Catalytic engaged pics

nice, thanks

That looks familiar. Your glass looks much cleaner than mine and I cleaned it last week. Dirty glass use to bug me but I don't really give a crap anymore and just watch the cat probe. I know there's plenty of fuel left as long as the cat temp is still active and it's usually up around 700-800 after 24 hours.

Question for other BK burners, does your stove burn from right to left? Every burn I've done no matter how I load leaves the last of the load on the left side. Just seems a little strange, you would think it would burn front to back not right to left?

Todd said:

That looks familiar. Your glass looks much cleaner than mine and I cleaned it last week. Dirty glass use to bug me but I don't really give a crap anymore and just watch the cat probe. I know there's plenty of fuel left as long as the cat temp is still active and it's usually up around 700-800 after 24 hours.

Question for other BK burners, does your stove burn from right to left? Every burn I've done no matter how I load leaves the last of the load on the left side. Just seems a little strange, you would think it would burn front to back not right to left?

Click to expand...

I seem to always have my larger pieces remaining on the left side. I usually spread them out at the end of the burn.

Todd said:

That looks familiar. Your glass looks much cleaner than mine and I cleaned it last week. Dirty glass use to bug me but I don't really give a crap anymore and just watch the cat probe. I know there's plenty of fuel left as long as the cat temp is still active and it's usually up around 700-800 after 24 hours.

Question for other BK burners, does your stove burn from right to left? Every burn I've done no matter how I load leaves the last of the load on the left side. Just seems a little strange, you would think it would burn front to back not right to left?

Click to expand...

My stove is wider than yours, but it always burn from front to back in the middle, then to both sides. I always end up with coals on both sides.

Your gasket and door latch is still tight? If you start with clean glass, does it get dirty on one side first? Mine always darkens in a funky symmetrical pattern.

If you just turn your flash off you can take pics without it.

Also i dont have a BK. My cat stove you have to remove the probe and peek through to see the glow. But my stove burns through the middle first then the sides follow and there is more coals on the back sides then anywhere else. I replaced my door glass gasket cause there was a gap in it!! so i would get sooting on a slow burn on that side. Im thinking this next year i may need a new rope gasket?

bogydave said:

16°f outside, house 74°.
Running on medium stat setting, full load of 2-1/2 yr birch, no flames
Catalytic glowing , lots of heat output.
Set for the night thru tomorrow afternoon.
Gonna have to clean the glass one of these days, cleaned it in April

View attachment 79105 View attachment 79104
Hard to get a pic, flash kept triggering + the reflection. I covered the flash partially on 1st pic to get the good glow to show up better. Bright orange, brighter than the pic shows.
2nd pic full flash to show the wood, hard to see the cat glowing but you can make it out .

Click to expand...

Depending on the camera you have you can set "no flash" and the camera will automatically up the "ISO" (sensor sensitivity) to allow for a longer shutter opening, which will give you a nice available light pic. Although you might suffer from some camera shake so it isn't quite as sharp. Just an idea to try if you have the camera settings. If you're using your phone camera then prolly not.

Great looking burn you got going on there. Yikes 16'F already!

The BK is a wide and deep but low firebox. As the photos have shown you can usually get 10 splits in there but only two layers. I start loading by stuffing a huge split in the left and right sides and then fill in from there. My fuel load burns right down the middle and then the sides. If I get leftovers it will be one side of the other but not the same side everytime. This means that for a large part of the burn there is actually two separate fires, one on each side.

The door handle latches fully with very little effort required. Do you folks get full latch closure? With one finger's effort? I have no indications of leakage and did the dollar bill test when I installed the stove about a month ago.

I'm almost good at running this stove. My last remaining obstacle is when the stupid outside temp runs up to 62 during the day as it did yesterday. I need to keep the stat at 50% just to keep the cat active.

Thanks for the cool photos, Dave.

clemsonfor said:

... My cat stove you have to remove the probe and peek through to see the glow. ...

Click to expand...

That's how my BK is (older model). I've got a couple of neat photos of the glowing cat taken through the probe thermometer hole, and one day soon I'll be able to upload them so I can share. (trouble with photobucket).

jeff_t said:

My stove is wider than yours, but it always burn from front to back in the middle, then to both sides. I always end up with coals on both sides.

Your gasket and door latch is still tight? If you start with clean glass, does it get dirty on one side first? Mine always darkens in a funky symmetrical pattern.

Click to expand...

I checked my door gasket about a week ago and I did have to tighten it one turn but it still burns right to left. Maybe it's just with these low burns, I haven't had to turn her up much above #1.5. I'm looking forward to some colder weather and see what she can do with a full load at #2.

bogydave said:

16°f outside, house 74°.
Running on medium stat setting, full load of 2-1/2 yr birch, no flames
Catalytic glowing , lots of heat output.
Set for the night thru tomorrow afternoon.
Gonna have to clean the glass one of these days, cleaned it in April

View attachment 79105 View attachment 79104
Hard to get a pic, flash kept triggering + the reflection. I covered the flash partially on 1st pic to get the good glow to show up better. Bright orange, brighter than the pic shows.
2nd pic full flash to show the wood, hard to see the cat glowing but you can make it out .

Click to expand...

When you see that red glow you know everything is in sync,nice.

bogydave,
Don't you just love to see that cat glowing back at you? Knowing that you are getting the most from your valuable fuel! Like your photo. A little dirt on the glass would be the last of my worries.
Take care,
Tim

Your glass stays cleaner than mine does. If I ran my stove on #2 though it would be 95* in the house and the stove would be melting down I run mine with the air shut all the way off on all but the very coldest of days.

I'd guess so. It's a bit frustrating in a way since I can't actually USE the T Stat on the stove. If I want less heat I have to make sure I'm careful on how much wood I put in. Anything over 30ish outside means 2-3 logs at the most.

Removed probe thermometer (was reading 1600-1800), took photo. The hole is maybe 2/3 diameter of a dime. 1st photo with flash, 2nd at night, no flash.

Nice slow cat burn.