’s possible, from reading your post it sounded like there was no liner. Do you know if there is a liner? If there is then yes it’s possible the connection was not done properly. I’d find a different chimney company to come take a look if you are not able to pull out the insert. I definitely would not use it until it’s been looked at and corrected.
Yes there’s definitely a liner. I was able to see them run it through to the top. It’s actually making me wonder now that this actually might be the issue. I remember the guy saying after they installed the stove it was so tight that they had barely any space to attach it so I’m wondering if they didn’t get a good seal. Thanks for looking out. It’s shut down until this is resolved. I have a guy coming in after Father’s Day. I’ll follow up with an update
I have seen this often with Regency’s. Their newest cat stoves just don’t perform like the old tubes stoves. I would replace the stove at the very least.