Temp gauge on BIS Ultra

['bert]

After reading about the temps that many people here at the Hearth are running their stoves at, I decided to get a gauge for my BIS. Not exactly sure where I should place it, as the front of the stove seems to have double walls. Placed it on the front just above the doors, as I have seen with many of the other types of stoves here on the forum.

With the gauge there, it is showing about 200 with what I consider a nice fire going. It was up to about 300 last night. Should I be building bigger fires? The fires I have been building produce enough heat to keep the furnace off in our 2100 sq ft bungalow.

Mostly want the temp gauge for information and curiosity.

May have to build a big fire as the outside temp here on Sunday is suppose to be about -22F on Sunday - Ouch!

Your advice is appreciated.


thanks

 

[wood4heat]

I ALSO HAVE A BIS ULTRA AND MY THERMOMETER IS ON THE FRONT ABOVE THE DOOR ON THE RIGHT SIDE. I OFTEN WONDERED(AND STILL DO) HOW ACCURATE OF A READING I GET AT THIS LOCATION I SELDOM BURN IT HOTTER THAN 350, AT LEAST THATS WHAT THE GAUGE READS, IF I DO IT SEEMS TO BE SO HOT YOU CAN'T HARDLY GET NEAR IT. SORRY I COULDN'T BE MORE HELP FIRST YEAR WITH THIS STOVE.

 

[RedRanger]

Accuracy of front mounted thermometer? Think this will be on the second page of this forum. Anyway, I have decided to just add 200 degrees F. Because it`s not on the top and the middle of the stove, it`s not really showing the hottest temp. Mine is mounted same as you guys, front door, next to glass on the front. (no place else to mount it with an insert that we can read it), Eg: if you get a reading of 400F and it seems to be burning quite hot, leave it for a while and then let it go down to 250F and perhaps try to maintain that. 275 and lower is Creasote Zone, but I don`t think that is true when front mounted. Since I just bought my new gadget, I have been running my insert at 250-375 and am still getting nice clean glass. Bout 3 times a day I crank it up to 475 for about 20 minutes and it sure cooks us out in a hurry.(so that should tell you something).. I can`t be sure just yet, but with my PE (1985) insert new baffle etc. seems to me that 275-400 is about right, depending on how long a burn you want.

 

['bert]

I decided to move mine up onto the top of the burn chamber (wood4heat - open the top grate). it instantly jumped to about 650. Left it there for a bit and it fell back to about 525. Those numbers seem to be in line with where I think the fire is. Not sure if it's the right place, but seems proper.

Bonus is that I can see the gauge when i want and don't have to have it on the front of the stove the rest of the time.

 

[DiscoInferno]

My Ultima (I suspect similar to the Ultra) has no good front surface for a thermometer, because the bare spots above the door are in front of the primary airwash input. Can't get a good reading there. The Ultima has a stub of black pipe behind the upper louvre, so I put a thermometer there. Problem is I need to walk right up to it, squat down, and peer through the slats to see the temp. Good burn temp there is 400-650 on my current thermometer, a previous one read a good bit higher for the same fire.

 

[Joe F]

Just joined Hearth.com. I have a RSF Opel 3 for about 3 weeks now. I'm new to wood heat. I have the same problem with the temp. So I went to wal-mart a picked up a oven thermometer I placed it inside the louvers next to the flue, and saw the temps going all the way up to 575. That's when I closed the damper and let it do it's thing. The temp on the face was only at 325 at this time. Until i come up with a way to measeure the temps a bit more accurately i'll stick to this method.

 

['bert]

Disco, I was hoping you would chime in on this one. That is where I moved mine to last night. When I came into the house from the shop last night the temp read into the 750 and beyond. Not too sure what the wife had put in for wood, but that sucker was HOT. A fair bit hotter then I would make it.

The temp gauge goes to 800 and it was pinned after a put on a whole log (for the night). Disco, are you seeing these kind of temps on yours?

I cut the air intake all the way back, but the temp still stayed around 750 (temp gauge on the top of the fire box).

Wood4Heat - could you move yours and let me know what temps you get there?

 

[DiscoInferno]

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

 

[wood4heat]

i will move mine this weekend, however they are predicting some warmer temps for a day or two so i probably won't have another fire till maybe sun eve, either way i'll let you know what i find.

 

['bert]

posted in wrong thread - sorry - mods please delete post.