bk owners with (update w/ new cat ?)
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BKInsert
Member
greythorn3
Minister of Fire
i keep my bk at 2 or 3, once you go over that its like the gates of hell just opened up if you got good wood in it. my 2 setting is about perfect if its not below zero out for our 2200 sq ft house.
yes I got the cat. Butthe gasket is comeing in today. Not sure if I'm going ti throw the new one in yet. Been keeping and on on the stack. And it seems ti be buri g pretty good. I think on low I will just a a little whisp if a tail of smoke. Hardly can see it coming out. After doing your procedure about 5 days in. Row now of burning on high for a whIle plus I gave the. Cat a real good cleaning with brush and vacuum it seems to be working in. I think burning on high as sell Numerous times has helped clean the cat uPSolarAndWood said:
Apologize for my spelling going on day 6 no power. Lol still using phone. Can't wait to post the pictures off all the solid just in my. A Backyard.
North of 60
Minister of Fire
bogydave
Minister of Fire
ecocavalier02 said:
Can't wait either.
your posts r hard 2 read.
Now i no y spell check es a goot thig, LOL :lol:
Hope you get power soon. Fun for a few days but after that a real PIA.
Looking forward to the pics.
haha. Yeah plus I'm 6 foot 6 and have huge hands so tyPing on my I phone can be a pain. The part that sucks is having to here generators run at work which is normal. But the. Hear it when I come home. I don't run mine all. Night but a lot of people are. If I could just get my Internet back it would end this madness.north of 60 said:
the fun stoPped when it was 25 deg the other morning and I walked outside to my truck to fire the generator at 5 am in my underwear. Lol=)bogydave said:
bogydave
Minister of Fire
well guys i got the new cat and gasket in the mail and now im wondering weather or not to throw it in. i think im mostly likely going to but heres what i got. with original cat in still i burn on high good with damper open . get the wood al charred good. some cotton wood and some chunks then close bypass and run on the 3 for an hour some light whit smoke for bout 20 30 min then nothing. then keep it going for an hour then i go to 2.5 for a few then 2 then so on over the course of the next 45 min. like this morning i ended real close to the end fo the normal on 2 so about 1.75 i guess. all was good for bout an hour then the cat temp went low not inactive .. and i went to get gas and came home and it was smoking lightly . but def smoke. so i think the damgae on my cat is causing the inefficiency and when it gets to a lower temp it cant keep up. what do you guys think. ? also i cranked it back up to 2.and a 1/4 and it cleared up again with cat almost 2/3 rds active again.
also i would do this before the last couple years prob till the almost the end of last season. and this year is when it started smoking. like this so it use to do fine. but with the damage to the cat and i did burn alot of oak pallet wood with nails in it last year which i did not realize at the time was bad so i really think i just ruined it.
BKInsert
Member
ecocavalier02 said:
I noticed mine also had some lite smoke after 2-3 hours at low burn where at the beginning of the low cycle it had no smoke, I checked the stove and I did not see any orange glow almost at all. Then after ~10min there was no smoke, I went inside to check the wood and saw nice orange glow. I think what is happening is the thermostat keeps on regulating the stove temperature by opening and closing the air intake door. When the stove temperature increase the thermostat closes the door all the way in order to lower the burn and regulate the temperature. At that point the stove might smoke a little, especially closer to the low burn mode.
I believe that what you are seeing is normal, I think you are wasting too much wood by running too hot for so long. I run ~20 min with door open a crack, then I close the door and run for 10-20 min more, then close the damper (engage cat) and run for 10 min more, then I lower the thermostat in 1/4 turns every 5 minutes till get to ~ 3/4 (or little more) closed. So the whole cycle takes me ~ 45min to 1 hour, depending on the wood size.
bogydave
Minister of Fire
Roughly 3 years is the life of a new combustor. If you abused it, probably shorter.
If you put the new one & & it does a better job we'll all know what to watch for when a cat starts becoming in efficient.
You're having doubts that the one in the stove is good.
I say go for it, install the new one & let us know the results. Gonna need a new one either way soon enough.
You have everything ready to go now. Start the clock, 10k to 12 k hrs it will be getting time to replace it again.
If you put the new one & & it does a better job we'll all know what to watch for when a cat starts becoming in efficient.
You're having doubts that the one in the stove is good.
I say go for it, install the new one & let us know the results. Gonna need a new one either way soon enough.
You have everything ready to go now. Start the clock, 10k to 12 k hrs it will be getting time to replace it again.
BKInsert said:
I think my stove would melt if I ran it for 20 minutes with the door cracked! :lol: My stove seems to warm up better for me with the door closed. I run mine for 10-15 minutes with the bypass open, close the bypass and turn it down to 3, burn it that way for another 10 minutes or so, then turn it down to the point where the flames get lazy but don't go out this is just above 2 on my stove, I burn it there until the house is warm enough to my liking and turn it down to 1.
North of 60
Minister of Fire
BKInsert said:
If I had to P_$$ around like that with my stove I would of sold it. Now I know why people think CAT stoves are finicky.
I put wood in mine, If the CAT is active on a reload I close the bypass as it says in the manual. Once the wood is charred
I will put it to the desired setting and leave it alone. Some times I am in a hurry and its not in the zone yet but I gotta go.
I set it and forget it. Seems to take care of itself if the coals are good at reload time. Something is wrong with your draft or wood if your keeping your door cracked for that long. If there is coals you should be able to close the door and watch the coals increase in glow and ignite the wood within 20 seconds or less. It shouldn't or doesn't have to be that fussy.
BKInsert
Member
rdust said:
Yes, but it depends on condition of wood and how much coals you have left when you reload. I usually load every 12 to 16 hours depending on outside temperature, to conserve wood I usually do not fill the stove at this part of the season, north east region... I mostly use the small short leftover pieces of wood now, the house stays really warm.
ohlongarm
Minister of Fire
Nice setup and great fire,I noticed your thermometer on the front of the stove,me being a new BK owner/burner is that the recommended placement for it to get the best accuracy. Thanks and good luck.
ohlongarm said:
It's an insert so the best/only place is the front, you have a King which is freestanding so you'll want to take the reading of the stove top. I find the hottest spot on mine is where the cat is located, I use an IR temp gun so I take measurements all over the top. I tried a few different stove top thermometers over the years and all of the read a little different so I gave those up and just use the gun now.
ohlongarm
Minister of Fire
north of 60 said:BKInsert said:
If I had to P_$$ around like that with my stove I would of sold it. Now I know why people think CAT stoves are finicky.
I put wood in mine, If the CAT is active on a reload I close the bypass as it says in the manual. Once the wood is charred
I will put it to the desired setting and leave it alone. Some times I am in a hurry and its not in the zone yet but I gotta go.
I set it and forget it. Seems to take care of itself if the coals are good at reload time. Something is wrong with your draft or wood if your keeping your door cracked for that long. If there is coals you should be able to close the door and watch the coals increase in glow and ignite the wood within 20 seconds or less. It shouldn't or doesn't have to be that fussy.
BKInsert
Member
ohlongarm said:
Thanks! The thermometer you see in the front is actually in the wrong location, I just left it there to see what the temp reading would be, it is ~100-150°C off! I have another, more accurate thermometer, on top of the stove just above the cat area, I am not sure if you have the fan deck but mine has one, DO NOT place it there, it needs to be placed directly on top of the stove sheet metal preferably above the cat as indicated by Pyro Extraordinaire.
I believe you have one of the best, if not the best, stoves around! Enjoy it and happy burning...
BKInsert
Member
rdust said:
Yes this is true, this stove is really designed to conserve wood by automatically regulating the temperature, I find it really incredible! When I use the short/twisted pieces of wood I can only fit so many of them in the fire box, there are many air cavities left in there. I don't get the optimum burn times but it is heating the house more than adequately in the current season. When it would get really cold I would probably need to run it hotter, I would use the nice long logs to fill the fire box to be able to continue with the long burn times.
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