Question about overloading a BIS Ultima

[mranum]

First let me say from my looking around that there is alot of knowledge and experience here. Glad I happened across this site.

Now onto my question.

I am just finishing up the exterior of my new BIS Ultima that my dealer installed with a packed stainless chimney. I have been around wood burners for a long time but not in the last 10 years or so, and never had a EPA rated fireplace before. Now I have read cautions about overloading and overheating fireplaces, but my question is how do I know that I am getting close overheating? I can't monitor flue temps like a free standing stove with a thermometer. Or can I?

Also, I put this in a corner in the middle of the house that borders a short hallway on one side and a small room on the other side. Is there any reason that I can't put in some air vents in the hallway and the adjoining room to disperse some of the heat from the flue? I thought about 1 at floor level and another near the ceiling.

 

[rich81]

First let me say from my looking around that there is alot of knowledge and experience here. Glad I happened across this site.

Now onto my question.

I am just finishing up the exterior of my new BIS Ultima that my dealer installed with a packed stainless chimney. I have been around wood burners for a long time but not in the last 10 years or so, and never had a EPA rated fireplace before. Now I have read cautions about overloading and overheating fireplaces, but my question is how do I know that I am getting close overheating? I can't monitor flue temps like a free standing stove with a thermometer. Or can I?

Also, I put this in a corner in the middle of the house that borders a short hallway on one side and a small room on the other side. Is there any reason that I can't put in some air vents in the hallway and the adjoining room to disperse some of the heat from the flue? I thought about 1 at floor level and another near the ceiling.

i think i can answer one of your questions. you can monitor your flue temps with a thermometer pretty accurately.

 

[smokinj]

It comes down to the wood your using alot of my wood wouldnt over heat the stove no matter what you do! (hickory, hedge apple)would be to woods to keep the damper low,

 

[mranum]

I think I will look around for a magnetic thermometer and maybe I can find a decent spot to put it during my learning period. Also, this will be burning about 95% Red Oak that has been standing dead for at least 5 years now, hasn't had bark on it for a couple years. Am I correct in my thinking that larger rounds ( 6" or so ) will burn slower and cooler than split wood in these newer style fireplaces?

 

['bert]

you will need to put that temp gauge on top of your BIS, open up the top grate and put it on top of the box or on the stack in there. There is not any place on the front that will provide an accurate temperature. (laser temp heat gun works well too).

 

['bert]

Also review the following post from Disco. I had many of the same type of questions when i started out with my BIS. Unfortunately it took me two years to find this website :-S . Check the link at the bottom and the section on burn rates on the bottom left of page one of the brochure. It does show a starting temp of 800 so you have to try hard to over fire them.

Welcome to the BIS group! As near as I can tell from the messages & questions, there is only about 3 of us. I for one would like to hear what other owners of BIS fireplaces have had for experiences good and bad.

Last year I had a standard cheapo Rutland thermometer, and I pushed it over 800 (maybe over 900) several times. I got it hot enough, in fact, that the magnet partially demagnetized, and it fell off the pipe. After the first time it never held real well, and kept falling off; eventually the dial broke. This year I got a new Rutland, it's similar but a different design (and different magnet). I feel like it's reading 100-150 degrees cooler than last year's, at least at the high end; 650 is about as high as I've had it so far, and that includes a couple of packed fireboxes that I ran wide open for a while so I could shut it down for an overnight burn. These thermometers aren't precision instruments, but I wouldn't have expected that big a difference. Maybe I'm just getting better about closing down the air earlier.

In any case, if you believe the Security literature, 800 is an acceptable temperature for much of the BIS line. The glossy brochures all show a temp vs. time bar chart for an overnight burn, and most show a first hour temp of 800. That's hotter than I normally try to start off at, and it seems like it would make the burn end sooner, but that's what they seem to be suggesting. Certainly Security would be hard pressed to claim that it's overfiring. Here's the link to the Ultra brochure: http://www.securitychimneys.com/PDF/catalogues/Fireplaces/Cat_BIS-Ultra.pdf

 

[mranum]

Thanks for the info and the welcome. There are quite a few BIS's around here and I have heard very good things about them. As much as I really hate winter anymore I am looking forward to using it.

I hadn't thought about the laser gun thermometers before but I'm looking at them and I think thats what I am going to go for.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Welcome to the club. :coolsmile:

About overfiring: if the pipe stub on top glows, you overfired it. I did that once. With a full firebox and the air wide open you have to watch it as it can runaway somewhat quickly when the secondary burn starts to kick in. Once the air is down most or all the way it really can't overfire unless you are burning pallets.

About the vents: unless they are big (wide) or have fans in them you aren't going to push a lot of heat through. Any high wall vents should be flush with the ceiling, as the hot air will collect up there and push outward. I find that the heat moves easily between rooms with headerless doorways, but headers tend to block the flow a lot. That's great in my house, because it funnels a lot of heat down the hall and up the stairs and keeps the downstairs from getting too hot. I would wait until it gets cold and see how the heat distribution is before you start cutting holes. I thought my house would be terrible (stove is almost in the corner of the house and it's a closed floor plan), but in fact it's nearly ideal.

 

[mranum]

The vent size I thought about using was 12x16 or 16x16 either way a decent size vent. It just seems to me that there would quite a bit of trapped heat back there, I'm sure the packed insulated pipe still gets pretty hot on the outside especially near the firebox. My house is a 1300 sq ft sectional with a vaulted ceiling throughout with the fireplace located near the center with a 9' ceiling height.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Ah, I misunderstood that you wanted to vent the chimney enclosure. I have no idea how much heat makes it through the packed insulation. My chimney is air-cooled and in an external chase.