Cemi II Insert installed directly into firebox -

[jimmers]

I just purchased this great stove from someone who is moving to a warmer clime. Stove is probably 20 years old & is in excellent condition. I received the manual & the original sales flyers with the stove. Now this stove appears quite advanced for its time period. It does have secondary burn capabilities & a 3rd level combustion via its environmental damper, giving this stove true tri level combustion capability. It was used heavily by the previous owner, who operated this stove inside a heatilator , which was surrounded by a full masonry fireplace & chimney. His chimney was probably 16 foot & located on an outside north wall.

This stove is a very well made unit & can burn a 24 inch log- ( even comes with a heavy duty adjustable roller welded on at the rear of the stove for easy maneuvering) - has dual fans with a rheostat control - adjustable air dampers on each side & a main damper control, which really only has 2 positions - opened or partially closed. Stove was burnt the following way year after year - get stove up to temp, shut down the air flow to just about 3/4 closed, shut down the damper & get stove into secondary burn mode & keep it loaded for the overnight burn. In the morning stove would have a large hot bed of coals & could easily be reloaded.

Stove is made as a direct slide in - open up your fireplace damper & start burning wood.

I have a 25 foot interior walled clay lined chimney that draws awesome & is in excellent condition with a new cement cap

I wouldn't mind installing a 6 inch boot ontop of the stove, but appears that it would be a difficult fab up, as the 10 -12 stainless steel burn tubes come up thru the top of the stove & the damper is ontop of that. So I was planning to just direct install & burn it the same way way that the previous owner did. I would also Pull the stove out to clean once a season as he did. Removing the stove is no problem as it has that great nifty roller device attached.

Also I have a source for the ECO Wood Bricks & would burn probably half Eco bricks & half dry well seasoned wood, to help keep my creosote deposits to a minimum. Also I would be using the stove 2 - 3 times a week when it gets really cold, not 24 - 7 as the previous owner did.

So has anyone burnt a stove such as the Cemi II ? & if so how did it perform as a direct install?Smokey? Dirty ? Lots of heat? Burns alot of wood? Produces alot of creosote? Also did anyone retrofit their stove with a boot , or possibly know where I could purchase a boot? The manufacturer did offer a boot when installing the stove as a free standing unit, but sadly they are no longer in biz.

Much Obliged for any & all responses

Jimmy

 

[jimmers]

Must not of been alot of Cemi II's sold or perhaps they have all been scraped. They also where known as the Concept II. I have burnt 2 huge fires & not one puff of smoke, & the exiting smoke is hardly noticeable, so my advice is if one comes across one of these stoves in great condition - grap it, super heavy duty, not made like the cheap thin crap of today.

Jimmy

 

[mellow]

The CEMI was a good stove, you are correct it was ahead of its time when it came to secondary combustion, and you are correct it will be a PIA to try and do a direct connect to flex pipe with it.

Threads on it:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/9721/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32715/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/1626/

 

[mellow]

When the exhaust on your stove looks like this you might as well give up trying to do a direct connect on it.

 

[jimmers]

Yep that's the exhaust area sure enough. The manufacturer of this stove did offer a perfect fit boot that converted the insert into a stand alone stove. I gotta believe that a good duct person could easily fab up a boot. I find that this insert burns awesome just the way it is & the burn is easily controlled by the air control levers. The EPA & their BS Global Warming Agenda put alot of good stove companies out of business. Same can be said for the the Bogus FDA thugs who go after mom & pop organic co ops


Jimmy

 

[jimmers]

Update on the Cemi II :

Been burning hot & heavy for 2 days straight - 24 - 7 to give this insert a real trial run - Performs better than I ever thought possible.


Get the stove fired up to 600 - 700 damper it down , close the air intakes 3/4, set the double fans to med & let it pump out the heat.


Have been burning a mixture of well seasoned hickory & a equal mixture of them Eco Bricks. When I reload- open the damper , open the air control, pause on the door opening & not so much as a trace of smoke. Kinda cool watching the secondary burn in this insert - slow slow dancing flame thru the mica window paned doors

All in all a great deal for $150. cash & that included a pickup truck full of cut firewood


Burn that wood & if you can get a deal on them eco bricks $200 a ton buyem & burn em

Jimmy

 

[diamatron]

I need to upgrade to a dual-fan setup on my Concept 2. Whats better the 1CFMS (c-frame) or the 1BF2107 (box frame). I have not even looked to see which single fan I have running right now, but it seems a little on the loud side!

Previous home-owners said they have not used the fireplace ever (7 years). House was built 25 years ago.

Which fan has higher output, and which one should be quieter, and which one is heavier duty?

Thanks if anyone even knows the answers!

 

[Sonny08]

Nice to see another person with a Cemi II. If you haven't already done so, you need to pull the insert out & give it a good once over & clean the stainless tubes, also check for any buildups & general condition of the chimney. You should have a roller wheel attached to the back of the insert which makes this insert very easy to move in & out.


I removed my double fan blower assembly & gave it a good complete cleaning & also found that mice had made nests in the convention air flow chambers. Clean the combustion air intakes top & bottom & make sure you have good seals around the doors.

I found my fan assembly after cleaning & lubing to be quiet at med/low settings, anything higher & too much heat. Also another nice feature is the natural heat convention feature, nice if the power goes out. As far as replacing your fans a sealed bearing assembly & fit will be most important. Some checking around on the internet should result in a good product at a fair price. Some of these stove companies are just nuts in their pricing. Example this insert has Mica glass on the doors & to replace is nearly $200.00, I was lucky & the previous owner gave me 2 new pieces of glass that he bought from the manufacturer, I replaced both & the mica stays clean as this insert does have secondary & third stage burning. Technology that was way ahead of its time.

Give a report after your fire your Cemi up, I burn a combination of very dry seasoned wood & Eco bricks & them Eco bricks do give off alot of heat & are very clean

Jimmy

 

[diamatron]

I have been burning slabwood and ECO bricks. I use the ECO bricks when I want a lot of heat, they are very hot! I need to get some bigger cuts of wood thought o make it through the evenings!

I have not purchased the fans yet. Here are my choices.

http://www.stovepartsplus.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=SPP&Category_Code=CEMI

Does anyone have experience to which one is better? The boxer fan looks like a Computer Case Fan, while the C-Frame is the type I have now.

Thank You.

Rivk

 

[czach]

Ah cool, more CEMI people. We should form a club or something

As for fans, I have upgraded mine to dual fans. For awhile I ran with one open frame, one muffin fan, then switched to two open frames.

One big problem/fact of life about fans is that they can only push so much air before they "stall" due to back-pressure. When a fan blade stalls it makes a *lot* more noise. So even though I have two fans, I have found that once the speed goes above a certain amount the fans start to make a *lot* of noise. My guess is you can only stuff so much air through the unit at a time.

That said, the fans can run faster when the unit is hot than when it is cold. This makes sense (part of it draft, part of it being hot air is less dense than cold).

Now a question: What temperature do people run their units at? I have heard 900 degrees air coming out, which to me would be terrifying. Right now I hate a thermometer mounted on the steel above the top air baffle (next to the damper bolt) and I tend to run it with a temperature there of about 300-400 degrees with dampers closed, intakes open. Too hot? Too cold? Should I measure temps above the firebox doors?

Chris

 

[sctxms]

I have had one for a year now and it has cut my heating bill from 380 down to 130 dollars. Has anyone completed a dual fan conversions and how much has it improved the heat output? for example my concept II is on the main floor and the main floor stays around 60 and the room the concept II is in will get as high as 75. Upstairs stays between 58 to 60 when the tempture outside is between 30 to -10. How much will the dual fan conversion improve the output of heat? Also has any one converted from mica to glass? If so what did you do with the middle screw in the doors?

 

[czach]

Hey there!

Ah winter: When these boards become more active I did the dual upgade with open frame fans and my dad did his with muffin fans.

In both cases they do improve airflow to a point. Once you go past a certain fan speed, the fans simply can't push more air through the enclosure and the blades start to stall. The fans get a lot more noisy, and airflow is not increased.

However this is more than with one fan, so you get more output. Also as the unit gets hotter the air gets less dense and the fans can be turned up to higher speeds. So even more airflow and heat.

I have a 30 foot by 20 foot room downstairs with 8 foot picture windows on one wall and 12 foot window on the other (think big windows). The house has radiant heat, and when I get the CEMI up to full power I can bring the downstairs temp to about 79-80 with the second floor being about 72 with 71 degree setpoints on the radiant heat system when the outside temp is 10-20.

So it should improve your heat output.

Don't convert to glass. It breaks if a log slips and a lot of heat is transferred through the mica. Do a hot burn, make sure your baffle plate is in properly, and it should clear the isenglass.

C

 

[sctxms]

Yes they do get active in the winter the one thing I notice is I do not have the plate on the back on mine with that adjustment screw so this may limmit my heat ouput but heck it was bellow 0 here for a solid week and I was still around 75 degrees in my living room with the rest of the house holding in the mid 60's. One thing to consider the house I am living in was built in 1919 and there is no insulation and I still have the original windows. I am currently rehabing this hous so I expect with new windows and insulation the tempture of the house should rise. I am also looking at the caddy wood furnace and Energy King 385 EK. If any one else has any other suggestion let me know. the house is 2500 square feet not counting the full basement.

 

[sctxms]

I did not call but this would be good for parts
http://cleveland.craigslist.org/grd/2102387564.html

 

[hathaway1994]

So glad I found this forum! We bought a Cemi Concept insert from a guy selling it in the classifieds in our area. He bought a house that had this insert in it and he didn't want a woodburning fireplace. He sold it to us for $100 and it looks to be in excellent condition. I got the manual online with help from this forum. I'm building an addtion and would like to put in this insert to help with heating bills. I'm wondering if it's possibly to weld a box on the back of this thing and vent it through double wall directly out my exterior wall. I really don't want to get into building a a masonry chimney. Any thoughts on whether or not this could be done? Thanks!