Breaking in new BIS Nova, questions

Monica said:

We live in Kansas and are heating our 1600 square foot house with a built in BIS Nova. The construction was complete a few weeks ago and the weather is getting cold. We live in the country on a small farm and are pretty handy, but I cannot seem to get satisfied with a few issues with this stove: 1) I want the glass cleaner, more often, easier. It is an expensive operation, and I want to see the fire. What can I use, daily, easily, to keep the glass clean? Where can I order said product?

Second, I am thinking we should get the screen. Most often to get the fire going, we need to leave the door open for ten minutes or so. Also, we are the first to lose power in a storm and the last to have it restored, so we will certainly have to heat the house for a few days a year during storms with no power. The builder/supplier wanted to sell us the screen for something like $210. Can we order it and install it ourselves cheaper than that? If so, where?

Any other tips or tricks regarding this unit will be helpful. The construction crew that put it in did a very nice job, but none of them knew anything about the stove. We have been reduced to (cough...) reading the manual...

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What do you want the screen for? To leave the door open? If so, I hope you know that leaving the door open will make your house colder.

If you're up and running hot, you shouldn't need to clean the glass that often. But if you do need to clean it, try a damp paper towel, dab it in some ash from the fireplace, and scrub the window with the ash. It'll clean right up.

Monica said:

I think we want the screen so that when we are starting the fire we can leave the door open for a few minutes without standing there baby-sitting the stove. We are too busy for that. And it seems to fire up better if you leave the door open for ten minutes or so. Also, it seems to me it would be handy in a power outage wherein we could not run the fan.

Thanks for the tip about cleaning the door with ash. The door needs to be cleaned daily. Either we are not doing something right, or that is just they way it is if run it around the clock. We cannot keep it hot 24/7 because we have other things to do, like sleep!

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I'm still not sure why you'd leave the door open if the power went out.

Monica said:

Since you are so unimpressed about using this screen under any circumstance, why do you think BIS Nova even offers it?

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I don't know for sure why they offer it, but if I were to guess, I'd say it would be because of customer demand rather than functionality. Some once a month type burners might want an open crackling fire to see, smell, and hear, regardless if it's way less efficient (no secondary burn), and will actually make your house colder by drawing warm air from inside your house up and out the chimney. You've basically turned your efficient wood stove into an inefficient fireplace. Look at the manual and you'll see all the instructions about how to operate the unit, and there's no mention of leaving the door open for normal, efficient operation. If you want the screen to get the unit up to temp, that's not a bad idea. It was just sounding like you wanted to run the unit in a power outage with the door open for an extended period of time. That's what I was confused about.

Looks like ~$200 is the going rate for the screen. http://www.fireplacesnow.com/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=54370

Did you try the ash glass cleaning trick?

The nova seems to require a lot of heat to operate efficiently! Are you getting it hot enough to keep the glass clean? Also the manual directs you to keep the door closed for max heat.

From the manual:

The Bis Nova fireplace will operate best if attention
is given to operating the unit with the
damper fully opened after refueling in order
to bring the firebox and the chimney system
up to their optimum operating temperature.
Combustion efficiency is relative to firebox
temperature. A temperature of 500º C (932º F)
and up, with a visible flame, in the upper part
of the firebox indicates a maximum efficiency.
To obtain this temperature, the fireplace must
be operated with the primary air and air boost
controls fully opened during 10 to 20 minutes
after reloading, depending on the heat and on
the moisture content of the wood.
Once you have reached the desired temperature,
the air boost can be closed and the primary air
set to a medium setting. You know you have
reached the desired temperature when, closing
the primary air control, you can see a flame
at the top of the firebox. The benefit of this
technique will be cleaner glass, less creosoting,
greater efficiency and the most pleasing fire for
your enjoyment.

Forgot to mention that you could also try a top down fire (if you have not already). That method works the best in my BIS. Here is some pics of mine.

If your wood has not been split and stacked to dry for the appropriate amount of time, you will most likely not be able to keep your glass clean this year. I say this in response to your splitter being down for repair comment made above. If you do not have dry wood for this year be very careful with creosote build up. You could mix your wood with some pallet wood. That may be most of your glass build up problem. I suggest you spend some time reading here, there is a lot of really good information to help you get the most out of your BIS and keep your family safe as well.

We also have a BIS Nova, and we're generally pleased with it.

The door will always have a rim about 2" around the outer perimeter of the glass unless you run it really hot. Ours also gets coated when we start, and it burns off after 2-3 hours with a good fire leaving a clear view of the fire except around the edges. Could probably burn that off also, just need a hotter fire (which usually overheats the living room).

Ash on a wet paper towel works fine to clean it, and we occasionally use a fireplace cleaning spray to get the thick build-up off.

We struggled with starting fires too. I usually start with small twigs and partial splits (the left-overs after splitting), and use a 1/2 fire starter stick (from Lowes I think). That lets you keep the door closed until everything gets rolling and a draft gets established. Then add more splits in increasing size. We had a few smoke-in-the-house events, but using a fire starter stick seems to work fine every time.

Does your blower cycle on-off when the fireplace is running hot? Ours does...seems like a defect in the different blower they use in the Nova. Factory sent me a fix, but all they do is cover the motor and 1/3 of the blower wheel with a sheet metal heat shield. I'm looking at different blowers as a better fix, but installing the blower is a major PIA in the Nova (need to remove refractories and unscrew cover in bottom of fire box). If you do this, make sure you use a square-bit screwdriver (got mine at Home Depot) or you'll strip the heads. Also the power cord is hard to plug in if you can't access the back of the enclosure.

Its a nice unit overall, and the heating performance has exceeded expectations. Wood consumption is also lower than planned, so it seems pretty efficient. I think the smaller firebox and sheet metal design lets more heat into the house...

Islander, try the upside down fire to start your Nova. It works with amazing results. The above pics are the way I always start mine right from cold. Set it up as shown in the pic and light the small twigs, close the doors, and it will look after itself for at least 4 beers.

Monica, if you are just splitting your wood now, you are going to have problems. The wood I am burning right now was split and stacked in May of 2008.

Thanks Alberta Burner for the tip. I'll try the top-down start, and look forward to the corresponding beers.

My BIS Nova is all cleaned up and ready for the season, but haven't fired it up yet. I'll try this for the first burn...

I was pleasantly surprised when I cleaned the chimney a couple weeks ago, and only got maybe a 1/2 coffee can of buildup. Seems to run pretty clean if kept hot...although I'm burning mostly seasoned Ash, which seems to burn quite well. Also have some Elm this year...hoping that is equally clean.

Monica,

How's the new BIS Nova working out? Ours has been burning steady since 2 weeks before Christmas. Just let it burn out today for a good cleaning (temps near 30). Only shoveled ash three times since then.

I continue to be impressed with this stove's heat output. Most times we can heat our while house with only one log burning at a time. We'll burn two at a time if its near or below zero. Any more than that, and we overheat (80+ near stove, 75 10' away) our living room.

The window can't be kept clean without running a real hot fire, so we're used to a 2" rim around the glass. Works fine, and still plently of view of the flames.

Does your blower cycle on-off during hotter burns? I'm not too happy with the factory fix for this, and am leaning toward installing a different blower.

'bert,

Your top down firestarting technique works great!! I now use it every time, and as you say its light it anf forget it for an hour.

Thanks for the tip!!