Blaze King Flue Temps

[Todd]

Got a question for you BK guys. When I start fires with my Princess or reload while in the bypass my internal flue temps (double wall pipe) don't shoot up very fast, infact I have a hard time getting them up over 600. Is this similar to others? My Woodstock's can easily and quickly shoot up and over 1000 in the bypass mode. Just seems wierd since it's a straight shot up the pipe in the bypass mode.

After engaging at 3 the stack temps actually rise up to 800 after about 15 minutes with lots of flame and red cat. Turned it down to #2 and the flue temp dropped to 575.

 

[Todd]

Couple hours in and I turned it down to 1.5 and the flue temps drop to 400, I'll let her cruise til tomorrow night, it's warm enough in here!

Another thing that's bothering me is the cat temps, damn thing has been pegged until I turn it down below #2. I know it's probably nothing to worry about because these probes read high but it still bugs me. I can see a thermocouple in my future.

 

[rdust]

I don't have a probe in the pipe but I learned very quickly I have to watch mine close with the bypass open. I cooked the pipe pretty good last year when I had the bypass open and we had a good wind going. The best I can figure is the flame was being sent/sucked right up the pipe, I closed the bypass and temps dropped quickly. If I remember right the outside temp of the double wall was 400*+, I"m sure the inside temps were silly.

 

[Todd]

It is windy as hell here today and the bypass temps don't run away at all. IDK, maybe it's my set up with the 3' horizontal? I guess it's ok because the stove is performing great but I just thought it was kind a wierd that the bypass temps didn't run away like my Woodstock always did.

 

[Heftiger]

I had the same question about the cat, so I emailed BK. This is what Chris said.


Nick:

Can you over fire a combustor, yes. Is it likely in our stoves, no. The
relationship between thermostat setting a combustor temperature are not
linked 100%. Meaning, you can certainly get really high combustor
temperatures even if the thermostat is set to a low setting.

You can try to turn it down just a bit to see if you can lower the combustor
temperature, but I would not be overly concerned.

By the way, your wood must be really dry so my hats off to you!

Chris
Blaze King

 

[Todd]

Yeah, I've seen this cat temp subject brought up before. I'm betting the actual cat temps are probably about double the stove top temps like Woodstock always tells people. I wish there was a better probe.

 

[Highbeam]

Glad to see another post Todd.

Yes, my experience is very much the same with my condar probe meter. Very slow to get the flue up to temp but the temps do the same thing every time. I watch the new fire roar with the bypass open until the flue slowly gets up to 600 at which time the cat probe is well past the 500 degree tick mark within the active zone. Then I close the bypass. Cat probe climbs very quickly and always goes to nearly the top of the active zone as the flue temps drop. I fiddle with the stat lowering it to the cruise setting of 1.5. Flue temps fall to 400 and sit.

As long as the cat is active the flue probe falls and sits at 400 rock steady. I've seen flue temps down to 300 near the very end.

This same probe meter in this same chimney would regulary run up to 1200 with the heritage. With such low flue temps I expect to see a lot of steam this winter.

 

[nate379]

How do you measure the flue temp on a double wall pipe? Mine stays cool enough that I can put my hands on it, even with a good hot fire going in the stove.

Got a question for you BK guys. When I start fires with my Princess or reload while in the bypass my internal flue temps (double wall pipe) don't shoot up very fast, infact I have a hard time getting them up over 600. Is this similar to others? My Woodstock's can easily and quickly shoot up and over 1000 in the bypass mode. Just seems wierd since it's a straight shot up the pipe in the bypass mode.

After engaging at 3 the stack temps actually rise up to 800 after about 15 minutes with lots of flame and red cat. Turned it down to #2 and the flue temp dropped to 575.

 

[certified106]

How do you measure the flue temp on a double wall pipe? Mine stays cool enough that I can put my hands on it, even with a good hot fire going in the stove.

Use a probe thermometer. It is installed by drilling a small hole through both pieces of double wall pipe and the thermometer probe is inserted through the hole. This allows you to accurately measure the flue gasses passing through the flue. In actuality is more accurate than a magnetic thermometer on a piece of single wall pipe and will quickly show you a change in actual flue temps.

Here is a link to a few examples: http://www.condar.com/probe_meters.html

 

[Todd]

Glad to see another post Todd.

Yes, my experience is very much the same with my condar probe meter. Very slow to get the flue up to temp but the temps do the same thing every time. I watch the new fire roar with the bypass open until the flue slowly gets up to 600 at which time the cat probe is well past the 500 degree tick mark within the active zone. Then I close the bypass. Cat probe climbs very quickly and always goes to nearly the top of the active zone as the flue temps drop. I fiddle with the stat lowering it to the cruise setting of 1.5. Flue temps fall to 400 and sit.

As long as the cat is active the flue probe falls and sits at 400 rock steady. I've seen flue temps down to 300 near the very end.

This same probe meter in this same chimney would regulary run up to 1200 with the heritage. With such low flue temps I expect to see a lot of steam this winter.

Yep, your flue temps sound like they track very similar to mine. They do run a bit lower than my previous Woodstocks.

This morning I still had half a load in the box, cat half way in the active zone, stove top 400, flue 250. The house dropped a couple degrees so I turned up the t-stat to 3 for an hour to bring house temps back up. Now she's cruising back at 1.5 and don't expect to reload til tonight.

 

[Lanningjw]

>Another thing that's bothering me is the cat temps, damn thing has been pegged until I turn it down below #2. I know it's probably nothing to worry about because these probes read high but it still bugs me. I can see a thermocouple in my future.<<<
Very common with my pricess insert.....If your pegged, its over 2,200 degrees...I run the fan it lowers the temp and makes me feel better. Evan if it doesnt really lower the temp. They were saying to keep temps below 1500 for long cat life. I bought another cat just in case I blow this one up. Going on 4 years and it works real nice.

 

[Highbeam]

I don't need that much trouble in my life, way too complicated. I plan to not worry about overtemping the cat. Normal stat settings are 1-3 and so long as the cat is active that's where my stat will be. In other words, I'm using the cat temp probe as a pass/fail device. Really nothing you can do anyways since lowering the stat actually makes more smoke for the cat to eat, turning up the stat adds more air for a bigger base fire.

I've found too much conflicting burning advice in the owner's manual so I can only go by the major bullets. Full box and stat at 1-3, close bypass when cat meter says active.

 

[Todd]

Blaze King is aware of the cat probe reading on the high side, probably why they don't have numbers on the probe. You can also pretty much figure out the cat temp by doubling the stove top temps.